God bless NANCY WOLOWICZ , who retired this week from being our Parish Business Manager for the last five years.  She has been amazing to work with --- and will be missed tremendously by me and our Staff!  During her 40 years of service to the Archdiocese, Nancy has accumulated the knowledge and the wisdom that I have relied on from her, to help run our Parish.  She knows (like the back of her hand), the various “in’s-and-out’s” of Parish life and all the policies and procedures of the Archdiocese.  She has had my complete trust in all things, and I know for a fact that I couldn’t have pastored here without her.  She’s been invaluable.  Thanks, Nancy, for everything.  We wish you well in your retirement, and are very glad you will still be part of our Parish and our many activities.

Sister Carrie Miller SLW gave a wonderful homiletic reflection at all our Masses last weekend, encouraging us to give generously this weekend (December 13-14) to the Second Collection for the annual RETIREMENT FUND FOR RELIGIOUS .  I hope you can give what you can to this very worthwhile cause.

Please join us tomorrow morning (Sunday, December 14th), for our annual Pancake Breakfast with Santa in the Parish Center.

Last Sunday’s CHRISTMAS PAGEANT presented by the students of our Religious Education Program was really nice.  It was short --- but sweet, and done with a lot of love. 

Our Multi-Parish Advent Reconciliation Services will take place this week:

  on Monday, December 15th at 7 p.m. at St. Colette Church in Rolling Meadows;

  on Tuesday, December 16th at 3 p.m. at St. Cecelia Church in Mt. Prospect; and

  on Wednesday, December 17th at 7 p.m. at St. James Church in Arlington Heights. 

Eight priests should be available for confession.  Please note that each of six Churches hosts this event each year (three Churches during Advent; three Churches during Lent).  St. Edna hosts during the Season of Lent.

We welcome FARNAZ McCAULEY to our Parish Staff as our new part-time BUSINESS MANAGER .  She comes to us with a wealth of business experience from the corporate world, and I know you will find Farnaz to be a pleasure to work with.  

More SCAM EMAILS  and  SCAM TEXTS  are going around again.  Never believe them . Some are supposedly from me, or from our Deacons, asking you to contact us, or to purchase gift cards for us to distribute to other people. Don’t be fooled. We would NEVER ask you to do this kind of thing, no matter “how busy” these messages say we might be. Just DELETE these scam requests and save yourself some major headaches  and financial losses .  

Always be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when exiting our Parking Lot and making the left turn onto Arlington Heights Road to travel south.  We have always hired (and we still do) Arlington Heights police officers for traffic control at our Saturday evening 5pm Mass and at two of our Sunday morning Masses, but less and less officers are signing up for this detail, so please be very cautious, and, as always, be extra kind and patient to your fellow drivers exiting our parking lot.  Thank you!

Our Adoration Chapel is a wonderful place to find some personal peace.  Pray before the EUCHARISTIC LORD Monday through Friday from 7am to 7pm.  Enter the Chapel through Door 4.  Please note: The Adoration Chapel will close at noon on Wednesday, December 24th and Wednesday, December 31st.  The Chapel will be closed all day on Thursday, December 25th and Thursday, January 1st.  

The parents of any interested boys or girls who would like to be ALTAR SERVERS should contact the Parish Office at 847.398-3362.  Veronica (Ronny) Erxleben provides the training for our Altar Servers.

Our Rosary Group is praying a continuous SPIRITUAL BOUQUET   “for peace in the world” , so please continue praying Rosaries and  Hail Mary’s  and letting Tomi Gaudio know at  tomig@comcast.net  so she can keep count. As of this writing, over 505,412 Hail Mary’s have been prayed.

Our second annual Filipino-tradition SIMGANG GABI festivities take place this Friday, December 19th, with Mass in our Church at 6 p.m. followed by a Reception in the Parish Center.  See the Bulletin for details, and to register.

I will be hearing CONFESSIONS in the Church Reconciliation Room on Saturday, December 20th, from 8 a.m. until 8:45 a.m.   

We’re getting close to Christmas!  Prepare yourselves for the Lord’s coming.  And please continue praying for the many people suffering from wars, storms, violence, homelessness, unemployment, and poverty.

Fr. Darrio