Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, February 28
4:00 PM Mary McAlister
Sunday, March 1
9:00 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, February 28
4:00 PM Fr. Imbelli
Sunday, March 1
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, February 28 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-15
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel Reading: Mark 1:12-15
LENTEN PROGRAMS
ASH WEDNESDAY – FEBRUARY 25: Ash Wednesday ushers in the Lenten Season. Mass and distribution of ashes will take place at 7:00 AM and 12:05 PM in the Lower Church. There will be a combined Liturgy (ASL/English) at 7:30 PM with the distribution of ashes in the Upper Church.
DAILY MASS SCHEDULE: Mondays and Fridays at 12:05 PM, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00 AM, and Fridays and Saturdays at 9:00 AM. Saturday’s Mass is followed by Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary and Benediction at 12:30 PM.
SOUP AND STATIONS: Will again be held on Lenten Fridays at Corpus Christi Church in Auburndale from 6 to 7:30 PM. Sacred Heart is hosting this on March 6 and 27. Volunteers are needed to provide soup and desserts on these evenings. Please contact Bernie and Peter Castellanos at 617-969-4299 or email to petec37@comcast .net.
CATHOLIC APPEAL
The weekend of March 7-8 will be Catholic Appeal Weekend here at Sacred Heart. The Appeal is to our Archdiocese what the weekly offertory is to our parish – so your support is critical. Because of the economic downturn, support of the Catholic Appeal is more urgent this year. Cardinal Seán is inviting every Catholic household to participate. Every gift matters. For more information, please visit www.BostonCatholicApeal.org.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of February 14/15 $3,861.
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS FAMILY NIGHT
The next Guild of St. Francis’ event is Family Night, which will be a catered buffet dinner on Saturday, March 14th from 5-8 PM in the Parish Center. Dinner will include: Lasagna, Chicken Marsala, Rice Pilaf, Meatballs, Ziti, Garden Salad, Rolls and Bread. Price is $15.00 for adults and $7.50 for children up to age 12 years. To make your reservations, please call Sally Daly at 617-527-4468 or Mary English at 617-332-8656. Checks should be made payable to the Guild of Saint Francis and mailed to: Sally Daly, 138 Lincoln Street, Newton Highlands, MA 02461. Reservations must be made by March 9!
In the past, we have had some entertainment following dinner, such as Irish step dancing, native South American or Mexican dances, piano or violin solos, singing, etc. If you have a talent you would like to share, please call Olimpia Caceres-Brown at 617-222-0791 or email her at Olimpia@MIT.EDU.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
There will be CCD class today, Sunday, Feb. 22nd 2009 in spite of this being the last day of vacation.
First Reconciliation for all second graders in both Sunday and Tuesday programs will take place on Saturday, March 7, 2009 in the lower church from 10:30 am – 11:45 am.
Our meeting for all parents of students receiving 1st Communion has been rescheduled to Thursday, Feb. 26 in the Convent from 7:30 – 8:45 pm. There will be a short presentation on the Eucharist to help you in preparing your child for receiving the sacraments and time to answer questions you have about this process leading up to 1st Communion Day on May 17, 2009. At least one parent needs to attend this meeting. Please mark your calendars!
As Lent begins this coming week, we will be asking our students to see this time as a journey they will be walking with Jesus all the way through his death and ending with His triumphant rise to life on Easter morning! God will take us from a lump of clay and form us into a beautiful vase as we pray like Jesus, love the poor as Jesus does and sacrifice little things in our life as Jesus sacrificed all He had for love of us.
We encourage all our CCD families to attend Mass, pray together, recite the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and pray at the Stations of the Cross. All our students will be given a Lenten Rice Bowl to fill with their own allowance as their gift to the poor. All Rice bowls will be brought down with other gifts on Holy Thursday evening.
Michelle Solomon, Director of Religious Education
BOSTON COLLEGE AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST
On Thursday, February 12, The Boston Globe printed a column under the title “Catholic Symbols Stir Diverse Feelings at BC”. The subtitle is significant – “Some protest, some applaud and some don’t notice”. I find the whole thing quite hilarious. Somehow the impression is given that some enemy of academic freedom came out some night in the dark and with his or her minions put crucifixes on classroom walls. The article suggests that Boston College is joining other Catholic institutions around the nation “in visibly claiming its Catholic identity”. All this triggered a little bit of personal history. I became a collegian at Boston College in the fall of 1940. My two college choices were Holy Cross and Boston College. My family couldn’t afford to sustain me at a boarding college, and I was delighted to earn that year, not the one full scholarship that was available, but one of the five half scholarships. This was very helpful. Tuition at Boston College was $400 a semester. I became a commuting student along with all the other students – except for the football players who lived on campus. For some reason I never was considered a possible member of the football team! (Can you see me in the line as a left tackle?)
On going to Boston College I obviously expected crucifixes in the classrooms and they were there. If I had gone to Brandeis University (and I don’t think Brandeis was in existence at this time), I would have expected revered Jewish symbols on the campus. Had I gone to Al-Hikma or the University of Cairo, I would have expected Moslem symbols. Instead of the above title for these few remarks, I had planned to use another title, namely, the Love of Learning and the Desire for God. This happens to be the title of a wonderful book written in 1960 by an eminent scholar – Jean Leclercq, O.S.B. This is what the Benedictine monastic tradition was all about. This is why we think of the Church catholic as the founder and protector of the great western universities: the University of Padua and its remarkable medical faculty; the University of Bologna and its great work in legal studies; Oxford University renown for its philosophy and theology; and, of course, the greatest of them all – the University of Paris. I can recall the crucifixes being removed from Boston College sometime in the early 1970s. I am happy that new ones and better ones and more artistic ones have now taken their place. Father C.
WORLD DAY OF THE SICK
February 11, the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, is now called World Day of the Sick. “Countless sick and suffering children are in urgent need of help and protection” writes Pope Benedict XVI. So many adults all over the world are suffering from crippling diseases or are battling illnesses that are still incurable despite great medical advances in our time. World Day of the Sick is a good reminder to us here at Sacred Heart Parish that we need to expand further our efforts to visit and to bring the sacraments to those parishioners of ours who are homebound and cannot be with us at the Sunday Eucharist. It happens too frequently that somebody in the parish dies and no one has been in contact with that person insofar as the parish is concerned for ten, twenty or twenty-five years. Now that our former St. Philip parishioners are with us, I suspect that there are a good number of folks from Waban who would love to have the Eucharist brought to them on a regular basis. Here at the parish, we plan to expand and reorganize our efforts in this regard. We will be calling on some Eucharistic Ministers to help in this regard. If any person feels called to such ministry, please give me a call. The custom of setting aside the sacred hosts left over after Mass goes back to the early centuries. Eucharistic Ministers were sent out from Mass to bring the Eucharist to those who could not attend. Please read and reflect on the enclosed words of our Holy Father.
Father C.
“Despite the fact that illness is part of human experience, we never manage to get used to it, not only because sometimes it comes to be burdensome and grave, but essentially because we are made for life, for complete life. Precisely our "internal instinct" makes us think of God as plenitude of life and even more, as eternal and perfect Life. When we are tested by sickness and our prayers seem in vain, doubt wells us in us and, filled with anguish, we ask ourselves: What is God's will?
It is precisely to this question that we find an answer in the Gospel. For example, (...) we read: ‘He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.’ In another passage from St. Matthew, it says” ‘He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.’
Jesus does not leave room for doubt: God – whose face he himself has revealed – is the God of life, who frees us from all evil. The signs of this, his power of love are the healings that he carries out: He thus shows that the Kingdom of God is near, restoring men and women to their full integrity in spirit and body. I refer to these healings as signs: They guide toward the message of Christ, they guide us toward God and make us understand that man’s truest and deepest illness is the absence of God, who is the fount of truth and love. And only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without truth would not be a true life. The Kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love, and thus it is healing in the depths of our being.
Thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, the work of Jesus is prolonged in the mission of the Church. Through the sacraments, it is Christ who communicates his life to the multitude of brothers and sisters, as he cures and comforts innumerable sick people through so many activities of health
care service that Christian communities promote with fraternal charity, thereby showing the face of God, his love. It is true: How many Christians all over the world – priests, religious and laypeople – have given and continue giving their hands, eyes and hearts to Christ, true physician of bodies and souls!”
SIGNINGS
Parish news, especially of interest to our deaf parishioners
Good People,
In today's Gospel Jesus fulfills God’s promise to save us by his forgiveness. This kind of promise is present to us in the first reading.
Like the man who was paralyzed, when we are in a state of sin we lose our freedom. We become stuck, so to speak, and lost. We lose our ability to see what our end is. In other words we don't know where we are going. We are frustrated, prone to sin, and become more enslaved to sin. In a word, we are unhappy.
Jesus can save us. The man who was paralyzed is a symbol of how Christ saves us. When the man is freed from his paralysis he is "freed up" to move. He is put back on the path to heaven, our true home. In a word he is happy again.
Jesus shows us ultimately that we can be free and happy moving to our true home in heaven even if we have physical infirmities and sufferings. That is what he showed us in his passion. When we are truly experiencing a state of grace we will find that we can be free and happy and on our way to the Father even when we experience sickness, trial, and frustration here in this life.
This happiness of being forgiven and headed home is great. Glory be to God for saving us in his son.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
GENEROUS RESPONSE TO SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE
The students and staff of Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester were ecstatic to receive replenishment of their school supplies last week. Mid-school year is always a much needed time for additional supplies. If anyone missed the recent drive and would still like to donate, please call Margaret LeBlanc at 617-332-2228. A big thank you to all who donated!!
Margaret LeBlanc and Jane McGuire
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Items needed for February are hot cereals. Please bring your donations to Church by next Sunday, February 28 and place them in the shopping cart or any of the boxes located at the Church entrances.
LENTEN SEASON OF THE ARISE TOGETHER IN CHRIST PROGRAM BEGINS THIS WEEK!!
Once again, many parishioners registered to participate in the Program! Great turnout! SESSION TWO, "Change Our Hearts", will run from the week of February 22 through the week of March 29. Leaders have contacted members of their groups with information about the day, time, and location of their meetings. Let’s all pray: For our parish, that the upcoming second season of ARISE may enable us to change our hearts as we seek to develop a closer relationship with Christ, grow in community, and reach out in service to others.
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP
The Women’s Group will read Saints for Sinners by Archbishop Alban Goodier (Paperback – Oct. 15, 2007). Meeting dates are 2/22, 3/15, 3/29, 4/26, 5/17. New members are most welcome! Join us in the convent dining room for discussion at 10:30 AM.
Margaret LeBlanc
BABYSITTER/MOTHER’S HELPER AVAILABLE
Hello, my name is Barbara Terwilliger. I would like to offer my service as a babysitter or mother’s helper. I am one of five children and have had previous child care experience. Please call if I can be of any help to you. I am a lifelong member of Sacred Heart community, altar server, previous member of children’s choir, honors freshman at Southfield School, most often attend 9 AM Mass and can meet you at coffee hour. Phone home: 617-332-1263; cell: 617-650-3918. I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks, Barbara
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, February 22 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:
Sunday, February 22 – 9:00 AM (ASL) – Lower Church
Sunday, February 22 – 10:30 AM – Lower Church
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP
Sunday, February 22 – 10:30 AM – Convent (DR)
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Tuesday, February 24 – 4 to 5:15 PM – Lower church
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 6-10
Tuesday, February 24 – 7 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
ASH WEDNESDAY MASSES:
Wednesday, February 25 – 7 AM, 12:05 PM – Lower Church
Combined Liturgy with ASL – 7:30 PM – Upper Church
FIRST COMMUNION PARENTS MEETING:
Thursday, February 26 – 7:30 to 8:45 PM – Convent
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, February 28 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 1 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center