From the Pastor December 27/28

We’re Just getting Started

Christmas music has faded from the airways and backgrounds of supermarkets and other stores but is just getting started here at church. Since Catholics follow a Liturgical Calendar, we begin singing Christmas music Christmas Eve and continue until the end of the Christmas season, the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, January 11. 

The last few years, America Media, has released podcasts explaining the background of popular Christmas Carols. Each one takes a deep dive into a hymn’s background. Listeners benefit if they are musicologists, the talk can get technical at times, but the history and tradition of the song’s origins interest everyone. I thought I’d share some of the insights from the most popular carols. 

The first one technically isn’t a Christmas Carol, but arguably the most popular Advent song, Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanual. The podcast said it is many people’s favorite song to ring in the Advent Season. It is haunting and expresses our time of vulnerability before God. It expresses our longing to make right with God in anticipation of Christmas. Therese Lim, this year picked an Advent Mass Setting using the tune of this song for the Mass parts. I really like it. 

Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel, dates back to the chant of monks in monasteries beginning in the 9th Century. Each verse is based on one of what is called the O Antiphons. One of these antiphons are sung to bracket the Magnificent of Mary at Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours each of the seven days before Christmas. Each explains one of the titles given the Messiah in the Hebrew scriptures. It expresses the spirit of Advent so well.

Hardly ever have I experienced the beginning of a Christmas Mass without singing Adeste Fideles, O Come All Ye Faithful. The podcast reported that this quintessential Christmas Carol is kind of a controversial song. Its roots are in the Jacobite raising led by the Catholic Bonnie Prince Charles, the son of the Stuart Pretender to the English throne in the 18th Century. Like the Carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, it was used to clandestinely teach the faith to Catholic children in England. It is alleged that you could tell Catholics from Protestants in parts of Great Britian by whether they sang this song in Latin or English.

Even people who say they don’t sing like to sing, sing Christmas songs because the best of them are simple and easy. That explains the popularity of the First Noel. It is very beginner friendly and often the first Christmas song taught to instrumentalists and vocalists just starting out. While Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel is really an Advent song, the First Noel is for the Epiphany, when we celebrate the visit of the Wise Men. The song’s origins are believed to have been in French monasteries. Allusions to it are made in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

While Adeste Fideles is so popular at the beginning of Christmas Mass, Joy to the World is popular as its recessional carol. You have to be a very hard shelled person not to feel joyful after singing this hymn. The song expresses great delight at the Messiah’s Incarnation and hope for his return at the end of time. It was written by the famously prolific English musician Issac Watt. His contemporary, George Frideric Handel, of Hallelujah Chorus fame also contributed to the melody. 

Yes, here at church, we have several more weeks of Christmas Carols ahead of us. So, knowing a bit more about their origins, sing them with enthusiasm, and a full throat. Continue to glory in their message of the coming of the Lord. 

Healing Mass for Separated and Divorced

The Divorced and Separated Ministry of the Diocese of Fall River is sponsoring the Mass of Healing at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, 327 Second Street, Fall River on Sunday, January 25, 2026 @ 10 :30 a.m. Very Rev. Jeffrey Cabral, JCL, Judicial Vicar for the diocese will be celebrant. The failure of a marriage can inflict feelings of abandon and hurt on many spouses. For more information, contact Deborah LeDoux, Family and Respect Life Director, at 508-658-2956. 

Annual Wedding Anniversary Celebration

The Annual Fall River Diocese wedding Anniversary Celebration will be held at a Mass of Thanksgiving for couples celebrating significant wedding anniversaries, (including first year). Renew your wedding vows with Bishop Da Chuna at the Mass celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River on Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. Please call the Parish Office as soon as possible to register for an invitation. The registration deadline is January 16, 2026.

Baby Bottle Boomerang 

January is Sanctity of Life Month. Again, this year Holy Redeemer will be conducting a Baby Bottle Boomerang as a fundraiser for Your Options Medical Centers. Your Options is an agency that offers pregnant women services such as free ultrasound tests and counseling to help women considering abortion know all their options. Pro-Life people need to be ready to help women with problem pregnancies with prayer and financial resources. We need to meet our words with action.

Parishioners participate in the Boomerang by taking a baby bottle, filling it with the loose change they receive during the month, and returning it in early February. Take a baby bottle as you leave Mass today and help support Holy redeemer’s effort to support pregnant women.

Another good pro-life activity for January is the 9 Days for Life, an annual novena for the protection of human life. This year the novena will be prayed from January 16-24. Each day’s intention is accompanied by a short reflection and suggested actions to help build a culture of life. To learn more about the 9 Days for Life Novena and to sign up to participate go to https://www.respectlife.org/9-days-signup. Let’s bombard heaven for a deeper appreciation in our world for the sanctity of life from the cradle to the grave. 

Christmas Thank-You

Thank you to the Music Ministry, led by Music Director Teresa Lim, the Hospitality Ministry, who made everyone feel welcome, and our decorators, who helped make our church beautiful for Christmas. Many complements were expressed; we all deserve to be proud. Thank you to those parishioners who sent the parish staff a Christmas Card or shared a holiday baked good. May everyone receive God’s blessings in 2025.