Fourth Sunday of Advent | Bulletin of December 21, 2025 Message from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

My Dear Family of Our Lady of Lourdes,

Christmas is coming!
As we gather to celebrate the great love that God the Father has shown us in sending us His Son to be with us, turn our hearts back to Him and lead us home, our hearts fill with gratitude. We wonder that God should be so forgetful of Himself as He seeks us out and our hearts yearn to believe and to trust, to rest finally secure in Him.

What began on that first Christmas night was an all-consuming love affair that reaches its climax in Jesus holding nothing back, giving His whole self to us for us. It is that true and perfect expression of love that breaks the power of sin and death and sets us free to live and to love with joyful hope.

This is the love affair we live each day here at Our Lady of Lourdes as a parish family. If we live it imperfectly and of course we do that same Jesus whose coming we are celebrating makes it perfect by making it His own. Let us be truly thankful that He remains present and active in our midst. Let us whole-heartedly welcome and celebrate Him as we go forward together as His people. Let us generously share what we have received. Forgetful of ourselves for the sake of love, let us bring healing, forgiveness, understanding, strength, peace, hope, and joy to the people of this world that the Lord has blessed by sending us to them in His name.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!".

Msgr. Schwanger
Pastor

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