Photo on the right: Jacob Bentzinger, Unsplash.

In past years we had our Annual Advent Reflection that was held in person. The small event of 100 people per session, would consist of an evening prayer often led by one of our auxiliary Bishops, a presentation, a dinner, and then a repeat for a second group. This always “sold out” quickly. This event drew catechetical leaders, teachers, catechists, and even diocesan employees. Dinner was a great way to share a meal, socialize with others that we knew or just met. There was no “work” involved, it was a way to bring the participants a moment of reflection and fellowship. If the Covid-19 pandemic had not sent us all into social distancing, restrictions on the number of those gathering, and mask-wearing, we would have had our Advent Reflection as normal, but these are not normal times.

Being led by the Vicar for the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis, the Very Rev. Joseph Gibino called us all to re-think, re-imagine, and re-shape the Advent Reflection. We started with keeping the previously planned date of December 1, 2020. While the youths of our diocese can make videos, conference, and stitch together videos into something seamless, this was a challenge for us. We wanted something that would attract young adults, older adults, and people of various languages.

We started with the things we could do and decided on the languages we wanted to blend into this event. English, Spanish, Creole, Polish, and Chinese are the languages that were chosen. The locations for shooting the various parts were chosen and we were on our way.
The celebrant for the Mass will be Very Rev. Joseph Gibino.

Photo below: James Coleman, Unsplash.

We are blessed to have the homilies given by Deacon Chris Wagner (English), Deacon Jorge Gonzalez (Spanish), Deacon Emmanuel Coty (Creole), Deacon Andrzej Lewandowski (Polish), and Deacon Stanley Tam (Chinese).

The presentations will be given by Sr. Maryann Seton Lopiccolo (English), Ana Taveras (Spanish), Fr. Hugues Berrette (Creole), Fr. Janusz Dymek (Polish) and Fr. Vincentius Do (Chinese).
The Holy Hour celebrant will be Rev. Elias Gil and we will pray an international rosary reciting the decades in the same languages of English, Spanish, Creole, Polish and Chinese offered for the homilies.

The event is pre-recorded, and we pray that it will have a memorable effect on all those that see it. We look forward to events in the future that we will work towards making them live-stream in multiple languages as well.

The video will be posted on our YouTube Channel: Sec Evangelization Catechesis on December 1, 2020, at 4:00 PM. We would love to hear your thoughts. Remember to subscribe and post your comments.