Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
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
Friday, January 22
12:05 PM Josefina Altea Ocfemia
Saturday, January 23
9:00 AM Ruth Aucker
Sunday, January 24
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKENDS MASSES
Saturday, January 23
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, January 24
9:00 AM Fr. Imbelli
10:30 AM Fr. Carey
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, January 23 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-30
Gospel Reading: Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21
HOLIDAY MASS SCHEDULE
On Monday, January 18 we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil holiday. Mass will be celebrated at 9 AM in the Lower Church.
2009 COLLECTION
FOR THE CHURCH IN LATIN AMERICA
Next week’s special collection supports the Church in Latin America (CLA). The CLA provides support for pastoral projects in financially poor dioceses in Latin American and the Caribbean. CLA funds catechetical and lay leadership programs, youth ministry, evangelization programs, and formation programs for religious, priests and deacons. CLA is making it possible for the Catholic faithful in the Western hemisphere to help each other. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. For more information, please go to www.usccb.org/latinamerica.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of January 9/10 $5,420
RELIGOUS EDUCATION NEWS
CCD CLASSES WILL BE HELD TODAY, JANUARY 17TH ON MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY WEEKEND!
On Tuesday, Jan. 19th the Confirmation class will welcome Fr. Imbelli as the 2nd speaker in our speaker series on the 4 pillars of our faith. Fr. Imbelli will speak on The Holy Spirit-Spirit of the Church. Throughout the year 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 life long 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 until 8:30 pm. You can find a schedule of the speakers for each week in the back of the entrances/exits of the church. Please pick up a copy!
A Parent Workshop on Reconciliation will be provided on Sunday, Jan. 31st from 10:30-11:45pm in the Convent for all parents of students preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Saturday, March 6 (Sunday and Tuesday CCD programs). THE ATTENDANCE OF AT LEAST ONE PARENT IS REQUIRED. Babysitters will be provided for anyone in need as well as coffee and donuts. Please come to the Convent immediately after Mass to arrange contact with the babysitter that will be watching the children in the gym of the MacKenzie Center. PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL TO CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE.
Michelle Solomon
Director of RE
19th SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
“The Church as Developer: A Complete Response to Housing People in Need”
On Sunday, January 24, at 7:30 PM in the Lower Church, we welcome Lisa Alberghini, President of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston. With 25 years experience in developing affordable and mixed income housing, Lisa plays a significant role in setting Archdiocesan policy on affordable housing and in advocating for resources at the state and federal levels. Admission is free, refreshments follow the presentation. Snow date is January 31.
YEAR-END TAX STATEMENTS
If you use the Parish’s Offertory envelopes and would like a record of your donations to the parish during the year 2009, please call the rectory at 617-969-2248 to request that a statement be sent.
WE PROCLAIM CHRIST TO THE WHOLE WORLD
From a Homily by Pope Paul VI
Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man’s teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead.
All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfillment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity.
I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.
He is like us but more perfectly human, simple, poor, humble, and yet, while burdened with work, he is more patient. He spoke on our behalf; he worked miracles; and he founded a new kingdom: in it the poor are happy; peace is the foundation of a life in common; where the pure of heart and those who mourn are uplifted and comforted; the hungry find justice; sinners are forgiven; and all discover that they are brothers.
The image I present to you is the image of Jesus Christ. As Christians you share his name; he has already made most of you his own. So once again I repeat his name to you Christians and I proclaim to all men: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Lord of the new universe, the great hidden key to human history and the part we play in it. He is the mediator – the bridge, if you will – between heaven and earth. Above all he is the Son of man, more perfect than any man, being also the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary his mother on earth, more blessed than any woman. She is also our mother in the spiritual communion of the mystical body.
Remember: It is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I would see echo and reecho for all time even to the ends of the earth.
P.S.: Last Tuesday our young Confirmation candidates and I met to discuss some questions about the Lord Jesus – Who was he in human history? Where is he now? How are we in contact with him and how is he in contact with us? What did he do in human history for the well-being of men and women through his death and resurrection? What does he continue to do for the well-being of men and women as he gives us all the gifts he won for us through his paschal mystery? Then we raised more personal questions – Who is this Jesus for me? What does he mean to me? What role does he play in my life? I offered to them the words of Pope Paul VI. He spoke these words before a million people – very poor people gathered in one of the poorest areas of the City of Manila. He repeated the Gospel message that we humans, even though we are poor, do not live on bread alone; hence, the importance of the Lord Jesus in our lives. Pope Paul took the occasion to tell those in his audience what the Lord Jesus really meant to him.
Father Connelly
PRO-LIFE
The dates of January 21-22 are important dates for those who treasure the gift of life. It seems incredible to those who are grateful to God for the gift of life that people either don’t recognize how precious that gift is or refuse to allow it to enter into their consciousness.
We have a long tradition here at Sacred Heart Parish with regard to prayers for life. Every Saturday morning we have Mass at 9 o’clock and then we have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. We decided this year that Saturday, January 23, would be the key day for our Prayers for Life and life causes. A large group comes to the 9 o’clock Mass each Saturday morning, a relatively small group stays then for the special prayers for life causes. People are designated to keep vigil before the Blessed Sacrament until Benediction at 12:30 p.m. We’re trying hard at Sacred Heart Parish to build up our numbers who come to pray in this apostolate, so Sacred Heart is considering January 23 as its annual observance of commemorating the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade. Please try to join us at prayer that day.
Father Connelly
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“O marvelous exchange! Man’s Creator has become man, born of a virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
Father, your only Son revealed himself to us by becoming man. May we who share his humanity come to share his divinity for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
SIGNINGS
The disciples began to believe in Jesus as the savior of the world, as God, as the Christ, when he took an ordinary thing of this world, water, and glorified it making it into wine. This was all done as a way to assist in the celebration of a newly married couple’s love.
What a time it must have been for these disciples! They started to really listen and look at Jesus. They started to hold all that he said and did in their minds and cherish it in their hearts.
They received these "front row seats" because it was God's plan that later they would be the ones to share Christ with the world. They would be the ones who would teach us about Him and do the things He did because He gave them power to do so.
The disciples did this. They went out to all the nations, and people came to know about Jesus the savior, the one who celebrates with joy the life of man, and changes what is ordinary into what is delightful. They did that and the people who were with the disciples became as excited as the disciples themselves once were. In turn the next generation carried the message and the grace from Christ through the Apostles to a new group of Apostles in each generation.
These Apostles, or Bishops, are today fulfilling the plan set up long ago. Bishop Seán is with us today. Through the Spirit this means that it is just as if one of the people who were with Jesus when he changed water into wine is here with us.
We are so privileged to have this man with us. He holds and teaches the Catholic Faith that we have from the Apostles and he is with us here.
This is a day of rejoicing. God has sent us His servant Seán to celebrate with joy the praises of Christ and Mass on Sunday.
God’s goodness is never ending.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
OPEN HOUSE AT ST. JOHN SCHOOL
Come take a tour and see what a Catholic Education at St. John School is all about! Visit us on Sunday, January 31, from 9:30 am – 12:00 noon to tour the facility and talk with our Principal and parents. On Tuesday, February 2 from 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. please join us for a tour, meet teachers and visit the classrooms while school is in session. We are located at 9 Ledyard Street in Wellesley. Visit us at www.saintjohnschool.net or you may call Principal Kathleen Aldridge at 781-235-0300.
NEW HEART, NEW SPIRIT
Season Four of the Arise Together in Christ program of spiritual renewal, New Heart, New Spirit, offers a Catholic understanding of the need for healing and reconciliation. Season Four begins the week of February 14 and ends before Palm Sunday. The schedule of small group sessions is as follows:
Sunday: 10:15 AM 7:00 PM
Monday: 7:30 PM (Spanish)
Tuesday: 12:30 PM 7:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:30 PM
Thursday 10:00 AM 1:30 PM
We hope that you will sign up to participate. Sign-Up will occur after the Masses on the weekends of January 23/24 and January 30/31. If you are unable to sign up at those times, you can call Winnie Murphy at 617-969-4021 or email Peg Miller at peg.miller@sacredheart.ws. Please note that each season is independently structured; one does not need to have attended the prior sessions to participate. So if you are a newcomer, please DO NOT HESITATE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS SEASON. If you have already been a member of an ARISE group, share your experience and spread the word about the next season!! Let us know if you or another parishioner will need transportation. Let us all Pray: that we will become “better hearers and doers of the Word of God.”
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP
The Women’s Discussion Group has selected Prophetic Witness: Catholic Women’s Strategies For Reform, edited by Colleen M. Griffith (Church in the 21st Century Center) for their winter/spring series. For more details about this book, visit www.bc.edu/church21/publications.html. Meetings are held on Sundays from 10:30 AM to noontime in the convent dining room. Please read the preface and Part 1 for Sunday, January 24. New Members are always welcome!
CALENDAR NOTES
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
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, January 19
Grades 1-5: – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10: – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
LITURGY COMMITTEE MEETING:
Tuesday, January 19 – 7:30 PM – Convent
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, January 23 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
ARISE SIGN-UP WEEKEND
Sat/Sun, January 23/24 – following Mass – Church entrances
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, January 24 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, January 24 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church