Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, June 25
4:00 PM Rosalie Daly
Sunday, June 26
9:00 AM Cynthia Martin
11:45 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Monday, June 27
12:05 PM Alfredo Pacione
Saturday, July 2
9:00 AM Alfredo Lacuture
4:00 PM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Sunday, July 3
9:00 AM Karel Holbik
11:45 AM Anna Esposito
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, July 2 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME
First Reading: Zechariah 9:9-10
Second Reading: Romans 8:9, 11-13
Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:25-30
PARISH PICTORIAL DIRECTORY
After the weekend Masses we will once again distribute copies of the Parish Directory to those whose pictures were taken. The two tables in the gathering space in the back have 2 alphabetical sections each: A-D, E-K and L-O, P-Z. There is a single table by the elevator entrance. Names will be checked off as the copy is taken. Directories may also be picked up at the parish office Monday – Thursday from 9-5. After July 1 a limited number of books will be offered for sale in the rectory office during normal business hours at $5 per copy.
SUMMERTIME REMINDERS
If you are away for all or part of the summer, you needn’t miss any of our Sacred Heart Bulletins. A wealth of information is as close as the nearest computer. Go to www.sacredheartnewton.org. for current and past Bulletins and other announcements. We also encourage you to continue your financial support of the parish with online banking or simply by mailing in your offertory donations. The Church doesn’t take a vacation even if you do!
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of June 18/19 $4,596
Tornado Disaster Relief $1,817
Clergy Benefit Trust $1,989
National Communications $595
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
The Catholic Faith Comes Home to your Computer!
Did you know that the Archdiocese of Boston has set up a website for encouraging fallen away Catholics to come back home to the Church? Bet you didn’t know that it is also a website for Catholics that are already home!
Just go to www.Catholicscomehome.org and you have opened the door to the riches of the faith at your fingertips! The website is set up so that even a novice to the internet can find the answers to any question that asks: What does the Church teach about…? Or sometimes more importantly: Why does the Church teach…? All answers are written for those of us who understand little or no theological jargon! There is an easy link to common questions, talks, books, CD’s and support groups. You can find out why Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, get answers to moral questions on the Church’s teaching on abortion, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, separation and annulments. Are you looking for solid Catholic parenting advice on how to deal with back talk from your teen? Look no further! You will also find information on Church history, the Catholic Catechism, Bible passages with commentary, and articles on almost any subject you might think of. The website will even help you find out how to grow in your spiritual life.
This website is the answer to how to learn and grow in your understanding of the Catholic faith without ever leaving your living room! Pass this website on to other family members or friends too. If you have questions, Catholicscomehome.org has answers! God bless you on this faith journey. May it lead you “…to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth, and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge…”(Eph 3:18)
Michelle Solomon
Director of Religious Education
CATHOLIC MEDIA
Listen to and support Catholic TV and Radio. They are both wonderful resources for growing in your knowledge of the Catholic faith! www.CatholicTV.com; Comcast channel 268 in New England; Verizon: channel 296 in New England. Catholic Radio: Station of the Cross, WQOM 1060 AM.
ST. FRANCIS HOUSE
Thank you for your donations of vegetable oil for the month of June. Items needed for the month of July are condiments – mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, relish, salad dressings, etc. Please remember that hunger does not take a vacation and that the clients at St. Francis House count on our continued generosity. You may bring your items at any time during the month and put them in the receptacles at the entrances
QUINCEANERA
A Quinceanera is a Mexican tradition to celebrate a young girl turning fifteen years old. (The word that entitles this article has a two-fold reference. It refers to an event – a fifteenth year birthday – and it refers as well to the young girl who is becoming fifteen.) Way back last November the parish bulletin carried the following item under the title Quinceanera:
“This is a particular time to give thanks to God for all the wonderful years she has had and for all the blessings she has received. The parents bring the Quinceanera to church and ask God to bless their child with love, health and faith. This blessing is usually made a year in advance, in preparation for the Quinceanera’s entrance into adulthood. During that time, the Quinceanera sets goals that she wants to accomplish throughout her life. She promises to be a faithful and loving person in Christ. The parents also prepare themselves to accept the changes their child will go through. At the age of fifteen the Quinceanera is presented to God and to the community as a young adult.”
All the above came to fruition last Saturday evening at the 4 o’clock Mass. It proved to be a very happy occasion. I would like to make a few comments on last Saturday’s event. One of the speakers described the event in secular terms only, that is, the Quinceanera is a passage of life from being a young girl to the start of young adulthood. This idea of a secular Quinceanera has it legitimacy. After all, the church is very interested in the passage of a girl to young adulthood and all the future has in store for the young adult. Do we not say – “Divine grace builds on nature. It does not destroy nature, but rather perfects it.” However, for Areli and her parents this was not a secular celebration. It was set solidly in the realm of their Catholic faith. First of all Areli had an opportunity to look back over her fifteen years with great thanksgiving to God, for her parents for her siblings, for all that constitutes the Caballero-Gonzalez family. Areli also had the opportunity to look to the future. There is a big world out there ready to welcome Areli, to fascinate Areli, to intimidate Areli. Areli wants to face that future with great courage. Areli wants to face that future with her Catholic faith, with trust in God, and, in particular, Areli had the opportunity to take Our Lady as a model for her own discipleship.
Sometimes in our parish life we think of the sacrament of Confirmation as being some sort of rite of passage. That would not be a good way of thinking about the Sacrament of Confirmation. In our country this Sacrament of Confirmation has been delayed until 10th or 11th grade in high school, and with the celebration of Confirmation, there was also the end of formal religious education in the parish. Actually, Confirmation should precede the celebration of the Eucharist because the order for the reception of the Sacraments of Initiation from the earliest days of the Church has been Baptism, Confirmation, and then the Eucharist. In the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, the three sacraments are celebrated together even at infant Baptism. Confirmation is the work of the Holy Spirit to complete the work of Baptism and to strengthen the baptized in faith, hope, and love.
The Quinceanera, in the light of the above comments, can serve as a passage of life for the Baptized, Confirmed Catholic Christian. It is important for our young people to think about the place of God in their lives, to think about their personal relationship with the risen Christ, to be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and the Spirit’s call for holiness of life. It is good for a young adult to give thought to the future, to think about how to bring one’s talents to bear for the good of society and to give much thought to what is so central to our Catholic anthropology that centers on “man and woman, husband and wife, father and mother, through the wonderful sacrament of matrimony which literally means the office of motherhood.”
One final thought…Areli looked very lovely in last Saturday’s ceremony, but the Areli I began to think about was the Areli and the plans she began to think about back there in 2010. This led her to be thankful to the Lord for all His benefits and to begin certain actions that would allow Areli to benefit others even here and now in her young life. This led her to volunteer as a helper and aide in our parish religious education program.
Father Connelly
SIGNINGS
When I was a kid a neighbor's kid had some wood stored up and we set out with a third friend to make a tree house in the woods. My father had built a kind of “hotel in the sky” deluxe tree house in our yard and we were going to make one deeper in the woods. Or so we thought. In the end it amounted to a platform and we lost interest.
The plan of Christ to feed us with His Body and Blood was a plan that you might think wouldn't work very well either. But it has. Christ’s Body and Blood, his soul and divinity, are really and truly the substance of the bread and wine that we offer at Mass.
The accidents of Christ's physical extension and place are not present, obviously, but they are not needed as they are accidental properties of a thing anyway. (For more on this you can read the first full paragraph on page 54 of Ressourcement Thomism.)
Christ set up this greatest of all sacraments and it is not easy to understand or easy to believe in. It seems that this idea to feed us spiritually and strengthen us was like a very difficult project that would not work. Like some kids trying to build a
tree house; it would be physically and technically difficult, and how could the momentum for this be sustained?
But it has. The reason it works is grace. That is the only answer. There are other communions that try to recreate a kind of Eucharist as a symbol but it dies on the vine. Ours is real and it gives grace - invisible help from heaven. We praise God for feeding us with His very Body and Blood.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
PRAYING THE LITURGY:
THE NEW ROMAN MISSAL
“Our modern culture, so addicted to entertainment, can make it difficult to celebrate the Eucharist in a way that engages modern people. We must first teach people how to pray and encourage them to prepare for the Sunday Mass so that its mysteries will open up to them. The more people realize that Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist and speaks to us in the Word of God proclaimed, the more faithfully and fervently people will participate in Sunday Mass. In the Eucharist, the love of Christ gathers and builds us as living stones into the Church. Without the Eucharist, we remain as pebbles strewn on the beach.” (From “A New Pentecost: Inviting All To Follow Jesus”, Pastoral Letter from Cardinal Sean O’Malley, June 12, 2011).
“The celebration of Mass is a corporate act, an act of the whole assembly gathered for worship.” (GIRM: General Instruction on the Roman Missal)
“The Eucharistic Prayer or Canon of the Mass is the central prayer of the entire celebration. Liturgy (the Mass) is the action of Christ the priest and His Body, the Church. This action of Christ which brought about our redemption from sin and eternal death, offered once for all on Calvary, becomes present again for us, here and now, in this time and place, so that we can join in Christ’s perfect offering and can ourselves participate in His perfect worship. And what is most important, we do not offer Christ alone; we are called to offer ourselves, our lives, our individual efforts to grow more like Christ and our efforts as a community of believers to spread God’s Word and to serve God’s people, to the Father in union with Christ through the hands of the priest.” (Based upon materials provided by the Secretariat of the Liturgy of the USCCB, 2010).
The Liturgy Committee will be using the bulletin and web site to help parishioners become comfortable with the new translation which goes into effect on the First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 27, 2011. Additional information and resources are available at www.usccb.org/romanmissal; also www.LTP.org; and www.RevisedRomanMissal.org.; website for Boston, www.rcab.org.
Winifred Murphy, Pastoral Associate
MASSACHUSETTS CITIZENS FOR LIFE
SUMMER ACADEMY
The Massachusetts Citizens for life is offering a summer academy with free tuition for rising 9th – 12th grade pro-life students. Become a Pro-Life Ambassador at six evening sessions in either Charlestown or Worcester. Call 617-242-4199 or visit www.masscitizensforlife.org. For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved, please visit www.massprolife.com.
WORLDWIDE MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
“We, though many, are still one body in Christ.” And we, though husband and wife, became one body in our Sacrament. Like Jesus feeds us with His Body, we need to feed our marriage body so that it grows and is productive. Take time to feed your Sacrament. The next Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekends in New England are July 27-29 and September 16-18. For more information call Ralph & Jane Becker at 1-800-710-WWME or go to www.wwme.org.
COLLEGIATE SUMMER PROGRAM AT THE COLLEGE OF SAINT MARY MAGDALEN
The College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, NH is pleased to offer its Collegiate Summer Program for high school students. This two-week program offers participants the experience of living on a Catholic college campus while studying theology, philosophy, and music. Students will attend daily Mass, enjoy sports, socials, and day trips including hiking and canoeing. The program is for students entering sophomore, junior or senior year of high school, and those who recently graduated in 2011. Spots are available for Session 2 from July 17-30; and Session 3 from August 7-20. The cost of the program is $550. Session 1(June 26-July 9) is discounted at $250. Register at www.magdalen.edu. For more information, contact the admissions office at admissions@magdalen.edu. or 603-456-2656 X 119.
WORKSHOP ON SIGNING
THE NEW ROMAN MISSAL
Save the dates 9/18, 10/16, and 11/20 for one hour workshops at Sacred Heart Parish after the 10:30 AM ASL Mass.
CALENDAR NOTES
COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, June 26 – Following the 10:30 AM ASL Mass
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, July 1 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, July 2– 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, July 3 – Follows 10:30 AM Mass
HOLIDAY MASS SCHEDULE:
Monday, July 4 – 9:00 AM – Lower Church