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We hope your Advent is off to a wonderful start!
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Our theme for Advent Christmas 2025 is Manger Throne. Click here for more information on Manger Throne:
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Starting this Sunday, December 7
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50/50 Annual
Advent/Christmas Raffle
Drawing on Christmas Eve
Tickets: $20.00 or six for $100.00
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Attention all married couples!
Marriage Enrichment
This Friday, December 5,
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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A wonderful time of fellowship with other married couples and growth in your relationship with your spouse.
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The Children’s Ministry is back
This Sunday, December 7
9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
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Please contact Helen Dipree for more information about the Children’s Ministry @ [email protected].
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Advent Worship Night
with Carl Hergesell
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Saturday, December 13,
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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Christmas Eve, Wednesday,
December 24 -- 4:30 p.m.
Christmas Day, Thursday,
December 25 -- 10:00 a.m.
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Pastoral Counseling is available at PWC
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Fr. Mike Lessard is available for pastoral counseling on Wednesdays at PWC. Please call the church office to make an appointment at 480-649-0300.
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Our Weekly Online Reflections
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Check out a new reflection for Monday, December 1 on the Meaning of Advent. Here is the link:
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Our proposed trip to Portugal in October 2026 has been cancelled. Although the response was very positive, the trip would have been a difficult one. Thank you for your support!
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Blood Pressure Checks take place at PWC on the first and third Sundays of the month from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Our medical team is providing the blood pressure checks.
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At PWC
your tithing & generosity allow us to minister to so many who come through our doors with their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.
Thank you for your tithing and
commitment to PWC!
From pastoral counseling to grief support, to bible study and adult education, to providing food through Matthew’s Crossing for families who are economically struggling, to Marriage Enrichment and our funeral ministry -- your consistent giving makes a difference, a big change in people’s lives!
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Here are the different ways you can tithe to PWC:
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• Mail in your gift to: Praise and Worship Center, 2551 N. Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225.
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• Sign up for monthly giving with a credit card or voided check. Just call the office at 480-649-0300 or stop by the office.
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A Reflection by Richard Rohr
A Grace-Filled Yes
In the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and throughout the Epistles, a whole new dimension of faith becomes available to those who accept it. It’s a way of living in the Spirit, which some of the Hebrew prophets anticipate. The prophet Joel speaks of this most clearly:
In the days that follow, I will pour out my spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. In those days I will pour out my spirit even on your servants and your handmaids (Joel 3:1–2).
We see the Spirit descending upon Jesus after his baptism in the Jordan, and we see the Spirit again filling the apostles with power on the day of Pentecost. But the very first person who incarnates this new faith was Mary of Nazareth, who said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me” (Luke 1:38). It was Mary who responded with an unconditional yes to the angel’s announcement that she was to give birth to the Messiah. Mary is the model of the faith to which God calls all of us: a total and unreserved yes to God’s request to be present in and to the world through us.
God desires to love others unconditionally in and through us. Those who live with such a faith can truly be called God’s instruments. God wants light to shine through us, and so our first response to this call is simply to heed it and remain open to divine grace, so that God might shine. Mary understood this completely. She said her yes to God, and God was able to become incarnate in her. She gave birth to Jesus by being so totally open to God’s Spirit that the Christ child could be born.
The soul does not proceed by contraction but by expansion. It moves forward, not by exclusion, but by inclusion. It sees things deeply and broadly, not by saying no, but by saying yes, at least on some level, to whatever comes its way. If we are paying attention, we can feel those two very different movements within ourselves. Don’t take my word for it; we must experience it for and within ourselves, or we will never be able to move beyond it.
Mary’s kind of yes doesn’t come easily to us. It always requires that we let down some of our ego boundaries, and none of us likes to do that. Mary’s kind of yes, as it is presented in the Gospel, is an assent utterly unprepared for, with no preconditions of worthiness required, that is calmly, wonderfully trustful that someone else is in charge. All she asks is one simple clarifying question (Luke 1:34). It’s a yes that is pure in motivation, open-ended in intent, and calm in confidence. Only grace can achieve such freedom in the soul, heart, or mind.
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Have a wonderful week rooted in the peace of Christ!
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Love,
Fr. Dale & Pastor Mark
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Keep up with all your PWC friends on Facebook
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Please do not reply to this email;
the sending address is not monitored.
Please reply to: [email protected]
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Chris Pfund PhD, MBA, BSN, RN
President Homestead Health
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phone: (602) 755-4508
fax: (602) 691-0283
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Homestead Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping adults live safely and independently at home. We offer a range of in-home and virtual medical services, including concierge medicine, palliative care, transitional care, and geriatric care management. We believe everyone deserves access to compassionate and affordable healthcare.
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