Advent/Christmas Newsletter 2011

Dear Friends of the Hermitage:

I pray your Advent is going well as we prepare for the birthday of Our Savior. I just finished a day retreat, Nov. 27^th, 2011 on Purgatory and the Holy Souls. It was, by God’s design, a very powerful and, I pray, an instructional retreat on what the Holy Souls are going through. God has given us the means to release souls from the sufferings of Purgatory and how we must help them. If we could experience what Purgatory is, we too, would be crying out for help! Please join us in praying daily for all the Holy Souls.

The monthly retreats have brought me great joy as people throughout Wisconsin come to spend a Sunday morning and afternoon with the Lord. In time, I pray we will bring people in from other states as well. Another joy was having 18 home-schooled children come to the new Chapel to learn about relics of the Saints. They were very attentive and I know they came to a better understanding of God’s friends, the Saints! I am hoping that we can get more young people to come, including high school students.

These activities and the Masses and Eucharistic Adoration six hours each week is a part of the Advent going on at the hermitage. This Advent does not last four weeks but continues throughout the year. How many times working out in the garden, some car pulls up and people ask if they can see the new Chapel. I love giving tours, showing them what a beautiful Chapel we have. I pray this hermitage Advent never ends as all of it leads people to Christ the Savior. I invite you to come for the tour and the Graces given here by Our Blessed Lord.

We must bring Christmas smothered with materialism back to the focus on Christ. Many of us grew up knowing from our parents, the Sisters in the Catholic School, and our priests that Christmas is the HOLY MASS AND MASSES celebrating His Birth! For those of us in the Catholic Church, without the Christmas Mass there is no Christmas! Go to Holy Mass and welcome the Savior and pray for those who do not attend. Pray for those who have lost their faith and, let us pray for us to put and keep Christ in Christmas. We pray for a MARY CHRISTMAS! I wish you a most Blessed Christmas and thank you for your continuing support in doing this work of keeping Christ ever before us! Pray the Good Lord will bless me with a good priest to be with me in this work and good men to become Franciscan Hermit Brothers. Only with them, will it be possible for this work to continue and the hours of Eucharistic Adoration to increase. May it be said of this holy place that people truly come to the hermitage to Adore and Worship the Lord!

In Christ the Savior,

Father James Joseph Genovesi, FHPA