One of the questions I’m asked on occasion during this Pandemic is, “Are we living in the “Last Days?’’” Well, if you remember the hurricanes in the Gulf last summer, the current wild fires in California, famine, wars, storms, and political unrest, one can easily assume that the world is coming to an end. But, I’m quick to respond, “Probably not anytime soon.” Has there ever been a decade or a century without most, if not all of these catastrophes? Those who spread fear and anxiety, like the authors of the Left Behind books, would have you believe that it’s all part of the end destruction. They would have you believe that God’s intention is to spread disasters to hasten the final judgment; when in fact, God’s mission is to redeem a fallen humanity, not hasten the day when God will destroy it forever.

The truth is that every person is created in the image of God. This is a message of hope, not despair. Beware of those who twist Biblical truth to scare the faithful. The Christian hope is that God will not “leave us behind.” God is with us already, and will continue to be with us despite the disasters which are part of the natural order, and over which we have little or no control. God’s presence is not seen in disasters and acts of violence: His presence is seen in acts of mercy and justice. We cannot hasten the apocalyptic timetable nor should we be eager to discern when that might be. Our universe will more likely “rust out” before it burns out. Even science says that there was a time when there was nothing, and there will be a time when there will be nothing. The first chapter of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelation both concur. Science asks the question, “How?” Theology asks the question, “How come?” Two different ways to finding the truth. Of course, it’s best to be prepared!

“Therefore, do not be anxious about what you shall wear, or what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, for your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first His Kingdom and all these things shall be yours as well.” Matthew 6:33

NOTICES:

Video Viewing Options for Sunday’s mass – there are three different ways to view our videos: 1) our church website; 2) our Facebook page; and 3) our YouTube channel.

Opportunities for Giving – there are several options that safely and efficiently expedite your generous donations: electronic bank transfers or automatic bank transfers via personal accounts or credit/debit cards; personal checks delivered by USPS; and our favorite through joining our giving family online through our website or at www.myEoffering.com with our secure vendor Church Envelope Budget Company, who provides you with yearly offering envelopes. Please do NOT leave any envelopes with checks/cash unattended at church mailboxes.

Sandwiches for St. George’s: We continue making sandwiches for the foreseeable future. Starting this week, we are switching from Wednesday to Thursday . So please bring your sandwiches to St. David’s parking lot each Thursday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 am. With your wonderful support, we continue to provide 300+ sandwiches every week! If you are unable to come to the church on Thursday mornings, please call me at 561-312-2719. Some parishioners are dropping off their sandwiches the night before. I will do my best to accommodate your schedules.

February Blood Drive : St. David’s hosts two blood drives each year, one in February and one in October. Our next drive is on Sunday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day! Please show your love by signing up to donate blood. Invite family (kids and grandkids 16 and older can donate) and friends to donate. You can register to donate using this link. https://donor.oneblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/1045951

Sunday School is back in operation with the necessary protocols in place.

Forward Day by Day brochures are now available in the narthex.

Flowers and Candles: Donation – $40 for flowers and $20 for candles. Please fill out a form, and leave it in the plate.

Holy Eucharist:

• Tuesdays: 8:30 am
• Wednesdays: 6:30 pm

PLEASE PRAY – For the sick: Barbara, Beth, Billy, Diana, Donna, Ed, Francis, Jan, Jeanne, Jim, Joaquin, Tayvin. For birthday celebrations: Carly LaBorde, Dennis Amiel, Diana Firestone, Tanya Low, Millicent Thompson. For anniversary celebrations: Dick and Virginia Elliott, Tom and Joyce Parker. For expectant mothers: Andi, Ashley, Bronwyn, Katherine.

Altar Flowers:
-donated by Laurette Bagley in loving memory of Carl Bagley.
-donated by Kathleen Lannaman in celebration of Sydney Green’s 18th birthday.

There was a little girl who had a very large collection of dolls heaped on her bed. A guest in her room one day asked her “Do you love dolls?” Then with tender loving care she spread out the whole collection for the guest to inspect and admire. The guest asked her, “Which doll do you love the most?” She hesitated, then said, “Promise not to laugh if I tell you.” He promised. She picked a ragged doll with a broken nose, whose hair had mostly come off, and one arm and leg were missing. “This is the one.” “Why?” the visitor asked. “Because if I didn’t love this one nobody else would.”

Jesus calls us to love the ones in this world whom nobody else will love. Jesus calls us to reach out to the lonely, the hungry, the sick, to the ones in prison, the disabled, the forsaken, the needy, and to all of those people who need to hear that someone indeed does love them, and that someone is Jesus Christ. During the Pandemic, this might take unusual forms; but we can still pray, contribute, and contact those who need to know that God loves them, “warts and all.”

NOTICES:

Video Viewing Options for Sunday’s mass – there are three different ways to view our videos: 1) our church website; 2) our Facebook page; and 3) our YouTube channel.  See the links listed below.

Opportunities for Giving – there are several options that safely and efficiently expedite your generous donations: electronic bank transfers or automatic bank transfers via personal accounts or credit/debit cards; personal checks delivered by USPS; and our favorite through joining our giving family online through our website or at www.myEoffering.com with our secure vendor Church Envelope Budget Company, who provides you with yearly offering envelopes. Please do NOT leave any envelopes with checks/cash unattended at church mailboxes.

Sandwiches for St. George’s: We continue making sandwiches for the foreseeable future. Starting this week, we are switching from Wednesday to Thursday. So please bring your sandwiches to St. David’s parking lot each Thursday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 am. With your wonderful support, we continue to provide 300+ sandwiches every week! If you are unable to come to the church on Thursday mornings, please call me at 561-312-2719. Some parishioners are dropping off their sandwiches the night before. I will do my best to accommodate your schedules.

February Blood Drive: St. David’s hosts two blood drives each year, one in February and one in October. Our next drive is on Sunday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day! Please show your love by signing up to donate blood. Invite family (kids and grandkids 16 and older can donate) and friends to donate. You can register to donate using this link. https://donor.oneblood.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/1045951

Sunday School is back in operation with the necessary protocols in place.

Forward Day by Day brochures are now available in the narthex for a donation of $5.00.

Holy Eucharist:

• Tuesdays: 8:30 am
• Wednesdays: 6:30 pm

PLEASE PRAY – For the sick: Ashlyn, Barbara, Beth, Billy, Diana, Donna, Ed, Francis, Henry, Jan, Jeanne, Jim, Joaquin, Kim, Tayvin. For the departed: William Jackowski, Sr. For birthday celebrations: Barbara Hastings-Griffin, Donald McCree. For expectant mothers: Andi, Ashley, Bronwyn, Katherine, Mayoli.

The expression “get one’s goat” is based on the custom of keeping a goat in the stable with a racehorse as the horse’s companion. The goat can be a settling influence on the thoroughbred. If you owned a competing horse and were not above some “dirty tricks”, you could steal your rival’s goat and upset the horse’s disposition so that it wouldn’t perform to its best ability in the next race. The expression was extended to people to upset them by “getting their goat.”

As we begin our journey into a new calendar year, we’re hopeful it won’t be like the last one. We may feel like someone has “gotten our goat.” Those things and means we relied on to guard our sense of security and peace in the past are up for grabs at present. So, in the “race” that is set before us, let us not lose faith, hope and love: the three gifts we can give to God the Son, as we, like the three Wise Men, travel along by “another way.”

NOTICES:

Video Viewing Options for Sunday’s mass – there are three different ways to view our videos: 1) our church website; 2) our Facebook page; and 3) our YouTube channel.  See the links listed below.

Opportunities for Giving – there are several options that safely and efficiently expedite your generous donations: electronic bank transfers or automatic bank transfers via personal accounts or credit/debit cards; personal checks delivered by USPS; and our favorite through joining our giving family online through our website or at www.myEoffering.com with our secure vendor Church Envelope Budget Company, who provides you with yearly offering envelopes. Please do NOT leave any envelopes with checks/cash unattended at church mailboxes.

Sandwiches for St. George’s: We will continue making sandwiches for the foreseeable future. Please bring them to St. David’s parking lot each Wednesday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 am. St. George’s is trying to begin serving to-go dinner meals but is not getting enough of the parishes and other groups to support that yet. So the hot lunches with to-go sandwich bags for a later dinner will continue for a while. Thank you for the ongoing support! We continue to provide 300± sandwiches every week. If you are working and cannot come Wednesday mornings please feel free to call me at 561-312-2719 to set up a Tuesday night drop off.

Sunday School is back in operation with the necessary protocols in place.

Forward Day by Day brochures are now available in the narthex for a donation of $5.00.

Holy Eucharist:

• Tuesdays: 8:30 am
• Wednesdays: 6:30 pm

PLEASE PRAY – For the sick: Andi, Ashlyn, Beth, Bill, Charlotte, Diana, Donna, Ed, Fidel, Francis, Jeanne, Jim, Joaquin, Kim, William. For the departed: Debbie Jenkins, Illiana Bravo. For birthday celebrations: Tracy Jackowski, Maria Hogan, David Whiting, Glenn Bresnahan, Linda McKeown, Franklin Montross IV, Tiffany Owen, Theodore L’Abbe, Alexandria Philistin, Margie Sandell, Steve Roca. For expectant mothers: Andi, Ashley, Bronwyn, Katherine, Mayoli.

WEEKLY RECTOR’S MESSAGE – January 3rd – Fr. Thomas.

A story is told of a little boy who was to play the part of the Innkeeper in the annual children’s Christmas play at his church. Each time during the rehearsal when it came time for him to tell Joseph and Mary that there was no room, he couldn’t say his lines. The director finally asked him why he was having so much trouble. He told him, “I just can’t send Jesus away! He can have my room!”

Is there room in our holiday, our heart, our home, for worship of Jesus? God became flesh so that we could become like God, a living member of His family. This is a God worth believing in; one who is willing to ‘Walk a mile in our shoes.” Yet, it all started in a stable in Bethlehem, and is incarnate in our hearts and lives in every hour, every day, every year of our lives. To quote the 20th c. English poet John Betjeman: “No love that in a family dwells, no caroling in frosty air, nor all the steeple shaking bells can with this single truth compare, that God was man in Palestine and lives today in bread and wine.”

God bless you in the New Year.

NOTICES:

Video Viewing Options for Sunday’s mass – there are three different ways to view our videos: 1) our church website; 2) our Facebook page; and 3) our YouTube channel.  See the links listed below.

Opportunities for Giving – there are several options that safely and efficiently expedite your generous donations: electronic bank transfers or automatic bank transfers via personal accounts or credit/debit cards; personal checks delivered by USPS; and our favorite through joining our giving family online through our website or at www.myEoffering.com with our secure vendor Church Envelope Budget Company, who provides you with yearly offering envelopes. Please do NOT leave any envelopes with checks/cash unattended at church mailboxes.

Sandwiches for St. George’s: We will continue making sandwiches at least through December. Please bring them to St. David’s parking lot each Wednesday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 am. St. George’s is trying to begin serving to-go dinner meals but is not getting enough of the parishes and other groups to support that yet. So the hot lunches with to-go sandwich bags for a later dinner will continue for a while. Thank you for the ongoing support! We continue to provide 300± sandwiches every week. If you are working and cannot come Wednesday mornings please feel free to call me to set up a Tuesday night drop off.

Sunday School is back in operation with the necessary protocols in place.

Forward Day by Day brochures are now available in the narthex .

Offering Envelopes: If you use the offering envelope, please contact the office at your earliest convenience.

Holy Eucharist:

• Tuesdays: 8:30 am
• Wednesday: Eucharistic Adoration: 6:00 pm
• Wednesdays: 6:30 pm

PLEASE PRAY – For the sick: Ashlyn, Beth, Charlotte, Diana, Donna, Ed, Fidel, Francis, Iliana, Jeanne, Jim, Joaquin, Kim, Andi.

For birthday celebrations: Clive Thompson, William Jackowski Sr., Karen Brown, Michael Hernandez, Oswald Lorde, Linda McMahon.

For anniversary celebrations: Chris & Dawn LaBorde. For expectant mothers: Andi, Ashley, Bronwyn, Katherine, Mayoli.