Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, July 24
4:00 PM Karol Downey
Sunday, July 25
9:00 AM Eva Egan
11:45 AM Richard Toranto
Monday, July 26
12:05 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
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
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, July 31
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, August 1
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Imbelli
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, July 31 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel Reading: Luke 12:13-21
2010 CATHOLIC APPEAL
Thank you to all supporters of the 2010 Catholic Appeal. As of July 19, our parish has raised $42,716 from 101 households, reaching 88.1% of our parish goal of $48,500. If you have not yet pledged, please consider a gift today and help us meet our goal. Please remember to make your pledge now even if you plan on fulfilling that pledge later in the year. You can pick up information packets with pledge forms at the Church entrances to be mailed in, or visit www.BostonCatholicAppeal.com for more information. Every gift matters. Thank you!
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
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. The classes meet for eight Saturdays, one a month from September through May (but not in December), from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., either in Braintree or in Brighton. The cost is a very reasonable $250. Go to: www.CatecheticalCertificate.com to register!
HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGE – LENT 2011
Fr. Frank Silva, Pastor of Newton’s Corpus Christi-St. Bernard Parish, will serve as spiritual director for a Holy Land Pilgrimage scheduled for March 27-April 5, 2011. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the Sea of Galilee are just a few of the many places that will be part of this “trip-of-a-lifetime”. Cost $2,299 plus air taxes and fees. For a brochure about the trip, please call 617-244-0608 or email: fsilva@ccsbparish.org.
CATHOLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
Witness to Hope (August 12-15th at St. Thecla’s, Billerica) is an exciting overnight leadership institute specially designed for Roman Catholic Middle Schoolers who have just completed grades 6, 7, or 8. We use a very high-energy interactive workshop model that utilizes multiple learning styles and develops the skills required for various forms of leadership and peer ministry. The entire time is surrounded by different prayer experiences, the Sacraments, and Liturgies, that will feed, encourage, and equip the young people. Early Registration, $285 with $100 deposit due upon registration. For more information please contact Danielle Olsen at dolsen@rcab.org or 617-746-5750.
CHARITY IN TRUTH
St. Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Ephesians that we are to do the truth in love. We can never understand the Church’s teaching on our new lives in Christ and in the Spirit unless we understand the place of truth and love in Gospel teaching. Many years ago, a wonderful philosopher, Jacques Maritain, wrote a tiny little volume which he entitled “Prayer and Intelligence”. He asks us to think about God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and think of them as Father and Word (Truth) and Love (Holy Spirit). He then writes: “In us as well as in God, love must proceed from the Word, that is, from the spiritual possession of the truth, in faith. And just as everything which is in the Word is found once more in the Holy Spirit, so must all that we know pass into our power of affection by love, there only finds its resting place.” Maritain is telling us that love must proceed from the truth and that knowledge must bear fruit in love. Maritain adds: “Our prayer is not what it ought to be if either of these conditions is wanting.”
This sort of charity helps us very much, I suggest, to understand the writings of our present Holy Father. Our hope in this column is to present Pope Benedict’s teaching in his third encyclical letter which he called “Charity in Truth”.
“1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free. To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity, in fact, “rejoices in the truth”. All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon them completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth.
2. Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law. It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything because, as Saint John teaches and as I recalled in my first Encyclical Letter, “God is love” (Deus Caritas Est): everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity, it is his promise and our hope.
I am aware of the ways in which charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields — the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger — it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility. Hence the need to link charity with truth not only in the sequence, pointed out by Saint Paul, of veritas in caritate, but also in the inverse and complementary sequence of caritas in veritate. Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed within the “economy” of charity, but charity in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth. In this way, not only do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help give credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence.
3. Through this close link with truth, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word.”
SIGNINGS
Good People,
The last line of the "Our Father" prayer is something that we need to understand as adults.
The last book of the Bible describes a last day of judgment which is terrifying. The last part of Christ's public ministry was terrifying.
The last line of the "Our Father" is a way of asking that we not be required to go through that; but that we be spared.
We don't want to go through a test of judgment and Christ tells us that it is good and right that we should pray out of that want. He prays for us in just that way. He prays that we not be forced to go through the judgment of God's terrifying last day.
As we pray that last line we are transformed. We become people who are not waiting to draw near to Christ. We become people who are not waiting to start to really dedicate ourselves to God. We become people who want to fully experience heaven now. We become people who more and more want to repent of our sins, continue to try not to sin, and become full of love and overflowing with God's love for His glory and for the benefit of all the world.
Putting off full dedication to God is to not really desire the point of the last line of the "Our Father." If we are putting off full love with God we are choosing instead to let the chips fall where they may and letting the last day of Judgment come with all the possibilities of the punishment we know it will bring.
That isn't wise. That is why we practice praying the "Our Father." It transforms us again to the wisdom of the children of God and to full love which casts out all fear.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
TRANSPORTATION FOR SENIORS
If you are over 60 and in need of transportation to hospitals, grocery stores, church and long-term care facilities in Newton, the Newton Department of Senior Services is here to help you. To arrange a ride to your destination, please contact the Newton Senior Center Transportation Services at 617-796-1288 to make a reservation. Vouchers are needed to travel. Vouchers are available to pick up or to be mailed from 345 Walnut St., Newton, MA 02460. Please make your reservation three business days in advance. For more information, call 617-796-1664 or visit www.newtonseniors.org.
EDUCATION COORDINATOR WANTED
Fr. Bob Connors, pastor of St. Patrick Parish, Watertown, is looking for a Religious Education Coordinator/Pastoral Associate. The position is full time, but could be flexible for the right candidate. If you are interested, please send resume to Fr. Bob at 26R Chestnut St., Watertown, MA 02472, or email it to frbob@stpatswatertown.org.
WORLDWIDE MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
“Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Today’s Gospel Reading). If you are seeking more intimacy and harmony in your marriage all you have to do is knock on this door and enrichment will be granted unto you. The next Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekends in New England are September 17-19 and September 24-26. For more information and to register, call 800-710-WWME or visit our webpage at www.wwmeMA.org.
ST. THERESA FEAST DAY AT THE LTTLE FLOWER SHRINE – AUGUST 15, 2010
The Shrine of the Little Flower in Nasonville, Rhode Island is the first shrine dedicated to St. Theresa in America. The 17th Annual Feast Day celebration begins at 10:30 AM with prayers at the Holy Stairs, followed by Stations of the Cross, lunch, a concert, outdoor living rosary, procession with St. Theresa, Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3 PM and Solemn Mass at 3:15 PM. All events outdoors rain or shine at the Shrine of the Little Flower, 35 Dion Drive, (Nasonville) Harrisville, RI – at the intersection of Rtes 102 and 7. For more information, call 401-568-0575 or 401-568-8280; email shiirl@cox.net.; go to www.SaintTheresaShrine.com.
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 17/18 $3,532
Black and Native American Collection $ 956
CALENDAR NOTES
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, July 25– 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, July 30 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, July 31 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR AFTER 10:30 ASL MASS:
Sunday, August 1 – 11:30 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center