December 11th, 2022
Third Sunday of Advent
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
In this bulletin is a financial summary for the parish during the past fiscal year. It covers the operating costs of the parish, and fortunately we are just in the black. However, we have a number of large capital costs coming this year. These include significant vaulting work in the basement of the school building, waterproofing work on the roof of the school building, and boiler work for the boilers that serve all three parish buildings (church, rectory, and school). With those costs included, we’ll no longer remain in the black.
Your generosity has been a real gift and has helped rebuild St. Joseph’s these past four years. We have restored the church building, built a parish hall, and are about to complete the first perpetual adoration chapel in Manhattan. The Holy Spirit has certainly been active at St. Joseph’s and the parish will continue to flourish because of the work we’ve done together.
Also, this week we migrate entirely to our new giving system, GivingFire, and the old online giving systems will no longer be used. If you haven’t yet migrated to GivingFire please do so as soon as possible.
Finally, with Christmas fast approaching, please consider a Christmas donation to St. Joseph’s to help us continue and grow the great things happening here.
Mass Tidbit
After the homily, we next recite the Creed. The creed recited at Mass is the Nicene Creed because the Council of Nicaea formulated it in AD 325. That council was one of the most important in Church history. It condemned the heresy of Arianism , which denied the divinity of Jesus. That is why the Nicaean Creed has so much language affirming the divinity of Jesus. It reads “born of the Father before all ages,” meaning that the Son of the Father, as a divine person, is not begotten in time, but from all eternity. When the Son took a human nature to His divine person, He was born as Jesus, a human in time, but as a Divine Person He has existed from all eternity. Thus, the Son of God, who became Jesus when He took a human nature to Himself, is not a creature in His Divine person, but only insofar as He took a human nature to Himself. It continues “true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father,” meaning that the Son eternally proceeds from the Father and is, with the Father, the One God. God has one divine essence, nature, or being, and there are 3 persons who all are that one diving being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). To explain more would make this more than a tidbit, but the Nicaean Creed is spelling out God’s revelation concerning who God is.
The Nicaean Creed was amended at the First Council of Constantinople in order to clarify its meaning, and so it’s sometimes called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, if you want to be technical.
Remember that when recite the Creed at Mass, we are affirming the content of our Faith, of what God has revealed to us. When we recite it, we should remember that we are formally stating that this is what we believe in Faith. Let us live by this deepest wisdom God has given us!
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
