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THE FIRST SUNDAY
OF ADVENT
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As We Enter Into Advent Learn About the Season
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| ST. IGNATIUS CALENDAR | 
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View Full Calendar
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| POOR BOX COLLECTION | 
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Each weekend St. Ignatius specifies a Poor Box collection for a needful cause. To learn about next weekend's collection
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| WORLD WATCH | 
Weekly updates on Christian persecution around the globe. Keep a prayerful watch on what is happening with your brothers and sisters!
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My Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
This week we enter into a full and rich season. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I would like to not only wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, but to affirm how thankful to God I am for your love, support, and all you do in your service to Jesus in and around St. Ignatius. I truly am grateful for each and every one of you.
This upcoming Sunday, December 1, also happens to be the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a Season of Hope. It is a time to be reflective so that we can hear the voice of God summoning us to listen to His promise to save us, to liberate us, to emancipate us from all the darkness that surrounds us and threatens to overwhelm us. Advent invites us to wait in total fidelity to God's dream for us-a dream that will bring a whole new horizon where God actually enters Himself into our human journey as the Word-Made-Flesh dwelling among us. Advent, therefore, rouses us, cries out to us, draws us into the dynamic of humanity's conversion into being Christ-persons, servants of God's impoverished and wounded people who have come to the stable where they hope to discover the Messiah, the Christ of God, the Anointed One, and to become his disciples in our everyday world.
Sunday also begins our new liturgical year. We wish to acknowledge in a special way the generosity and commitment of all of those who serve as altar servers, musicians, ushers, greeters, lectors, Eucharistic ministers and sacristans. At each of the weekend Masses we will pray for these individuals and ask the Holy Spirit to come fill and empower each one for the work they have committed themselves to.
Finally, I want to remind you that we have sent out the Extraordinary Synod on the Family 2014 - at the Vatican's request, this past week. The Archdiocese has set a dead line of midnight, December 15 to submit your questionnaire. If you somehow missed your e-document, you can access it here. We will have paper questionnaires available at all weekend Masses, should you prefer.
We have determined that everyone should have an opportunity to speak publicly about his/her responses to the Vatican's questions. Thus, we are planning to hold a series of forums after each Mass on the weekend of December 7th-8th. At each forum there will be a facilitator and a recorder to conduct an oral survey. The results of those gatherings will also be sent to the Archdiocese to be included in its report to the Vatican. As we care about your thoughts and voice, all are invited to come.
Finally, we understand there has been some confusion surrounding the electronic form. If you've completed and submitted the questionnaire, wonderful. If you have questions surrounding state selection and parish selection we'll try and straighten it up for you by clicking here.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, one and all.
Gratefully, In Christ,
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Thanksgiving Review
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 | | Click on Video for: The Rest of the Thanksgiving Story |
Thanksgiving Day Tradition "And one of the lepers, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus
and thanked him." (Luke 17:15-16) That is what Governor William Bradford did along with 52 other English pilgrims of whom 25 were adults and 27 were children. There was also a number of Native Americans in that autumn of 1621, 392 years ago. A rag-tag hardy group of survivors from the Mayflower expedition gathered to bless God for the food they had harvested during their first year in this new world. It is there in New England among the English families whose names are familiar to us: the Brewsters, the Hopkins, the Winslows and their children that our Thanksgiving Day first began. It soon became a tradition over the decades of our American history. - In 1776, the Continental Congress confirmed it as a celebration for the citizens of the 13 colonies.
- In 1789, President George Washington declared it as a National Day on the calendar of our new country.
- In 1863, amidst the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made it a National Holiday.
- And in 1940, the US Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the 4th Thursday in November a permanent event.
Therefore, today, we as a nation imitate the man in Luke's Gospel, and we imitate our forebears of this nation as we offer praise and thanks to our God for the blessings He has poured out upon us over this year of 2013. Mindful that we all will be gathering with family and / or friends tomorrow at tables laden with food, we propose that, before enjoying family, food and festivities someone offer a prayer of gratitude for all God's many blessings. Below is a suggested prayer composed by the Glenmary Fathers and Brothers for Thanksgiving 2013. God, source and giver of all things, we give you thanks on this Thanksgiving Day for the beauty of the whole of creation. We give you thanks for the blessings of family and friends: both those gathered around this table and those who are present only in our hearts. We give you thanks for this food, prepared by loving hands, and for the graces you provide to nourish our bodies, minds and hearts so that we might better serve you. Help us to be faithful stewards of all that has been given us. May we reflect that which we have received to all we meet, especially the less fortunate in our midst. Amen.
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Advent - Week 1 - "HOPE"
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 It's Advent -- The four weeks leading up to Christmas. It's a season of great expectation and frequently a review of what is truly important in life. We often draw closer into family and friends as the events of these weeks demand. For way too many of us the season screams stress rather than delight. Yet, this first week of Advent beckons us to quite the opposite. The theme of the first week of Advent is HOPE. It calls us to reflect on the Nativity story and enter in to the promise it provides us. Two thoughts arise that make this theme especially relevant.
The first thought is, if this God of the Universe came to earth and was born in such lowly circumstances, there is hope for us. The Lord showed His tremendous humility and love by how He chose to dwell among us. Because He shared in our common, unattractive circumstances, we get to share in His great glory. (See Philippians 2:5-11 and Romans 8:17) This should encourage us all, knowing that we can joyfully anticipate something better ahead. We have the divine privilege of eagerly awaiting something beyond our wildest imagination. And each of us individually matters. We have tremendous value to the One who created us. He drew close to us personally, physically and at great cost to Himself. Wow!
The second thought is that our challenges today will not keep us in a pit that we can never climb out of. Advent not only holds out promise for eternity, but strength for today. If Jesus could remain obedient to death on a cross, surely we can get through whatever the next crisis the day will bring! He didn't remain in that smelly cave where he was born forever, and we won't remain in this stressful phase forever either.
Because Jesus came, we can lay our requests before God and wait with joyful expectation, and knowing with certainty that He hears us and cares. And focusing your thoughts on that makes Advent a remarkably significant time!
As we move into the first week of Advent we look at the three traditional themes:
We offer you the following Advent devotional video on the theme of Hope:
 | | Click on video to view: Advent - Week1 | HOPE |
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In the News
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The 'Evangelii Gaudium' Amounts to Francis' 'I Have a Dream' Speech
In an 85-page Apostolic Exhortation (Evangelii Gaudium) released by the Vatican Press, Pope Francis has gathered together the priorities he has been addressing in homilies, speeches and interviews for the past eight months. It sets the focus of his thinking and desire to reinvigorate the Catholic Church throughout the world as it carries out its mission to evangelize "a world marked by indifference, secularism and vast inequalities of income between the increasingly growing rich and the struggling poor and working middle class". To read the document in its entirety, click here.
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Events During the Week
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Thanksgiving Mass
- Thursday, November 28
Join us at 9:00 AM. as we gather together in the church to give thanks to God for all our blessings. It will be the only Mass that day. On Friday, November 29, there will be just one Mass, at 12:10 PM in the chapel. Our offices will be closed.
 Ignatian Spirituality Project is a Jesuit ministry that offers overnight retreats and days of recollection for men and women who are in transition from homelessness and addiction. This is vital and life changing ministry for both the homeless, and for those who volunteer their time. To visit the Ignatian Spirituality Project webslte, click here. To learn how you can be involved with the St. Ignatius arm of this ministry, contact George Schuette.
St. Ignatius Attends Center Stage
- Sunday, December 1
Join fellow parishioners to see the Center Stage matinee performance of "A Civil War Christmas" at 2:00 PM on Sunday December 1st. Our ticket block has sold out, however, if interested you may call Center Stage to try and secure tickets. Their phone number is
(410) 986-4000.
A Civil War Christmas - "A musical tale of hope an forgiveness. It's a bitterly cold Christmas Eve in 1865 (just nine years after our parish opened) and along the Potomac, from the White House to the battlefields, friends and foes alike find their lives intertwined. A Civil War Christmas weaves together period carols and folk songs. For preview video click here . For information flyer click here .
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 It's that time of year again for Angel Tree - the program where parishioners and friends purchase Christmas gifts for children whose parents are incarcerated - and Jesse Tree - where people buy warm gloves, hats, socks and scarves as Christmas gifts for our homeless brothers and sisters who are served by our Loaves & Fishes ministry, as well as grocery gift certificates for the women served by My Sister's Place. The Tree is in the narthex. For more specifics, click here.
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Register Now For the Advent At Home Retreat
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Advent is a very special season when we are given the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus in preparation for the coming of Christmas. To enhance our prayer opportunities during this time, the parish is offering a week of directed prayer from Sunday, December 8 through Saturday, December 14. Registration for this retreat is open only until Wednesday, December 4. - Click here for more information.
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e-zine compiled by John. C. Odean
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