Blessed are you among women,

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2 This week at St. James the Apostle Fremont Blvd Fremont, CA PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR CHRISTMAS The Savior of the world came from the East, Jesus identified Himself with the least. The King of Kings didn t have a place to be born, His mother covered Him with clothes that were torn. The animals bowed their heads in adoration, With love they recognized His incarnation. They worshiped Him with songs in their sign language, With gratitude they thanked God for this privilege. Mary and Joseph were in sheer amazement, Their joyful hearts pounded in rare excitement. They kept their gaze on the heavenly baby, As a light emanated from His body! He was the Light that would illuminate the world, Earth and Heaven came to be at His Word. He came to us not to be served but to serve, In His total love, all of us He ll preserve. At Christmas, with great a message, the Lord came The message and the Messenger is the same: Jesus the sure way, the truth and the life, Without Him your life will be a constant strife. Bring Jesus to your Christmas celebration, And make it the greatest day of the season. Listen to Jesus special message for you, Here is your chance to begin your life anew. Questions: 1. Why did God send Jesus to live among us? 2. What does this mean to you during Christmas? 3. How does Christmas figure into the salvation of you and your loved ones? 4. How does Christmas strengthen you in faith, hope, and love? Reflections: It can be rightly said that Christmas is the happiest season of the year. I am sure no one will challenge or debate that. Christmas is celebrated throughout the world, even reaching across otherwise insurmountable religious divides. People who are living in forests untouched by civilization or developments, with no modern conveniences or comforts, celebrate it with music and gaiety. For them Christmas is the greatest and most joyful celebration of the year: all the villagers gather, singing and dancing the whole day and night. They kill fattened cows, pigs and chickens. Drinking home-made liquor is an age old tradition among these men and women. In some customs and traditions, Christmas carols are sung days before the actual Christmas day. And of course, Christmas is the reason for this happiest season. Christmas today means different things to different people. Over the years, we must admit that Christmas has lost its spiritual significance, and year after year this change is noticeable to an alarming degree. This is very unfortunate. Like many other things, Christmas has been commercialized and for many has become the peak season for buying and selling. Christmas has in some quarters been transformed from the pinnacle of religious celebration and expression of faith to a secular occasion for social gatherings or family reunions. Such social interpretation has its place as a by-product of Christmas, and was never meant to be its ultimate and primary purpose, Blessed are you among women, which is renewal in the faith, hope, and love that Christ brought, miraculously taking the form of a human for our salvation. The first thing we must remember is to celebrate the Birthday of Jesus our Savior. Christmas should begin in the Church that Christ came to our world to establish, and is then to be concluded at home where we live out the faith Christ has given us. This means, for us Catholics, we should attend the Holy Mass as a family. We should make Christmas as a Day of Thanksgiving. God gave us the greatest gift and mystery on Christmas Day: He gave us the Gift of His only begotten Son. Sin came into the world through the disobedience of the first Adam. Sin continued to grow, and many chose to walk in darkness rather than in the light. God sent to the world the Christ, the second Adam, who, by dying on the cross, brought us salvation. Christmas, therefore is the day of His incarnation. Any celebration without the remembrance of this cannot be considered Christmas. The message of Christmas is joy and peace. We must admit that true and eternal joy and peace, which is vastly different than our human conception of such things, can come only from Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Nobody else can give us this lasting, permanent joy and peace. Everybody wants peace and happiness. There is a worldly message that has spread very fast: that God is not the only source of peace and happiness. This means that people worship strange Gods, ones that do not actually exist, and such worship will lead to their destruction. Unfortunately, this message is accepted by an increasing number of people all over the world today. As a result many people have left God and the religious practices that help people remain on the difficult and narrow path to God. Europe, which used to be the cradle of Christianity where the Catholic Church flourished and nourished millions of souls for over 2000 years, has been hit very hard by spiritual aridity. Cathedrals and Churches have been sold, Church membership has dwindled, and Church attendance has substantially diminished during the last 50 years. These people claim that God and His Church have no more relevance, and so they leave. Man has made a mark in every field, including education, health, communication, social media and transportation. The quality of life has changed dramatically in as much as there are more conveniences and comforts in the lives of people. Today machines take care of many of your chores, which people in the past did manually while offering their service and sacrifice to their Creator. All these developments should have given man more time for leisure and relaxation. Families should be spending more time together. The quality of life changed considerably but the quality of man is now much worse. Look at the evil practices which are rampant in the world today! Nations have become free from foreign control. But there is no internal freedom in people. Slavery has been abolished for years, but today there is much more slavery in the world than ever before. Slavery to drugs, alcoholism, and pornography, to name just a few evils. Man is blessed with much more material things than he ever had before, including bigger houses and better cars. I wish I could also say that man lives today with greater happiness, health and peace than in the past. This, you will agree, is only a wishful thinking. Our developments have not made us happier or better human beings. Education has certainly resulted in more degrees but less common sense. We live in bigger houses but broken families that leave those houses. We have greatly advanced in medical knowledge but live in poor physical

3 and spiritual health. Man has walked on the moon but does not know the names of his neighbors living next door. Man can boast of high income but lives in physical and spiritual poverty with less peace of mind. Jesus is the same yesterday and today, and He will always be the same. He will always be the Prince of Peace. Nobody can substitute Him nor will any power ever be able to replace Him. Right from the creation of man, mankind has turned against his Creator. He has tried to replace God. Adam and Eve tried and were driven out of the garden of abundance. What was lost through the first man God has restored through another Man, His only begotten Son. He dwelt among us for 33 years, during which time He chose twelve apostles to continue His works, and whose ministry continues in the Pope, Bishops, priests, and religious serving you today. Through extraordinary works and miracles, Christ testified to the world He was sent by the Father. He was rejected and crucified as He had anticipated. However, before He went, He made it very clear to all that He is the only way to eternity. Man has the power to bring about many more developments and discoveries. Man may even succeed to send human beings to all the planets. It may be not very long from today that man may migrate to the moon. But he will never discover a different route to happiness other than Jesus, who is the only way to our lasting happiness and peace. Man has to learn to humble himself and accept the existence of God in his life in order to have peace and joy. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus birthday. Every year He comes with the gifts of peace and joy. He has not changed a bit and He will never change. Only we humans have changed, and in some cases beyond recognition. Every day we live is an gift of God s love and generosity. Life is God s magnanimous gift to us, and every breath we take is only possible because God loves us. Glorying God is the best gift we can offer to God. "The Glory of God is a human being radiantly alive" (Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman). What gift are you going to give to Jesus on His birthday? We do not go for a birthday celebration without gifts. Our gifts speak of our love, concern and respect for the person who celebrates the birthday. Jesus is not expecting any material gifts. If yes, I am sure we will have lot to bring Him. The best gift we can give Him is our heart, a new heart, a changed heart where He can be born. Please remember those in the Armed Services: Spec. Tara Mueller, Spec. Christopher Mueller, Brian Christopher Carreiro, Sgt. Kristan Jofel T. Carado, Greg Savella, Major Jenny Ryan, Captain David Evans And Parishioners and friends who need our prayers or who are ill John DiPaola, Evelyn Reyes, Frank Smith, Concha Garcia, Todd Wetherwax, Deacon Ernie Dandan, Joel Rivera, Melanie O Connor, Katherine Gomes, Lydia DeGraf, Judy McKenney, Tomás Sandoval Klassen, Laura Skaff, Alice Ferreira, Agnes Harris, Ray Ballin, Bob Nehls, Dawn Barker, Martha Torres, Tammy Bumgarner, Margarete Matulich, Carl Dubose It s time once again to update our Prayer List for Please take a moment to send an to bulletin@sjapostle.net to update this list. You can also leave a message in the Bulletin box in the parish office or call Dec Dec 17 Dec 25 Dec 27 Dec 31 Jan 1 Jan 6 Jan 7 PARISH CALENDAR Simbang Gabi KofC Business Meeting 7:30pm Pastoral Council (to be cancelled or re-scheduled) Parish Office closed Bishop Begin Assembly 3546 Bus. Mtg 7:30pm New Year s Eve Dinner Dance World Day of Prayer for Peace Parish Office Closed Santo Niño Fiesta KofC Officer s Meeting FLOWER DONATIONS Thank you St. James Parishioners for your generous donations for the flowers for the altar throughout the year. We are now planning for the Holidays and all donations are gratefully accepted. Leave a donation or a message for Brenda Bagis in the Parish office. WORSHIP SCHEDULE Monday-Saturday Mass: Rosary 8:10am, Mass 8:30am Saturday Mass: 5:00pm Sunday Masses: 8:30am, 10:00am, 12:00noon Holy Days of Obligation: Masses 8:30am & 7:30pm Confessions: Saturday 4:00pm or by appt. Every Friday Adoration: 9:00-10:00am First Fridays: Adoration 9:00 am-6:30pm Sacred Heart Novena 6:30pm Benediction 7:15pm Healing Mass 7:30pm Our Mother of Mass & Novena, Perpetual Help: Wednesdays, 7:30pm DEVOTIONS Weekly: Bible Study Divine Mercy Chaplet: In the Small Chapel: Legion of Mary Eternal Life Bible Study Charismatic Prayer Meeting Wed. 9:30 am (Kitchen) Thurs, after morning Mass Tues 9:30am Thurs. 7:30pm 2nd & 3rd Fridays 7:00pm Monthly: Divine Mercy Cenacle 7:00pm, 2nd and 4th Prayer Meeting Mondays (Small Chapel) Our Lady of Vailankanni First Saturday 7:00pm Respect for Life Rosary Second Sunday 11:00am Grotto Sacred Heart 6:30pm 1st Friday Enthronement (formal ceremony to make the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus as the King of the house), please contact: Cora Surla (510) ; or Tessie Ricafort (510) Christmas Mass Schedule Monday December 24 Christmas Eve Masses: 5:00pm, 8:00pm (Christmas Candlelight Mass) & 11:00pm Tuesday, December 25 Christmas Day Masses: 8:30am, 10:00am, 12:00noon and blessed is the fruit your womb. Luke 1:42

4 ST. JAMES THE APOSTLE PARISH OFFICE HOURS M-F 9:00AM TO NOON REGISTRATION IN THE PARISH Warmest welcome to all who worship in our Community. If you are not registered in the Parish, please complete a registration form available at church entrance or at the Parish Office or drop the form below in the collection basket. ANOINTING OF THE SICK Please call the Parish Office when a parishioner is home-bound or hospitalized to arrange for Holy Communion and Anointing of the Sick. MARRIAGES AND BAPTISMS Please contact the Parish Office at least 6 months in advance for weddings and 3 months in advance for Baptisms. BAPTISMS To have your child baptized, please make an appointment with Father Antony. Come to the St. James Parish office or call the Parish Office at For more details, please go to the Church website (Parish Info) or contact Marcial Vasco Baptism Preparation/Training class: First Saturday of the month from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm in the Small Chapel. Baptism Celebration: Last Saturday of the month 11:30am-12:30pm in the church FUNERALS We recommend using Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services / Holy Sepulchre Cemetery and Holy Angels Funeral and Cremation Services. You may contact Shirley X 133. MOTHER TERESA CENTER RESERVATIONS. Contact our Facility Manager & Event Coordinator Larry Bellamy ( , MTC@sjapostle.net) or leave a message at the Parish Office. (No prices or quotes are given over the phone or in an .) Fr. Antony Vazhappilly, Pastor Ernie Dandan, Deacon Welcome, New Members! We encourage you to register in the parish so that you can receive communication via or regular mail. Registration information is essential for the office to respond to requests, send important parish and diocesan information and verify donations for tax purposes. If you need a letter of good standing to be a sponsor or Godparent for a baptism or marriage, registration is very important. Please fill out this form and place it in the collection basket and we will mail you a Parish Registration form. You can also find a registration form on the website (sjapostle.net) - Parish Info - Parish Membership. Name Address Phone

5 Youth Ministry Bake Sale Getting ready for Christmas!