Happy New Year!

As we enter into the Year 2017, know that all of you remain in my prayers. I hope that you have a very wonderful, safe, and grace-filled year.

Before we leave 2016 behind us, I want to express a sincere word of thanks to all who helped make the Christmas Liturgies so beautiful — especially to all who decorated and arranged the flowers and manger, as well as all who helped with music and singing at all four Christmas Masses. Thank you so very much for all of your efforts and dedication, it was a wonderful first Christmas for me at OLBS. Further, from our visitors, friends, and guests, I received many compliments at the end of each Christmas Mass. Thank you to all who helped in any way!

This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. This is an important and unique feast on the Church Calendar, because it emphasizes the role of the Blessed Virgin in the Birth of Christ and in the Economy of Salvation. The precise title “Mother of God” given to Mary dates into the 3^rd Century, if not earlier, in the devotion of the faithful. In the Greek form of the title, it is Theotokos (God-bearer). This concept became the touchstone of the Church’s teaching about the Incarnation.

The Council of Ephesus in 431 insisted that the Holy Fathers of the Church were right in calling the holy virgin Theotokos. At the end of the particular session of the Council of Ephesus, crows of people marched through the street shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!” The teaching and tradition of the Council of Ephesus is affirmed and even reaches to our own day. In its chapter on Mary’s role in the Church, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church calls Mary “Mother of God” 12 times.

Through the intercession of the Mother of God, may each of you have a safe and Blessed New Year.

Fr. Wilke