Dear friends,

+ “Thanks be to God!”

It is the liturgical acclamation by the Congregation at the end of the Readings. It expresses our gratitude to God for speaking to His people. God speaks to us, not only in the Bible, but, most so, in the everyday life.

Thanksgiving is a day when we express our gratitude to God for the many blessings, known and unknown, we have received from His kindness.

“Thanksgiving Day” is a wonderful opportunity to count all our blessings and look at the future with bright hope: God has been faithful to us in the past and He will be faithful to us also in the future, no matter what.

As I count my blessings, St. Therese stands out as the greatest. It is no secret that I consider the time spent here at St. Therese a very special blessing, I hope is the same for the Parish.

The school Children will celebrate “Thanksgiving” with a special Mass at the School Auditorium during at 1:00PM; you can join us.

Please, note that for “Thanksgiving” there will be two Masses: the early one at 7:45am, as usual, and the second one at 10:00am.  The latter will be followed by lunch in the church basement. You are cordially invited to celebrate with us.

If you intend to come, please make sure that you sign our name on the sign-up list in the Church basement. I have noticed that only few Parishioners have signed up their names. 

There is no fixed fee, donations are welcome and will help us to cover the expenditures, and, possibly, raise some funds for the Parish. 

+ Annual SMI Christmas party:

It will be held at the Crystal Sky Banquets located at 7941 W. 47th Street, McCook, Illinois on Sunday, December 7, 2008. It will start at 12:00 p.m. and will end at 5:30 p.m. The cost is $40.00 per person.
On behalf of Fr. Aniello and myself, I wish to thank the SMI Society for their kind invitation: we will be there. It would be wonderful if representatives from the whole Parish would join us. Please, let me know if you intend to join us.

+ The Advent Season is approaching:

Next Sunday we shall begin the solemn Season of Advent, a time when we shall get ready to welcome Christ as a babe in the manger of Bethlehem.
Preparation is important to appreciate the celebration.  Jesus’ birth was prepared by centuries of prayers, desires, and hopes.  Experience shows that modern society is unable to wait: we want everything, and we want it now!  We tend to forget that the waiting prolongs the joy of the event.

This “Advent-Season” is meant to help us get ready for the Christian Christmas, when Christ, and not Santa, is the main character.

The Advent wreath in the sanctuary will help us to say focus on our waiting.  Its symbolism is quite simple:

• The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent.

• The numbers of the candles lightened each week corresponds to the number of the current week of Advent

• The color green of the wreath represents our hope. 

• The white candle in the center represents Christ, the light of the world.

In this economic crisis we want to remember our less fortunate brethren in need. St. James Parish on Wabash is running a Food Pantry and 40% of their clients are from Chinatown.
St. Therese school students are collecting Peanut Butter and Cans of Soup during this Advent Season; we could join them. For this purpose, I have put a box at the back of the church where you can drop your much appreciated contribution. Thank you for your generous support. 

+ Legion of Mary:

I received a letter from Linda Twano where she was notifying of her decision to go back to her home Parish. She has been working with us for over 15 months and she was able to establish a branch of the “Legion of Mary” at St. Therese. This Society is meant as a precious help for the work of Evangelization of Chinatown through prayer and ‘family visitation”.

The Society at St. Therese is now lead by a dedicated team formed by: Jean Ng, Edy Gunawan, Jennifer Chan and Catur.

I wish to express my gratitude to Linda and my best wishes to the new Management of the Legion.

+ Operation Christmas Child

Please don’t forget to bring your shoe box gift to church on or before Nov. 23, 2008. Help spread God’s love and peace to a world in need and touch the heart of a child!

+ Fifty-fifty Raffle

The drawing was done on Thursday, November 13th during the school Board Meeting. The names of the winners were also published on the last week Church Bulletin. I recognized several names on the list, and I was happy for them because they have
always been supportive of the Parish activities.

+ Catholic Campaign for Human Development:

For nearly forty years, the “Catholic Campaign For Human Development” has practiced what the Church teaches about the option for the poor, subsidiarity and solidarity in helping people living in poverty defend their dignity and work for greater justice.

Thanks also to the support of our parish which last year donated $473.00, the CCHD funded 21 social justice organizations working on violence prevention, immigrants and workers issues, affordable housing, the improvement of life for the elderly and disabled in Cook and lake Counties.
There will be a second collection to this end during the weekend of Nov. 22-23. Your generosity is highly appreciated.