Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, January 9
4:00 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Sunday, January 10
9:00 AM Salvatore, Louis and Philip DeSimone
11:45 AM James P. D. Waters
Friday, January 15
12:05 PM Frances Small
Saturday, January 16
4:00 PM Pauline and Mary Scichilone
Sunday, January 17
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
10:30 AM Mary McCarthy
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, January 16
4:00 PM Fr. Imbelli
Sunday, January 17
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Cardinal Seán O’Malley
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, January 16 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Gospel Reading: John 2:1-11
19th SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
“The Church as Developer: A Complete Response to Housing People in Need”
On Sunday, January 24, at 7:30 PM, (Snow Date: January 31), the 19th Social Justice forum will feature Lisa Alberghini, President of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston. Admission is free, open to the public, refreshments follow the presentation in Sacred Heart Parish lower Church.
LIFT – CATHOLIC WORSHIP FOR A NEW GENERATION
Join us for the monthly worship event on Tuesday, January 19 as we welcome Fr. John Gerth as our guest speaker. The evening runs from 7-9 pm at Fontbonne Academy, 930 Brook Road, Milton. Directions and a downloadable flyer along with more information can be found at the website www.liftedhigher.com. Come join in worship with hundreds of Catholics from around the Boston area!
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
CCD classes will resume today Sunday, Jan. 10th for the new year! Our Tuesday CCD program begins again for the lower and upper grades on Jan. 12th. Please pray that the grace and wisdom of the Holy Spirit be with our teachers, students and families, so that we all will come to live in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ now and forever.
On Jan. 12th, the Confirmation classes will begin a speaker series on the 4 pillars of our faith. During the Tuesday evening CCD classes, we will have speakers from our parish as well as from the Archdiocese of Boston. All parents of CCD students, as well as our entire parish, are invited to attend these sessions to grow and develop in their knowledge of our beautiful Catholic faith. Only through a process of lifelong learning, can we begin to know the beauty and depth of the truth that is in Jesus Christ. Don’t miss this opportunity to come and learn with us! Class begins at 7 pm and concludes at 8:30 pm. Our pastor, Fr. Connelly will begin the speaker series on Tuesday, Jan. 12th from 7:00-8:30 PM and will speak to us on “Christology”. I will post the speakers for each week in the bulletin, but a copy of the schedule will be at all entrances and exits of the church. Pick up a copy!
A Blessed and Happy New Year!
Michelle Solomon, Dir. of R.E.
ARISE SEASON FOUR
Mark your calendars now for season four of our Arise program, “New Heart, New Spirit” which begins the week of February 14 and continues for 6 weeks. Sign-up will take place on the weekends of January 23/24 and 30/31. For more information, you may call Winifred Murphy at 617-969-4021 or email: peg.miller@sacredheart.ws.
ANGLICAN CONVERSION PROCESS PRESENTATION
On Unity Sunday, January 17th, Fr. Richard Bradford, formerly an Anglican priest and now a convert and ordained Catholic priest, will make a presentation at St. Theresa’s Church in West Roxbury, side chapel, at 2:30 PM on the Papal Declaration issued in November 2009 welcoming Traditional Anglicans into the Catholic Church. The presentation will be followed by Evensong in the main Church. Parking: off St. Theresa Avenue, rear of Church.
MARCH FOR LIFE IN WASHINGTON
The Massachusetts Citizens for Life will sponsor a caucus in Washington, D.C. on January 22, 2010 from 9:30-11:30 AM at the Russell Senate Bldg., Room 325, before the March for Life. For information and a bus schedule to DC, go to www.masscitizensforlife.org, or call 617-242-4199.
“THE LORD HAS MADE HIS SALVATION KNOWN TO THE WHOLE WORLD”
From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
The loving providence of God determined that in the last days he would aid the world, set on its course to destruction. He decreed that all nations should be saved in Christ.
A promise had been made to the holy patriarch Abraham in regard to these nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the seed of faith. His descendants are therefore compared with the array of the stars. The father of all nations was to hope not in an earthly progeny but in a progeny from above.
Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family of the patriarchs. Let the children of the promise now receive the blessing in the seed of Abraham, the blessing renounced by the children of his flesh. In the persons of the Magi let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be known, not in Judea only, but in the whole world, so that his name may be great in all Israel.
Dear friends, now that we have received instruction in this revelation of God’s grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy the day of our first harvesting, of the first calling of the Gentiles. Let us give thanks to the merciful God, who has made us worthy, in the words of the Apostle, to share the position of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. As Isaiah prophesied: the people of the Gentiles, who sat in darkness, have seen a great light, and for those who dwelt in the region of the shadow of death a light has dawned. He spoke of them to the Lord: The Gentiles, who do not know you, will invoke you, and the peoples, who knew you not, will take refuge in you.
This is the day that Abraham saw, and rejoiced to see, when he knew that the sons born of his faith would be blessed in his seed, that is, in Christ. Believing that he would be the father of the nations, he looked into the future, giving glory to God, in full awareness that God is able to do what he has promised.
This is the day that David prophesied in the psalms, when he said: All the nations that you have brought into being will come and fall down in adoration in your presence, Lord, and glorify your name. Again, the Lord has made known his salvation; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
This came to be fulfilled, as we know, from the time when the star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.
Dear friends, you must have the same zeal to be of help to one another; then, in the kingdom of God, to which faith and good works are the way, you will shine as children of the light: through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
DISCERNMENT RETREATS FOR MEN
Discernment retreats will be held on Feb 5-6 at Blessed John XXIII Seminary for men 40 and over and on February 5-7 at St. John’s Seminary and Connors Family Retreat Center for those 18-40. The Vocation Office invites you to submit names of men you think might have a vocation to the priesthood to be considered for one of these retreats. Please send their names and contact information to the Vocation Office, 66 Brooks Drive, Braintree, MA 02184, call 617-746-5949, or email Dfortin@rcab.org.
MONTROSE SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE
On Thursday, January 21, Montrose School will host an Open House from 7 – 9 PM at 289 North St., Medfield, MA 02052. Montrose School is an independent college preparatory day school with a Catholic tradition for girls in grades 6-12. For more information, call 508-359-2423.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of January 2/3 $ 3,415
Christmas Offering $11,305
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, January 10 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, January 10 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, January 11 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, January 12
Grades 1-5: – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10: – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, January 13 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Chapel)
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS:
Wednesday, January 13 – 8 PM – Convent (DR)
PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING:
Thursday, January 14 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Library)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, January 15 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, January 16 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, January 17 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, January 17 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
SIGNINGS
Context. What is it? The beginning and the end of a thing. The material of a thing. The thing behind the thing. The thing that supports the thing.
This is the kind of thing people were asking about John the Baptist many years ago. At that time people were ready for the Messiah: Jesus. The prophets of ancient times had told people that the Messiah was coming and in this context many people thought that John the Baptist was the Messiah. But he was not.
God the Father points this out clearly. The Holy Spirit comes down right out of heaven and there is a voice. It is the voice of the Father who is actually heard pointing out with absolute clarity who is who. The Messiah is not John the Baptist. It is Jesus.
We need to be clear today as well. As Americans we tend to be people who are hopeful. Like the people of John the Baptist's time, we have been prepared to expect good things are coming into the world.
We can think that this or that life style, or this or that politician, or this or that bill, this or that program, this or that thing will bring the satisfaction and peace we expect. But if we are not careful we can easily pick a false messiah.
But does God make the Messiah hard to find? No. He makes it quite easy. The Messiah is Jesus. God sends His Church, the Catholic Church, into the world filled with His spirit so that we can see that Jesus is the Messiah.
This Church is not itself the Messiah; its priests are not the Messiah. Rather, the church points with a loud voice to the reality of Christ and connects us to Him.
The Church is the supporter of family, art, culture, joy throughout the world. It is a great peacemaker. It has great lasting power. It is for everyone from all times and races and nations and languages. It itself shares a heritage with the other true religion - Judaism - which is easy to believe in as being true. The tribes all around the Israelites, the Egyptians and later, the Babylonians, the Greeks the Romans, they all had religious beliefs and practices but they have all been abandoned. Not so with the Jews and the Catholics.
It is grossly apparent that the Church is not itself the Messiah. The Church by itself is truly not our salvation. Neither was John. These are rather the means to Jesus our Savoir. We hear the voice of the Father through history and the Spirit now really living in our hearts by grace.
We know that the beginning and the end of the Church is Christ. Christ is our Savior and there is no other.
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin
A MISSION OF LOVE
Dear Parishoners,
Hola y Feliz Navidad! For those of you who do not know me, my name is Maria Perdomo and I have been a member of this parish for eleven years. I hope that this season of hope has filled you and your family with joy, love and peace. I know that it has been such a blessing for me to be home with my family during the holidays and to have a break from the busyness of life as a junior nursing student at Franciscan University, where I have been blessed with so many opportunities to grow both academically and spiritually. One of these opportunities is that I have been invited to travel to Ecuador in March of 2010, with my University’s mission organization, Franciscan Missions of Peace, on a medical and catechetical mission trip.
This is Franciscan’s sixth year serving in the beautiful country of Ecuador. I will be traveling with 25 other students as well as with several priests, religious, nurses, and doctors. We will travel to Ecuador on March 12, and spend just over a week ministering to the isolated communities in the Amazon region. We will be providing basic medical care, such as vaccinations, teaching about hygiene and other preventative medical techniques. As a Catholic, I believe it is important to care for the entire person, therefore; we will not only be looking after the physical needs of the people we serve, but we will also tend to their spiritual needs as well through celebrating the Sacraments, praying with the communities, and holding catechetical workshops, in the hopes of establishing a strong faith-based community so that our work continues after we have left.
Mother Teresa said that, “A missionary is one who is sent. Each one of us is sent by God. We are sent to be his love among men, to bring his love and compassion to the poorest of the poor. We must not be afraid to love.” St. Thérèse of the Little Flower, the patron saint of missionaries, never left the cloister of her convent her entire life, yet is given this title because she did ordinary things with extraordinary love. Her mission in life was to love. Even from home, you can imitate St. Thérèse in doing ordinary things with extraordinary love. I am writing to ask you to consider participating in this mission. Before anything, I ask you to pray for our mission, and all the missionaries who will serve, and the people of Ecuador to whom we will minister. Also, being a medical mission, we are in need of various medical supplies. Finally, missions always require financial support. Anything you can give will make a difference and will be immensely appreciated. Please make checks payable to Franciscan University, indicate on the memo line Ecuador Spring and mail to: Missions of Peace, Student Life Office, Franciscan University of Steubenville, 1235 University Blvd. Steubenville, OH 43952.
Thank you so much for your generosity!
En Cristo, Maria Perdomo