Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, June 27
4:00 PM Anthony Godino and Family
Sunday, June 28
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
10:30 AM Harrison Fuller
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, June 27 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Gospel Reading: Mark 5:21-43
COFFEE HOUR
The Coffee Hour today, June 21, immediately after the
9 AM Mass is the last one for the 2008-2009 season. A hearty thanks to all the volunteers whose efforts made this community event so successful again this year. See you in September!
SAVE THE DATES FOR ARISE SEASON THREE!!
October 4 – November 13
The ARISE process applies the spiritual standards of Christ to all areas of life. It emphasizes people living in good relationship with one another, as they make concrete applications of the gospel to their life situations. This past year throughout the Boston Archdiocese, there were around 3,500 participants!! Here at Sacred Heart, there were ten groups with a total of about one hundred members for each season! Through small faith-sharing groups, limited to 12 parishioners each, the goal was to deepen our relationship with God and with each other. For six weeks, groups met for ninety minutes to read and reflect on Scripture and share how they would put their faith into action.
Please consider joining a group to deepen your faith, develop a closer relationship with Christ, grow in community, and reach out in service to others. Ask fellow parishioners who attended season one and/or two about their ARISE experience. Session Three, In the Footsteps of Christ, begins October 4th. Registration will be September 12 – 20. Help spread the word!!
Let us all pray: For our parish, that as we prepare for Season Three of ARISE, we may all be open to the movement of the Spirit and the call to grow deeper in relationship with God and with one another.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of June 13/14 $4,590
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
We have many committed catechists and many wonderful ideas for religious education programs for our children and families. So we need parents and parishioners to get involved and share your talents and gifts to build up our faith and parish family life! In God’s house “there are many mansions,” and therefore many roles you can play in our Religious Education program. Right now, we are looking for new teachers for both our Tuesday and Sunday programs. Will you share your gifts of faith, hope and love with our children? Please contact the religious education office now, so that we can plan for this upcoming year. I look forward to hearing from you by phone or email: religious.education@sacredheart.ws!
We are also in need of TAT and KCS instructors for the upcoming year. These individuals are responsible for teaching the catechists how to implement the personal safety/abuse prevention education programs in the classrooms. If you are interested in learning more about this important and necessary part of our CCD program and would like to become a “trainer to train the trainers” please contact the religious education office by phone or email.
CCD registration forms have been sent out this week to families. Please return them before you forget about them for the summer! Early registration helps plan for how many CCD teachers we will be needing for the upcoming year. If you have not received a registration form and would like to receive one, please call the Religious Education office.
Our 1st Communion pictures have arrived and they are beautiful! Don’t forget to pick them up before you leave for vacation! They can be picked up during regular business hours, at the rectory.
Michelle Solomon, Director of R.E.
CATHOLIC WEBSITE SAFE FOR KIDS
If you are looking for a website you can view with your kids, www.CatholicTV.com offers Catholic shows online at zero cost.
GET INVOLVED IN PARISH SAFETY PROGRAMS
Parents and guardians play a key role in the success of parish programs for young people. Parents and guardians who are involved in parish programs and events will be in the best position to protect their own children as well as all the children in the parish community. Involvement and communication are important factors in helping to ensure safe environments for all of our children. Contact Michelle Solomon at Religious.Education@sacredheart.ws or 617-969-4031 or Peg Miller at peg.miller@sacredheart.ws for more information on how you can become actively involved in the safe environment training programs in our parish.
EVERY DAY IS CORPUS CHRISTI
The Second Vatican Council, in documents on the Liturgy, can speak powerfully and eloquently to us this day as we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. “At the Last Supper, on the night when he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity.” Every Eucharist is a contemporary event. It is each week, and in fact each day, our Easter banquet in which Christ is eaten, our minds and hearts are filled with God’s grace, a pledge of future glory is given to us.
When we say "the Body of Christ", we mean, of course, the risen Christ, our living Lord, his body and blood, his soul and divinity. The liturgy from Christmas to Pentecost underscores the central importance of the body of Christ for our salvation. At Christmas God’s eternal Son took on a body just like ours. On Good Friday he offered his body on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. On Easter Sunday, God the Father raised Christ’s body from the dead. On the day of his glorious ascension, the risen Christ took that human body to the very heights of heaven, which is our bodily destiny as well. In the Eucharist, the risen Christ gives us himself, his Body and Blood as our sacramental food and drink for our earthly journey. In the Book of Exodus, Moses reminded his Jewish people in their desert wanderings – God feeds you with manna in the desert, a new sort of food unknown to you and your ancestors. In his correspondence with the Church in Corinth, S. Paul asked – This bread which we break, is it not a communion in the Body of Christ? This cup which we bless, is it not a communion in the Blood of Christ? A new sort of food unknown to God’s Old Testament people but now given to us!
When one speaks of the Eucharist, one must always understand the text within its context. This means we must always safeguard the integrity of the mystery even though we may be focusing on only one aspect of the mystery. My understanding of the Eucharist goes back many decades to a famous little book called The Baltimore Catechism, a book only those can know who are as old as the pastor. “What is the Eucharist?” – this little book asks, and answers: “The Eucharist is both a sacrifice and a sacrament; in the Eucharist the risen Christ is contained, offered and received.” When we say “contained”, we mean the consoling and wondrous teaching of our Catholic faith which we call “the Real Presence”; that is, under the outward, visible, tangible signs of bread and wine, the inner reality is no longer that of bread and wine but the very reality of the body and blood of the risen Christ. When we say that the risen Christ is “offered”, we mean the Eucharist as sacrifice, the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, his self-offering on the cross, made present for us in a sacramental manner. And when we say the risen Christ is “received”, we mean the Eucharist as sacrament, that is, as Holy Communion, the very reality of the risen Christ sacramentally present and given as our spiritual food and drink, the nourishment we must have if we expect to have a successful journey to our transcendent God. We obviously must understand carefully the words we use. We call the Eucharist a “sacramental sacrifice”. This means that the mystery of the cross and the Lord’s Easter resurrection, which happened once in history, is made really and truly present for us sacramentally, that is, under the outward signs of bread and wine. We also call the Eucharist a “sacrificial sacrament”. By receiving the Eucharist under the outward signs of bread and wine, we share in the Lord’s dying and rising until he comes in glory.
Let us reflect for a moment on Holy Communion, which means literally “union with”. The Church teaches us that by means of a sacrament, an outward sign that effects what it signifies, we enter into a communion with the risen Christ. This involves a co-mingling of Christ’s life with our own. As St. Paul tells us – we enter into communion with Christ’s body and blood as our bread of life. When we consume our bodily nourishment each day, the food we take is assimilated by our bodies. But the Eucharistic bread is of another order, a greater and higher order. It is not we who assimilate it, but it assimilates us so that we become one in Him. But what about our neighbor? We all receive the mystery of faith. Therefore to communicate with Christ is essentially also to communicate with one another in Christ. For this reason when we pray after receiving Holy Communion, we must look totally towards Christ, allowing ourselves to be transformed by him, but at the same time keeping clearly in mind how the risen Lord unites me with every other communicant – with the one next to me, whom I may not like very much, but also with those who are far away in Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Two weeks ago the feast of Pentecost brought the Easter season to a close. Now the task is to live under the Pentecostal Spirit the love we celebrated at Easter time. It is essential that we keep in mind in their unity the three great mysteries of the Incarnation, the Redemption and the Eucharist. There is a beautiful hymn written in the 14th Century and later put in great musical form by the incomparable Mozart. It bears the title “Ave, Verum Corpus”, that is, Hail, True Body.
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The first line of the hymn stresses the mystery of Christmas, the mystery of the Incarnation, and so we sing – “Hail, true body that was born of the Virgin Mary”.
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The second line celebrates the Easter mystery of the Redemption and so we sing – “Hail, true body that was
born of the Virgin Mary and which truly suffered and was offered in sacrifice on the cross”.
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The third and last line of the hymn focuses on the Eucharist and so we sing – “Hail, true body that was born of the Virgin Mary, which truly suffered and died on the cross, now truly present in the sacrament which is the Eucharist”.
What an amazing mystery! God the Son came among us as one of us and made himself our companion along the way. He has become for us our bread of life. On the cross he becomes our ransom. In heaven he will be our reward.
Father Connelly
WORLDWIDE MARIAGE ENCOUNTER
Married Couples: If Jesus can quiet the waters of the storm, He surely has the power to give us peace and love in our marriage if we but ask. The next Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekends in New England are July 17-19, September 25-27 and October 23-25. For more information call Ralph and Jane Becker at 1-800-710-WWME or visit our webpage at www.wwmeMA.org.
SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM
Children who have access to nutritious meals throughout the summer return to school in the fall ready to learn, and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) helps make this possible by allowing children and youth under age 18 to enjoy the same healthy food they get in school at a site in the neighborhood all summer long – for free!
SFSP sites are located throughout many cities and towns in Massachusetts. No registration or identification is needed. Often, there are activities to participate in at the sites, making the Summer Food Service Program a nutritious, safe, fun way for children/youth to get healthy meals when school is out!
For more information on where and when the meals will be served, call Project Bread’s FoodSource Hotline at 1-800-645-8333 or visit www.mealsforkids.org in July and August.
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, June 21 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, June 24 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Chapel)
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS:
Wednesday, June 24 – 8 PM – Convent (DR)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, June 26 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, June 27 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR AFTER THE ASL MASS:
Sunday, June 28 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
SIGNINGS
Jesus is our Friend and God. This is good news. In the Gospel Jesus sleeps in a boat. That is a nice thing to do. Very human to do something like that. Jesus is very human. In fact he is perfectly and completely human. He is more human than we are. We become less human because we use our freedom poorly and hurt our own human nature.
Jesus is perfectly human. At the same time he is God. He shows that by commanding the wind when the great gusts of wind pushed violent waves against the boat. The first reading reminds us that this means that Jesus is God. It is God who has such power. God is the creator and master of the universe; he has dominion over all that exists.
Jesus is our friend who is God. In Jesus we meet God in human form. We meet our perfect brother. And we are saved when we believe that. The Apostles called out in their time of danger and Jesus helped them. Even though they didn't really have anything to worry about Jesus had patience with them and showed his power as God to comfort them.
We panic all the time too. Jesus is our friend but he seems asleep sometimes. He is with us but he is quiet. He is with us in the Eucharist but it is like he is asleep. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't even move.
Sometimes our Family life seems to be breaking down. We can experience meanness from people in our own family and this can hurt us deeply. I remember one time there was a person in my family who was down right mean to me. It was painful. It was the kind of pain that seems to last or comeback easily. Or sometimes we become sick. I heard a story about a girl who as she became a teenager had a problem that affected her teeth and this was very painful. It was not something anyone would want or expect to have to live with at that age. In these situations we feel like the Apostles in the storm-tossed boat. Where is our friend? Where is our God? Where is Jesus?
Jesus is there in the Eucharist. That is where he is. He permits the storm. He permits the meanness. He permits problems with our teeth falling out. He will permit each one of us to die as well. Jesus is our perfect brother and His strength in the Eucharist we eat is the power to experience His life as God when we call out to Him when we are in trouble. We all need to call upon him in distress and discover his power to save.
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin
ATTENTION GARDENERS
Barbara Hatem our wonderful gardener keeps the flowers on our property watered and nourished and she is in need of help with the watering. If you have the time to assist with this task, will you please call her at 617-969-2567?