New Year's 2008
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Dear Friends at Christ the Redeemer,
New Year celebrations mark our human history and relationships. This weekend we mark the events, the people, the relationships, and the blessings which have punctuated 2007. At the same time we embark on the New Year 2008. We begin with hope and with the expectation that we will see new events, new people, and new relationships. We, hopefully, will have some time to pray and to ask God’s blessings in our new endeavors.
As pastor of Christ the Redeemer, allow me to thank you for all the shared events of the past year. We have gathered Sunday after Sunday to encounter the Father in his Word and at the Lord’s Table. We have celebrated weddings, baptisms, funerals, first communions, first reconciliations, and confirmations. We can together be thankful that the Father has shown himself to us in the Assembly gathered for worship.
Thanks also for your work in service of others. To those who taught our children and young adults in religious education, Thank You. Our year has been marked by service to the poor and needy: LINK, Work Camp, the Day Laborer Center, ESL. We have been blessed in giving life to others: Blood Drives, Parish Nurses, Giving Tree, and the Loudoun Warming Center. We have discovered God’s actions in the ministry of many: Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, Music Ministry, the Art and Environment Committee, Altar Servers, the Ushers. The “Doughnut Ministry” has fed not only our body, but our friendship and fellowship.
No small thanks to those who generously supported the parish financially. Thanks to the Finance Committee for their oversight and good management of the goods and resources of the parish.
New Year’s is often described as “luminal”; we stand on the threshold of two worlds. As we move from 2007 to 2008, may we move from blessing to blessing, for God’s life in the past to a graced future. On New Year’s we remember that as we move to our future, God moves with us. Happy and blessed New Year.
Sincerely,
(Fr.) C. Donald Howard, S.A.
Pastor
