Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, July 31
4:00 PM John Pomponio
Sunday, August 1
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
10:30 AM Mark Hyde
11:45 AM Lucia Capodilupo
Wednesday, August 4
7:00 AM Berthé Gaulin Myette, Jacques Myette and William Myette
Thursday, August 5
7:00 AM Margarita Perdomo and Paulina Andrade
Saturday, August 7
4:00 PM Daly Family
Sunday, August 8
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Edmund Capodilipo
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, August 7 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel Reading: Luke 12:32-48
THE CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES COLLECTION
Next weekend there will be a collection for The Catholic Relief Services. This collection supports emergency relief, human development, and peace initiatives in 99 countries around the world, where nearly half the population lives on less than $2.00 a day. The collection supports the ministries of five Catholic Church organizations: Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), Migration and Refugee Services (MRS), Social Development and World Peace (SDWP), and The Holy Father’s Relief Fund. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/crscollection.
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST
General Intention: That those who are unemployed, homeless, or in any serious need may find welcome, understanding, and help in overcoming their difficulties.
Mission Intention: That the Church may be a home for all people in need, opening its doors to any who suffer from racial or religious discrimination, hunger, or wars forcing their emigration.
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. Please pick up a registration form at the back of the church if you would like to register your child for CCD. Drop the completed form off at the rectory anytime during the summer.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A PART-TIME JOB????
The work of the Religious Education Office has been growing like Topsy. Our Religious Education Director, aided very helpfully on Sundays by Grace Alexander, has too much on her plate, too many plates, and indeed needs some assistance. One aspect of her job is the clerical or secretarial tasks that have to be done. This involves computer work, recordkeeping, sending out registration forms and filing them when they come in, checking on sacramental records and 222 other things. I have been wondering about some mother of a family whose children are in school and who would like to have a part-time secretarial task in Religious Education. If anybody is interested, please call Mrs. Michelle Solomon at 617-969-4031 or let us know in the rectory.
Father Connelly
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!
ANOTHER PARISHIONER IS LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO LIVE
A parishioner is looking for a place to live in or around Newton Centre. If you have a room or small apartment available, please call Gloria at 617-796-7779.
CALENDAR NOTES
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, August 1 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
PANCAKE BREAKFAST:
Friday, August 6 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, August 7 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, August 8 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
GOD IS LOVE
Last week we spoke about Pope Benedict’s third encyclical letter stressing –as it does – the importance of truth in love and how they complement each other. The title of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical – in the Latin – is “Deus Caritas Est” – God is Love. When young couples come in to see me and want to talk about their marriage hopes and plans, I always tell them to read Pope Benedict’s first encyclical. At first glance, and even at third glance, that doesn’t seem to inspire them. They look at me as if to say – You mean I have to read a papal encyclical to get ready for marriage? There are a few sections in the first part of Pope Benedict’s encyclical which are most pertinent to marriage in our time. Why not try out the following:
INTRODUCTION
1. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”. These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”.
We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John's Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should ... have eternal life”. In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel's faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might”. Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. Since God has first loved us, love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.
In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others. That, in essence, is what the two main parts of this Letter are about, and they are profoundly interconnected. The first part is more speculative, since I wanted here—at the beginning of my Pontificate—to clarify some essential facts concerning the love which God mysteriously and gratuitously offers to man, together with the intrinsic link between that Love and the reality of human love. The second part is more concrete, since it treats the ecclesial exercise of the commandment of love of neighbour. The argument has vast implications, but a lengthy treatment would go beyond the scope of the present Encyclical. I wish to emphasize some basic elements, so as to call forth in the world renewed energy and commitment in the human response to God's love.
PART I
THE UNITY OF LOVE IN CREATION
AND IN SALVATION HISTORY
A problem of language
2. God's love for us is fundamental for our lives, and it raises important questions about who God is and who we are. In considering this, we immediately find ourselves hampered by a problem of language. Today, the term “love” has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words, a word to which we attach quite different meanings. Even though this Encyclical will deal primarily with the understanding and practice of love in sacred Scripture and in the Church's Tradition, we cannot simply prescind from the meaning of the word in the different cultures and in present-day usage.
Let us first of all bring to mind the vast semantic range of the word “love”: we speak of love of country, love of one's profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love between family members, love of neighbour and love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings, however, one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness. This would seem to be the very epitome of love; all other kinds of love immediately seem to fade in comparison. So we need to ask: are all these forms of love basically one, so that love, in its many and varied manifestations, is ultimately a single reality, or are we merely using the same word to designate totally different realities?
3. That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, was called eros by the ancient Greeks. Let us note straight away that the Greek Old Testament uses the word eros only twice, while the New Testament does not use it at all: of the three Greek words for love, eros, philia (the love of friendship) and agape, New Testament writers prefer the last, which occurs rather infrequently in Greek usage. As for the term philia, the love of friendship, it is used with added depth of meaning in Saint John's Gospel in order to express
the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. The tendency to avoid the word eros, together with the new vision of love expressed through the word agape, clearly point to something new and distinct about the Christian understanding of love. In the critique of Christianity which began with the Enlightenment and grew progressively more radical, this new element was seen as something thoroughly negative. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, Christianity had poisoned eros, which for its part, while not completely succumbing, gradually degenerated into vice. Here the German philosopher was expressing a widely-held perception: doesn't the Church, with all her commandments and prohibitions, turn to bitterness the most precious thing in life? Doesn't she blow the whistle just when the joy which is the Creator's gift offers us a happiness which is itself a certain foretaste of the Divine?
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR WANTED FOR JEANNE JUGAN RESIDENCE IN SOMERVILLE
This is a volunteer position that helps lead the way in opening up new opportunities for volunteers to contribute to the mission and day-to-day work of the home. Responsibilities are numerous and include communication, presentations, performance reports, organizing events, etc. For more information, please contact John M. Licciardi, 617-776-4420 ext. 312 or email emdevelopment@littlesistersofthepoor.org.
CATECHETICAL CERTIFICATE
SAINT JOHN’S SEMINARY
“Outstanding... life-changing” – these are some of the adjectives used by students to described 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!
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Thank you for your donations of condiments to St. Francis House during the month of July. 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 July 24/25 $4,007
SIGNINGS
I have been to many funerals. Almost every time, people say the same kinds of things. They are beautiful and true. I remember one time people told me about how the man loved life, and was so good at making people feel at home and able to enjoy themselves. Another time I was told about a woman who was so good at listening and was so good at sitting. One time they told me that the man was good at being truthful and fair. One time they told me that the person loved his wife and his kids. One time they told me about how the person was a great teacher. One time they told me about how the woman was a great cook and had a good home.
Everyone is so sincere and wise when they lose a loved one. They remember the best of that person. And they suddenly know clearly what is the best. Jesus in the Gospel tells us that we need to become rich with the things that make us rich for God.
How can we be rich for God? Jesus tells us what we already know. It is not by working really hard to have a nice car and a bigger and bigger house. Those things are good and wonderful to have. But they don't really make us rich for God. We become rich for God by having an ever increasing heart. Our heart needs to expand. We can get a bigger house but that doesn't make us richer for God. We need to love more and more like God. God loves that, and so does the world around us. We can work hard to get a better car but it doesn't make us richer for God. Can you imagine when you die someone you love saying that they would miss you because you always had a nice car? Possibly, but probably not.
What do you think people will say is good about you when you die? Those tend to be the things that make us rich for God. Work to expand those things and you will be storing for yourself great treasure in Heaven. Then when this short life is over you will be able to get a really nice ride and live in a really nice house. I don't know what the transportation in heaven will be like but I know it will be better then the internal combustion contraptions we use in this part of the world at this moment in history. It will be better than a hybrid or an electric; better that a solar car; better than a horse and buggy. I imagine heavenly transportation will have some thing to do with the angels as the funeral prayers suggest they will carry us.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
SPEAKER AT BC
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking will be speaking at Boston College’s Robsham Theater on Friday, September 17 at 7 PM. Entry is by ticket only. To reserve free tickets, contact church21@bc.edu or 617-552-0470. Seating is limited.