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