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Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We begin a new church year. Advent is the church’s four week preparation for the coming of Christ into our lives and hearts. During the season of Advent the church teaches about three comings of Christ. The first coming happened about 2,000 years ago when Christ was born in time on that first Christmas morning. The angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to people of goodwill.” The second coming of Christ is at the end of time. We await His coming in glory with all the angels and saints of heaven. We do not know the day or the hour of His coming. Only God, the Father, knows of that exact time. We pray to be ready every day for His coming. There is also a third coming of Christ that the church teaches about. It is His coming to us every day into our lives and hearts. This is a very important coming of Christ. He comes to us when we pray and participate in the sacraments of the church. If we welcome Christ every day then we will truly be ready when he comes at the end of time!

I encourage you to participate in the many events and activities being offered to you by the parish as a way to welcome Christ each day. We are going to have our Sunday Advent Vespers at 5pm in the church with guest speakers over the next 4 weeks. November 30 the speaker will be Deacon Bob Lavanco from Our Lady of Hope; Dec 7 the speaker will be Msgr Ralph Maresca, the pastor of ST Francis of Assisi in Astoria; Dec 14 the speaker will be Fr Greg McIlhenney, the Associate pastor of St Patrick’s, Bayridge; Dec 21 the speaker will be Fr James Cunningham, the pastor of Holy Name in Park Slope. All are welcomed!!

All day Penance will take place on Wednesday, Dec 10, from 7:30am- 7:30pm. What a great way to prepare for the Lord’s coming by removing any obstacle from our lives that prevents us from receiving Him with joy. On Friday, Dec 19, we are going to have Lessons and Carols in the Church at 8pm with all our choirs participating. Lessons and Carols in an opportunity, through Scripture and song, to celebrate how God keeps His promise by sending us the long awaited Messiah. We wanted to try something different this year and have it on a Friday evening because all the Sundays of Advent are booked. Please make every effort to join us that evening.

I encourage all of you to make the effort in attending daily mass if you can, especially the 7pm in the evening as way for preparing for Christ’s coming. We also have daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel from 7:30am-6:45pm, Monday to Fridays. What a great opportunity to spend some quite time in prayer with the Lord asking Him to come into my heart. Also, I am happy to announce that beginning on Monday, Dec 1, you will have the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at different times during the week (Monday-Friday). Confession will be offered on the following days at the following times: Mondays from 7:30am-8:30am; Wednesdays from 6pm-7pm; and in Spanish on Thursdays from 7:30pm-8:30pm. Confessions will take place in the church. Saturday confessions will stay the same from 4pm-4:45pm. Please take advantage of this opportunity I am introducing to the parish.

A Blessed Advent to each of you!!!

Today our Church’s year comes to a close with the Solemnity of Christ the King. Today is an opportunity to reflect on what the kingship of Christ means for us as Christians. Simply put, Christ’s kingship is one of service to others. His kingship is not one of violence, force or intimidation. Christ comes to serve and not be served by others. Christ invites us all to serve one another as a way of sharing in the kingship of Christ.

I think we do this so very well at St Sebastian! I continue to be inspired by the way all of you are servants of Christ to others in our community and in our diocese. We serve Christ in our serving of others. One way I wish to personally thank you is by the contribution you made to our Thanksgiving collection. The monies that we collected from you allows us to feed those less fortunate than ourselves. How so important this is in our time today. So many people are homeless or have lost their jobs and have nothing for themselves or for their family.

Thanksgiving is a time to recognize how fortunate we are and how much God blesses us and our family. I encourage you this weekend to make one final contribution to our Thanksgiving collection by making a donation in the boxes in the rear of the church or by dropping off your donation to the rectory. Thank you for your generosity.

Another way we here have served the needs of others in Woodside is through your generosity in the 2014 Annual Catholic Appeal. I am very happy to report that we have reached our goal! Congratulations and Thank You!! The money will help the Bishop to continue its many programs that assist our children in our Catholic schools, our immigrants, seminarians, retired priests and social service programs, only to name a few! The Bishop cannot do this without the support of generous people like you here in Woodside. I am inspired by your generosity! I know that we all are struggling to meet the many responsibilities and needs we have for ourselves and our family. And to see you respond so generously to the needs of others is really helping to build God’s Kingdom in this world.

Now that we have met our goal and have helped the Bishop to meet the needs of the Diocese may I now ask you to continue to pay up any remaining pledges so that our parish may benefit from the appeal. As you know any monies that go over the goal comes back to the parish. Here is the report as of this week: Our goal is: $146,724. As I said we met the goal. We have pledged a total of: $176,068. We now need to meet our pledged goal so that the parish can get back about $30,000 which is $17,000 more than last year. I have full confidence that we can do this together!!

As we look forward to Thanksgiving let me just say “thank you” to each and every one of you for the support that you give to our wonderful parish of St Sebastian. We have a lot to be thankful for! This is a very special parish because of the contribution and support you give to it. I love being here and I love being your pastor. Be assured that when I sit at table with my family on Thanksgiving Day you and your family will be remembered in a very special way.

A Blessed Thanksgiving!!!!!

Rev. Kevin P. Abels

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This coming Monday, November 17th, we will begin adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the week from 7:30 AM to 6:45 PM (ending with Benediction) Please make every effort to stop in if you are near the Chapel and to spend some time, even if its 5 minutes, before the Lord in prayer. I promise it will be 5 minutes well spent. Please pass this along to your friends and loved ones as well.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching! I want to draw your attention to 2 parish celebrations of Thanksgiving that I need you to be present at. First, is the special Mass on Wednesday, November 26 at 7PM in the Church. Some of our families from our school and Religious Education Program will take part at the Mass in different ways. The homily will be geared for children so please make every effort to bring your children and grandchildren as we give thanks to God for the many blessings bestowed on our family and country.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 27th, we will have only 1 Parish Mass at 9AM. All are welcome. Please continue to make a contribution to our Thanksgiving Collection for those who are less fortunate. We rely on your generosity in helping others to make their Thanksgiving Day special! Thanks for your generosity!

We would like to purchase new music hymnals for our parish, but we need your help. Please consider purchasing a hymnal(s) by having one in memory of a loved one (living or deceased). We would like to purchase 600 as a start but won’t do so until we get as many people as possible to purchase them for us. Please consider doing so! It will add to our parish’s worship of God!

Thanks for your support!

Rev. Kevin P. Abels