Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Sunday, March 28
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Wednesday, March 31
7:00 AM Lucia Capodilupo
CONFESSIONS
Wednesday, March 31 – 6:30 to 8:00 PM – Father Connelly
NO CONFESSIONS ON HOLY SATURDAY, APRIL 3.
THE SACRED TRIDUUM
HOLY THURSDAY: Morning Prayer and Office of Readings at 10 a.m. in the Lower Church. Celebration of the Lord’s Supper will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Upper Church. This will be a concelebrated Mass for the deaf and hearing members of our Parish with shared participation. Please note that a morning Mass is not allowed in canon law for a parish in our circumstances. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be until 10:00 p.m.
Holy Thursday Offerings: Parishioners have been very responsive to the Lenten appeal for new underwear and socks for St. Francis House. The collection will end at the Mass on Holy Thursday evening when the baskets will be brought to the altar in the offertory procession.
The Rice Bowl offerings will be brought to the altar also. The money that you saved during Lent for this project may be placed in the baskets on the tables as you enter church. If you are not present on Holy Thursday, you may place an envelope marked “Rice Bowl” in the regular collection on Easter or leave it at the rectory.
GOOD FRIDAY: Morning Prayer and Office of Readings at 10 a.m. in the Lower Church; Stations of the Cross for our school children at 11 a.m. in the Upper Church; Stations of the Cross again at 3:00 p.m. in the Upper Church; and celebration of the Lord’s Passion at 7:30 p.m. in the Upper Church. This celebration is for the deaf and hearing members of our Parish.
HOLY SATURDAY: Morning Prayer and Office of Readings at 10:00 a.m. in the Lower Church. The celebration of the great EASTER VIGIL at 8:00 p.m. will be in English only. Gather in the lower church to pick up tapers and programs or on the front steps of the church. If the weather is not good, we will all gather in our gathering space in the upstairs church. As usual, after the Easter Vigil there will be a reception at the MacKenzie Center. (PLEASE NOTE: There will be no 4:00 p.m. Mass on Holy Saturday.)
EASTER SUNDAY
Please note that the last Mass on Easter Sunday will be at 12 noon.
GOOD FRIDAY COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY PLACES
On Good Friday, our parish will take up the annual collection for the Holy Land. We ask you to be generous. Your financial contribution will support the works of the Catholic Community in the Middle East and to protect the Holy Places and Christian shrines. Please be generous.
EASTER SUNDAY COLLECTION
At the Easter Vigil and all the Masses on Easter Sunday, the one collection to be taken up will be directed entirely for the support of priests serving the Archdiocese of Boston, to provide for their health and retirement needs. Your customary generosity is essential and greatly appreciated.
EASTER VIGIL RECEPTION
We have established a wonderful tradition of continuing our Easter joy at a reception in the Parish Center following the Easter Vigil Mass. If you would be willing to contribute some refreshments, please add your name to the sign-up sheets that will be on the tables at the back of the church and on the table near the elevator. Crackers and cheese, desserts, and other finger foods are requested. Your items can be left at the Parish Center on Holy Saturday morning between 11 a.m. and noon or just before the Vigil.
EASTER EGG HUNT
An Easter egg hunt for children, ages 1-10, will take place on the rectory lawn following the 9 AM Mass on Easter Sunday, April 4.
EASTER FLOWERS
If you would like to donate monies for our Easter flowers in memory of a loved one, please feel free to do so. The names of the deceased will be placed in the bulletin at Easter time, and we will remember them in our prayers at all the Masses. Checks may be made payable to Sacred Heart Parish and mailed to the rectory.
THE CHURCH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
APRIL EVENTS
Thursday, April 8 at 7:00 PM, Fr. Robert Imbelli will examine the Pope’s theological and pastoral vision. This event will be held at Boston College’s Brighton campus. Registration: 617-552-0470 or www.bc.edu/church21.
Living the Journey: Spirituality for the Second Half of Life on Saturday, April 10, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Robsham Theater. Registration deadline April 3 – $55 – visit www.bc.edu/journey or call 617-552-1607.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of March 20/21 $4,375.
HOLY SATURDAY
Holy Saturday is perhaps the one day in the Church’s liturgical calendar, which is most often misunderstood by so many. We all understand what the liturgy is all about on Holy Thursday and on Good Friday. Similarly, we’re all aware and so many of us are enthusiastic about what we celebrate during the night of Easter Saturday. We call it the Easter Vigil, which really should not be started until 10:30 in the evening so that we can celebrate the Liturgy of the Word and arrange for the liturgy of baptism and then be ready to celebrate the Eucharist at midnight. What, then, is Holy Saturday all about? What are we doing between the Good Friday liturgy and the Easter Vigil? Some might answer – I’m shopping, I’m cleaning the house, I’m trying to catch up a bit on spring-cleaning because the yard is a mess and the leaves must be gathered and disposed of. Let us listen to what the Sacramentary says about Holy Saturday: “On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on his suffering and death. The altar is left bare and the sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated. On that day, Holy Communion may be given only as Holy Viaticum to persons.”
On Good Friday, the Church celebrates these words of the Apostles’ Creed which say – “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.” On Easter Sunday, the Church celebrates the article of the Creed that says – “On the third day he rose again.” What part of the Creed do we celebrate on Holy Saturday? We celebrate the words – “He descended into hell.”
The New Testament belief that Jesus was raised from the dead presupposes that the crucified Lord sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This means, first of all, that Jesus, like all who have died, experienced death and joined others in the realm of the dead. However, he went there as Savior to proclaim the good news of redemption. Scripture calls the abode of the dead “hell” because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. This is the lot of all whether evil or righteous while they await their redeemer. It is precisely the holy souls who awaited their Savior and whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell. As the Catechism puts it, “Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him”. Thus the descent into hell brings the gospel message of salvation to complete fulfillment. Once again, to quote the Catechism, “This is the last phase of Jesus’ mission…the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all people of all times and places, for all who have been saved have been made sharers in the redemption”.
P.S. A good way to celebrate Holy Saturday is to assemble with us in the lower church at 10:00 a.m. for Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings.
Father Connelly
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Our Confirmation Speaker series will be on sabbatical this week in order that our Confirmation classes can retreat to the chapel to follow the Way of the Cross during this holiest of weeks. In this Catholic devotion, we contemplate and thereby share in a small way, in the sufferings of Christ offered for our sakes, as Mary must have done when she stayed with Jesus until His last breath.
All students should return their Lenten Rice Bowls for the poor, to their CCD classes on Sunday, March 28th and Tuesday, March 30th. Don’t forget to bring in men’s underwear only to put in the baskets for the St. Francis House on these days also. All Rice bowls and underwear donations must be returned on these dates in order to present these gifts at the Offertory on Holy Thursday evening at 7:30 PM.
Fr. Connelly will be having a special edition of the Stations of the Cross for Children in the upper church at 11 am on Good Friday. We are so fortunate to have such vibrant and moving tableaus of the suffering and death of Christ in our Church! So bring your children to be with Christ in His Passion.
There will be a Parent Workshop for all who have students receiving 1st Communion in May 2010, on Sunday, April 11th in the Convent from 10:30 am – 11:45 am. At least one parent must attend this workshop! If you have any need of baby sitting services, please call or email the Religious Education Director so we may get sitters.
If you have already enjoyed the beautiful Parish Celebration for our 1st Communion families at the MacKenzie Center in the past, we ask that you take this opportunity to help our newest 1st Communion families to experience this same celebration on Sunday, May 16th, 2010. Please sign up to either: pick up food, set up the hall, restock the tables or clean up afterwards. Please call (617-969-4031) or email: religious.education@sacredheart.ws, if you can help in any part of this happy occasion for our parish family. Thank you so much for this important gift of service!
Michelle Solomon, RE Director
ROOM NEEDED
Sacred Heart parishioner seeks a room starting May 1 – furnished or unfurnished. Please call Sue at 617-216-4687.
U.S. CENSUS 2010
Census workers are still needed. These are temporary, part-time jobs that offer good pay, flexible hours, and are close to home. If you are interested, please call 1-866-861-2010 or visit www.2010censusjobs.gov for more information. A practice test is available online or at the rectory office.
SIGNINGS
Good People,
Who do you say that you are? One way to know who you are is to know who your friends are. It strikes me in Luke's Gospel there is an accounting of a bad friendship popping up in the midst of the Lord's passion. "Herod and Pilate became friends that very day." I always thought friendship was a good thing, but it seems there is something of an evil friendship here. These two men of worldly power, living without faith, are united in friendship as they share in actions against the power of heaven and for the benefit of their own earthly foothold. The fact that they become friends shows that they are the same kind of person. It is also interesting that Luke points out that they had formerly been enemies. There was a change in these two from enemies to friends.
Peter goes through a change too. He wants to be friends with Jesus. But he fails. In a way, because of weakness, he becomes like an enemy of Jesus. He calls a woman who is trying to expose his friendship with the condemned Jesus, saying, "My friend, I am not" ... with Christ. It is like saying he is not a friend of the Lord.
Pilate and Herod seem to be able to cooperate, support each other in a common goal, work together, see eye to eye. They are able to become evil friends in the pursuit of brutal rule. They are alike in so many ways and so they are friends. Peter wants to become like Christ, wants to have the same goals, wants to work for His heavenly kingdom, wants to see eye to eye with Jesus but fails. He can't. And neither can we.
One time I visited a woman who was deaf. She had been dying for a long time. She had not eaten in a very long time. But she would not die. Her daughter asked for another visit. Her heart was so grieving to see her mother suffer for so long. This old woman was like Christ in her long and innocent suffering. It was like being in the presence of Christ on the cross. But at the same time she was struggling like Peter. She signed to me the words "I can not love."
She, like Peter, and like us all experienced the dependence and neediness of the human heart. I didn't know what to say but knew I needed to say something quickly. She was looking for a response and it could be moments before death. Words from far away in my memory came out. I said, "Don't worry, God can." That is the secret. We can't become like God and thereby become His friend. He can become like us. He can become humble. He can love. He can look us in the eye. He can heal our weakness and sin, and He has. Christ has become so like us he identifies Himself as deserving of the punishment we deserve.
We all can become God's friends in Christ. We can have good friendship. We can become like God. By God's loving us with a human heart we are saved.
Who do you say that you are? Who are your friends? That will show you who you are. Today we remember Christ is our friend.
Fr. St. Martin
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS “BOOK AND BAKE SALE”
This Sunday, March 28, please join us anytime between
10 AM and 12:30 PM in the Parish Center for the “Book and Bake Sale”.
LT. PAUL J. SULLIVAN SCHOLARSHIP
Applications for this $3,000 scholarship in memory of Paul Sullivan who was killed in Viet Nam are available in the rectory. Seniors from Sacred Heart – Newton; Sacred Heart – Watertown; St. Mary’s – Waltham; and St. Patrick’s – Watertown, or other residents of Watertown who are well rounded athletes, and actively involved in their school, religion and community are eligible. Grades and athletics are important but character is the most important quality. Applications are also available in school Guidance offices or by calling Eleanor Donato at 617-484-5569. Deadline for completion of application is April 12, 2010.
CALENDAR NOTES
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS “BOOK AND BAKE SALE”:
Sunday, March 28 – 10 AM to 12:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Grades 1-5:
Sunday, March 28 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, March 29 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, March 30
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
CONFESSIONS:
Wednesday, March 31 – 6:30 to 8:00 PM – Lower Church
MORNING PRAYER:
Thursday, April 1 – 10:00 AM – Lower Church
MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER:
Thursday, April 1 – 7:30 PM – Upper Church
MORNING PRAYER:
Friday, April 2 – 10 AM – Lower Church
STATIONS OF THE CROSS:
Friday, April 2 – 11 AM and 3 PM – Upper Church
GOOD FRIDAY LITURGY:
Friday, April 2 – 7:30 PM – Upper Church
MORNING PRAYER:
Saturday, April 3 – 10 AM – Lower Church
EASTER VIGIL AND RECEPTION:
Saturday, April 3 – 8 PM – Upper Church and Parish Center
EASTER EGG HUNT:
Sunday, April 4 – 10 AM– Rectory lawn
COFFEE HOUR/EGG HUNT AFTER THE ASL MASS:
Sunday, April 4 – 11:30 AM – Parish Center