Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Sunday, January 24
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Wednesday, January 27
7:00 AM Mary Palmer Myette
Thursday, January 28
7:00 AM Anna and Andrew Pelczar
Friday, January 29
12:05 PM Patricia Vesey Sacco
Saturday, January 30
4:00 PM Irene Bernadette Harris
Sunday, January 31
9:00 AM Anne and Russell Harney and Agnes and John Walsh
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, January 30
4:00 PM Fr. Imbelli
Sunday, January 31
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, January 30 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
HAITIAN RELIEF
At all the Masses last weekend, a second collection was taken up for the people of Haiti, suffering from the effects of a major earthquake. The human tragedy unfolding in Haiti is heartbreaking and calls out to all of us for action to help these people. Many of our parishioners were unprepared to donate last week. If you would like to contribute to this collection, please make your check payable to Sacred Heart Parish and send it to the rectory. On the memo line of your check, please note: “Haiti Relief”. One check will be written from the parish and sent to Catholic Relief Services.
DON’T FORGET
Women’s Discussion Group meets this Sunday, January 24 at 10:30 a.m. in the Convent Dining Room. New members are always welcome!
Social Justice Forum meets this Sunday, January 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lower Church. Lisa Alberghini, President of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston with speak on “The Church as Developer: A complete Response to Housing People in Need”. Admission is free. Snow date is January 31.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of January 16/17 $4,798.50
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
A Parent Workshop on Reconciliation will be provided on Sunday, Jan. 31st from 10:30-11:45 am in the Convent for all parents of students preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Saturday, March 6 (Offered for both 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.
Fr. O’Connor from St. John’s Seminary to speak on the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation. As you may already know, we will have speakers from our parish as well as from the Archdiocese of Boston during the Tuesday evening CCD classes to speak on important tenets of our faith. 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. If you are wishing to know more about our faith but were afraid to ask, 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 at the entrances/exits of the church. Please pick up a copy!
The Parent Information night for the Chastity Program for grades 4-9, scheduled for Jan. 31 has been postponed. A new date will be scheduled soon.
Michelle Solomon, Director of RE
OPEN HOUSES
St. John – Wellesley: 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.
Saint Jude School – Waltham: We welcome you and your family to visit Saint Jude School at one of our 2010 Open House events for a tour of the school, and an opportunity to speak with parents, students, alumni and teachers. Our Open House events will take place on Sunday, January 31st 1:30-2:30 pm, Tuesday February 2nd 6:30-7:30 pm and Wednesday 9-10 am. Saint Jude School is located at 175 Main Street, Waltham and offers a full day Kindergarten, a comprehensive curriculum for grades K-8 and an onsite after-school program. If you would like more information please call our school office at 781-899-3644.
DECAS HORRIBILIS =
One Horrible Decade
A number of years ago Queen Elizabeth II commented (injudiciously for a queen) on a year that had just past. A number of difficult things had faced the Queen in those days including, if I remember correctly, the death of her daughter-in-law in a tragic automobile accident. The Queen expressed her thoughts by saying publicly – Annus Horribilis. My column bears the title “Decas Horribilis”, namely, “A Horrible Decade” from which we have just emerged. I planned this column before the January 18-25 issue of America Magazine came in the mail. The first thing I read in America Magazine is the column by Father John Kavanaugh, which has always been very helpful. Much to my surprise his latest column is entitled “A Turbulent Decade”.
To understand what goes into the title – A Horrible Decade – my thoughts go back even before 1992 when Pope John Paul II was planning out his great hope for what he was to call – The New Evangelization. The move from the second to the third millennium in the Pope’s thoughts was crucial. The new millennium was to usher in a great period of evangelization, a great time for Church renewal and call to holiness of life. In 1992, the Pope journeyed to the Dominican Republic and joined the bishops of North and South America in the celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. This was the great celebration of the 500th Anniversary of the coming of Christianity into the world of the Americas.
The Pope then set his sights on a new celebration which was to focus on the 2,000th Anniversary of the coming of Christianity into the world. To celebrate all this, the Holy Father called on the Church throughout the world to prepare well for the transition from the second to the third millennium. It was then that the Holy Father began to outline the renewal he hoped for at the start of Christianity’s third millennium of existence. Then came the “decas horribilis”, a horrible decade, that has just past, a horrible decade for the Church, and horrible for the countries of the world.
Let’s take a look at the decade that has passed, then we can go back and re-think the grand designs of Pope John Paul II with a modest hope that, no matter what happens elsewhere, we here at Sacred Heart Parish can be about the task of the new evangelization, can take seriously the call to holiness of life, set our sights on the living of the Gospel for God’s glory and for the flourishing and well-being of men and women all over the globe.
Fr. Kavanaugh in his column quoted Time Magazine which called this past decade – “the decade from hell”. Fr. Kavanaugh would not go that far but agrees that it signaled a time of great erosion of confidence in the governmental structures, in Church structures, and perhaps the erosion of confidence in ourselves. The presidential election of 2000 involved the intervention of the Supreme Court. Did this peaceful transition suggest the beginning of widespread distrust in political figures and in political systems?
Then came the year 2001, the destruction of the World Trade Center, the beginning of warfare on terrorism, an attack on what we have treasured, namely, great wealth and great power.
The year 2002 confronted us with the sexual abuse scandal in the Church and all that that has involved throughout the past decade. Meanwhile, in the country at large, we have the beginning of the Iraq war and terrorist acts in various places around the world. I can just mention them – not terrorist attacks, but the tsunami, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans, that terrible happening in and around Dafur in Africa. All during this decade we note the great debates about abortion and stem cell research, and, as Fr. Kavanaugh has phrased it, “the spectra of genetic manipulation, enhancement and modification of our species”.
Evangelization, in the thought of Pope John Paul II, was very much tied up with the coming of the new millennium. It’s so important that we understand why the Holy Father was stressing the coming of the third millennium. Prior to the start of the new millennium, some people were asking – “What’s all the fuss about the millennium? If I’m alive in the year 2001, I won’t be very much different from what I was at the closing moments of the previous year.” Of course, as we know strange teachings seem to make their appearance at a time like a new millennium. These teachings might involve thoughts about the end of the world, thoughts of all sorts of star wars and other phenomena. In our own country we had the mass suicide the “heavenly gate” people, occasioned by the appearance of a comet in 1997. Pope John Paul II was not thinking foolishly of all such folly. His thoughts on the millennium were rooted in his apostolic hopes for what he called “the new evangelization”. Two decades ago the Holy Father made his thinking clear when he was preparing to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the coming of Christianity to the new world. This 500th year anniversary pointed to the 2,000th anniversary of the coming of Christianity into the world. Jesus is the great evangelizer and he set in motion the great work of evangelization, that is, the spreading of the gospel to all peoples everywhere. The Holy Father hoped that we in our country and all in the Western Hemisphere would think of what must be done with regard to evangelization if the peoples of the Americas are to know and love and follow Christ the Lord. Also, the Pope’s thinking embraced the whole world, 2,000 years after the birth of the Lord, so many peoples and nations and cultures need to be evangelized and countless numbers in our own backyards need evangelization or re-evangelization.
Father Connelly
TIME TO REPLENISH SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!!
It’s that time of year – replenishing school and office supplies! Our parish-wide project to provide Mother Caroline Academy students and teachers with school supplies will run from January 31 through February 7. For two weekends, baskets will be placed at church entrances for collection of “new” items. Since the school is totally privately funded, they depend on donations from individuals, churches, and organizations. So, as you purchase school items or refill your own home and/or business office supplies, please consider buying and donating the following supplies for 64 middle school students and 9 volunteer teachers:
AAA batteries for graphing calculators (4 per calculator)
white board markers (black and other colors)
index cards highlighters
tri-fold poster boards colored pencils
xerox paper markers
3-ring notebook paper graph paper
glue sticks
You can drop off donations in the collection baskets near church entrances the weekends of January 30/31 and February 6/7.
Any contribution you could make to MCAEC would be profoundly appreciated. Your support makes it possible for much-needed educational opportunities to a disadvantaged community, ultimately helping many families to break free from the cycle of poverty. Thanks in advance for your generosity!!!!
Margaret LeBlanc and Jane McGuire
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 Wednesday: 7:30 PM
Monday: 7:30 PM (Spanish) Thursday: 10:00 AM &
Tuesday: 12:30 & 7:00 PM 1:30 PM
We hope that you will sign up to participate. Sign-Up will occur after the Masses this weekend 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. 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.”
SIGNINGS
Powerful words! The Gospel tells us that the promises of God are satisfied by Jesus. God made us for happiness and Jesus gives us the reason for joy. When we believe in Jesus we become happy and rejoice for we have union with the Father, and His love sets us free from sin, evil, and the anxiety that comes from death.
But how do we come to know about Jesus. The Gospel says that the satisfaction comes at the moment Jesus speaks the words of salvation. It is when we hear his powerful word that we believe and rejoice.
Last Sunday there was great rejoicing. The community of the Deaf were able to have the saving word proclaimed so that it could be received into the soul. The word comes to us through the many centuries through the words of the scriptures that the Church proclaims. The formal proclamation of the sacred word happens in the Mass. Last Sunday our Bishop was able to be with us in that process of announcing the good news and so too were the Deaf who were lectors and who expressed that faith in the responses at Mass. All this announcing in sign language and receiving through the eyes happened with our Bishop who is our local historical link to the living Christ in Heaven.
And what happened? Pah! The powerful word "Jesus" was made present and there was great rejoicing. God is good. May His name be ever praised!
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin
CALENDAR NOTES
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
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, January 24 – 10:30 AM – Convent Dining Room
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM:
Sunday, January 24 – 7:30 PM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, January 25 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, January 26
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 27 – 7:30 PM – Convent
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS:
Wednesday, January 27 – 8:00 PM – Convent (DR)
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, January 30 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
ARISE SIGN-UP WEEKEND
Sat/Sun, January 30/31 – following Mass – Church entrances