Merry Christmas! I am very excited to celebrate Christmas with you this year. For those of you I have not had the privilege of meeting, my name is Fr. Scott Goodfellow, and I was assigned as administrator of St. Mary, Chardon and St. Patrick, Thompson parishes in August of this past year. What a joy it's been to be with these communities the past few months! I look forward to many more times of joy and growth to come. If you are visiting or new to our parish, please know of our parish community's prayers for you during your visit and for your travels this holiday season. We are so happy you are with us!

Dear Parish Family, I want to thank you for all the generosity you’ve displayed in the past few weeks. I realize we have had a number of opportunities to give to a number of causes and needs, and you have truly risen to meet the needs. I know that God cannot be outdone in generosity, and He invites us to open our hearts in our own generous capacity so He can fill us with His grace. May the Lord be very generous to you this week leading up to Christmas!

Thank you to all attendees, volunteers, and donors of the WOW Advent Morning of Prayer. Together, we are shining light into others' lives by having filled six large boxes of items for the Ivy Women's Center and by having raised over $1000 for this pro-life center on December 4th! Thank you also for the generous donations towards the WOW ministry.

Can you believe it's the Third Week of Advent already? Even as the days continue to darken, the liturgical colors of this weekend's Mass nevertheless 'brighten up' from violet to rose (purple to pink) as we celebrate Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday. The tone of the readings expresses this theme of rejoicing as daughter Zion sings for joy at the coming salvation of the Lord, and the people of Israel await the coming of the Christ with eager expectation and hope.

Happy Second Sunday of Advent! Last week I asked our parish families to do some light 'penance' work to prepare our hearts for Christmas, so I hope your Advent penance is off to a good start. If not, there's time to devote ourselves to some small work of prayer, sacrifice, or service to "make straight the way of the Lord" as we bring all those areas of our life into alignment with God's plan.