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Un-Quiet Word for Today, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

- I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
  that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
  
  Luke 21:15
- Dear friends in Christ,
  We have indeed had some very good days of grace at our parish these past few weeks. The Bishop’s Mass was the highlight. It was well attended by all three communities and well done. In a Thank You note sent to us, bishop said ‘it was a wonderful and hopeful celebration’.
  The Harvest Craft Fair couldn’t have been a better segway! It was so encouraging to see people again from all three churches and beyond, come together and work together. Before the monies we fundraise, the Craft fair has always been about community, and it was. Thank you to all who made it a success.
  
  The cemetery procession (a first) was very successful as well as the Tuesday Votive Mass for the Holy Angels. I truly believe there is hope at Our Lady of Hope Parish.
  
  We will have a new Mass schedule at the beginning of Advent; the weekend of November 26th/27th, (see the bulletin insert for details). Change is hard, yet with a positive attitude, it can be an opportunity for rebirth and growth. Imagine a parish renewed by vibrant worship, rich community life and a commitment to evangelization.
  
  Thanksgiving is here. Two masses are scheduled: Wednesday Nov 23 Thanksgiving Vigil Mass, 7pm at St Mary; Thursday Nov 24, 7am Mass, St James. The first reading in Sirach 50:22-24 on Thanksgiving Day is a beautiful prayer, try to find some time to reflect on it.
  
  On the readings this weekend: In a highly secularized world, the believer/disciple/Christian must be attentive to the allure of conformity. In a secularized culture, we are asked to conform to the pleasure cult of media and entertainment. Big business invites us to adopt an “I-first-and always stance. We are encouraged not to care about community but mind the pursuit of self. Yet to be a believer/Christian/disciple is to be different.
  
  Persecution and hardships are the arsenal of conformists and how loud and overbearing they can be! Often the believer/ Christian will be pushed to ask: ‘Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous mourn? (The complaints that Malachi replied to in the first reading)
  
  Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
  when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch,
  says the LORD of hosts.
  But for you who fear my name, there will arise
  the sun of justice with its healing rays.
  
  To be a Christian is to be different! Your endurance will win you your lives. Stay faithful to Christ.
  
  Fr. Anthony
All About the Mass
- Readings of the Mass
  
  LISTEN HERE to the Audio Recordings of the Readings of November 13th, 2022, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time.
  
  SELECT HERE for the Readings of November 13th, 2022, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time.
- Links
  
  Video Recordings of the Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Hope Parish
  
  Actions of the Mass
  
  Order of the Mass
  
  Preparation for the Mass
Symbols and Signs of the Liturgy - A Series from Fr. Mobilio
- The Commixture of Water & Wine
  
  When the priest or deacon adds a drop of water to the wine in the chalice, he prays in a low voice, “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” Water represents our humanity, and wine represent Christ’s divinity. Just as the water can no longer be separated from the wine, so too should our sacrifice be joined inseparably to Christ’s in the Mass. And just as the water takes on the color, taste, and flavor of the wine without ceasing to be water, so too should we become more like Christ while retaining our unique identities. From early on, this drop of water has been required for the Holy Sacrifice. Saint Cyprian, writing in the third century against Gnostic liturgical practices, affirmed, “When someone offers only wine, then Christ begins to exist without us. When he offers only water, then we begin to exist without Christ.” Traditionally, if any small drops of water end up on the wall of the chalice unmixed with the wine, then the priest or deacon should wipe those drops away with the purificator as a symbol of what happens to those who are baptized but refuse to advance in the spiritual life and union with the Lord.
  
  - Fr. Mobilio

Un-Quiet Word for Today, Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

Luke 21:15

I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.