UPCOMING EVENTS:
St. Edwin Beeswax Lip Balm
makes for a great gift and is
available in the office anytime.
Our honey is harvested in the fall
and is snatched up as soon as we
get it in the jar.
A friendly rural parish where lambs and kid goats are the lawnmowers.
Fall 2019
Dear Parishioners of St. Edwin,
It is October and we are already winterizing our water pipes with the early cool weather.
Our parish festivals continue to improve and our October 12 celebration was no
exception. The Confirmation students outdid themselves again, managing our tented food
service area and watching the two bounce-house jumpers. A new permanent bbq was
added to our bbq patio. We enjoyed the first use of our twenty-four banquet tables
provided through a grant from the Catholic Foundation. With much labor we hoisted up
shade cloth over 40’ x 60’ of our outdoor patio; people stayed around because of it. A
family set up a beautiful photo backdrop to take pictures. It will probably become a regular
part of St. Edwin’s festivals. Again we obtained a county permit, served USDA lamb, and
were entertained by our folklore dance troupe. A rough estimate reports we served just
short of 300 meals.
We have been refining our religious education program. The emphasis is threefold:
Sunday Mass, weekly class, and service at our two festivals. The parents and children have
been responding well. A “parochial enrichment” component which includes singing, folk-
dancing, cooking, or exploring the St. Edwin Park & Ranch has been added. Shifts in our
religious education program and personnel have allowed us to begin a children’s choir
and parish Marian group akin to the Legion of Mary. We are excited for this new
growth and attention to our Blessed Mother.
We are exploring various possible improvements and repairs within the church building
itself and hope to begin shortly.
On another front, parishioners have finished welding sturdy frames for each of the
Stations of the Cross to be placed along the meadow outside the church. We are
gathering materials to construct the path, one which should be completed before Lent of
2020. We look forward to walking the Via Crucis there.
This year was a rough one for the bees and we hardly got any honey. Many factors are at
play: competing hives, lack of flowers, weed killer poisons, and general world-wide bee
malaise. This stands in contrast to our diligent beekeepers whose dedication makes us
proud. We are primed to plant an abundant supply of wildflowers next year and hope for a
better harvest.
In September we took a first cut from our newly seeded alfalfa field and reaped sixty-
seven bales. A last quick cut was made before the winter which yielded us a final twenty.
The future looks bright in that corner of the property.
Lola, one of our Navajo Churro sheep, gave birth early to a ewe-lamb in September. We
call the little one “Lolita” after her mother. You can see them as well as the two newly
acquired adult ewes under our link, “Animals”
<
“Lambs and more Lambs.”
A towering, aggressive, odorous male goat (Sp. macho cabra, a buck-goat), himself a
living definition of the word machismo, visited our comparatively gentle doe-goats in
October, so we might have some kids in February of the new year.
Fr. Peter
Thu., Dec. 5, Advent Reconciliation Service (Bilingual)
Church, 7:00pm
Fri., Dec. 6, First Friday
Thu., Dec. 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe
Mass 8:00am (English) and 7:00pm (Bilingual)
Thu., Dec. 19, New Mexican Posada
Church, 7:00pm
Sun., Dec. 1, First Sunday of Advent
Recitación del rosario con cantos, 7:30pm
Adoration & Benediction, 8:45am to 12:00pm
Mon., Dec. 9, Immaculate Conception Observed
Mass 8:00am; not a Holy Day of Obligation this year
Tue., Dec., 24, Christmas Eve
Vigil Mass, 4:00pm
Office Closed
Wed., Dec. 25, Christmas Day (Holy Day of Obligation)
Mass, 10:00am (Bilingual)
Office Closed
Tue. Afternoon, Dec. 31, Vigil of the Solemnity of Mary
Vigil Mass, 4:00pm (Bilingual)
Tue., Dec., 24, Morning
Mass of the Day, 9:00am
Wed, Jan. 1, Solemnity of Mary (Holy Day of Obligation)
Mass 10:00am (Bilingual)
Office Closed
Tue. Morning, Dec. 31
Office Closed
Mass of the Day, 9:00am
