Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Friday, March 20
9:00 AM Libia Isaza
12:05 PM The Ford Family
Saturday, March 21
9:00 AM Bruce G. Devaney
4:00 PM Daniel and Clare Kenslea
Sunday, March 22
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Ann Nuzzi
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, March 21
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, March 22
9:00 AM Fr. Imbelli
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, March 21 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAYOF LENT
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel Reading: John 3:14-21
2009 CATHOLIC APPEAL
Cardinal Sean sends his thanks to everyone from Sacred Heart who responded to his request for participation in the 2009 Catholic Appeal during Catholic Appeal Weekend. If you have not yet made your gift, please consider making a pledge this weekend. You can pick up information packets with pledge forms at the entrances of the Church. For more information please visit www.BostonCatholicAppeal.com or call 617-779-3700. Thank you!
LENTEN RECONCILIATION
SAVE THE DATES! Great times and opportunities for all family members to receive the sacrament before Easter. Lenten Penance Services will be held on Sunday, March 22 at 3 PM, and Monday, April 6 at 7:30 PM at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, 573 Washington St., Newton. Individual reconciliation with several confessors available.
"COME TO THE WATERS" RETREAT
Do you know someone who is carrying grief and sorrow over past abortions? Project Rachel will offer a "Come to the Waters" post-abortion healing retreat on Saturday, March 21. For more information and registration, contact Project Rachel at 508-651-3100 or help@projectrachelboston.com. All calls are confidential.
OUR BASKETS ARE EMPTY!
The season of Lent calls us to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This year our almsgiving projects are:
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St. Francis House – men’s new socks; briefs: sizes 32-38; and undershirts: XXL (most needed)
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Walden School – Residential program at Learning Center for the Deaf (Framingham), ages 12-21
Girls: underwear sizes 14, 16; socks 6-8
Boys: underwear sizes 16, 18; socks 7 and up
Women: underwear sizes 5, 6, 7; socks 6-8
Men: underwear waist 36” or less; socks 7 and up
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Rice Bowls – For worldwide needs, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services.
Please, add something to the baskets in the foyer of the upstairs church and in the hallway of the downstairs church for donations to St. Francis House and Walden School.
SAINT FRANCIS HOUSE
In addition to the special Lenten donations, don’t forget the regular monthly food drive for St. Francis House. The March collection is for fruit juices.
SOUP AND STATIONS
A hearty thank you to all those who made the soup on Friday, March 6. Not only did we have a record number of donors with a great variety of soup, but also a record number of attendees at the Stations. We are encouraged by this outpouring of both spiritual and corporal Lenten participation.
Soup and Stations continue on the Fridays of Lent at Corpus Christi Church, 45 Ash Street in Auburndale. Soup is served in the downstairs hall at 6:00 PM followed by Stations of the Cross at 7:00 PM in the Church. Sacred Heart is hosting again on March 27. If you would like to help by preparing a soup or dessert for that evening, please call Bernadette or Peter Castellanos at 617-969-4299.
PEACE AND JUSTICE FORUM
Next Sunday, March 22, at 7:30 pm in the lower church, the 15th Social Justice Forum will feature Professor Thomas J. Massaro, S.J. from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, presenting “The Option for the Poor in 2009: Social Priorities for our Times”. The evening is open to the public; refreshments follow the presentation.
LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD READING?
C21 Resources, Spring 2009 is available at Church entrances. It is a publication of the Church in the 21st Century Center – a service of Boston College. This issue is dedicated to Catholic Spirituality in Practice and contains varied and readable articles. Pick one up; it is a feast during your fast.
DONUM VITAE – GIFT OF LIFE
Over the past fifty years, the teaching church has issued a variety of documents which concern themselves with so many of the bioethical questions of the day. On February 22, 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation. It was entitled the Gift of Life. On September 8, 2008, the same Congregation ordered the publication of a document, under the title of Dignitas Personae, that is, the Dignity of the Person. This is the first assessment from the Vatican on bioethics since the publication of Donum Vitae. In light of recent events it may be good to look at some excerpts from the second document.
The Human Embryo as a Person
4.... The body of a human being, from the very first stages of its existence, can never be reduced merely to a group of cells. The embryonic human body develops progressively according to a well-defined program with its proper finality, as is apparent in the birth of every baby.
It is appropriate to recall the fundamental ethical criterion expressed in the Instruction Donum vitae in order to evaluate all moral questions which relate to procedures involving the human embryo: “Thus the fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say, from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life” [Donum vitae, I, 1].
5. This ethical principle, which reason is capable of recognizing as true and in conformity with the natural moral law, should be the basis for all legislation in this area. In fact, it presupposes a truth of an ontological character, as Donum vitae demonstrated from solid scientific evidence, regarding the continuity in development of a human being.
If Donum vitae, in order to avoid a statement of an explicitly philosophical nature, did not define the embryo as a person, it nonetheless did indicate that there is an intrinsic connection between the ontological dimension and the specific value of every human life. Although the presence of the spiritual soul cannot be observed experimentally, the conclusions of science regarding the human embryo give “a valuable indication for discerning by the use of reason a personal presence at the moment of the first appearance of a human life: how could a human individual not be a human person?” [Donum vitae, I, 1]. Indeed, the reality of the human being for the entire span of life, both before and after birth, does not allow us to posit either a change in nature or a gradation in moral value, since it possesses full anthropological and ethical status. The human embryo has, therefore, from the very beginning, the dignity proper to a person.
The Origin of Life within the Family
6. Respect for that dignity is owed to every human being because each one carries in an indelible way his own dignity and value. The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born “must be the fruit of marriage” [Humanae vitae, n. 8]
Marriage, present in all times and in all cultures, “is in reality something wisely and providently instituted by God the Creator with a view to carrying out his loving plan in human beings. Thus, husband and wife, through the reciprocal gift of themselves to the other—something which is proper and exclusive to them—bring about that communion of persons by which they perfect each other, so as to cooperate with God in the procreation and raising of new lives.” In the fruitfulness of married love, man and woman “make it clear that at the origin of their spousal life there is a genuine ‘yes,’ which is pronounced and truly lived in reciprocity, remaining ever open to life ... Natural law, which is at the root of the recognition of true equality between persons and peoples, deserves to be recognized as the source that inspires the relationship between the spouses in their responsibility for begetting new children. The transmission of life is inscribed in nature and its laws stand as an unwritten norm to which all must refer.”
Wastage during In Vitro Fertilization
14. The fact that the process of in vitro fertilization very frequently involves the deliberate destruction of embryos was already noted in the Instruction Donum vitae. There were some who maintained that this was due to techniques which were still somewhat imperfect. Subsequent experience has shown, however, that all techniques of in vitro fertilization proceed as if the human embryo were simply a mass of cells to be used, selected and discarded.
It is true that approximately a third of women who have recourse to artificial procreation succeed in having a baby. It should be recognized, however, that given the proportion between the total number of embryos produced and those eventually born, the number of embryos sacrificed is extremely high. These losses are accepted by the practitioners of in vitro fertilization as the price to be paid for positive results. In reality, it is deeply disturbing that research in this area aims principally at obtaining better results in terms of the percentage of babies born to women who begin the process, but does not manifest a concrete interest in the right to life of each individual embryo.
Father Connelly
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Our Grade 2 students are beginning to learn about Jesus’ gift of his life to us in the Eucharist. They will come to know that in the Mass, God accepts our small gifts of prayer, good works and the sacrifices we make each day in thanksgiving for the gifts He has given to us. Then God our Father, gives back to us the greatest of gifts: the body and blood of His very own Son, Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. Christ becomes for us our spiritual food. Please pray for us, the teachers, students and their families, that we will come to understand this great mystery more deeply.
A parent/child 1st Communion workshop is scheduled for Sunday, May 3rd after the 9 am Mass. Please stay tuned for details.
We encourage all our CCD families to strive to grow closer to Christ during this Lenten season by attending Mass, praying together, meditating on the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and the Stations of the Cross. All our students have been given a Lenten Rice Bowl to fill with their own allowance as their gift to the poor. If your family has not received one, please pick one up at the back of the lower church during CCD classes. Please remember the poor of St. Francis House and the Walden School for deaf students by donating the clothing they lack and drop it off in the baskets in the upper and lower church.
Michelle Solomon, Director of RE
SIGNINGS
Good People,
Today's readings all focus on God's plan. First we see God's wisdom revealed in the Ten Commandments. These ten rules are the same rules that undergird any healthy long-lasting culture. They are reasonable. Cultures have discovered these basic rules by analyzing and thinking. In China they have a history of respect for parents and family just like the 10 commandments. The ancient philosophers in the west also came to conclusions about how it is best to live similar to the 10 commandments.
The second reading and the Gospel tell us more about God's plan for us. God's wisdom is fully revealed in Christ. Christ's actions in the temple begin to show us how God's love is not only reasonable, it is also passionate. In Christ, we see that God is so in love with us he does things that are dangerous and seem extreme. Jesus is heading to the Cross. He is so intent on saving us. In His love for the poor people, their being tricked in the temple by bad men comes out in dramatic ways. Ultimately this love is fully revealed on the cross. This is God's wise plan for each of us: be good (follow the 10 commandments) and then become so in love that we go wild with the Father's love overflowing to others.
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin
NOTICE FOR GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS
As spring approaches and you look at countless colleges and universities, consider what kind of community each school has to offer a young Catholic student. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the Newman Catholic Center seeks to serve a large Catholic student population. We offer ways to meet life-long friends, get involved with social outreach and grow in your faith. Come join a community of over 2,300 Catholics at UMass Amherst. We’d love to hear and answer any questions you have about the Newman center or UMass. Feel free to email Newman’s Esselen Peer Ministers at peers.newman@gmail.com or visit us online at www.newmanumass.org.
THE HARMONY CLASS – YOGA AND PILATES
Enjoy the benefits of both yoga and pilates at the parish center in March on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 pm and Thursday mornings from 7-8 am. For more information, please contact Debra Bennett at 617-794-7123 or Debra@coreharmony.com.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of March 7/8 $5,097
CALENDAR NOTES
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:
Sunday, March 15 – 9:00 AM (ASL) – Lower Church
Sunday, March 15 – 10:30 AM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 15 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, March 15 – 10:30 AM – Convent (DR)
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, March 16 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Tuesday, March 17 – 4 to 5:15 PM – Lower church
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 6-10:
Tuesday, March 17 – 7 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
LITURGY COMMITTEE MEETING:
Tuesday, March 17 – 7:30 PM – Convent (DR)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, March 20 – 9:45 AM – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, March 21 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 22 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
LENTEN PENANCE SERVICE:
Sunday, March 22 – 3 PM – Our Lady Help of Christians
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM:
Sunday, March 22 – 7:30 PM – Lower Church