Sunday's readings can be found online at http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011220.cfm 

With today’s feast, the Christmas season ends—sort of. While “all-Christmas” radio stations returned to regular fare at 12 a.m. Dec. 26, we continue to celebrate the Christmas Feast and its gifts and meanings. Following Christmas and Holy Family Sunday, we had the great feast of Epiphany last Sunday. The Magi represent the significance and recognition of the Christ Child to all humanity, not just to a few Jewish people who experienced it; and to very wise and learned people everywhere. Indeed the great example of the Wise Men is that, after using their knowledge and skill to find Jesus, they knew when to lay all that down and simply worship him. Tradition says that from there, they became great evangelizers throughout the known world.

 

Today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord continues to expand the event of Christmas throughout the world, even into creation itself. “The waters were made holy by the one who was baptized in them”, writes one of the early writers. The dove at the Baptism certainly embodied the Holy Spirit, but shows the dignity of all created creatures. 

 

I said today “sort of” ends the Christmas season because no treatment of Christmas is complete without the Wedding at Cana, as Jesus turns water into wine. This too shows Jesus’s effects on all creation. We won’t have that on a Sunday this year, but look at it in John Ch. 2. So with all this, it’s evident that the marvel of Christmas not only renews and uplifts each one of us, and our communities. There’s a definite cosmic extent to the renewal Christ brings the world by being born in it. So we look at all creation, and all people in it, as blessed by God and deserving of our support. You can check our website for a reading on this by St. Peter Chrysologus.

 

As we take the feast of Christmas into the year, I’m glad that we have movements going already that are to bring Christ more into our lives: pastoral planning, Evangelization, and Faith Sharing Groups. I urge you to participate in these as ways to explore the meaning of Christ’s birth to you.

-Fr. Tom

Fr. Tom, Fr. Nickolai, the deacons and Parish Council Members are working together to move forward with the Strategic Planning Process we began earlier this year. After the Vision Day in late April, all-parish survey in June, and Vision and Survey Report in September, the council has been reviewing and prioritizing goals. We thank Vince Estrada of The Leadership and Development Institute for sharing his professional time and talent in support of this effort. 

On Monday, January 13, 2020, the parish council invites each parish ministry and organization to send one or two representatives to join us for a meeting of our Parish Commissions (Liturgy, Christian Formation, Service & Social, and Administration) at 7:30pm in the parish meeting rooms. On this evening each commission will meet together with their liaisons from the parish council to review the goals and begin setting objectives. The parish council will take this input from the Commission meeting, finalize the plan’s outline and then invite all parishioners to participate in an Action Planning night in March. 

By Easter, the parish council expects to have the Vision and Strategic Plan for St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Parish ready to present and move forward with the implementation phase with milestones set to achieve the next few years. Please continue to watch for updates in the bulletin, and contact a parish council member if you are interested in more information. 

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has developed a new system for safe environment compliance called Prevent and Protect STL. Everyone ministering to minors and vulnerable adults (clergy, employees and volunteers) in the Archdiocese are required to register in the new system before December 31, 2020. This includes those new to service and those who are currently in service. For those who have already attended a Protecting God’s Children workshop, your previous training date will transfer to this new system. In addition to attending a live Protecting God’s Children workshop, all clergy, volunteers, and employees will register for an updated background screening, view two new online training modules on abuse reporting and the Code of Ethical Conduct, and agree to the updated Code of Ethical Conduct. Please go to www.preventandprotectstl.org to register and contact your parish Child Safety Coordinator: Mariellyn Hays, 314-837-3710 with any questions or for further assistance. PASSCODE NEEDED IS: stlprotect 

While our Word on Fire small faith sharing groups have ended for now (next round will begin in Lent!), all parishioners still have access to the Word on Fire video library to view full length videos and shorter programs from Bishop Barron's collection. If you would like to preview The Mass, which we will use as the focus of our Small Group Faith Sharing during Lent, click below to get started.

Our new principal, Dr. Mark Gilligan, is contributing a weekly message to the parish bulletin, we hope parishioners enjoy these regular updates.  You can also access the weekly school newsletter on MyParishApp under "Bulletins" - the school newsletters are posted with Friday dates and Parish Bulletins are Sunday dates.

Did you know that you can support our parish while you shop?  Use ShopwithScrip, Amazon Smile and Schnucks eScrip when you do your regular shopping and our parish will benefit!  Check our parish website for details

When you shop Amazon this Christmas season - use this link: smile.amazon.com/ch/43-0731519, AmazonSmile donates to St Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic Church!

Did you know that you can access the parish calendar on the website at https://www.strpdparish.org/calendar? Events and room reservations are listed here and can also be copied to your own Google Calendar.  

Also, check out the Events on our Parish Facebook Page! Like and share with your Facebook friends.  Click on "Interested" on all of our parish and community events (even those you aren't planning to attend yourself) - this will help your friends see all the great things happening at our parish and school.

To receive occasional text messages with important updates from St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Parish, just add your mobile phone number to your flocknote profile.  The quickest way to do this is to send a text message to 85476 from your mobile phone and confirm your e-mail address with the link provided in response to your text message.  You can also log in to flocknote at https://new.flocknote.com/StRPD and click on "My Info" to update your mobile phone number or email address.   Click here for more information on updating your flocknote account. Send your questions to communication@strpdparish.org.

Download MyParish App (available in the app store on Apple and Android smartphones) and select St. Rose Philippine Duchesne for access to Daily Readings and Reflections and quick links to the parish bulletin.