Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, October 2
4:00 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Sunday, October 3
10:30 AM Mary Schafer
11:45 AM Barry Joseph O’Leary
Monday, October 4
12:05 PM Deceased Member of the Guild of St. Francis
Friday, October 8
9:00 AM Suzanne Myette
Saturday, October 9
4:00 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Sunday, October 10
9:00 AM Molly and Desmond Mechan
10:30 AM Donald Burke
11:45 AM Donald Ferreri
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, October 9
4:00 PM Fr. Collins
Sunday, October 10
9:00 AM Fr. Imbelli
10:30 AM Fr. St. Martin
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, October 9 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM. – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-17
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Gospel Reading: Luke 17:11-19
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
Sacred Heart has a fantastic group of men in the Knights of Columbus who would welcome new members. Locally and nationally they do wonderful things for the work of the church, especially by providing for the mentally challenged. They meet in the convent dining room on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 8 PM.
In appreciation for the support of the parish towards the Council, the K of C will hold their annual “Spaghetti Supper” in the Parish Center on Saturday, November 13 after the 4 PM Mass. This is a free family event – all are welcome to join in for an evening of food and fun.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of September 25/26 $4,508
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
A new year has begun in Religious Education and we are so excited to tell our students about the deep and abiding love God has for them through Jesus. We are asking you to join us in sharing this news by becoming a teacher. We are still without a teacher for grades 4 and 5 on Sunday and in grade 4 on Tuesday. While you may not feel you know how to teach nor do you have all the answers, that is a good place to begin! We are all still learning how to explain who God is, and still looking up answers to all the great questions the students come up with! Come and continue your own learning about your faith by trying to share it with others. Call the Religious Ed office for more information.
Religious Education classes will be held on Sunday during the Columbus Day weekend on October 10th. Please make a note of this.
Our Confirmation class of 2010 have completed their preparation to receive the sacrament on October 23, 2010 at the 4pm Mass. We ask that you keep them in prayer so that they will be open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit on that long awaited day.
Michelle Solomon
Rel. Ed Director
SAINT FRANCIS HOUSE
Thank you for your generosity during the month of September. The items needed for October are peanut butter and jellies. You can place your donations in the cart or bins provided at the Church entrances any time during the month.
ARISE PROGRAM STARTS THIS WEEK
Season 5 of Arise, We Are the Good News, begins this Sunday, October 3rd. Leaders have contacted registered members of their groups. If you have questions about the schedule or location of meetings or you need transportation, please call the rectory.
LET US ALL PRAY: that we will become “better hearers and doers of the Word of God.”
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR OCTOBER
General Intention: That Catholic Universities may increasingly become places where, in light of the gospel, people may experience the unity of faith and reason.
Mission Intention: That World Mission Day may help Christians realize that the task of proclaiming Christ is a necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of humanity.
IS SCIENCE FOR GOD OR AGAINST GOD???
PART II
Last week this bulletin column carried the same title as above – except for Part II. It really is a ridiculous title! Science as science cannot be for God or against God. Scientists can be for God or against God but not in terms of scientific method which is materialist and experimentalist and cannot attain to what transcends matter and the experimental method. At the end of last week’s column, I promised a second column for the fourteen regular readers that this column has each week. I said that the column would deal with what Catholic theology has to say about God, and who God is and in what way we can speak of God and what we mean when we call God our Creator. (It was this last item which inspired the original column.) The recent book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow had said that to explain the origin of the universe only science can answer that and one needs no recourse to some outside interferer. However, before we can tackle these questions, it may be helpful to do some reading from the Second Vatican Council on the mystery of God. The passage taken from the document called “The Church in the World of This Time” reads as follows:
“The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by God’s love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have never recognized this intimate and vital link with God, or have explicitly rejected it. Thus atheism must be accounted among the most serious problems of this age, and is deserving of closer examination.
The word atheism is applied to phenomena which are quite distinct from one another. For while God is expressly denied by some, others believe that man can assert absolutely nothing about Him. Still others use such a method to scrutinize the question of God as to make it seem devoid of meaning. Many, unduly transgressing the limits of the positive sciences, contend that everything can be explained by this kind of scientific reasoning alone, or by contrast, they altogether disallow that there is any absolute truth. Some laud man so extravagantly that their faith in God lapses into a kind of anemia, though they seem more inclined to affirm man than to deny God. Again some form for themselves such a fallacious idea of God that when they repudiate this figment they are by no means rejecting the God of the Gospel. Some never get to the point of raising questions about God, since they seem to experience no religious stirrings nor do they see why they should trouble themselves about religion. Moreover, atheism results not rarely from a violent protest against the evil in this world, or from the absolute character with which certain human values are unduly invested, and which thereby already accords them the stature of God. Modern civilization itself often complicates the approach to God not for any essential reason but because it is so heavily engrossed in earthly affairs.”
The above quotation, I trust, has been helpful in giving you, dear reader, an appreciation of the depth and breadth of the many ways unbelief shows itself in our world today. However, it does not touch specifically on what we might call the unbelief problems we associate with Christian believers. This calls for another quotation which reads as follows:
“Undeniably, those who willfully shut out God from their hearts and try to dodge religious questions are not following the dictates of their consciences, and hence are not free of blame; yet believers themselves frequently bear some responsibility for this situation. For, taken as a whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and in some places against the Christian religion in particular. Hence believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion.”
The medieval writers had a wonderful expression for the mystery of the human person. They called the human person “capax Dei”, a capacity for God. This accounts for Augustine’s memorable expression – “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and we will not rest until we rest in you”. The human person is not neutral with regard to God. By his very nature he leans toward God and not away from God. Every human person seeks to know what is true and all our human endeavors, in our secular and sacral pursuits, it is really truth that we seek. That is why 1 John speaks of God as truth; that is why the Lord Jesus says it himself – “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Furthermore, every human being has a desire for what is good. The little child who says to her Daddy “I want an ice cream cone” is really saying to her Daddy “I want God”, because God is infinite goodness. Thus the Catechism tells us – “the desire for God is written in every human heart, because the human person is created by God for God; and God never ceases to draw each one of us to himself. Only in God will the human person find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.” This is why every Catholic believer must understand the Church’s teaching about God. If, in our words or in our deeds, we present a false view of God, the unbeliever will reject the Catholic faith, but this does not mean that the unbeliever does not want what is true and does not seek what is good.
Father Connelly
SIGNINGS
Once, as a young man in college, I remember I was awarded entrance into the Work Study Program. That meant the college would employ me as I studied there. I needed that income. Unfortunately when I visited the administrators of that program they didn't have any jobs available. This upset me and I let them know.
Later a friend sent me a book about virtue and a concept in it impacted me. It said that many people are suffering from an idea that "life owes them something". I was suffering from that bad attitude. The truth is that life does not owe us anything. I returned to the office at my college with a new attitude to ask for a job. I apologized to the poor lady who worked at the desk for my previous bad attitude of entitlement and asked if there was any possibility of employment. There was and that continued for the better part of four years. Working with an attitude of gratitude and not entitlement was enjoyable for me and others, as well as successful, and fulfilling.
The attitude of entitlement, that "life owes us", infects our relationship with God and the Church. We can begin to think that the Sunday Mass is a service for us; that it is set up to satisfy and fulfill us. This is true but not in the way we think. It is set up to help us become fulfilled by helping us to become joyful servants of the Father, worshiping Him with overflowing love. As the servant of the Father, the Son, Jesus, helps us to join His joyful life of giving the Father glory. It is from God and for God. It is not for us ultimately.
We are called to become givers in the Church. The Sunday Mass is ultimately not about me being served but about me being part of the joy of serving the Father by giving Him glory. We should not look around at the Church with resentment and disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm of people around us; rather we need to hope that we are doing well so that we are serving God and others well.
This is our joyful duty. It is right and just. Sunday worship is not a thing we should get an award for when we attend to it well. It is the fulfillment of justice and so it is satisfying in itself. We are downhearted when we fail in it in any way.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
NEWTON WALK FOR THE WORLD
This year we are again asking for your support to help alleviate hunger in many areas around the world as well as locally. You can give cash or checks made out to Church World Service/CROP directly to Sacred Heart recruiter Peg Miller or donate online at www.churchworldservice.org (select CROP Hunger Walk, click on Find a Walk, then on Massachusetts, scroll to Newton and click Donate.) Thanks!
KARATE FOR KIDS AT THE MACKENZIE CENTER
We will offer two classes on Tuesdays at 5:00-5:30 for ages 3-5 and 5:30-6:15 for ages 5 and over. The first 6 week session begins October 12, 2010 and ends November 16, 2010.
The karate class consists of learning the basics of karate which include punches, kicks, blocks. Games are used to incorporate and practice skills learned. Stranger danger skills include basic self-defense skills such as verbal boundary setting and physical self defense against hand grabs, pushes, etc. Cost for new students is $90 which includes 6 weeks session and uniform. Returning students cost is $60.00.
Instructor is Marisa Cimino, Fourth Degree Black Belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate. You can contact her at 617-332-7220.
LECTURE AND SERVICE AT BC
On Wednesday, October 6, Fr. Dan Harrington, SJ. will reflect on: Lament and Hope: The contributions of the Biblical Lament Psalms, at B.C. in Room 100, 9 Lake St., Brighton Campus followed by a service in the STM chapel. Free of charge, open to the public. Register at www.bc.edu/stmce.
OPEN HOUSE AT SAINT JOHN SCHOOL
Join us at Saint John School Open House on Tuesday, October 5 from 8:00 – 9:30 am and 6:30 – 8:00 pm,
9 Ledyard St. Wellesley Hills. Contact Principal Kathi Aldridge at 781-235-0300 or at info@saintjohnschool.net or visit www.saintjohnschool.net.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, October 3 – 10:00 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, Oct. 3 – 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, October 3 – 10:30 AM – Convent (Dining Room)
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS “DAY OF RECOLLECTION”:
Monday, October 4 – 10 AM to 3 PM – Parish Center
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, October 4 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Tuesday, October 5
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
GUILD HOLLY HARVEST WORKSHOP:
Tuesday, October 5 – 7 to 9 PM – Convent (Guild Room)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, October 8 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, October 9 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, October 10 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center