Every New Year’s we make resolutions to quit bad habits and to live healthier lifestyles. At base these resolutions can be good since they reveal a dissatisfaction with mediocrity and a desire to experience abundant life. But why not make a resolution which is not only good for you physically but also spiritually?

Dear Parishioners,

I have an update on the Permanent Adoration Chapel plans. Our architect, Mr. Peter Cucci has drafted the plans for three contractors to bid. I have just received all three of the required bids. I submitted them to the Diocese Board of Consultors for them to choose the contractor. So we are pleasantly movingly along with this project. We have collected $125,000.00. to date. I will certainly let you know if we are in need of more money to complete the project. May our Eucharistic Lord and King, bless each and every family for your continued devotion and generosity in this special project.

“She will bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.”—Matthew 1:21 In Advent the Church prepares for the three comings of Christ. She prepares for His coming as a little baby at Christmas. She prepares for His coming at the end of time when He will come to judge the living and the dead. She also prepares for the coming of Christ in the Eucharist.

“Come to Me all you who are weary…” Matthew 11:28 Saint Pope John Paul II said: Closeness to Christ in silence and contemplation does not distance us from our contemporaries but, on the contrary, makes us attentive and open to human joy and distress and broadens our heart on a global scale. It unites us with our brothers and sisters in humanity…through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the Gospel.

Advent wreaths are a Christian tradition with roots in 16th-century Ger-many. They are seen both in churches and in homes and are an excellent way to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Here is a step-by-step introduction to the practice and how to implement it in your home.

“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”—1 COR 2:9 Heaven is the place where we shall behold the face of God unveiled. On this Earth we can also behold the face of God yet only the eyes of faith are able to recognize Him.

“Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name.”—Psalm 91:14 There are many forms of prayer. We can offer praise to God for who He is. We can offer thanksgiving for what He has done, but we can also pray for others and make their needs and concerns our own. This is called intercessory prayer.

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls from their suffering in purgatory:

The offering of Mass for the repose of the soul of the faithful departed is linked with our belief in Purgatory. We believe that if a person has died fundamentally believing in God but with venial sins and the hurt caused by sin, then God in His divine love and mercy will first purify the soul. After this purification has been completed, the soul will have the holiness and purity needed to share in the beatific vision in heaven. While each individual stands judgment before the Lord and must render an account of his life, the communion of the Church shared on this earth continues, except for those souls dammed to hell.

Do you find yourself “going through the motions” at Mass? I know how easy it is to attend Mass and feel entirely disconnected from what is going on. To counteract that tendency, I have tried numerous aids over the years and discovered 5 ways that help me prepare for Mass.

The three transcendentals—truth, beauty, and goodness—were ideals once harmoniously integrated in the Catholic worldview not only in the transmission of the faith but also in the arts: literature, art, music, architecture, poetry, and sculpture. The expression of the wonder of God in art through so many artists across time, encouraged by the great patron of the arts, the Church, to lift humanity’s gaze beyond the mundane has been widely lost in the modern age.

How do we pray amid Church scandals? One helpful way is to return to the basics: The Our Father. For this meditation, I’ll look to the various parts of the prayer in reverse order.

Deliver us from evil — Father, you alone are holy. You alone are pure. The evil within your Church overwhelms me. It is too much for me to understand, let alone overcome. Please purify your beloved Bride, beginning with my own heart.

Prevalent aspects of our culture are very dangerous psychologically. But the Church has antidotes. By Tom Hoopes

Suicide is not a problem mainly of the wealthy celebrity suicides that make the news. Nor is it limited to those suffering from depression or ongoing mental illness, as author Elizabeth Scalia points out. As multi-faceted and complex as the epidemic is, there was a study two years ago that is still worth pondering. Stat,istically for one group, suicide is a “vanishing phenomenon,” according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a study of nurses, “among the 6,999 Catholic women who said they attended Mass more than once a week, there was not a single suicide.”

A fire department was dispatched recently after reports of heavy smoke in National City, California, not far from Catholic Answers headquarters. The first responders discovered that the smoke came from a local crematorium and contained human cremains. A furnace door had not been properly secured during a cremation, and the deceased’s remains ended up becoming pollution over the city.

Mishaps of this type are fortunately rare, but we often receive questions about how to respond to situations in which family members or friends treat the remains of deceased loved ones in ways not in keeping with the Church’s requirements for fit disposition of the human body. A few recent examples: