From Father Steven - January 3rd

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope you all had a beautiful Holy Christmas!!! Certainly here in the parish it was an amazing celebration with the gorgeous decorations that our volunteer team prepared for us, accompanied with our musicians, and everyone else. In sum, a word of thanks to all those who dedicated time to prepare our celebrations! I would like also to publicly acknowledge our parking lot warriors, the Roselli family and the Chisholm fami- ly, who for 33 straight Sundays have helped our parishioners to attend the parking lot mass. They have endured the heat and cold, but by the grace of God, NO RAIN!!! There was not a single day of rain while we were celebrating mass there.
As this weekend we celebrate the Epiphany and the start of 2021, I would like to give you a little gift. So many of you were kind to us bringing us gifts and cards, although just your presence is already a gift in it- self. I would like to share something that happened last week. Some of you may have seen or known Miguel Semidey attending the 11:00am mass for the last year or so. After the lockdown, he was the gentle- men sitting at the back who would help us spray the church after mass. Well, Miguel has been battling can- cer for the last couple of years, but his situation has declined tremendously in the last couple of months. As his physical body declined, his spiritual health improved greatly! St. Paul says “where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds all the more.” (Rm 5:20) In his case, where his health complications abounded, the spiritual graces abounded all the more. Since his terminal diagnosis, he began a path of conversion to make his life right in front of God, preparing himself to go to Heaven. He received the anointing of the sick, made a general confession (a confession of a person’s whole life), and the last step was marry his longtime companion in the Church. After planning to be this weekend, to honor the Blessed Mother, his health de- manded to be hurried to last week. How beautiful it was to be part of his wedding on the day of the Feast of the Holy Family. They were so happy! It was amazing to see God’s faithfulness with him. Below is a picture of him, his wife and their child. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as soon Miguel will have to be admitted in the hospital for palliative care.
God bless, Fr. Steven