January 18th Pastor's Message
- Communications AllSaints
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Read this week's message from Father Don
Dear friends,
Christmas was a great season at All Saints. The masses were crowded, the decorations were wonderful and there were lots of fun activities: a children’s pageant, the kings in costume, snacks after mass, chocolates, stickers, the blessing of babies and Mary singing the Magnificat.
Belonging to All Saints Parish is a special gift for all of us. The parish is not only a place where we attend mass, it is a gathering of people who share the same faith, and where unique friendships develop through socializing, sharing and working together.
That is why all worshippers are encouraged to join our parish and become registered parishioners. Registration allows people to receive parish communications, a tax receipt for parish donations and letters of support for immigration purposes. It is also essential if families wish their children to attend Queen of All Saints School.
I know that in some countries there is no such thing as parish registration and so Catholics attend mass wherever and whenever they wish. That is not the case in North America. Here, you must register if you wish to belong to a particular parish. At All Saints when people join a parish program or group, it is presumed they are already registered parishioners.
Certainly Catholics are free to attend mass wherever they want but if they want to grow in closeness to Christ and share in the Church’s mission, registering in a parish is the only practical way to do so.
In the scripture we see that Jesus cared for both “the crowd” and his committed followers, but the latter were his main concern. He wanted people not only to listen to him but draw close to him by uniting themselves to his chosen people. That is what parish registration signifies in our present day, belonging to Jesus’ people in a stable continuing manner.
If you are not yet registered in the parish, please do so soon and if you know other mass attenders who are not registered encourage them to do so also.
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