Hello, St. Clement parishioners and friends!
Congratulations to Deacon Bill Monteith, who has been appointed by Bishop Konderla to serve on the Deacon Council for the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma! Please join in lifting Deacon Bill up in prayer as he embarks on this significant journey of service. Read the appointment letter here!
While we have published a calendar detailing special liturgies being offered this month at St. Clement (see below), that list isn’t exhaustive! December is full of feast days ideal for celebrating at home and with the family: St. Nicholas today, St. Lucy on the 13th, and several more! Click here for an Advent calendar with activities for each day! Thanks to Fr. Juan, there’s more information about our parish’s celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe later in this newsletter.
Housekeeping Notes:
- Christmas cards were mailed earlier this week to registered households. The cards contain the holiday Mass schedule. If you should’ve received a card but didn’t, please contact the parish office at (918) 366-3166 or email ereyes@stcbixby.org.
- 🗓️ ‼️ Rehearsals for the children’s Christmas pageant have been moved from Wednesday evenings to Sunday mornings + a rehearsal from 10:30 to noon on Monday 23 Dec. All K-5th Graders are invited to participate. The pageant will take place during the 5:00 pm Christmas Eve Mass. It's not too late to sign up! We also welcome adult helpers!
- The feedback on the newsletter is much appreciated! We’d like to refine our mailing lists a bit so that folks get the edition that suits them best. Please click on the button below to indicate your preference. We will be migrating to the new lists soon and want to be sure to bring everyone with us!
- There are a few angels left on the Angel Tree in the back of the church. Each angel ornament represents someone who is supported by our Outreach program or a family within our parish. Through the generosity of our Women's Guild, Youth Group and Outreach, we are able to continue this beautiful tradition of giving. Please consider picking an angel, purchasing a gift, and returning it *wrapped with the angel tag attached* by Sunday, December 15th. Thank you for your St. Nicholas-style generosity and love!
- We’ve assembled a Spotify playlist of Advent music. Click here to listen!
🌹 Our parish began an Our Lady of Guadalupe novena earlier this week. All are welcome to participate. Here is more about the feast day and its significance:
Our Lady of Guadalupe is a beloved title of the Virgin Mary, celebrated as the patroness of Mexico and the Americas. Her story begins in December 1531, when she appeared to an Indigenous man named Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac, near modern day Mexico City. Speaking in his native Nahuatl, she asked him to request that a church be built on that site in her honor.
To convince the local bishop of her message, she miraculously imprinted her image on Juan Diego’s tilma, or cloak. This image, which depicts Mary as a young, brown skinned woman adorned in native symbols, is now enshrined in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated annually on December 12 and holds deep spiritual, cultural, and historical significance. She is a symbol of hope, unity, and God’s love for all people, especially the marginalized and poor. Her message transcends time, inviting all to seek faith and find comfort in her maternal care.
This year, we are celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe in our parish with a novena, nine days of Spanish Mass at 7:00pm Mass and Rosary in her honor. On December 12, the feast day, we will begin with Las Mañanitas at 5:00 a.m., followed by a Spanish Mass at 6:00 a.m. There will also be an English Mass at 8:30 a.m. and a Spanish Mass at 7:00 p.m. We warmly invite everyone to join us in honoring Our Lady and her message of faith, love, and hope.
Here's a roundup of the special liturgies and Advent-and Christmas-related events happening at St. Clement in the next few weeks:
*The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not a Holy Day of Obligations this year. Bishop Konderla has dispensed us from the obligation to attend Mass on that day but strongly encourages us to attend anyway — more about that here.
🕯️ Oremus pro invicem: let us pray together for these loved ones, all those who have no one to pray for them, and each other:
- Amanda Dentist
- our catechumens, all those preparing to receive First Holy Communion, and all their catechists, sponsors, and families
- the sick, suffering, absent, isolated, and all those who seek to reach and comfort them
- the holy souls in purgatory and all those near death
- all those listed in our book of prayer intentions
We invite folks to send names (first only are fine!) to include on a list of people for whom to pray, such as the sick and suffering of our parish. If you’d like to add a name to the prayer list (yours or someone else’s *with their permission), please email that info to Bonnie at music@stcbixby.org.