OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

For the past two weeks, we have been inviting you to participate in our Parish Census, giving reasons as to why it is important to do so. My invitation still continues especially today when we begin our actual Census exercise. Did you know that a census is so important that one of the most significant events in Salvation History, that involved God being ushered into our world as a child happened around a census? The Gospel of Luke connects the birth of Jesus to a "worldwide census" ordered by Augustus Caesar in which individuals had to return to their ancestral cities to be counted. Jesus' parents, Joseph, and Mary, had to travel about 90 miles from their home in Nazareth, Galilee, to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Yes, the birth of Jesus happened around a census, that's how important a census is.

Primary location: Tempe United States