| December 22, 2005
Dear Friends and Members of the St.
Thomas More Society,
I write to wish all of you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year, while reminding you of some important upcoming Society events
during these Holy Days.
First, I remind you that we will celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord at
7:30PM on Christmas Eve at St. Clare with an Anglican Use Mass
celebrated by Fr. James Rafferty. Note there is no Anglican Use Mass
this Sunday, December 25th. Msgr. Feldcamp instead very
graciously arranged for this special Vigil Eucharist, certain that a
Saturday evening opportunity for worship would be far more convenient
for us than a Mass on Christmas Day at 5PM. I encourage everyone to
show our appreciation for this generous accommodation by being present
and thanking Fr. Rafferty personally for the sacrifice he is making in
his ministry to our group.
Second, I invite you to celebrate New Year’s Day with your brothers and
sisters in the St. Thomas More Society. January 1st, as you
know, falls on a Sunday this year, and we will have our regularly
scheduled Mass at 5PM that evening. But we will round out the evening
with a potluck dinner in St. Clare’s Parish Hall immediately following
our worship. Use this occasion to pray for the health and success of
our ministry during the coming year, and then stay after church to enjoy
more of the fellowship that has so closely bound us over the year just
past. Our well-established relationships we have with each other in
Christ inspired us to take this journey in faith together, and I shall
relish the opportunity to spend so special a holiday with those who have
accompanied my family and me along the way. I hope it is possible for
you to be present for Mass and dinner at St. Clare on New Year’s Day.
Third, our annual meeting is Sunday, January 8th. Last year
we elected our Board of Directors, which currently consists of seven of
the Society’s founding members. The Board decided at their December
meeting to invite others to serve in this capacity, so those members who
would like a role in the Society’s governance should speak with me soon
so you can be put on the slate for election. The Annual Meeting is
January 8th at 6:30PM in the St. Clare Parish Hall.
Please make every effort to be there. We will not only elect new board
members, assuming volunteers come forward, we will also offer a report
of our progress thus far and discuss goals we hope to meet during 2006.
Finally, our Christmas Project to help the needy was a great success.
We have aided five families in their efforts to provide a Merry
Christmas for their loved ones. I thank all of you for participating
through the prayers you offered and the gifts you gave. Such charitable
works are an integral part of what it means to be faithful Christians,
and your faithfulness was shown in your zeal for this ministry. Please
continue to consider what other ways we might serve our Lord in our
service to others, make suggestions to me, and put the Society to work
demonstrating Christ’s love for his human creation. How grateful I am
that we did not keep the joy of this wonderful season to ourselves!
With fondest personal regards for each and every one of you, looking
forward with glee to the upcoming opportunities to spend time in your
presence, I pray your Christmas season is one of devout fidelity and
renewed commitment to Him who makes all good things possible.
Gratefully yours in Christ,
Eric L. Bergman,Director
St. Thomas More Society of St. Clare |
