Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, March 19
4:00 PM Linda Capodilupo
Sunday, March 20
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
Monday, March 28
12:05 PM Mary, Thomas, Michael and Dennis Ford
Sunday, April 3
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, April 2
4:00 PM Fr. Connelly
Sunday, April 3
9:00 AM Fr. Imbelli
10:30 AM Fr. Carey
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Wednesday, March 30 – 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 2 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM
READINGS FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel Reading: John 9:1-41
SPECIAL COLLECTION FOR JAPAN
Today we will have a second collection for disaster relief for Japan. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
LENTEN ALMSGIVING
Our bins are nearly empty! Please remember the less fortunate this Lent and donate new white socks and underwear for St Francis House. Also please remember the regular food donation for the month of April – sugar.
CATHOLIC APPEAL 2011
Our appreciation goes out to all parishioners of Sacred Heart who have made a gift to the 2011 Catholic Appeal. If you have not yet made your gift, please consider making a pledge this weekend. Your support of the Catholic Appeal is even more urgent this year. We have received $9,120 from 44 households, reaching 28.4% of our goal of $48,500. Remember, our parish will receive 25 percent of all funds we raise above our goal. For more information, please visit www.BostonCatholicAppeal.com or call 617-779-3700. Every gift matters. Thank you!
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of March 19/20 $ 4,662
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
A Parent Workshop on the Eucharist will be held today after Mass in the Convent from 10:15-11:45am. Coffee and donuts will be provided. At least one parent must attend!
We encourage all our CCD families to strive to grow closer to Christ during this Lenten season by attending Mass, praying together, meditating on the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and the Stations of the Cross. All our students have been given a Lenten Rice Bowl to fill with their own allowance as their gift to the poor. Please put the rice bowl on your dining room table and feed the little child whose picture is on the box, every time you feed yourselves. Also, all CCD families are asked to donate clothing and other essential items for children listed on the aqua sheet handed out by classroom teachers or found in the lower chapel. An organization called Cradles to Crayons will provide these items to local families in need. As you share what you have you will be joining yourself to the poor as Christ did.
The Confirmation Class welcomes Jason Giombetti, Youth Minister at St. Patrick’s Parish in Natick who will give a presentation on the Commandments # 4 – 10. All are welcome to join us Tuesday, March 29th from 7 – 8:30 in the lower church. The updated speaker schedule is on tables at all entrances/exits of the church.
With the Blessing of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Archdiocese of Boston Sponsors International Chastity Speaker Jason Evert “ROMANCE WITHOUT REGRET”, on Sunday, March 27th at St. Patrick’s Church, Natick, MA from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
Jason Evert is internationally recognized as a leading chastity speaker and teacher, who earned his Masters degree in Theology. His seventy-five minute presentation, “Romance Without Regret,” is an engaging, fast-paced mix of stories, humor, medical facts and spiritual inspiration rooted in our Catholic faith. He is the author of six books and coauthor of the high school curriculum, Theology of the Body. Many have called his presentation “life-changing.”
To rave reviews, Jason Evert has presented “Romance Without Regret” to over 50,000 students, parents and faculty within the Boston area since 2005. RECOMMENDED FOR PARENTS AND STUDENTS OF 9th – 12th GRADES. To listen to a version of the presentation, visit Jason’s web site, www.chastity.com. For video clips of Jason discussing chastity, visit www.YouTube.com, search Jason Evert.
Michelle Solomon Director Religious Education
Roseann Furbush Confirmation Coordinator
THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN MARRIAGE
(A recent discussion of the marriage ritual reminded me of the exhortation contained in an older ritual which was always read at the marriage ceremony. The Second Vatican Council revised the marriage ritual to some extent and left an explanation for marriage to be done by the provider’s homily. I’m sure our older parishioners will recognize the following exhortation.)
Father Connelly
Dear friends in Christ, as you know, you are about to enter into a union which is most sacred and most serious, a union which was established by God himself. By it, he gave to man a share in the greatest work of creation, the work of the continuation of the human race. And in this way he sanctified human love and enabled men and women to help each other live as children of God, by sharing a common life under his fatherly care.
Because God himself is thus its author, marriage is of its very nature a holy institution, requiring of those who enter into it a complete and unreserved giving of self. But Christ our Lord added to the holiness of marriage an even deeper meaning and a higher beauty. He referred to the love of marriage to describe his own love for his Church, that is, for the people of God whom he redeemed by his own blood. And so he gave to Christians a new vision of what married life ought to be, a life of self-sacrificing love like his own. It is for this reason that his apostle, St, Paul, clearly states that marriage is now and for all time to be considered a great mystery, intimately bound up with the supernatural union of Christ and the Church, which union is also to be its pattern.
This union then is most serious, because it will bind you together for life in a relationship so close and so intimate that it will profoundly influence your whole future. That future, with its hopes and disappointments, its successes and its failures, its pleasures and its pains, its joys and its sorrows, is hidden from your eyes. You know that these elements are mingled in every life and are to be expected in your own. And so, not knowing what is before you, you take each other for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death.
Truly, then these words are most serious. It is a beautiful tribute to your undoubted faith in each other, that, recognizing their full import, you are nevertheless so willing and ready to pronounce them. And because these words involve such solemn obligations, it is most fitting that you rest the security of your wedded life upon the great principle of self-sacrifice. And so you begin your married life by the voluntary and complete surrender of your individual lives in the interest of that deeper and wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind, one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this common life, always make them generously. Sacrifice is usually difficult and irksome. Only love can make it easy; and perfect love can make it a joy. We are willing to give in proportion as we love. And when love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and the Son so loved us that he gave himself for our salvation. “Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
No greater blessing can come to your married life than pure conjugal love, loyal and true to the end. May then, this love with which you join your hands and hearts today never fail, but grow deeper and stronger as the years go on. And if true love and the unselfish spirit of perfect sacrifice guide your every action, you can expect the greatest measure of earthly happiness that may be allotted to man in this vale of tears. The rest is in the hands of God. Nor will God be wanting to your needs; he will pledge you the life-long support of his graces in the holy sacrament which you are going to receive.
JESUIT PANEL DISCUSSION AT BC
On Thursday, March 31 at 7:00 PM, William P. Leahy, SJ, Jack Butler, SJ and Jeremy Zipple, SJ will present: Three Jesuits: Who Do They Say They Are? Personal Perspectives. The Panel Discussion will take place in the Heights Room, Corcoran Commons, Chestnut Hill Campus and is free of charge. RSVP by emailing church21@bc.edu.
OUR CATHOLIC FAITH IN SCRIPTURE, SONG AND PRAYER
Come and hear Donna Cori Gibson’s powerful voice, her range, her emotion, and the awe-inspiring way in which she compels us to pray with her songs. The concert will be held at Corpus Christi Church, 45 Ash Street, Auburndale, on Wednesday, April 6th at 7 PM. Free-will offering.
LOOKING FOR A RETREAT?
Check out the April offerings at:
Miramar Retreat Center in Duxbury, MA – information and registration at 781-585-2460 or www.mirarretreat.org.
Espousal Retreat House in Waltham – information and registration at 781-209-3120 or www.espousal.org.
INTENTIONS OF THE HOLY FATHER FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL
General Intention: That through its compelling preaching of the Gospel, the Church may give young people new reasons for life and hope.
Mission Intention: That by proclamation of the Gospel and the witness of their lives, missionaries may bring Christ to those who do not yet know him.
SIGNINGS
In our Religious Education Class we learned about how God teaches us about Himself and about life through the bible. We learned about the written words that make it up and how they were given to us by God through different writers and how the most excellent part is the four Gospels.
One of the students pointed out that we have little pictures that are symbols of the four Gospels that appear on the back of the red hardcover books in the pews. They are in relief. You can feel these pictures on the four corners of the back outside cover.
These four Gospels are the best part of the Bible because they are about Jesus' life, words, actions, miracles; His life, death, and Resurrection. The four Gospels also feature His sacrifice on the cross where He fully reveals the Father by loving us with a human heart or a human shaped love. One could say the Gospels feature the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Anyway, the Gospel that is associated with the picture of an eagle is John, today's Gospel. Like an eagle, famous for being able to see well from a distance, John writes about Christ from a distance in time farther out than that of the first three Gospels yet nevertheless seems to have the keenest vision of those events.
Today's story in the Gospel of John is so rich and beautiful, so profound and wonderful I hesitate to say anything about it. Each part could be unfolded over a long course of study it seems.
The woman is so impressed because Jesus "told her everything she had done." Why? That is compelling but it is hard to explain exactly who that is who is so powerful.
The people are convinced by her but it needs to be noted that when they came to Jesus they no longer needed to depend on her testimony. Why is that too so profoundly beautiful and important in the flow of the account? Naturally, answers I had learned come to mind but I feel there are other answers yet to be fully understood.
My thought for you all this Lent is to look for a way to access this story. Find a friend or sit with it yourself in some quiet time. Jesus wants to meet you just like he met that woman at the well. He is "hungry" to drink in your company and can and does visit with us all in a special way during Lent.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
APRIL EVENTS FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Friday, April 1 at LaSalette Shrine – Fr. Jose Robles Sanchez.
Theology on Tap, Thursday, April 7, at City Side, Cleveland Circle, Brighton, from 7-10 PM.
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 plan to come. Check the sign up sheets at the church entrances for food donations. If you need a ride contact Kathie Long at longlongjj@verizon.net or call 617-969-1425.
SAVE THE DATE
The 27th Social Justice Forum will take place on Sunday, April 10 at 7:30 PM in the lower church. Laurie Martinelli, Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Mass., will present: Mental Illness – Myths and Facts. Free Admission, open to the public, refreshments to follow. If you need transportation, call Jini Fairley at 617-964-3966.
MOM’S DAY AWAY
Give yourself an “Early Mother’s Day Present”. Share wisdom and inspiration with sisters-in-Christ who are walking the same faith journey at an event sponsored by Faith & Family Magazine at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall in Stoneham, MA 8am-5pm on Saturday, April 2. Fee - $40. Register at http://faithandfamily.event.com.
CALENDAR NOTES
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, March 27 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – GRADES 1-5:
Sunday, March 27 – 10:30 to 11:45 AM – Lower Church
FIRST COMMUNION PARENT WORKSHOP:
Sunday, March 27 – 10:30 AM - Convent Dining Room
WOMEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP:
Sunday, March 27 – 10:30 AM - Convent
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, March 28– 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION – Tuesday, March 29
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
SACRED HEART SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY:
Tuesday, March 29 – 7:30 PM – Convent Library
CONFESSIONS:
Wednesday, March 30 – 6:30 – 8:00 PM – Lower Church
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, April 1 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
SOUP AND STATIONS AT CORPUS CHRISTI:
Friday, April 1 – 6 PM soup, 7 PM Stations
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, April 2 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, April 3 – 10:00AM to 1 PM – Parish Center