Sunday, December 4th 2026

“Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” (Mathew 2:2) 

Dear Parishioners of Pope St. John XXIII parish family, 

Happy New Year and Happy Epiphany of the Lord! Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, where the Lord is manifested to the whole world that seeks Him with sincere heart. This feast reveals that Jesus came for all people and all are called to adore Him. These Magi were “wise men” who studied the stars. They set a perfect example for us by laying their lives down before Christ Child in complete surrender and adoration. If these astrologers from a foreign land could come and adore Christ in such a profound way, we must do the same during this celebration. 

Adoring and worshiping Christ, we as a gratitude filled faith community, thank you for all your support throughout 2025. We had a blessed year with many challenges throughout the year as well as many different opportunities that assisted us to nurture our Faith through God’s providence. We have a strong faith in God who is always with us each moment of our lives. Thank you for taking time to reach out to get to know each other and to support the parish. We do need your help in all areas of the parish ministry, so please continue to assist our parish in whatever way you can. 

We had a wonderful Advent Season last year. We are in the Christmas Season after celebrating Christmas Day, and we have been blessed with a joyful Christmas Day celebration. We celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family on the last Sunday of the year, which we believe is the foundation of the Faith Community and society. We started the New Year on the Solemnity Feast of Mary, the mother of our Lord. We asked our Spiritual Mother Mary to bless and comfort us throughout the New Year! We are celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. It is good for us to pray and meditate on different characters to help us to know what Christmas is about and to fully celebrate it. 

We welcome our students back to school in the new year. We also welcome students for the Faith Formation and other parish programs this new year. We hope that they had a lot of fun during their Christmas break and the New Year. Before they left for their Christmas break, they invited their parents and family to join them in the Church for their Christmas Program, performing the Christmas Story. It was a wonderful performance, and we also encouraged them to attend Mass when they were on vacation with their family. I was very surprised to see them at Mass and very proud of them and their parents participating faithfully in our spiritual celebrations. 

We had many people who came for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. We thank our benefactors for their financial support to pay for most of the expenses, such as decorations and materials for Christmas and the New Year. We thank all the volunteers who worked night and day to make these events spirit filled and heart-warming. 

As we mentioned, we were able to complete many of the projects we had planned for the betterment of our facilities. We have some important projects that we will have to look into this New Year. I have sent a letter to your home with some explanations, so you know what is going on with our parish facility. Our parish facility is ageing and needs a lot of attention (repairs) and we need your continual support to enable us to keep these buildings usable for all of our parish’s activities and other events. 

We thank you for your support and prayers for our parish. We ask you to pray for the vocation to priesthood and religious life as well as vocation of family life (marriage), which is important, to provide sons and daughters who can continue to serve God’s people. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your love and care for our parish. Our parish is growing and needs more young and energetic volunteers who can make our parish more vibrant and dynamic. The Feast of the Epiphany that celebrates Christ who is our light, may He fill and brighten our hearts in this New Year. May you have a blessed New Year! 

Sincerely yours in Christ, 

Fr. Tuan Nguyen, D. Min 

Pastor