Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, May 8
4:00 PM Josephine Nicolazzo (In Thanksgiving)
Sunday, May 9
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Julia and Martin Groden, and Claire Groden Smith
Saturday, May 15
4:00 PM Sheila Werbinski
Sunday, May 16
9:00 AM Celebration of First Communion
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, May 15
4:00 PM Fr. Imbelli
Sunday, May 16
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. Carey
11:45 AM Fr. Collins
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, May 15 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
First Reading: Acts 7:55-60
Second Reading: Revelation: 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
Gospel Reading: John 17:20-26
ASCENSION OF THE LORD – MAY 13, 2010
Holy Day of Obligation
Thursday, May 13, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, is a holy day of obligation. Mass will be celebrated at 7 AM, 12:05 and 7:30 PM in the Lower Church.
COMMUNICATIONS COLLECTION
Next week’s special collection supports The Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC). CCC develops media programming, projects and resources that promote Gospel values with 50% going to local efforts. The other fifty percent supports the development and production of a wide range of national media programming. For more information, visit www.USCCB.org/ccc. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
THANKS FROM CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
The parish received a lovely letter from Catholic Relief Services thanking us for our generous donation in support of the Haiti relief programs. With our donation added to others, progress is being made despite many daunting challenges. Please continue with your prayers.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
The Church reminds us during the month of May that while we each love our own earthly mothers, we each share Mary as our heavenly mother! Her special mission given to her by her Son was to show us how to love God first and foremost above all things. And like any devoted mother she promises to pray for us, her children, and lead us to heaven when we turn to her for help. This past week, our CCD program crowned Mary and gave her flowers to thank her for giving us our Savior and sheltering us from evil with her constant prayers.
Sponsors of Confirmation Students will be asked to attend CCD class with the student they are sponsoring this Tuesday, May 11 from 7:15 – 8:30 pm in the lower church during regular CCD classes, to instruct them on the Rite of Confirmation and the role of the sponsor. Please notify the Religious Education office if attendance is not possible. A parent may attend in lieu of the sponsor under special circumstances.
Our Confirmation II students will attend an all day retreat on Saturday, June 19 at St. Mary of the Hills Parish in Milton. All students must attend in order to prepare to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on October 23, 2010. Please call the Religious Ed office if you have any questions.
A rehearsal for 1st Communion is scheduled for Saturday, May 15th from 1:30 – 3 PM in the Upper Church. At least one parent must attend! Our 1st Communion class will receive our Lord’s Body and Blood for the first time on Sunday, May 16th at the 9 AM Mass. Immediately following the 1st Communion Mass, all parishioners are invited to attend a celebration of this happy event in the MacKenzie Center. Our CCD mothers have arranged a beautiful brunch for all to enjoy! Please come and share the joy!
CCD classes will be ending for the summer on Sunday May 23 and on Tuesday, May 25th.
Michelle Solomon, RE Director
22ND SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
On Sunday, May 23 at 7:30 PM in the lower Church, Donna Barry, Advocacy & Policy Director of Partners in Health will speak on “Haiti: In the Aftermath of the Earthquake”. Father Richard Butler, Senior Priest of St. Mary’s Parish in Brookline, will be the Respondent. Free and open to the public; refreshments follow the presentation.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of May 1/2 $4,065
HAS EASTER MADE A DIFFERENCE?
Often times there is much excitement about what is new – going to a new school, making new friends, starting a new job, moving into a new house. However, as we realize from experience, what is new is never a case of pure joy. What is new can bring along its own share of sorrow and difficulty. The texts of our liturgy today speak to us about what is new as a result of the Lord’s resurrection. In our opening antiphon the psalmist instructs us – “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds”. In our Gospel reading, the Lord Jesus himself tells us – “I give you a new commandment: Love one another”. In our prayer after Holy Communion, we say to God our Father – “May this Holy Communion give us new purpose and bring us to new life in you”. And in our second reading, the author shares with us what he saw in his prophetic visions, that is, a new heaven and a new earth; and God says to him and to us – “Behold, I make all things new”.
I would direct your attention for a moment to the Preface Prayer you and I will recite at the beginning of the Eucharistic Canon: “Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we praise you with greater joy than ever in this Easter season, when Christ became our paschal sacrifice. In him a new age has dawned, the long reign of sin is ended, a broken world has been renewed and man is once again made whole.” Do these words express our Easter experience? After all, our pre-Easter news in society and our post-Easter news in society seem uninspiringly the same. One writer puts it this way: “Children are victims of violence and pornography; whole races are victims of prejudice and expediency; the living unborn, who it seems, have no rights, are victims of convenience and of those who insist on their own rights; the first world is a victim of wealth, and the other worlds are victims of poverty and illiteracy. We are all victims of our addictions and we all suffer from the misuse of our environment.” We ask then, especially of our own lives, has this Easter made a real difference? In principle, of course, the answer is “yes” – Easter is truly the victory of life over death, the resolution of all suffering in the healing power of the risen Christ. Yet sin and suffering and death remain present and powerful in our experience. We confront, then, the Easter paradox – one of joy and of suffering. The victory has been fully won in Christ’s physical body. It is not fully realized in Christ’s mystical body which is the Church. Perhaps our readings can help us to understand.
In our first reading, Paul and Barnabas are bringing to a close the first of Paul’s three missionary journeys. As they return to Antioch in Syria, from where the journey began – they report to the Christian congregation all that God had helped them to accomplish, and how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. It is instructive for us to hear from Paul and Barnabas how they encouraged their new converts to persevere in their new-found faith. They said to them in all the joy of their conversion – Remember this: “We must undergo many trials if we are to enter into the kingdom of God”. Easter is a paradox of joy and suffering.
Our second reading is from the Book which is placed last in the New Testament – a difficult book to read. It had its origin at a time of great crisis in the early Church. Its message, while directed to this crisis, is a message for all who follow Christ in all times and all places. The message tells us to remain steadfast in faith under the grace of the Holy Spirit, and to place unwavering trust in the promises of the risen Christ. Though there is adversity and suffering to endure, the Christian knows in faith that the Lord Jesus will triumph in his or her efforts for it is the risen Christ who dwells with his peoples in their sufferings, and the day will come when the Lord Jesus himself will wipe away every tear. There will be no more death and mourning for the former world will have passed away and God will make all things new. Once again, Easter is a paradox of joy and suffering.
The setting for our Gospel reading is the Last Supper. Judas had departed. The Lord Jesus then washed the Apostles feet – anticipating the self-giving service he would complete on the cross on the first Good Friday. The Lord gave his disciples the new command which will always be for them and for us the sign of discipleship, the command to love after the pattern of the Lord’s love for them. Has Easter made a difference? Has a new age dawned? Has the reign of sin ended? The answer is found in our grace-inspired obedience to the new command. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan, was jailed by the Nazis. Ten prisoners were about to be put to death because of some prison infraction. One condemned man asked for his life to be spared – he had a wife and several small children back in Poland. Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take his place. (Several years ago, I remember reading of the death of the man whose life had been saved by Fr. Kolbe’s action. He had lived to see his children and grandchildren.) Easter makes a difference. This example seems overly dramatic but can we not discover other signs at work right here in the parish? Easter makes a difference when young couples give themselves in marriage, when parents oversee the religious education of their children and their sacramental practice, when older parishioners defy rain or snow in order to participate in the Sunday Eucharist, when adult men and women seek holiness of life by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them to God’s plan for the world.
The question remains – Have we been liberated or not? Is it true that a new age has dawned; the long reign of sin has ended? The answer is – of course it is true. Christ is the world’s universal Redeemer. Christ is humanity’s liberator, objectively. Now that he is risen in glory, he has given us the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, the sacraments of the Church, the Creed of the Church, the Our Father, the prayer
of the Church, so that we may work with God’s grace and gain salvation, subjectively and in fact. As St. Augustine expressed it centuries ago, God who made us without our cooperation will not save us without our cooperation. Christ’s Gospel as preached in the Church spells out the nature of the cooperation with our freedom which the Holy Spirit initiates, sustains and brings to perfection as we seek to fulfill the Lord’s command that we love one another as he has loved us. We are to become experts by God’s grace in such love. That is how all will know that you are my disciples. Easter can make a difference.
Father Connelly
“YARD SALE”
The Sacred Heart Knights of Columbus and the Guild of Saint Francis will be holding a yard sale on Saturday, May 22, starting at 8 AM. If you have anything to donate, please call Bob Terwilliger or Tim Curry 617-719-9590 or Gloria Thompson at 617-964-2054. All donations accepted.
PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY
We had a productive first meeting with a group of knitters and some who crochet on Tuesday, April 27. We will next gather at the home of Peg Miller the evening of Tuesday, May 25, to continue our group work. Anyone interested in joining us then can call Peg at the rectory 617-969-2248 or email peg.miller@sacredheart.ws for details and directions. If you would like to work on your own before then, please let me know so that I can get you the basic instructions. Many thanks for your most enthusiastic response!
Peg Miller
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, May 9 – 10 AM to 1:00 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Grades 1-5:
Sunday, May 9 – 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, May 10 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Tuesday, May 11:
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, May 12 – 7:30 PM – Convent Chapel
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS:
Wednesday, May 12 – 8 PM – Convent (DR)
ASCENSION THURSDAY – HOLYDAY MASSES:
Thursday, May 13 – 7 AM, 12:05, 7:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, May 14 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, May 15 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
FIRST COMMUNION RECEPTION:
Sunday, May 16 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
SIGNINGS
Seriously, what is the way to (1) know God, to (2) receive His life, His strength, and to (3) know His will?
The first reading shows that there was a problem in the early Church with these questions. There were some people traveling around to different towns claiming to know God, the means of God's grace, and His will. The problem was that their answers to these questions were different from what the apostles and the leaders in the church were teaching. This is true today as well. The church teaches us about God, the sacraments of His grace, and the moral life in a unique way from every other source. Right here in Newton Center you can find many different buildings set up for teaching about God and how to receive His grace. These various buildings contain people who will teach a variety of teachings, especially about what are good and bad behaviors.
The early Church and the Church throughout history has always worked to give serious answers to these questions. In the first reading we see the method for ensuring the right answers was to meet with the apostles and the other elders connected with them. This was a way to have a complete and serious answer. This unity of mind among those who had an historical connection to the living Christ was a way to know that the Holy Spirit was really at work. This meeting in Jerusalem resulted in a letter of teaching and a formal sending of representatives to the areas where false teachers had been at work.
In the Gospel Jesus is seen teaching like a representative from Heaven. He carries the Father's identity, grace, and will to the Apostles. He teaches them and promises the Holy Spirit to them so that they can then take their turn in going out to the world as representatives of the truth about God, grace, and the good life. Jesus draws them in truth and love to believe. The work of the early Church is similar. These people, touched by Christ in history, teach with authority about God in serious and formal ways that draw people.
The Church and each one of us do the same. There are many different teachings about God in the world. There are many that seem similar to our own and indeed are. But the Church is the true historical connection to the historical Christ. We are called to believe in Christ as sent by the Father some two millennia ago. We are called to believe in the Church as Christ's creation and her teachings as His own. We are called then to share the full apostolic truth about God, grace, and morals with a world in desperate need of this indispensable treasure which we hold in serious and formal ways so that the salvation of knowing the Trinity, having the grace of the seven sacraments, and being set free from the slavery of selfishness of sin is present. Christ then works through His Church, us, to draw in those who still live without the light of the Lamb we see shining in the Kingdom of Peace glimpsed in today's second reading. Fr. St. Martin