Simbang Gabi is a series of special Masses leading up to Christmas. The celebration of the nine-day novena of Masses is one of the longest-running and most popular Catholic Filipino religious traditions. At the Masses, the faithful especially focus on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the preparation for the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. In Anchorage, Simbang Gabi Masses will take place as scheduled:
Here are several holiday events planned in the Anchorage Archdiocese, including the Christmas Eve Mass with Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz at the Brother Francis Shelter for homeless Anchorage residents.
Catholic Social Services in Anchorage is calling for volunteers to help carry out its holiday outreach effort. In particular the agency is looking for participants in its Helping Holidays program which benefits those being served by Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services, Family Disability Services, and Homeless Family Services. Volunteers who assist with these outreaches have the opportunity to help others in a “personalized way for our community” by giving “to a family that could use some help this holiday season,” the agency noted in a recent statement.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Anchorage will take on an important new role when it is elevated to a co-cathedral on Dec. 12, the feast day of its patroness. It has been a long road for the diverse faith community, from its early days as a parish without a building, founded in a much-smaller Anchorage in 1970. Mass was held then at Turnagain Methodist Church. Later, the parish constructed a building which was intended to serve as both worship area and multi-purpose room until a church could be built. It took 30 years to bring that dream to fruition. Today parishioners worship in an expansive Spanish mission style church, with two bell towers, dedicated in 2005.
Established on Sept. 15, 1915 the parish became the first church built in Anchorage. The humble, wooden structure was replaced in 1947. Christmas that year was celebrated in the basement of the present church. It would take more than ten years for the cathedral, built in an art deco style, to be completed. In its earliest days, Jesuit priests provided for the pastoral needs of railroad workers and their families who hailed primarily from Eastern Europe. The Jesuits were responsible for much of the vast territory of Alaska. With statehood in 1959 and attention focused on Anchorage following the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, Rome announced, in 1966, the creation of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.
While the judges have taken over the game on marriage, it is only at the 11th hour. For the past 40 years the old norms have been under relentless attack. Marriage has declined; divorce and cohabitation have climbed; and out-of-wedlock pregnancy has skyrocketed. The old deviancies have become the new norm, and the old morality the new deviancy. The children have suffered the worse, and because of that the future looks bleak.
The purpose of this column is to assist you with some ideas on how to make Christmas truly special while keeping Advent intact. I recognize that our culture has progressed to an extraordinary level of false celebration that will be very difficult to overcome, so I am not expecting the complete and full reversal of the troubling remnants of the secular trends in Christmas; rather, I would like to make some suggestions that can help you and your families to make strong steps towards a deeply Christian and less material experience of Christmas.
The BBC reality tv program is aimed at children and young teens. Each episode takes a couple of ordinary British students, perhaps bright kids who are underachievers and a bit precocious. They show up at a school with high standards of discipline. Over the course of the week, the goal is to have them experience the affirmative values of a school that runs a tighter ship than they’re used to.
In the newly released Alaska show, the two girls arrive at Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage with plenty of makeup, fingernail polish, teased hair, and some fairly showy winter garb.
Editor’s Note: Below is a description of some of the upcoming Advent and Christmas events planned in the Anchorage Archdiocese. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.
The 27th annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious will be taken up Dec. 6-7 in the Anchorage Archdiocese. The parish-based appeal is coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) in Washington, D.C., and offers financial support for the day-to-day care of more than 35,000 senior Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests. The Anchorage Archdiocese contributed $69,899 to this collection in 2013.