2021 Advent Calendar
The SSJ Advent Calendar which offers reflections, activities, and prayers to enrich your Advent journey with a focus on those in our community we can help. A hard copy of the Advent Calendar is available after every Mass in Mondor Plaza.
Click here to view the Advent calendar.
Saints Simon & Jude – Advent Outreach
What is SSJ Advent Outreach: As a part of our on-going parish practice to serve and pray for others in our community, the SSJ Advent Outreach program is an opportunity for our parishioners to pray, reflect and respond to the needs of those less fortunate as we prepare to celebrate the joy and promise of the birth of Christ. This Advent we are partnering with Thomas House, Huntington Beach Youth Shelter, Share Our Selves (SOS) and Isaiah House.
How We Are Responding to our Partner’s Need: Each of these organization provides life-saving services for our community’s vulnerable, and they have identified specific client needs that we are asking our parishioners to address through a Giving Garland and Giving Baskets. As a variation on the “Giving Christmas Tree,” our Giving Garland and Baskets, displayed in Mondor Plaza, is festooned with Gift Tags for parishioners to take and respond by returning with the item identified on the tag at a future Mass or to the parish office.
What Are Our Partner’s Request: Because the client needs for these organizations are so great and on-going, the items requested on the tags cover a broad range from the joyful to the routine: children clothes and toys, adult sundries, crafts and games, and hygiene items. The breadth of the requests is a reminder to us that for many, helping provide items that cover fundamental needs is a gift unto itself.
Where Parishioners Can Help: Give a gift as requested by the organizations and described in the gift tags available after the Masses. The Giving Garland and Baskets will be available for parishioners to see and select requested gifts after all Masses starting with Christ the King Sunday (11/21) and all Sundays of Advent. The process will be manned by volunteers who will help distribute tags, answer questions, and collect returning gifts.
Like the Festival, the Advent Outreach program needs volunteers to help hand out tags, receive the gifts and handle other tasks; no expertise is required, just a loving heart and a couple of free hours. The Sign-Up Genius link provides the opportunities and time slots that need to be filled: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d49a9a829a2f4ce9-ssj2021
What Else Can Parishioners Do: In conjunction with the Giving Garland, the SSJ Advent Calendar will be available starting Christ the King Sunday. Our SSJ Advent Calendar is filled with daily opportunities for
parishioners to pray, reflect and learn thus opening a path for us to move outside ourselves and the busyness of the season.
Who to Contact: For additional questions, please reach out to Louise Nakamine, lnakamine@ssj.org, and Susan Kadota, sbkadota@hotmail.com.
To make an online donation to one of the activities listed on the calendar, please click here.
