A Note From Our Pastor: December 14, 2025

As I write this, I am at the airport in Liberia, Costa Rica, waiting to board the flight that will bring me back to Seattle. A family I’ve known for years, live part-time in Costa Rica. In recent years, they have invited me to visit. It was back in January that I was again invited, and so I looked at my calendar and determined that I could make it work to come this first week of December.

It’s my first visit here, and I can understand why people say such great things about it. The weather has been great, and my friends showed me a great time. We went out on a catamaran and went snorkeling. We floated down a river in innertubes (surprisingly, no head injuries!). We spent time on the beach and made sure to use sunscreen and wear a cap!). We ate lots of good food (and I definitely need to employ some dietary disciplines to offset having eaten too much!). The people of Costa Rica were tremendously gracious and friendly. There’s no question, I’m blessed, and I’m also grateful. It was a good trip, but I’m ready to get back to work. It’s going to be fast and furious for the next few weeks.

In addition to the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (tomorrow), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Friday), we will have Advent Stations, for the first time at our parishes. At St. Thomas, they will be prayed in Spanish on Thursday, December 18th at 7:00pm, and at St. Philomena, they will be prayed in English on Friday, December 19th. Come experience it. It serves as a beautiful and prayerful engagement of the Scriptures and song, showing us some of the ways the Jewish people anticipated the coming Savior, and how God pointed the way to his coming.

Soon after that will be our Christmas Masses. Based upon good feedback we received regarding last year’s schedule, as well as attendance numbers we captured, we created a different schedule. It was our intention and hope to create a robust schedule that meets the needs of our faithful.

I wanted to update you regarding our pilgrimage to Europe (September 2026). We currently have twenty-two people registered. As a reminder, we will need to have a minimum of thirty pilgrims total (with a maximum of forty). I feel good that we already have twenty-two.

By the way, I am scheduling a pilgrimage Q&A session on Wednesday, January 28th. I plan to have a morning session (10:00am) at St. Thomas and an evening session at St. Philomena (6:30 or 7:00pm, TBD). Please mark your calendar if you would like to learn more about the places we are going to visit, and also to ask your good questions.

Yours in Christ,

Father Todd O. Strange