Opportunities to Prepare the Way for Advent and Winter

Before I introduce a special opportunity this Advent, we need to give proper gratitude to a family who has been “preparing the way” for St. Martha parishioners to get to church every winter for as long as anyone can remember… Because of the faith and kindness of the late Eleanor and Stanley Lewicki, Sr., and later their children and business, the tradition their father established of plowing, sanding, and salting the parking lot and driveways at St. Martha Parish has continued at no cost to the parish! To the surprise of many, Lewicki & Sons Excavating has come to the end of an era and recently began selling off their trucks and other equipment. At this crossroads, the people of St. Martha Parish wish to express our sincere gratitude for their generous service for decades! Looking back, we are grateful; looking forward, we are actively seeking someone to plow our Plainville parish this winter. If you know a person, group, or company that might be able to take on this task (hopefully at a charitable rate?), please contact Tim Pac at [email protected] or through the parish office, or speak to me directly as soon as possible (we knew our recent, unseasonably warm days could not last long!)

Speaking of changing seasons, we invite you to look beyond Thanksgiving for a moment to the season of Advent. This season of hope-filled expectation will be very short this year (the fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve), so we are inviting you to plan ahead and consider attending a new “St. Martha & St. Mary Advent Retreat Day” on Saturday, December 2, from 8:30am – 3:30pm at the Mount St. Mary Abbey Retreat House in Wrentham. The handsome McMahan house and beautiful abbey grounds provide a special opportunity to get away for some reflection time without going far away. Our clergy and Adult Faith Formation Team will provide Morning Prayer, daily Mass, a couple of spiritual talks, lots of quiet reflection time, and a soup & sandwich lunch. Registration is just $25 per person, and with capacity limited to 40 people (including the team). Please register before Thanksgiving by visiting www.pwc.church today! Contact me or Anne Lesnik ([email protected]) with any questions you may have, and don’t miss this one-time opportunity to truly experience the joyful expectation of the spirit of Advent!

Watch for our other articles on blessing of food at our Thanksgiving Masses, the sale of gifts from the Holy Land to support Christian families November 25-26, and a chance to be involved in the beautiful Lessons & Carols service on Friday evening, December 15. Next week we will publish our whole Advent calendar of opportunities, helping us all to keep the spiritual meaning of preparing for Christmas. Meanwhile, may our prayers for our troubled world and a spirit of thanksgiving to God for all our blessings help us to find the peace Christ offers us and share it with others this fall.