HOLY CROSS PARISH COUNCIL NEWS & MESSAGES – DECEMBER 2022

As the year 2022 enters its final month and draws to a close with the period of Advent, the festive season of Christmas and the dawn of the New Year 2023, we recall with gratitude, the many experiences the Lord let us live, each one of us in our own lives and together, united in the faith, at the Holy Cross.

The Parish Council met in November and the Agenda included the 2023 Parish Calendar, the Advent Retreat, the December Movie Night, the scheduling of the family mass, the automatic timing for the live streaming of the liturgies from the Holy Cross and the enrichment of the Holy Cross website with information to be drafted about the different realities of our parish.

The final version of the 2023 Parish Calendar was presented. It is dedicated to “The 800 Years of the Franciscan Rule 1223 – 2023” and features various pilgrimage sites of the Holy Land catered for by the Franciscan Order. Final review comments were made and the finalised calendar will now be taken to the printers. It will also feature the feasts and the liturgical calendar of the Church, with the references of the readings of the mass, every day. The 2023 Holy Cross Parish Calendar will be available in two different sizes (A4 and A3) the soonest before Christmas and all parishioners are encouraged to secure copies, also as valuable gifts over the festive season for our loved ones.

The Movie Night was decided to be held again after the pandemic at the Holy Cross in December 2022, in St Francis Hall. It will feature an inspirational movie, appropriate for this season, for all parishioners, families, adults as well as children, with refreshments at the interval. The movie is entitled “Miracles from Heaven” and is based on an incredible true story, a New York Times bestseller. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you not miss it.

The Advent Retreat was also decided to take place again, after the period of the pandemic, on a Saturday in December 2022 at an appropriate venue. It will include preaching on different themes relevant to the Advent season, confessions and a picnic lunch to be shared by the participants in a spirit of our call for love and unity as brothers and sisters.

We pray the Risen Lord blesses you, your loved ones, our priests and all of us in our Parish always! Have a wonderful Advent and Christmas, full of His mercy and do not forget to pray for us in the Parish Council too!

Akis Hjiiossif (Chairman of the Parish Council – email: holcrossparishcouncil@yahoo.com)