Sacred Heart Parish

MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK

Saturday, October 31

4:00 PM Theresa and Caroline Fickett

Sunday, November 1

9:00 AM Donald W. Swan

11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart

Tuesday, November 3

7:00 AM Angelica Guisbert

Friday, November 6

9:00 AM Luzperla Perdomo

12:05 PM Genevieve Slavin

Saturday, November 7

4:00 PM Dorothy T. Cullen

Sunday, November 8

9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart

11:45 AM Pasquale and Nazarena Merolli

CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES

Saturday, November 7

4:00 PM Fr. Collins

Sunday, November 8

9:00 AM Fr. Connelly

10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin

11:45 AM Fr. Connelly

CONFESSIONS

Saturday, November 7 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly

READINGS FOR THE THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY

IN ORDINARY TIME

First Reading: 1 Kings 17:10-16

Second Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28

Gospel Reading: Mark 12:38-44

JEFFREY BEATRICE

Many of our parishioners knew Jeffrey Beatrice who died of a massive heart attack last week and left his wife Elinor and their eleven children. Our parishioners may have seen in the Newton Tab that Jeffrey’s family fears foreclosure on their home. Friends of the family have set-up a fund to assist with their needs. If you would like to make a memorial donation, please send your check to:

Jeffrey Beatrice Family Fund

c/o Village Bank

307 Auburn Street, Auburndale, MA 02466

APARTMENT WANTED

One of our parishioners is looking for a large studio or a one bedroom apartment with parking and storage, preferably in the Newton/Watertown area. She would like to move by December 1. Rent is negotiable. If you have an apartment available, please call Maria at 617-243-0821.

CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Next week’s special collection, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), works to uphold the dignity of human life by breaking the cycle of poverty across the United States through grants to local community-based groups who create jobs, improve education, and strengthen neighborhoods. Twenty-five percent of the CCHD collection stays in the Archdiocese of Boston to fund local anti-poverty projects; seventy-five percent supports national grant and education programs. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/cchd.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS

All Hallows Eve is upon us! The fall equinox which speaks of evil and darkness was transformed by the Church fathers back in the ninth century into a festival of lights called the saints. So in our CCD program we will be celebrating All Saints Day on November 1st and November 3rd. The Church has provided us with the communion of saints who inspire us, pray for us and cheer for us just like our families and older brothers and sisters do. It’s just another way of making sure we know the way to heaven. Our teachers will be dressing up as saints and/or just sharing stories of their favorite saints with our students.

Michelle Solomon, Dir. of RE

2009 CHRISTMAS GIFT DRIVE

Once again we will be conducting our annual Christmas Gift Drive. As we have in the past several years, we are working with St. Ambrose Family Inn, which provides shelter and support to homeless families and Julie’s Family Learning Program, an educational program serving low income young women and their children. We are also supporting the needs of the New England Home for the Deaf and the Walden School at the Learning Center for Deaf. Cards listing the specific needs will be available at the Masses beginning the weekend of November 21/22. If you can help in early November with preparing the gift cards for distribution or with check-in and transfer of gifts to the Convent chapel on the day of the event, please contact Beverly Spencer at 617-965-6365 or at bevfrog@aol.com.

SAVE THE DATES

November 14 – Knights of Columbus “Spaghetti Supper”, from 5-8 PM in the Parish Center.

November 22 – Social Justice Forum – “The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism” – Prof. Andrew Bacevich – 7:30 PM in the Lower Church

OFFERTORY INCOME

Weekend of October 24/25 $4,059

Mission Sunday Collection $ 898

OUR BEAUTIFUL PORTICO

It’s a rare weekend when no visitor to our upstairs church stops to say to me how beautiful our upstairs church really is. They love the windows, both along the sides of the church and in the sanctuary; they love our new sanctuary; they love our baptistery and gathering around the baptismal font; they love the angels that guard our sanctuary and the myriad of angels that the children love to count all around the church. Of course, we think its lovely too, and I don’t intend to talk about it in this column.

In this column I’d like to talk about our beautiful portico. What is a portico? A portico is a porch, a lobby which one enters through the outside doors and moves through to get to the nave of the church. In architectural terms, a portico is a vestibule, an atrium, a colonnade at the entrance of a building. It is often called a narthex. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who enter the upstairs church have little time to pause there as they arrive for holy Mass. When leaving the church on a Sunday, most of our parishioners, at the instigation of their children, are rushing over to the MacKenzie Center for coffee and donuts. A portico is a work of art. One notices the great panels artistically decorated in a form of art known as gobbo. The portico for the first sixty years of the parish’s life was an open portico. One would move through the columns and then get to the doors of the church. High on the walls to the right and left of the main entrance, one notices two artistic shields on which is written the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sacred Heart of Mary. One also will notice the magnificent statue of Christ with wide-open arms, welcoming all who come in peace to pray. This was formerly the property of the Religious of the Sacred Heart who commissioned F. A. Brunner in 1951 to carve the statue and placed it in the atrium of the college’s chapel. One will notice also a child’s crib (with new infant blankets and clothing donated by our parishioners for Pregnancy Help) and a shopping cart (several couples in the parish are so faithful in bringing our monthly contributions to St. Francis House) reminding us of two of our parish’s wonderful apostolates. One can pause to read the bulletin board chock full of parish and diocesan news. Available on the table, there is a book for prayer petitions and some registration forms for parish membership. But I do not want to talk about our beautiful portico as described above.

What do I want to talk about? Throughout the month of October there has been a most magnificent Respect Life exhibit – for October is the month dedicated to our great concern for the first and greatest of human rights – the right to life. The exhibit also has some remarkable literature which can help us in truly understanding some of the great issues being debated in our country today. This literature is of high quality. It is available to anybody who wishes to take it home and study it. It is so important that we who are Catholic understand the true nature of the issues that are of great concern. One piece of literature is a very highly competent analysis of the legal questions as well as the moral issues which we must address in light of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision on Roe vs. Wade. Another piece of literature is on embryonic stem cell research discussions. A third piece of literature speaks about the moral issue of assisted suicide and death by choice. Still another deals with the question of same-sex marriages under the title “the Difference is the Difference: Sexual Difference and the Defense of Marriage”. In the remaining days of October, please stop to admire our beautiful portico and in particular please examine the Pro-Life exhibit and pick up the literature. You will find it most helpful and most informative.

Father Connelly

DIOCESAN MEMORANDUM

RE: SWINE FLU

The Office of Worship, in consultation with local health authorities and the Archdiocesan Office of Risk Management, continues to encourage the clergy and faithful to observe necessary standard precautions to protect the health of others during this flu season, and especially with the risks related to H1N1 influenza. The best way to prevent the spread of contagious disease is to practice good hygiene.

In addition to practicing good hygiene, the Cardinal directs the following for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy and for flu prevention:

  • The Holy Water fonts are to be drained, cleaned with a disinfecting soap, and re-filled with holy water on a regular basis.  Please note that old holy water should be disposed of in the sacrarium.

  • The distribution of the Precious Blood for the faithful is suspended, with the exception of those who must receive from the cup due to medical reasons.  The faith of the Church teaches that Christ, whole and entire, is received even under only one species.

  • The exchange of the Sign of Peace is to be offered without any physical contact.  If the priest celebrant chooses to extend the invitation for the sign of peace, the faithful, instead of a handshake, may bow to the persons nearby.

  • While the faithful retain the option of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue or in the hand, all ministers of Holy Communion are advised to distribute the consecrated hosts with care, being cautious not to touch the tongue or the hand of the communicant.

  • Parishioners should be reminded that if they are ill or suspect they are ill with a contagious illness, they are not bound by the Sunday Mass obligation.  They should remain at home and return to church when they are well. 

These directives are effective Saturday, October 31, 2009 and remain in effect until the cold and flu season has come to an end.  We thank you for your understanding and support of these directives, which aim to protect the health of our people.

PREGNANCY HELP

Pregnancy Help is a crisis pregnancy center sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston. Trained and caring counselors are available to assist any woman experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. Pregnancy Help provides free pregnancy testing, counseling, referrals, on-going support and material assistance to support women in finding alternatives to abortion. All services are free and confidential. Services are available for English, Spanish and Portuguese speaking clients. For assistance call toll-free: 1-888-771-3914.

PROJECT RACHEL

Do you know someone who is carrying grief and sorrow over past abortions? Project Rachel is the post-abortion ministry of the Catholic Church to help those dealing with the pain of abortion. The Archdiocese of Boston Project Rachel will offer a “Come to the Waters” post abortion healing retreat on Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. For more information and/or registration, email help@projectrachelboston.com or contact Project Rachel at 508-651-3100 or visit projectrachelboston.com. All calls are confidential.

KARATE CLASS AT THE MACKENZIE CENTER

This session we will offer a class on Tuesdays at 5:15-6:00 pm for Beginner and Returning students.  The first 6-week session begins November 3 and ends December 8, 2009.

The karate class consists of learning the basics of karate which include punches, kicks, blocks. Games are used to incorporate and practice skills learned, stranger danger skills including basic self-defense skills, such as verbal boundary setting and physical self-defense against hand grabs, pushes, etc. Instructor is Marisa Cimino, Fourth Degree Black Belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate. Cost for new students is $90.00 which includes a 6-week session and uniform. (Returning students cost is $60.00). If you would like a new uniform please let me know so I can have one for you at the start of the session.

FUNDRAISER FOR THE BOSTON MINSTREL COMPANY ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Sandwich Works at 827 Beacon St. will sponsor an all you can eat Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Boston Minstrel Company on Sunday, November 8 from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. The breakfast will also include a sing-a-long of great tunes led by Tim McHale and the Minstrels. Come support the Minstrels in their work to lift the spirits of people who are homeless or otherwise isolated from the community.

SIGNINGS

Good People,

It is our enemies who make us saints.  Good reason to love them.  If we are truly behaving and if we are truly witnessing to Christ by working to build up His Church and other people come out against us, that is a blessing.  The people who criticize us for loving Christ and His Church are our enemies.  There are people who make us out to be mindless robots or people to be pitied for our lack of education.  We are people who might be full of fear who are desperate for some strong authoritarian voice. Maybe we are weak people who are victims of oppressive psychological slavery.  Perhaps we are emotionally crippled people who again are to be pitied for our lack of appropriate emotional response, i.e. our lack of giddiness.

These enemies of ours who make such statements in the media, classrooms, textbooks, workplace, thanksgiving table, or across the kitchen table are to be loved. They play right into God's plan for our becoming saints.  As the saints before us, whom we celebrate today (those whose names we know and don't know), we have hope that when lies are uttered against us we can rejoice and be glad for our salvation is dawning.

In Christ,

Fr. St. Martin

EVENING PRAYER

One event of the Annus Sacerdotalis throughout the Archdiocese will be a liturgical celebration to be held in each Region to remember and pray for deceased priests who have ministered to the Catholic faithful in our territory. In the West Region, this will take the form of Evening Prayer from the Divine Office for Dead on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at Saint Bridget Church, Framingham at 3:00 p.m.

CALENDAR NOTES

EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:

Sunday, November 1 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:

Sunday, November 1 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church

BOY SCOUTS:

Monday, November 2 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Tuesday, November 3

GRADES 1-5: – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church

GRADES 6-10: – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church

GUILD OF SAINT FRANCIS BOARD MEETING AND HOLLY HARVEST WORKSHOP:

Tuesday, November 3 – 7:00 PM – Guild Room

PANCAKE BREAKFAST:

Friday, November 6 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center

LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:

Saturday, November 7 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church