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Dear Parishioners and Visitors, On behalf of the priests, deacon, religious and lay staff of St. Robert’s Parish, I want to wish you and your families a Blessed Christmas. Christmas is a time for all of us to recall the great love that God has for all of us that He sent His only Son into our world to bring about our Salvation. It serves as a reminder to us of our own Baptismal promise to be a disciple of Christ, to walk in His footsteps and to join Christ in bringing about the Salvation of the whole world. We do this by the way we live our lives - by the way we put into practice our love of God and love of neighbor. It comes down to a basic question: DO PEOPLE SEE CHRIST IN US? As we come to the end of the year, I ask similar questions of our Parish: as a parish, are we a sign of the presence of Christ in our World? Is the Gospel message being preached? Is the Eucharist being celebrated? Are we living out in our daily lives what we proclaim when we gather for Sunday Mass? During the past twelve months, we have shown in many ways that our Parish is alive. There were 97 baptized, 125 received the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time, 85 confirmed, 21 couples married and 66 buried. On another level, we passed on our Faith to over 320 children in our Parish school and over 500 children in our Religious Education program. On an average Sunday, over 1,700 people come to Mass. Even on weekdays, over 75 people come to Mass to thank God and to pray for the whole Parish. Statistics say that our Parish is very much alive and is living out the Sacramental and Evangelical dimensions of our Faith. Another aspect of Parish life is the number of parishioners who are living the common priesthood we share because of our Baptisms. The growing number of people who share their Faith with the young in school, in the Religious Education program, in Little and Middle Church and the Youth program; the dedicated people who are Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors, Ushers, Choir members, etc; the large number who serve on Parish boards, committees and those who do the hard work of coaching, running the fund raisers and maintaining the Parish plant. This, too, shows the life and the Faith of the Parish. In regard to the finances of the Parish, you have made possible by your generosity the on-going programs of the Parish as well as the maintenance of the Parish facilities. Beyond that, you have shown your Catholic Faith by your continuing generosity to the poor (over $12,000 to the St. Vincent de Paul Society plus countless food baskets, toys, meals, etc), to the Church of the Archdiocese ($62,000 for the annual Appeal) and to the Church throughout the nation and the world (over $28,000). In our local civic community, we have taken a first step to a more active presence by our gift of $1,000 to the San Bruno Library Foundation. This Christmas, therefore, is a time of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us and a time for us to renew our commitment as individuals and as a Parish to be disciples of Christ, our Savior. We hope that as those in our community who have stopped coming to Church will see in our Parish a living sign of Christ’s continual presence in our world they will join us each Sunday in giving thanks to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Sincerely, Fr. Ring |
