A Note From Father Eickhoff

December 1, 2024

Today marks the start of the new Church Year – the Year of Grace 2025 – and the beginning of
the Season of Advent. With a new Church Year and the beginning of a new Church Season
you will notice some changes around the parish. For example, the decorations in the church
will be different. Furthermore, the color used in the Mass will switch from green to purple. These
are all exterior changes you might say. Changes outside of ourselves. Yet, the point of the
Season of Advent is to further interior changes within our souls so that we might be better ready
to truly welcome our Lord and Savior at Christmas. This interior change is best carried out not
by hanging decorations (although creating Christmas decorations and witnessing Christmas
decorations can have a beneficial effect upon our interior being), but by making interior
preparations.

The interior preparations that we should carry out can be thought of as prayer, repentance,
and a Christmas spirit. I encourage all of you to immerse yourselves in these three preparations
in the coming four weeks before Christmas.

Prayer can refer to any Christian spiritual activity. Some examples of these activities include:
reading the Holy Scriptures, taking the time to include silent prayer in your life, and making the
commitment to come to Mass this Advent Season. Advent is a wonderful time to slowly and
prayerfully read one of the Infancy narratives in the Holy Gospel of Matthew or Luke. You might
make the commitment to read this narrative a few verses at a time before Christmas. You
might also choose to come to one or more of the Sunday Vesper Services that will be held in
the St. Anne chapel at 6pm every Sunday during Advent.

Advent is also an excellent time to come to the Sacrament of Confession. Confessions are held
every Wednesday evening between 7pm and 8pm and every Saturday afternoon between
3.30pm and 4.30pm. There will also be a special Parish Reconciliation Service on Sunday,
December 8th beginning at 4pm with a number of priests in attendance to help hear
confessions. Finally, confessions will also be heard during the Sunday Vesper service on
December 15th and 22nd.

I also encourage you to come to the special Christmas Concert featuring the Catholic singersongwriter Sarah Kroger on Saturday, December 14th at 7pm here at St. Anne Parish. This should
be a wonderful way to help build the “Christmas spirit” in your life this Advent Season. Please
check the bulletin for how to purchase tickets to this event.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Stephen Eickhoff
Pastor