Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Wednesday, March 11
7:00 AM Robert W. Murphy
Friday, March 13
12:05 PM Ursula Patricia Lyons
Saturday, March 14
4:00 PM Michael Gerard McCarthy
Sunday, March 15
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore Lombardo
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, March 14
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, March 15
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, March 14 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel Reading: John 2:13-25
2009 CATHOLIC APPEAL
This is Catholic Appeal Weekend. Through the Appeal, we have the opportunity to help our brothers and sisters all throughout our Archdiocese. Giving is a response to God’s grace in our lives. By doing so, we are not only helping to renew the strength and vitality of our Church, but recognizing a need within ourselves to sacrifice for the Lord. Jesus asks each one of us for everything. A gift is important, not so much for how much it is, but because of what we become through the act of giving. Please prayerfully consider an Appeal gift in this spirit.
LENTEN RECONCILIATION
SAVE THE DATE! Great time and opportunity for all family members to receive the sacrament before Easter. Lenten Penance Service on Sunday, March 22 at 3 PM at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, 573 Washington St., Newton. Individual reconciliation, several confessors available.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of February 28/March 1 $4,867.
LENTEN ALSMGIVING
The season of Lent calls us to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. This year our almsgiving projects are:
St. Francis House – men’s new socks; briefs: sizes 32-38; and undershirts: XXL (most needed)
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
Rice Bowls – For worldwide needs, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services.
Large baskets will be available in the foyer of the upstairs church and in the hallway of the downstairs church for donations to St. Francis House and Walden School.
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS FAMILY NIGHT
The next Guild of St. Francis’ event is Family Night on Saturday, March 14th from 5-8 PM in the Parish Center. This will be a catered buffet dinner. Price is $15.00 for adults and $7.50 for children ages 2-12 years. Since the dinner is being catered, we have to give a final count to the caterer early this week, so please make your reservations by Monday, March 9, by calling 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. Please note: since the dinner is being catered, we will not be able to admit anyone without a reservation.
We are still looking for people to provide entertainment following the dinner. 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.
SOUP AND STATIONS
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.
ARISE ON CATHOLIC TV
Join priests, religious and members of the laity for this special ARISE Lenten series which began March 2nd on CATHOLIC TV. For six weeks, each half hour show will feature readings and reflections on Lenten themes and faith sharing. Tune in Mondays at 12:30pm, Fridays at 11:30pm and Saturdays at 10:30am to see this ARISE series. For more information you may contact www.CatholicTV.com.
PRO-LIFE, PRO-SOCIAL JUSTICE
Some folks might tend to talk about pro-life issues independently of social justice issues. Other folks may tend to do the opposite – talk about social justice as though it had nothing to do with pro-life concerns. A remarkable example of how pro-life and social justice issues always belong together is the World Day of Peace Message of our Holy Father. It is entitled – “Fighting Poverty to Build Peace”. It is an excellent document which I trust many will have a chance to read. Those who subscribe to Commonweal Magazine will find similar themes expressed in an article by Archbishop Timothy Dolan under the title of “Blueprint for Peace” (February 27, 2009). To give some, but inadequate, insight into the Pope’s remarks, perhaps we could just highlight a few quotations.
“Peace can be built only if everyone is assured the possibility of reasonable growth: Sooner or later, the distortions produced by unjust systems have to be paid for by everyone.
Every form of externally imposed poverty has at its root a lack of respect for the transcendent dignity of the human person.
When man is not considered within the total context of his vocation, and when the demands of a true ‘human ecology’ are not respected, the cruel forces of poverty are unleashed.
This lowering of the objectives of global finance to the very short term reduces its capacity to function as a bridge between the present and the future, and as a stimulus to the creation of new opportunities for production and for work in the long term.
In advanced wealthy societies there is evidence of marginalization as well as affective, moral and spiritual poverty seen in people whose interior lives are disoriented and who experience various forms of malaise despite their economic prosperity.
Effective means to redress the marginalization of the world’s poor through globalization will only be found if people everywhere feel personally outraged by the injustices in the world and by the concomitant violations of human rights.
We often consider only the superficial and instrumental causes of poverty without attending to those harbored within the human heart like greed and narrow vision.”
A NOTE OF CONGRATULATIONS
Last Monday evening I was invited to offer an Opening Prayer for the Eagle Court of Honor involving Troops 205 and 242, which meet each Monday here at the parish. Two of the Scouts received the Eagle Badge, expressions for each of them of much diligent work over a number of years. One of them was John Terwilliger, a parishioner here at Sacred Heart. The other was Varun Ramadurai who belongs to the NE Hindu Temple in Ashland. As I congratulate these two young Scouts, I am reminded of some of the excellent aspects of the scouting movement. The Boy Scouts of America give their young charges a good training in the natural virtues. As I listened to the Boy Scout Oath, which talks about fidelity and honesty and the like, my thoughts went immediately to all the banking and financial difficulties we are experiencing at this time in our country and throughout the world. We’re told that dishonesty, selfishness, greed and unfaithfulness are at the heart of our troubles. It seems to me that the conclusion is obvious – our country needs the Boy Scouts. If these natural virtues are not in place for the majority of American citizens, one wonders whether we will have the strength of character to move through the present crisis. All the while we who belong to Sacred Heart Parish must remember the answers to two important questions: 1) What does God ask of every human being, and 2) What does God ask of every human being who seeks to follow Christ the Lord and his Gospel? What are the answers? God expects all human beings to be good human beings by the living of the natural virtues which the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle spoke about before the coming of Christ our Savior. God expects his Christian people not only to be good human beings but to be excellent Christians, which involve the natural virtues and the moral virtues of prudence, justice, courage and temperance, and the theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
Father Connelly
P.S. If any young parishioner is interested in scouting, I would recommend that they speak to Paul Roberts who is the Scoutmaster for Troop 242 or to Benjamin Pope who is the Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 205. A call to the rectory will indicate how to contact Benjamin or Paul.
PREFACE PRAYERS
First Sunday of Lent: Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. His fast of forty days makes this a holy season of self-denial. By rejecting the devil’s temptations he has taught us to rid ourselves of the hidden corruption of evil, and so to share his paschal meal in purity of heart, until we come to its fulfillment in the promised land of heaven. Now we join the angels and the saints as they sing their unending hymn of praise: Holy...
Second Sunday of Lent: Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. On your holy mountain he revealed himself in glory in the presence of his disciples. He had already prepared them for his approaching death. He wanted to teach them through the Law and the Prophets that the promised Christ had first to suffer and so come to the glory of his resurrection. In our unending joy we echo on earth the song of the angels in heaven as they praise your glory for ever: Holy...
SIGNINGS
Parish news, especially of interest to our deaf parishioners
Good People,
The green of Ordinary Time has given way to the purple of Lent. Now the plan of our readings becomes more focused. Now all three readings focus together on one theme. No longer is the second reading continuous as before. Now each Sunday focuses on a single theme coordinated to take us with Jesus up the Mount of Calvary.
Today we are reminded of that Mountain by thinking back to the Mountain of sacrifice our father in faith, Abraham, once climbed. He thought that the blood of his only son was something that God required of him. But God stays his hand (hence the origin of his sign-name in ASL.)
God's plan was not for us to sacrifice our children so as to contact God. In Christ, we see we are called to self-sacrifice.
This can be terrifying for us to be sure. It was for the Apostles. Jesus gave them and us a preview of what comes after to encourage us. We need this. As we travel through life, we discover God requiring us to endure many and dramatic sacrifices. We need to remember the glory that is to come after passing through the trials. It will be glorious, so keep your eyes on the prize and be joyful.
Amen.
Father St. Martin
PEACE AND JUSTICE FORUM
The next Social Justice Forum will be held on Sunday, March 22 at 7:30 PM in the lower church. Professor Thomas J. Massaro, SJ of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry will speak on “The Option for the Poor in 2009: Social Priorities for our Times”
ST. JOHN’S SCHOOL WELLESLEY
Calling all 3 year olds to Saint John School, Wellesley! There are still a few spaces left in our new, flexible three-year-old program for 2009-2010! Two, three, or five mornings a week; flexible morning start time 7:30-8:30 AM; program ends each day at 11:30 AM; optional stay days until 2:15 PM (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and/or Friday); begin Fall 2009. For more information, you are invited to contact St. John School Principal, Mrs. Kathi Aldridge, at 781-235-0300.
CATHOLIC CULTURE IN AMERICA
Lecture by Joseph Bottum, Editor, First Things, at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Wellesley, lower level, social hall of the church, 7:00 PM on Saturday, March 14. There will be ample time for questions and discussion. More information is available by contacting either Peter Mongeau, pmongeau@verizon.net, or John Stewart, 617-969-0950.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Our grade 2 CCD classes have just received their 1st Reconciliation on Saturday, March 7th. With a spirit of joy and gratefulness for God’s gift of forgiveness, we feasted and celebrated afterward just as the father in the prodigal son did in the scriptures! Now it is time for them to go out and spread God’s mercy and forgiveness to all those they meet.
The grade 2 students will now begin to study God’s gift of the Eucharist which is a sign of the sacrificial love of Christ and His presence in our lives. Please pray for the teachers, students and their families that they will see and know Jesus in the “breaking of the bread”.
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.
I would also like to thank all of you in the parish who so lovingly supported me during the passing of my father with your hugs, prayers and Mass cards. I would especially like to thank those in the CCD program who graciously filled in wherever they saw a need. Christ’s love is present in His Church!
Michelle Solomon, Director of Religious Education
CALENDAR NOTES
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION:
Sunday, March 8 – 9:00 AM (ASL) – Lower Church
Sunday, March 8 – 10:30 AM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 8 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, March 9 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Tuesday, March 10 – 4 to 5:15 PM – Lower church
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 6-10
Tuesday, March 10 – 7 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
Wednesday, March 11 – 7:30 PM Convent (DR)
PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING:
Thursday, March 12 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Library)
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, March 14 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Upper Church
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS FAMILY NIGHT
Saturday, March 14 – 5:00 to 8:00 PM – Parish Center
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 15 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP
Sunday, March 15 – 10:30 AM – Convent Dining Room