Dear Parishioners,

I just have some quick notes about the upcoming Mass schedule next weekend. Next week is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. It falls on December 24th and therefore we will not have the normal 5:30 pm Mass. Instead, we will have the Christmas Eve Masses as per the Christmas schedule.

Also, in order to fulfill your Mass obligations, you need to attend both a Mass for the 4th Sunday of Advent (which occur Saturday night and Sunday morning) and Christmas (which occur Sunday night and Monday morning). If you only go to Mass on Christmas Eve, it does not count for both days. So, keeping this in mind here are the following valid combinations of Mass that fulfill your obligations:

• You can go Saturday evening (keep in mind Saturday morning does not count for a Sunday Mass) and then on Sunday evening for Christmas.
• You can go to Saturday evening Mass and then Monday morning Mass.
• You can even go to Sunday Mass in the morning for the 4th Sunday of Advent and then again in the evening for Christmas Eve.
• You can go to Sunday morning Mass and then Monday morning Mass for Christmas Day.

No single mass counts for both your Sunday and your Holy Day obligations. I am sure many of you already know this. But, enough people have approached me with confusion that I just wanted to clarify.

If you think going to Mass twice in a 48 hour period is hard, look on the bright side: New Years Day (the Solemnity of the Mother of God) is not a Holy Day of Obligation this year because it falls on a Monday. And when you do go to Mass, please remember in prayer all those Christians in less free countries who risk their lives in order to go to Mass.

In other news, people have reacted very positively so far to the Traditional Latin Masses on Fridays. If you are interested in experiencing it, then please come to the last one this Friday at 5:30 pm.

God bless and have a holy Advent,

Fr. Carter

P.S. Correction from previous bulletin: If you use Amazon to shop, you can now designate our parish as a charity on smile.amazon.com . It costs you nothing and would be a small additional income for the parish. So, if you are willing, please set your charity to “Holy Innocents Church & School.” Thank you!