Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, February 20
4:00 PM Edward T. Aucoin
Sunday, February 21
9:00 AM Suzanne Gan
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Monday, February 22
12:05 PM Frances and Roland Labreche
Friday, February 26
9:00 AM Socorro Jimenez
Saturday, February 27
4:00 PM Mary and Joseph McAlister
Sunday, February 28
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Dongsuk Lee
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, February 27
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, February 28
9:00 AM Fr.Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Wednesday, February 24 – 6:30 to 8:00 PM – Fr. St. Martin
Saturday, February 27 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT
First Reading: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
Second Reading: Philippians 3:17-4:1
Gospel Reading: Luke 9:28b-36
2010 CATHOLIC APPEAL
The weekend of March 6-7 will be Catholic Appeal Weekend here at Sacred Heart Parish. Each year, thousands of people across the Archdiocese experience the Risen Lord through the programs and services supported by the Catholic Appeal. God calls us to share what we have to help others. Please plan to participate.
SOUP AND STATIONS AT CORPUS CHRISTI
Please join us on Friday evening, February 26, as Sacred Heart hosts Soup and Stations at Corpus Christi Church. Our parishioners provide and serve the meatless soup at
6 PM in the hall and then lead the Stations upstairs in the Church at 7 PM. If you can provide some soup or desserts, please call Bernie or Peter Castellanos at 617-969-4299.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of February 13/14 $5,560
Peter’s Pence $1,231
“THE LIGHT IS ON FOR YOU”
On Wednesday, February 24, from 6:30-8:00 pm and on all Wednesdays in Lent, we will be offering confessions here at Sacred Heart, together with all the Catholic parishes and chapels in the Archdiocese of Boston. This outreach is called “The Light is On For You,” and is an effort on the part of our Archdiocese to highlight the importance of the sacrament of confession in the life of Catholics and to make it as easy as possible for every Catholic to come or return to this great source of God’s mercy and healing love. You are welcome to come here or to go to any other Catholic parish or chapel. The Archdiocese has set up a website; www.TheLightIsOnForYou.org, with lots of great material and videos to help you prepare. A podcast is available at www.renewintl.org/renew/home.nsf/vPages/TheLightisOnLanding?OpenDocument. Make plans to come yourself and please invite others to take advantage of this great opportunity to be reconciled and begin anew your journey in faith this Lent.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Sunday CCD classes will be held today, Feb. 21st. Grade 2 Sacramental preparation classes particularly need to be present on this date in order to be sufficiently prepared for receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Our Lenten Rice Bowl program begins this week on Sunday, Feb. 21st and Tuesday, Feb. 23rd. Please look for the Rice Bowls to be sent home! What an important opportunity to help your child share in the sufferings and needs of the poor all over the world! Please join us in sacrificial giving during this time when we contemplate the mystery of Christ’s sacrificial love for us!
Our Confirmation Speaker series continues this week with Fr. Connelly speaking to the students on the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick. All parents and parishioners are invited to attend these classes that are held on Tuesday evenings from 7-8:30 pm in the lower church. Come join us in growing in our understanding of our beautiful Catholic faith.
Michelle Solomon, Director of Rel. Ed.
20th SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
On Sunday, February 28, 7:30 PM in the lower church, Tiziana Dearing, President of Catholic Charities, will speak on “Solidarity in the ‘New Normal’: What we are called to Today”. This event is open to the public; admission is free and refreshments follow the presentation.
HOME CARE WORKER AVAILABLE
A parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish, who is experienced in working with children or the elderly in their home, is available for work. If you are looking for such a person, please call Lynette at 617-306-6072.
WHY THE CROSS?
Theologians and little children are always asking “why” questions – Why did God create the world in the first place? Nothing necessitates God. With absolute freedom God brought the cosmos into being – either because of self-giving love or self-seeking love. But God stands in need of absolutely nothing. God’s creating motive can only be his self-giving love. God wills to share his life and his love with us. All our images fail but we can think of God as of an overflowing reservoir – always giving, always sharing without self-diminishment in any way.
At Christmastime we raise the question – Why the “Incarnation”, that is, why did God the Son, without ceasing to be his divine self, take on our humanity? Centuries ago Anselm of Canterbury composed a treatise “Cur Deus Homo” which asks “Why did God become man?” This season of Lent suggests a third question – Why the cross? Why did the Son of God have to suffer, to die and to be raised again? Saint Paul writes on one occasion – Christ loved the Church and that is why he gave himself in sacrifice. Saint Paul makes this very personal – and we can too – when he says to the Galatians – Christ loved me and that is why he died on the cross!
Whenever we ask “why” of God, we must be prepared to encounter mystery – not mystery à la Hercule Poirot – but mystery in the sense of something very real, very true which only God can grasp but something well beyond our powers to understand. Mystery is like an iceberg which the ship’s captain can observe in part while most of the iceberg lies hidden from him. We must remember – as one theologian (Fr. Lonergan) has written – “Full understanding of mysteries belongs not to believers but to God, nor are mysteries to be believed only insofar as they are understood: they are to be believed as such – because they are truths from God – whether they are in some fashion understood or not.” I will mention Saint Anselm once again. He writes in the form of a prayer to God – “I do not try, O God, to penetrate the depth of your mystery because in no way do I compare my intelligence with yours – but I desire in some way to understand your truth which my heart believes and loves. I do not seek to understand in order to believe, rather, I believe in order to understand.” In matters pertaining to God – faith comes first – then understanding. “I believe in order to understand; and I understand the better to believe.” (Augustine)
From our earliest days we have lived under the sign of the cross. At holy baptism the celebrant called us by name and said to us – “The Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its name I claim you for Christ our Savior by the sign of his cross. I now trace the cross on your forehead and invite your parents and your godparents to do the same.” From our earliest days with the Catechism, we came to realize (in awe, in wonderment, in gratitude) that the Lord Jesus was handed over to death according to the definite plan of God the Father. That Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that for our sake God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. From our earliest days in participating in the Holy Week liturgies, we have hailed the cross as Christ’s victory over sin and death, our very source of hope – “We worship you, O Lord. We praise your resurrection. Through your cross you have brought joy to the world.” Has it not always been the lesson of the cross “that Christ the sinless one suffered willingly for sinners; that Christ the innocent one accepted death to save the guilty.” This is what Paul preached to so many – yet so many did not respond to his message. Paul writes to the Corinthians – “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? – For the Jews demand signs and the Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
It is important that we raise the question – Why the Cross? G. K, Chesterton has written – “according to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, he set it free. God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play: a play he had planned as perfect, but which necessarily had been left to human actors and stage managers, who have since made a great mess of it.” We know that the cross somehow is God’s answer to the great mess we have made of things – in our own lives, in the life of society, in the life of the Church. Why the cross for Jesus? Why the cross for us? These questions have been answered very well at times and very badly at other times. It is important for ourselves that we try, however imperfectly, to answer it well here and now. In our sessions, I am going to suggest we let one theologian guide us. Bernard Lonergan was his name, a Canadian Jesuit who guided my theological work at the Gregorian University in Rome.
In answer to the question – Why the Cross, we will say – and try to understand – “this is why the Son of God became man, suffered, died and was raised again: because divine wisdom has ordained, and divine goodness has willed, not to eliminate the evils of the human race by force but to convert those evils into a highest good according to the just and mysterious Law of the Cross.”
Father Connelly
SIGNINGS
Good People,
The real enemy we all face is the Devil. Sometimes we think that other people in our family, at work, or next door are persecuting us; sometimes we think they are the enemy.
This is not true. Jesus is our General. He shows us who the real enemy is: Satan.
Jesus enters the desert to do battle with the devil, that evil spirit who seeks to thwart God's plan. Jesus emerges from the desert victorious after the 40-day battle is over.
We too know who is behind the divisions, the lies, the factions, the vicious situations that develop in our families, at work, in schools, and with our neighbors: it is Satan.
We too beat the devil with Jesus. We do not hate our enemies as the devil would like. We love them. We serve them. We die for them. That is God's plan: love, not hate.
We do not fall for the devil’s tricks. Jesus did not fall prey to the Devil's short cut options to fulfillment. Jesus is God.
We begin our battle as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Church, leads us into the 40 days of Lent. With Christ we will not battle each other but rather the real enemy, the Devil. With Christ we will fight bravely and emerge victorious. The Devil's foolish tricks are no match for the love we have in Christ.
Fr. St. Martin
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS “FAMILY NIGHT”
March 13, 2010
SAVE THE DATE: The next Guild of St. Francis’ event is Family Night, which will be a catered buffet dinner, followed by a “Sing-a-long”, on Saturday, March 13th from 5-8 PM in the Parish Center. Price is $15.00 for adults and $7.50 for children up to age 12 years. To make your reservation, please call 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. Reservations must be made by March 8! If anyone knows how to play the piano and would be willing to volunteer for the “Sing-a-long”, please call Mary English at 617-332-8656.
INTRODUCTION TO PARISH NURSING
Are you thinking of becoming a parish nurse? St. Anslem College in Manchester NH has a program to create awareness and education about parish nursing. The program will be held on Wednesday, March 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Gadbois Hall, Nursing Building, at St. Anslem College. Fee $79. Register online at www.anselm.edu/cne or call 603-641-7086.
CCSB TO HOST “RESURRECTION”
St. Patrick’s Family Players of Watertown, a multi-denominational musical group, featuring over 100 performers (ages 4-75), will present the uplifting musical cantata “Resurrection” on Friday, March 5, 8:00 PM at Corpus Christi Church (41 Ash Street in Auburndale).
“Resurrection”, the inspirational story of Simon Peter and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, leads the audience on an unforgettable spiritual journey with St. Peter as he faces his martyrdom. Peter recalls his own experiences with Christ as well as those he shared with the other disciples as they followed Jesus. In moving song, Peter shows the anguish for his denial of Christ and the joy that comes from Resurrection and his forgiveness.
The cantata runs for 1 hour and 10 minutes, and always leaves the audience feeling renewed in their faith. The performance is free. Free will donations will be accepted.
BOSTON COLLEGE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY CONTINUING EDUCATION
Several lectures and workshops are offered on campus, most free of charge, for those interested in Becoming the Church We’re Called To Be. Go to www.bc.edu/stmce. or call 617-552-6501 for descriptions, information and registration.
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, February 21 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Grades 1-5:
Sunday, February 21 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, February 22 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, February 23
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10: - 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
CONFESSIONS:
Wednesday, February 24 – 6:30 to 8:00 PM – Lower Church
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS:
Wednesday, February 24 – 8:00 PM – Convent (DR)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, February 26 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
SOUP AND STATIONS:
Friday, February 26 – 6-7:30 PM – Corpus Christi
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, February 27 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, February 28 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, February 28 – 10:30 AM – Convent (DR)
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Grades 1-5:
Sunday, February 28 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM:
Sunday, February 28 – 7:30 PM – Lower Church