Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Sunday, January 30
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Saturday, February 5
4:00 PM Sergeant Anthony Esposito
Sunday, February 6
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, February 5
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, February 6
9:00 AM Fr. Fr. Imbelli
10:30 AM Fr. Carey
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, February 5 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY
General Intention: That all may respect the family and recognize its unmatched contribution to the advancement of society.
Mission Intention: That the Christian communities may witness to the presence of Christ in serving those who suffer from disease in those mission territories where the fight against disease is most urgent.
25th SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
The Road to the Voting Rights Act of 1965
On Sunday, January 30, at 7:30 PM in the Lower Church, the Sacred Heart Parish Justice and Peace Committee will host speaker Gordon A. Martin, Jr., author of “Count them One by One, Black Mississippians Fighting for the Right to Vote”. Parishioner Jack Fabiano will be Moderator for the discussion. All are welcome to attend.
PETER’S PENCE COLLECTION
Next week’s special collection supports the Holy Father in providing emergency assistance to suffering people throughout the world. Contributions to The Peter’s Pence Collection are given directly by the Holy Father to individuals who are suffering from immediate emergencies as a result of war, oppression, and natural disasters. Please visit www.usccb.org/ppc for more information.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of January 22/23 $4,458
YEAR-END TAX STATEMENTS
If you use the Parish’s Offertory envelopes and would like a record of your donations to the parish during the year 2010, please call the rectory at 617-969-2248 to request that a statement be sent.
PARISH DIRECTORY – IMPORTANT NOTICE
If you had your picture taken for the directory and are registered in the parish, we plan to also list your home address, phone number and email address (if you have given us one). If you wish to exclude any of this information, it is your responsibility to contact us with any exceptions to the listing.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
Our Grade 2 CCD students have begun to learn about the central mystery of God’s great love for us in his mercy and forgiveness of our sins! The Sacrament of Reconciliation is given to us at the great price of Jesus’ death on the cross. We would like to share this not only with our Grade 2 students but also with their parents in a Reconciliation workshop on Sunday, Feb. 6th from 10:15-11:45 AM in the Convent after 9AM Mass. At least one parent needs to attend. If you are in need of childcare, please notify the Religious Ed Office as soon as possible. 1st Reconciliation will take place in the lower church on Saturday, Mar. 5th from 10:30-11:45 AM with a celebration to follow!
Reminder, the Parent Information Night for 9th grade parents will take place this evening from 7:00 – 8:00 PM in the convent, to present the curriculum on “Created for Love”. “Created for Love” will be presented to the 9th grade in two, 2 hour sessions beginning this week, Feb. 1st and Feb. 8th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. If you have not already replied, please confirm with Roseann Furbush that your son/daughter will be participating in “Created for Love”. Roseann.Furbush@sacredheart.ws or 617-969-1530.
On Tuesday, February 1st the Confirmation class welcomes Deacon Aaron Pidel to speak on Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation. We invite anyone interested to join our students in learning more about our beautiful Catholic Faith.
The Speaker Series meets on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 – 8:30 PM in the lower church. Hope to see you there!!!
A complete schedule of speakers is available at all entrances/exits of the church.
Michelle Solomon, Dir. Religious Education
Roseann Furbush, Confirmation Coordinator
UTOPIA
Webster’s International tells us that the English word “utopia”, which is also the Latin word, is derived from two Greek words meaning “not a place”, that is, no place in everyday reality. Thus utopia is the name of a book describing an ideal commonwealth, published in Latin by St. Thomas More, a sort of imaginary island enjoying approximate perfection in politics and laws. In other words, utopia means any sort of commonwealth or community of ideal perfection.
Why in the world are you reading this sort of thing in a parish bulletin? I offer two reasons. The Boston Globe last Sunday had a fascinating, most interesting article on a scholarly new book entitled, “Welcome to Utopia: A Historical Guide to the State’s Quest for Perfection”. The author is Ted Widmer, director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. It describes various experiences of utopia in the history of the state of Massachusetts involving settlements or experiments at settlements in the following places: Plymouth, Hopedale, West Roxbury, the town of Harvard, the town of Northampton, the town of Hancock.
How about a few examples:
-
Ever since John Winthrop invited his fellow Puritans to build a mythical City upon a Hill, slightly higher and better than the rest of the world, Massachusetts has been attracting seekers of utopia. The impassioned and occasionally the delusional have flocked to these shores, eager to build perfect communities, and by leading perfect lives, to inspire those less perfect to step up their game a bit. Generation after generation, they strive to improve the human condition; inevitably, their ambitions shrink to a more achievable scale — a village, a farm, or in Thoreau’s case, a hut.
-
Plymouth: Who were the Pilgrims if not helpless idealists? Even before Winthrop, they came to these shores seeking to build a more perfect society, as enshrined in the Mayflower Compact, and in their communal approach to land ownership and labor. That historic precedent became inconvenient to remember during the Cold War, when it bore too much resemblance to Communism, but enough private enterprise surfaced to allow the Old Colony to survive and eventually merge with Massachusetts in 1691.
-
West Roxbury: The most famous of all American utopian experiments was Brook Farm, immortalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Blithedale Romance.” Followers of the Transcendental social reformer George Ripley, most of whom were deeply intellectual, descended upon the farm in 1841 to do agricultural work (for which they were completely unsuited). Local writers Margaret Fuller and Hawthorne were among them. Hawthorne strained to make fine writing out of his battle with a manure pile, but this experiment, like all of the rest, failed to live up to its promise, closing in 1847. Hawthorne’s narrator concludes, “I could once think better of the world’s improvability than it deserves.” (The Brook Farm experiment and its location are within the boundaries of our parish. If one drives out Dedham Street and comes first to the Jewish Cemetery and the nonsectarian Gethsemane Cemetery and turns right at the entrance to Gethsemane Cemetery, immediately to your right you will see a building and a sign indicating the location of the Brook Farm experiment.)
What is my second reason? It relates to what we talked about last Sunday at Mass: “Catholics Come Home” outreach initiative which the Cardinal spoke about at all the Masses. When I read the article in the Globe, I thought of the important questions we must all ask with regard to this initiative. We want our relatives and friends, non-practitioners of the faith at this time, for many and varied different reasons, to come home, to rediscover their important home in God’s Catholic Church. So the question I raise is this – “What are we asking them to come home to?” The first answer immediately is certainly not some utopian situation. Certain, also, they would not be interested in what we could call the “status quo ante”, that is, the same situation that preceded their leaving the Church in the first place. I am well aware of the complaints that are heard all over the diocese. We’re certainly not asking them to return to routine, dull liturgies, seemingly robotic celebrations of the priest-presider, irrelevant and unprepared so-called homilies, and poor music or no music at all. However, some of the utopian civic experiences in Massachusetts’ early history can remind us that those who have left the Church expect to find more in the Church. Is our parish noted for its love of God and love of neighbor? Do we find in our parish the spiritual and corporal works of mercy? Are we only the Ten Commandments people or do we take seriously the Beatitudes as the badge of discipleship? I guess what I’m getting at is this – as we seek to be a welcoming people, as we invite relatives and friends to come home, what are some of the questions we should be asking ourselves with regard to parish renewal, with regard to spirituality, with regard to Sunday Eucharist, with regard to stewardship obligations, with regard to Catholic social teachings?
Father Connelly
P.S.: There is one utopia that the author includes in his book labeled Boston. In this instance, Boston means Fenway Park, and so we read in The Boston Globe, “John Updike’s lyric little bandbox is the largest of the state’s utopias, with a capacity of roughly 37,000. But for most of the 20th
century, it was possibly the most delusional of them all, with team after team devising artful ways to shatter the illusions of the perfectionists who flocked there. Finally, in 2004 and 2007, the completely unexpected happened: Reality lived up to expectations, bringing utopia, for a brief shining moment, into actual existence. Red Sox Nation has been directionless ever since.”
SIGNINGS
One constant thundering theme of the entire scripture is humility. In the first reading, is Zephaniah addressing the whole earth? No. The people he wants to talk with are the humble. Jesus' entire mystery focuses on humility. He is God and when He becomes man what does He look like? Ordinary and very humble. His death is the climax of all humility.
Jesus’ great teaching in the Gospel, His "Sermon on the Mount" elevates humility. He tells us that meekness, poverty, and gentleness are good. These characteristics are all so humble. Becoming a "peace maker" as Christ wants us to, is the opposite of becoming a "maker of war." It is so humble.
Being humble is not difficult to do. In fact we can't help it in the end. Jesus is calling us to be simply who we are. Even if we spend our time trying to be rich in this life, or wage war, or to be mean and proud, we will eventually run out of steam and become humble. Jesus knows that. Becoming old, and dying, which is the only thing we can really count on, is very humiliating. Jesus knows that. He teaches us that we will find our happiness in that. That is what "blessed" means: happy.
We have the wisdom of Christ and look forward to our ever growing humility for we know it will bring us, in Christ's mysterious way, happiness.
Please save the date of May 1st. We are going to have a nice lunch after the 10:30 a.m. Mass at the Bishop MacKenzie Center. It should be a good time.
In Christ,
Father St. Martin
BC SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY
On Tuesday, February 1 at 5:30 PM, Rev. James T. Bretzke, S.J. will present “Ambassadors of Reconciliation”: Confronting Sin & Moral Failure, a free lecture open to the public at 9 Lake St., Room 100, Brighton Campus. Register at www.bc.edu/stmce.
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Items needed for February are hot cereals. Thank you for your continued support.
OPEN HOUSES
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK will be celebrated January 30-February 5, this year’s theme being Catholic Schools: A+ for America. This theme reflects the many contributions that Catholic school graduates have made and continue to make to American Society as citizens of talent and service “for God and Country.” You are cordially invited to attend St. John School’s Open House on Tuesday, February 1, 8:00–9:30 a.m. Come and visit classrooms. See what Catholic education has to offer. St. John School is located at 9 Glen Road, Wellesley; Principal is Mrs. Kathleen Aldridge; you may call 781-235-0300 or visit www.saintjohnschool.net.
MOUNT ALVERNIA ACADEMY OPEN HOUSE
Mount Alvernia Academy at 20 Manet Road, Chestnut Hill, will have an Open House on Wednesday, February 2 from 9-11 AM. This Coed Private Catholic School offers small class size for grades Nursery through Grade 6. Financial aid is available. More information at www.mtalverniaacad.org.
OUR LADY’S ACADEMY OPEN HOUSE
Our Lady’s Academy, 920 Trapelo Rd., Waltham is having an OPEN HOUSE FOR Pre-K through Grade 8 on Tuesday, February 1 from 10 am – noon and 6–8 pm. We offer a Catholic values-based, close knit environment, an innovative curriculum, up-to-date methods and technology, enrichment opportunities, after school program, and much more. Visit our website at www.ourladysacademy.org, or call 781-899-0353 with any questions.
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, January 30 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM:
Sunday, January 30 – 7:30 PM – Lower Church
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, January 30 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, January 31 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Tuesday, February 1:
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
GUILD OF SAINT FRANCIS BOARD MEETING:
Tuesday, February 1 – 7 PM – Convent (Guild Room)
SACRED HEART SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY:
Tuesday, February 1 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Library)
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, February 2 – 7:30 PM – Convent (Chapel)
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, February 4 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, February 5 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, February 6 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center