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Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

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Deacon Alan Nicklaus December 30, 2018

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Thank you, thank you, thank you, for welcoming me into the All Saints family.  I have been with you now, for one year.

As I reflect on this past year that I have been with you, my brothers and sisters of All Saints, I realize how YOU have reached out to me as a family member. It has been a great blessing to work with Fr. Wilson and Fr. Chad, and the staff, and experience how they have welcomed me.

They have shown me how they lovingly except each one of us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are blessed to have holy men that hold up family values and call us to be family for one another. I have seen them demonstrate how they welcome others by taking interest in getting to know our names, encouraging us in growing in our faith and actively living a holy life by their prayerful example.

As I reflected on this past year of All Saints family-activities, what immediately came to mind, were the three Masses that I was able to serve at, in the springtime for 120 First-Communicants. I saw the joy on their faces when they received Jesus in their First Holy Communion. It was a delight to see their family and friends supporting them, and we, as a community, supporting their families.

In the same week, we welcomed about 150 young adults being confirmed. Right here, these young adults received the joy of the Holy Spirit as they were fully received into the faith. It was wonderful to be with them and their families. All Saints parishioners were very welcoming and supporting the newly confirmed.

Then at Easter time, with the death of my father, I experienced such a great outpouring of love and care from All Saints.  I was greatly welcomed and cared for by YOU with your thoughts, prayers, and cards, and this brought joy and peace to my life that I have a family that supports me.

Throughout the year, I have had the privilege of baptizing many babies into our faith, into our parish. What a joyful time to welcome newcomers into our family.    I feel so blessed to be able to share in the charism that we have as a welcoming community. We have the gift of opening our arms and hearts and being hospitable with others.

And just last week, someone came up to me and mentioned that they are praying for me in my prison ministry.  That is wonderful support. (PAUSE)

We are a family of families. We have experienced, through the pastoral care of our priests, through the sacraments, through their homilies, how they want to care for us. They truly want us to grow in holiness, grow in chastity, grow in prayer and grow closer to Jesus. Every week we have been fed with the Word of God, and with the spiritual food to be a welcoming people. We all have been nourished and strengthened by the Word of God and the Holy Eucharist. (PAUSE)

In today’s second reading, we hear how to be good family members, good brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to have “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. And above all, to put on love.”  This is what we do. This is how we act and how we care for others. I personally am very thankful and grateful for this family in which we can all “sing psalms and hymns with gratitude in our hearts to God”.  Every week, we gather to sing and give God the praise and glory.  We, as a family, worship together and are thankful to our Savior. (PAUSE)

With each homily, we are given an opportunity for reflection. A challenge to grow in holiness, a challenge to continue to strive to do God‘s will. And this week is no different… I have a challenge for us to reflect upon and to pray about.

As we come here to Mass, to be nourished and strengthen by the Eucharist, we can ask ourselves, “What are we going to do with the countless blessings that we have as a welcoming family? Each one of us has been called by God to pray and invite others to join us in this loving and caring parish family. Who are we going to pray for and invite?

Two Sundays ago, I clearly heard God speak to me in my heart and challenge me, who can I reach out to?  Who can I pray for?  Who can I invite and welcome back to the faith? Take a moment to pray and think about someone in your life that needs to be invited back to the Catholic faith?  Maybe it’s an aunt, uncle, a cousin or a child.  Who might it be?

At our recent mission outreach called “RETURN”, we learned, in addition to living a good Christian life, how we can say a kind word of encouragement, like: “I miss you, and would you like to join me in going to Mass”.

I know that there could be a wide range of responses to our invitation. I have personally heard some of these.  The responses can range from “Don’t ever talk to me about religion” to “I was waiting for someone to ask me “.  Despite the challenge or hardship of a possible rejection, we are all called to be persistent in looking for others to welcome back.  This is our mission.  We know that giving the gift of hospitality, welcoming others into our family, does not come at a small price, yet the JOY is worth it!

Reflecting on today’s Gospel reading, “The Finding of Jesus in the temple”, Like Mary and Joseph were anxious when they didn’t have Jesus, let us pursue our Savior just as passionately and when we find him, invite others to join us. We want others to receive the blessings of Jesus in our family life and in receiving him in the Holy Eucharist.

When we pray the fifth joyful mystery of the Rosary, “The finding of Jesus in the temple”, we meditate on the joy that Mary and Joseph had when they found Jesus.  Mary and Joseph, and all the saints encourage us in finding Christ our Savior in a deeper way so that we experience more of the joy of being in God’s family.

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