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71 Central St. Stoneham, MA 02180

Browsing Pastor's Notes

Merry Christmas!!!

Dear Church, Friends and Guests: Merry Christmas!!!!

On behalf of our parish Saint Patrick Roman Catholic Church we wish to welcome you to our beautiful Church on this wondrously joyful day. A heartfelt Merry Christmas also to all of our parishioners as we join together with our guests in thanksgiving to God for all the ways in which He has blessed us. It is with great joy that we celebrate the birthday of the Lord Jesus!

We have been praying all through the time of Advent, over the past 4 weeks, for the coming of the Lord Jesus and today we celebrate that He has come. Not only did He come over 2000 years ago, but He has come anew into our hearts on this Christmas Day. It is a new day, a new beginning and all the more so if we have prepared well during this season of Advent for this beautiful Christmas Day.

What a day! This is the day we celebrate as the day when God Himself came into our world. We should be in absolute awe of this great mystery; it is a moment in time that testifies to God’s great love for us... for you! God loves you! So much so that He allowed Himself to be humbled. The God of all the universe came into our world on this day over 2000 years ago out of love for you and me! We pray that you sit back in this moment and simply absorb that thought. He didn’t have to come, He chose to come, out of love.

How does that affect our lives? We pray it affects everything in our lives for Jesus laid everything on the line for us. He was born so that He could die for our salvation and then, by accepting His death for the forgiveness of our sins and living out our faith daily with the help of our baptismal grace, we might not suffer eternal death, but be born into eternal life. What a marvelous exchange! On a day where the secular world celebrates only an exchange of gifts, the Lord extends to us and everyone the greatest gift of all!

We here Saint Patrick Parish hope and pray that you embrace this great gift all the days of your life. We welcome you to our community and invite you to become a part of the many ways that we seek to spread this message of Good News to our community and our world. This gift that God has offered to us is not meant to be hidden, but to be offered to one and all.

On behalf of St. Patrick Clergy and Staff, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

~ Fr. Mario & Fr. Frank