Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
​
Last week, we celebrated Christmas on December 25th.  This is the day we thank God for one of the most humble, loving and generous gifts in our human history: God became one of us. God took on the human condition.  He entered our experience and changed us forever.  We call this “The Mystery of the Incarnation” and it’s so important to us that we bow every time we mention it in the creed.
By becoming human, Jesus took every human experience that is not sin and made it holy.  Our laughter, our pain, our tears…every human experience from the most mundane to the greatest, God has made a part of Him forever. That’s love and that love is ours forever.
In the Feast of the Holy Family that we celebrate this weekend, we remember with joy that the first experience our God chose to have on earth is the experience of being part of a family.
If we look at the creation account, we see that God, who is a community of persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), immediately created a community of persons when he made us. He made a man and a woman as the first expression of Himself on earth.
For us then, family is everything. Family matters to us, not just in the fact of its existence, but in the duty of our little human families to imitate the community of love that is our origin: God. Pray together, eat together, seize every moment you can to love, serve and be with the family that Jesus has given you.
So many wonderful families join us during this Holy Season and throughout the year, and that is a blessing for our parish.

On Monday, New Year's Day, we celebrate Mary, the Mother of God, and it brings the octave of Christmas to its spiritual completion.  There is significance in celebrating Mary during the heart of the Christmas season.  Pope Paul VI, in his apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus (1974), called the Solemnity of Mary “a fitting occasion for renewing adoration of the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the glad tidings of the angels (Luke 2:14), and for imploring from God, through the Queen of Peace, the supreme gift of peace.”.  
I pray that God touches your heart and soul this Holy Season and fills you with His love and peace.
I pray that you find here at St. Julia a place where you feel welcome to join us every week as we strive to know and live God’s love and peace.

Thank you for the honour of being your priest and pastor.  You are the gift God has given me and I am filled with gratitude and joy.
May God bless each of you and those that you love in 2024!

Fr. Greg

Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,

The Fourth Sunday of Advent has arrived.  We have journeyed together throughout this season of preparation for the coming of Christ this Christmas.  In many ways it is a journey and a calling home.
 
Advent is a joyful celebration of the condition we find ourselves in as Christians.  It announces that God is always moving towards us.  God is at work in the world and in our lives, ever creative and ever renewing.  God continues to create and to reveal his love for each of us.
 
The good news is that we are pilgrims on the move and are going home to God's house.  The only worthwhile baggage to carry on that journey is good works and acts of loving service performed for Christ.

As we light the fourth candle on our Advent wreath, we are reminded of the great love that God has for each and everyone of us.  Never forget this.  May we reflect this same love in our words, deeds, and actions, from the greatest to the least.  Remember, what seems like something small or insignificant to us just might mean the world to someone else.
 
O come, O come, Emmanuel.

May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent together, go home, and then return for the great celebration of the birth of our Saviour at Christmas!

Fr. Greg

Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,

As we continue to journey through this season of Advent together as a parish family, we are drawing close to celebrating the birth of our Saviour.  The Lord, our Lord, is very close to us.  Our passages from Scripture remind us of this, and it is the recurring theme in the season of Advent.
 
The fact that our Lord is near to us, I pray, should bring comfort to all believers.  Our Saviour took on our human flesh, to be one with us and to walk with us.  He showed us how to live and how to love, both our God and our neighbour.  He showed us how to be people of hope, peace, joy, and love.
 
As we enter now the Third Week of Advent, may we continue to embrace this season of preparation and the preparing of our hearts.  Make the most of this time, and be the light of Jesus to someone this day.

O come, O come, Emmanuel.

May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent together.

Fr. Greg

Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,

This weekend we will light the second candle on our Advent wreath, in our spiritual home and own private homes.  In three weeks time we will celebrate Christmas and the coming of the Son of God among us as our prophet, our priest, and our king. 

To really know who Jesus is, we must recall the faith of the people who looked out for him.  We must look to the writings of the Old Testament to see what they say about the promise of God to visit his people - and during these coming weeks we will read and break open the Word of God from the prophets.  We will recall those who prepared the way for his coming - and we will recall the work of John the Baptist.  We will reflect on how the Christ child comes to birth in our world through our faith and discipleship, and we will remember Mary whose faith and acceptance of the invitation of God inaugurated the whole Christian era.

Let us find those precious moments, to stop and pause, and in silence note that this moment is an important turning point in our year and in our lives 2023 years later.
 
O come, O come, Emmanuel.

May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent together.

Fr. Greg

Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,

This weekend we begin a new liturgical year with the Season of Advent.  With each passing day from now until Christmas, we will lose about 20 minutes more of daylight.  There is something about darkness.  We slow down, and in the case of reflecting upon the Season of Advent, we prepare.
 
The message we will be hearing throughout the season of Advent is exactly that.  Preparing – preparing our hearts, for our God is sending a Saviour, Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.
 
This preparing involves prayer and our active participation in the liturgy and sacraments of the Church, and our willingness to serve and to be of service to one another.  Advent draws us in and invites us to do all this, with the help of Holy Spirit, to meet our God, who comes to us in the form of a baby.
 
As we begin this Advent journey as a parish family, may we ponder the birth of our Saviour some 2000 years ago as we unite our prayers together to prepare for the coming of Christ into our hearts this Christmas. 
 
O come, O come, Emmanuel.

May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent together.

Fr. Greg