Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, August 14
4:00 PM Peter and Raymond Scichilone
Sunday, August 15
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Saturday, August 21
4:00 PM Michael and Nellie Ryder
Sunday, August 22
9:00 AM Teresa O’Connor
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, August 21 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Isaiah 66:18-21
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Gospel Reading: Luke 13:22-30
CATHOLIC HOME MISSIONS APPEAL
Next week’s special collection is for Catholic Missions within the U.S. Home mission parishes often struggle with priest shortages, parishioner poverty, unemployment, difficult or isolated terrain, religious hostility and other practices that impact the practice of the faith. Many also are struggling to meet the challenges of culturally diverse communities. We need your help to make this year’s Appeal a success. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/hm.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
If you would like to teach or be a classroom aide in the Religious Education program in the fall, please call the Religious Education Office at 617-969-4031 or email: religious.education@sacredheart.ws.
If you would like to register your child for CCD, you may pick up a registration form at the back of the church. PLEASE RETURN THE COMPLETED FORM(S) TO THE RECTORY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Michelle Solomon, Dir. of R.E.
ANOTHER PARISHIONER IS LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO LIVE
A parishioner is looking for a place to live in or around Newton or Brookline near the T. Please call Gloria at 617-796-7779.
FALL SEMESTER GERENTOLOGY CLASSES AT UMASS BOSTON
The University of Massachusetts Boston is accepting applications for its Manning Certificate Program in Gerontology for fall 2010. The program is designed to give students the skills and resources they need to plan for an aging society, work or volunteer in the aging network, and advocate for elders. We offer both on-campus and online classes beginning the week of September 5. Credits from this program can be applied towards the bachelor’s degree program in Gerontology. The program is approved for financial aid for eligible students. For more information call Mary St. Jean at 617-287-7330 or email mary.stjean@umb.edu.
CATECHETICAL CERTIFICATE
SAINT JOHN’S SEMINARY
“Outstanding... life-changing” – these are some of the adjectives used by students to describe the Catechetical Certificate offered by Saint John’s Seminary. Important catechetical themes as well as practical skills are covered. Registration is now open for next year’s courses, to be offered at 149 Washington Street in Brighton and at the Pastoral Center in Braintree beginning in the fall of 2010. The classes meet for eight Saturdays, once a month from September through May (but not in December), from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost is a very reasonable $250. Go to: www.CatecheticalCertificate.com to register!
USE YOUR EXPERTISE TO HELP CHILDREN READ
Start the new school year off right by helping children in all Waltham public schools who need extra help with reading! Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES) is looking for volunteers for its Reading Partners Program. Designed to boost confidence and improve reading skills, the program pairs adults age 55 and over with children in grades K-3. Training starts in September so please call Lauren Reid or Ken Neal at 781-342-7705 today! Combine the wisdom of age with the energy of youth and become a Reading Partner!
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Thank you for your ongoing donations to St. Francis House. The items needed for August are fruit juices. You may leave your donations at any time during the month in the shopping cart or the bins provided at the church entrances.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of August 7/8 $4,049
SOME LITURGICAL ODDS AND ENDS
The month of August seems to be trying to outdo the month of July in miserable weather. However, as the saints would say, (I saw this in some reference somewhere recently), the weather can be our best mortification, can be our best way of making our morning offering as we offer our prayers, works, joys and sufferings each day to the Lord. We have had some interesting feast days the past week or so – July 31 for Ignatius of Loyola, St. John Vianney on August 4, the great feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on August 6, the feast day of the newly canonized St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on August 9, and the popular Roman feast of St. Lawrence on August 10. In this column at this time I will mention Ignatius and also the Feast of the Transfiguration.
St. Ignatius is well known for many accomplishments – the writing of his Spiritual Exercises being an important accomplishment. There are the Canadian Mounties, well-known for their physical exercises; Ignatius is well-known for his Spiritual Exercises. As the reader probably knows, the Exercises call for a four-week retreat, prefaced by what Ignatius calls his First Principle and Foundation. This is the way Ignatius composed it himself:
“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Hence, man is to make use of them in as far as they help him in the attainment of his end, and he must rid himself of them in as far as they prove a hindrance to him. Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are not under any prohibition. Consequently, as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, a long life to a short life. The same holds for all other things. Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created.”
The following is the way a well-known retreat master has phrased the Ignatian composition for us today:
“I was created freely out of love by God who desires to share his life forever with me, if I shall freely love him in return. The whole world which has been created by God is given over to me to help me grow in my love response and so fill this world with the order of God’s love between myself and others, and myself and creation. I should readily make use of all God’s gifts of creation insofar as they help me develop more as a loving person, but where some gifts stifle such a growth in love or cause it to be lost, I must turn away from them and let myself be free from them. As a result, in practice, I must be free before all that has been created. For example, as far as I am concerned, I should hold in balance health and sickness, riches and poverty, honor and dishonor, a long life and a short life, and so on. The only thing which moves me and the one choice which matters is a single notion of why I am created – to be able better to respond more fully in love to the love of God and to be able ever more fully to grow in that response.”
In a recent edition of The London Tablet to which I subscribe, which comes every week, I saw a prayer of an unknown Confederate soldier who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. As I read the prayer, I thought immediately of the First Principle and Foundation of Ignatius. This prayer, from the 24th of July 2010 issue of The Tablet, reads as follows:
“I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I had asked for, but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”
I mentioned above the wonderful feast day of the Transfiguration. It is a great and important mystery of faith. It’s a shame that it doesn’t get more prominence in the Roman Liturgy. As a matter of fact, it figures twice every year: on the Second Sunday of Lent and on August 6. Why August 6? That’s a big question. I’ll explain it next week. Meanwhile we should become familiar with the two Preface Prayers in the Sacramentary. The first one goes as follows:
“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, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest.”
Father Connelly
SIGNINGS
We don't have hope in this world for we are like Mary, the woman in the first reading who is in the desert, whose hope is in the world to come. This “desert” world we live in is none-the-less safe. God has established a place in this passing world that is prepared for us; His Church. Mary remained in the world with Elizabeth, a little micro instance of the Church, and then returned “home” This reminds me of the fact that Mary, after Christ had set up the Church, remained with the Apostles in that Church after He traveled back to the Father in Heaven, i.e. home. Mary, however, has not remained with us in that same way. She left the Apostles shortly thereafter and has left us too. This is the celebration we mark today. Mary, by God's power, is taken to heaven. She has returned home.
How is this a reason for celebration? Why should we be glad that Mary has left us in this desert? Should it not be a time of sorrow?
The reason for our rejoicing is because she has followed Jesus home to heaven. Because Jesus ascended she could be assumed. Like Jesus who travels home, she travels home. And this shows us that we too can travel home. As nice as the Church is in this desert we don't want to stay here either.
When we are waiting at the T and we see people start to board, we know that we might be able to get on as well. The movement out of this hopeless desert has begun; first Jesus, and now His mother.
And so we have hope. We know that others who have died enjoy the same possibility as Jesus and Mary and we hope to follow them. The boarding of the "T", the procession to heaven, has begun. And so we are a people of hope in this passing world, excited by the arrival of the T, of God's mercy, and eager to ride that mercy track, not to Boston, but to the New Boston, the true Boston, the new Jerusalem of Heaven.
Mary has left and where she has gone we hope to follow.
The Church remains with us in this short stay in our desert town. We are now together in that Church beginning to rejoice as our expectation of Heaven is prepared by the joy of Mary's already having preceded us. She stayed with Elizabeth only three months. When Jesus had left she didn't stay with the Apostles all that long either. But this is good, for it means that if we are found worthy, our short stay here in the desert will be over soon, and we will soon join Jesus, Mary, and the forgiven saints in heaven too.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
CATHOLIC CRUISE TO BERMUDA
Come and sail away on a 7-night Catholic Bermuda Cruise with Father Brendan Murphy April 21-28, 2011 on the Carnival Miracle out of New York. Port of Call: Kings Wharf, Bermuda. Prices begin at $1620 for two passengers which includes all port fees and taxes. Daily Mass and Rosary offered. Deposits of only $50 per person will reserve your cabin. Space is limited. For further info or to register, contact Doug or Eileen at 860-399-1785; dpqayttc@aol.com.
WORLDWIDE MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
“....blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” God asks us to love one another. Do we practice this in our marriage? The next Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekends in New England are September 17-19, September 24-26 and October 22-24. For more information and to register, call 1-800-710-WWME or visit our webpage at www.wwmeMA.org.
PROJECT RACHEL
HOPE AND HEALING AFTER ABORTION
If you are hurting from past abortions, come to the Waters of Healing. Saturday, Sept. 11, October 30, or December 4. For more information, call Project Rachel at 508-651-3100.
DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL FUNDRAISER
On Sunday, September 12 at 3:00 PM the Daughters of St. Paul will honor Mary Ann Glendon as the first recipient of the Cordero Award at an Afternoon Tea at the Daughters of St. Paul Convent in Jamaica Plain. Professor Glendon will speak on The Lay Vocation in a Media Culture: New Challenges. There will be a special auction and proceeds will be used to establish an Education Fund for the Daughters of St. Paul. For more information on this Fundraiser, contact Sr. Christine Setticase, FSP at 617-921-0228 or csetticase@paulinemedia.com.
ST. ANTHONY’S BOOKS & GIFTS AUGUST SALE
St. Anthony’s Books and Gifts, 60 Waverly St. (RT 135), Framingham, MA, is having its annual summer book sale on Bibles, Books, Booklets, Pamphlets, CDs and DVDs. Buy one and get 20% off all others. Cash or checks only on in-stock items. Phone 508-875-1080 http://liftyourheartup.com.
CALENDAR NOTES
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, August 15 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Convent
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, August 20 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, August 21 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, August 22 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center