Happy Holy Days! Blood Drive, Baptism Class

Happy Feasts! As we continue to celebrate the Christmas season, we have a bunch
of feasts in the coming week. (Don’t worry, except for the Sunday ones, they’re
not Holy Days of Obligation, but you’re welcome to come to church anyway.)

This year we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family on Friday, December 30. It
usually falls on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s, but when
Christmas is on a Sunday, it moves to December 30.

Then on Sunday, as always on January 1, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary,
Mother of God. We’ll have an anticipated Mass at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday the 31st.

On January 3, Tuesday this year, we celebrate as a solemnity The Most Holy
Name of Jesus. This is both the titular feast of the Society of Jesus as well as our
Church of the Gesu. Our church takes its name from the mother church of the
Society of Jesus, officially named Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù (English:
Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus), usually just shortened to Gesù.

In the United States we celebrate The Epiphany of the Lord on Sunday, this year
on January 8.

Fun fact, the Christmas season continues through the Feast of the Baptism of the
Lord. No rush to take your tree down. Usually, the Baptism is the Sunday after
Epiphany, but Christmas falling on a Sunday combined with our celebrating
Epiphany on Sunday throws everything off. This year we’ll celebrate the Baptism
on Monday, January 9. Your special prize for coming to church that day: taking
home as many poinsettias as you can transport.

May your continued celebrations of this joyful season be blessed!

Fr. Ben