Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Sunday, February 27
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Wednesday, March 2
7:00 AM Nancy Copell Myette
Friday, March 4
9:00 AM Margaret Libernini & Charles Gucciardi
Sunday, March 6
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
10:30 AM Joseph Schafer
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, March 5 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32
Second Reading: Romans 3:21-25, 28
Gospel Reading: Matthew 7:21-27
GUILD OF ST FRANCIS FAMILY NIGHT
Save the Date! Saturday. March 12 for our Annual Family Night at the Parish Center from 5-8 pm. Cost is $16/adults, $8/children up to age 12, Children 2 yrs & under are free. Reservations must be received by 3/8/11. No admission at door without a reservation. Checks should be made payable to Guild of St. Francis and mailed to Sally Daly at 138 Lincoln St., Newton Highlands., MA 02461. For questions and reservations call Mary English at 617-332-8656 or Sally Daly at 617-527-4468.
JOAN AND CAROL’S RETIREMENT PARTY
On behalf of the parish, you are cordially invited to attend a celebration to honor Joan Troy and Carol Groden for their years of dedication and service to Sacred Heart Parish. Joan and Carol’s Retirement Party is scheduled for Sunday, April 17th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm in the MacKenzie Center. Please mark your calendars! More details to follow. If you wish to participate in the event planning, please contact Maura Iversen at m.iversen@verizon.net or call 617-332-7340.
CCSB WELCOMES CRS SPEAKERS
On Thursday, March 3, at 7 PM in the Chapel of St. Bernard Church, two speakers from Catholic Relief Services will share their insights: Thomas Awiapo, helped by CRS as an orphan in Ghana, will update us on the current situation in Haiti. Maureen McCullough will speak on the developing issues in Sudan. Refreshments follow in the Fr. Moore Hall. Free will offering to Catholic Relief Services accepted.
ST FRANCIS HOUSE
Donations needed for March are fruit juices. Thank you.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said: “Faith in action is love, and love in action is service”. Won’t you consider putting your faith into action by sharing your faith with our 6th graders as a CCD teacher on Tuesday evenings from 7-8:30pm? Please call or email the Religious Ed office soon.
Our 2nd graders have been preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time on Saturday, March 5 at 10:30-11:45AM in the lower church. Please pray for the students and their families to experience the love, forgiveness and light of Christ’s goodness in this sacrament. May we and they always return there for hope and healing throughout our lives!
Religious Education is sponsoring a Parish wide talk during coffee hour in the McKenzie Center (Conference Room) on Sunday, March 13 from 10:30-11:45am. Fr. Chris Collins is a wonderful speaker, and will be talking on a variety of issues such as: Personal Prayer and Family Prayer and Facing the Temptations and Challenges of Daily Life. Please mark your calendars, bring your coffee and join us!
Religious Education classes will be held today, Sunday, Feb. 27th the second weekend of the Winter vacation!
This week we resume our Speaker Series, with Macro and Nadine Desiderio from the Office of Marriage Ministries at the Archdiocese to come and speak on Matrimony. All are welcome to join our confirmation students learn more about married love and God’s plan for marriage. We will meet Tuesday, Feb. 28th from 7:00 – 8:30 in the lower church. Look forward to seeing you!!
Michelle Solomon Director Religious Education
Roseann Furbush Confirmation Coordinator
SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR
If coffee hour is to continue we need a greater number of volunteers to sign up to run it. There are no volunteers for the next several Sundays. If we do not have a volunteer by Friday, March 4, coffee hour will be cancelled.
LENTEN LONGINGS – MARCH 6 – APRIL 15
Some space is available in our praying and sharing the scripture groups at the following times: Monday, 3:30-5 pm; Tuesday, 7-8:30 pm; Wednesday 7:30-9pm: Thursday, 10-11:30am. A group may be forming for Sunday, 10:15-11:45am. Contact Winifred Murphy if interested in any of these. Winnie.Murphy@sacredheart.ws or 617-969-4021.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of February 19/20 $ 4,322
UTOPIA REVISITED
The Sacred Heart bulletin for January 30th of this year published my column under the title “Utopia”. It had a two-fold purpose. It was a comment on a wonderful book just published under the title “Welcome to Utopia” which was reviewed in The Boston Globe. The author is Ted Widmer, Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library.
My second reason for the article related to the “Catholics Come Home” initiative. They will not find utopia; they will find all sorts of wonderful things God gives us through the mediatorship of the Church. I mentioned that we here at Sacred Heart Parish must be a welcoming people, and we should be asking ourselves important questions about ourselves, our parish, our liturgies, our homilies, our stewardship obligations and about Catholic social teachings. This present article, entitled “Utopia Revisited”, continues, makes a few comments, and raises a few questions we should be discussing.
-
Paragraph 19 from the Second Vatican Council’s document on “The Church in the World of This Time” speaks to us on the question of belief and unbelief. It 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.
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.”
-
People do not fit into categories: each person is unique, has “his-story” and “her-story”. Is he longing for meaning in life? Is she searching for God? Does he have a desire for community? Does she face the difficulties of marriage and divorce? Is he facing suffering and distress? Does she experience much disappointment in her life on many different levels? Is it a question of broken trust related to clergy sexual abuse? Is he or she looking for forgiveness of sin and the chance to receive Christ’s great gift of forgiveness? Is he or she desiring to return to Catholic life and practice but does not know how, in the practical order, to come home?
-
In connection with the above listing, we really need some understanding of what sound sociology can say to us about why folks have left the Church in the first place – loss of faith, loss in various teachings of the Church, a loss of love for the Church, formerly a strong component in the faith of Catholic Christians.
-
Here at Sacred Heart Parish our numbers attending weekend Masses are down, although we do not know specifically how many of our former parishioners do not practice the faith at Sacred Heart Parish. The numbers must be considerably high given the numbers who come to Christmas, Easter and funeral celebrations. It is important that we see some good in their coming only at Easter and Christmas, and we should avoid being overly critical in this regard. In our parish and in some families, the parents insist that their children attend
classes in religious education and they bring them to these classes, but then do not attend Mass on Sundays nor do their children get to Mass on Sundays.
-
As we reflect on the “Catholics Come Home” initiative, should we not ask ourselves specific questions: Am I myself struggling with unbelief? If so, how can I overcome my unbelief? Am I unhappy about things going on in our parish or in the Church at large? Am I confident in my faith, and in why I practice my faith? Am I truly a Catholic Christian believer? Do I go to Mass on Sunday and, if so, why? If not, why not? Who is the Lord Jesus for me? Am I a man or woman of prayer? Do I seek to grow in an adult understanding of my faith? Have I been rescued from a biblical fundamentalism, or do I interpret the Scriptures more in terms of the culture that prevails and thus water-down, for example, the Sermon on the Mount? Am I aware of the importance of Catholic social teaching so much needed in our world? Is my Catholic faith a burden which I just endure? Does my life reflect gratitude for the blessings God has given to me, including a share in Christ’s cross?
-
What about Sacred Heart Parish? If folks come back, what will they find? What should they not find? Are we, as parishioners, along with the Pastor, striving to always do better with regard to Liturgies, music, lecturing, homilies, outreach to the poor and the needy, anxious to seek out the homebound who can not come to church so that we can bring the church to them? How well are we practitioners of the Lord’s command of love and the Lord’s command of forgiveness? How do we react when the Scriptures tell us to be holy as God is holy, be perfect as God is perfect?
Fr. Connelly
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, February 27 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
FIRST EUCHARIST PARENT WORKSHOP:
Sunday, February 27 – 10:15-11:45 – Convent DR
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, February 27 – 10:30 AM Convent Library
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, February 28 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
SACRED HEART SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY:
Tuesday, March 1, - 7:30 PM – Convent Library
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, March 2 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Chapel)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, March 4 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, March 5 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM –Upper Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 6– 11:30AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
SIGNINGS
The words of scripture, the words of the bible, the words the readers proclaim at Mass and the ones the priest reads from the Bible at Mass; these words are alive. They are the words from The Living Word of God, Christ Jesus, the Son of the Father who speaks the Eternal Word.
These words from the sacred books of the Bible are not dead words. They speak to us and you will notice that every time we go back to the Bible and look at truth expressed in these words which tell us the law of God, and the life and teachings of Christ, of God's revealing Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit; when we read the bible it always seems new. Sometimes we hear this or that story and a different part will impact us in a new way and even though we heard it before it seems like the first time.
The part in the Gospel of Mathew where Jesus tells us to, "not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil" impacts me these days and I think it speaks to us all in the historical moment we all find ourselves in. There is so much uncertainty about the future. There are these new revolutions spreading out now from a rock dropped into the nations around Egypt and in the Middle East. The ripple effect is astounding. Gas might get expensive. The economy of the world hangs in the balance. The structure of the new governments that will emerge is uncertain. Our future feels very uncertain.
In the local Church here in the Archdiocese of Boston the funds for our work runs thin. Many of our next generation are not taking up the practice of the faith. Many have left the Church and we long to welcome them home. What are we going to do about all these things?
Christ tells us in the Gospel to not worry about tomorrow. Focus on today. If we do the things that we need to do well in any given day that is enough. The responsibilities of any given day are a lot to think about. We can't get distracted and put off the everyday things because we are trying to take care of future problems that are really only possibilities anyway. Planning for the future is good but not at the cost of neglecting the present. Neglecting the present things is the seed for future disaster.
Let's do a good job of being humble and trying to do good job today brothers and sisters. What happens tomorrow will be a surprise no doubt. What is here today is important and this message comes to us today from the Father, speaking through His Word, alive in the Scriptures we read.
In Christ, Fr. St. Martin
MOVE WORDS INTO LENTEN ACTION
Join us on Wed., March 9th at 9 am at the State House to support the Mass Coalition for the Homeless.