Sacred Heart Parish
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Saturday, May 14
4:00 PM Sheila Werbinski
Sunday, May 15
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM James O’Donoghue
Friday, May 20
9:00 AM John J. & Elizabeth D. (Morin) Waters
Sunday, May 22
9:00 AM Parishioners of Sacred Heart
11:45 AM Jeremiah & Nora Whooley and Family
CELEBRANTS FOR NEXT WEEKEND’S MASSES
Saturday, May 21
4:00 PM Fr. Imbelli
Sunday, May 22
9:00 AM Fr. Connelly
10:30 AM Fr. Macsherry
11:45 AM Fr. Connelly
CONFESSIONS
Saturday, May 21 – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – Fr. Connelly
READINGS FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
First Reading: Acts 6:1-7
Second reading: 1 Peter 2:4-9
Gospel Reading: John 14:1-12
SPECIAL COLLECTION NEXT WEEK
Next week’s special collection supports three important national Catholic missions. The Military Archdiocese provides Catholic chaplains throughout the world for American Servicemen and service women. The Home Missions collection subsidizes the evangelization and formation activities of mission diocese. The Black and Native American collection strengthens evangelization and outreach which would otherwise be in danger of disappearing among the Black, American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut communities of the United States. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/hm or www.milarch.org.
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM
Join us on Sunday, May 15 at 7:30 PM in the lower church to hear Gloria White Hammond and Sarah Cleto Rial of My Sister’s Keeper speak on Sudan: Building Pathways to Sustainable Peace.
OFFERTORY INCOME
Weekend of May 7/8 $ 4,461
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS
We rejoice with our 1st Communicants and their families today as they receive the precious gift of Jesus’ own body and blood for the first time. May this eternal food strengthen them (and us!) in our trials, free us from fear and give us the courage to stay close to Christ in this life until we reach our home in heaven! All parishioners are invited to join us in celebrating this day as a parish with a delicious brunch arranged with love by Kathy Winters and many other parent volunteers from the CCD program. We thank them for their time and labor for making this such a joyous occasion! We look forward to seeing you there.
CCD classes will not meet today in order for all to participate in this 1st Communion. CCD classes will end for the Tuesday program on May 17 and for the Sunday program on May 22nd. A final Mass(es) will be offered for all CCD students and their families in both programs on Tuesday, May 17 at 4pm and 7pm. A small celebration will follow. Please join us.
A special thanks goes out to our 1st Communion teachers: Christine Sanroma and Mary Hoppe for guiding and coaching and sharing their faith particularly in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist with our 2nd grade students. Here are the 1st Communicants:
Jaime Aguilar, Maximilian Aicardi, Samantha Averitt, Anna Coste Perez, Blanca Davila, Grace Denninger, Anthony DePalma III, Timothy Dobies, Luke and Riley Fitzpatrick, Samaria Jackson, Anne Joseph, Matthew Klosek, Miller Kodish, William LaCamera, David Maciejuk, Maria Martinez, Carolyn McDonald, Shalon Nesvacil, Grace Penna, Maverick Perez, Luc Picard, Annaliese Poley, Eliseo Shields, Coleman Stanton, Isabella Valente.
Michelle Solomon, Director of Religious Education
GUILD OF ST. FRANCIS COMMUNION BREAKFAST
Save the date of Sunday June 5, 2011 for the Annual Communion Breakfast and Meeting following the 9:00 AM Mass for deceased members of the Guild of St. Francis. Cost will be $15.00 per person and reservations must be made by June 1, 2011. No admittance without a reservation. Checks made payable to the Guild of St. Francis should be mailed to Sally Daly, 138 Lincoln St., Newton Highlands, MA, 02461. Spouses and family members welcomed. For questions and reservations, please call Mary English at 617-332-8656 or Cindy Raymond, 617-517-3722.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS YARD SALE
The Sacred Heart Knights of Columbus yard sale will take place in the parking lot on Saturday, May 21 starting at 8 AM. Donations may be dropped off at the convent on Friday, May 20 from 5-7 PM.
THE MEDICINE OF IMMORTALITY
The Easter Mysteries cry out for a reflection on the question of death. Many in our society do not want to talk about dying. We camouflage dying in the ways we talk and the ways we act with reference to death. We sometimes forget there are many things we must do well in the course of our lifetime. One of those things is learning how to die well. What is the connection between Easter and the question of death? At Easter time we celebrate the most significant death in human history – that which the Son of God underwent for us, a death that was death-destroying for us and life-giving for us.
For men and women everywhere, the fact of death is a profound puzzle in the face of which the riddle of human existence grows most acute. We all, of course, experience pain and the advancing deterioration of the mind and body, and all the endeavors of technology cannot calm the anxieties to which death gives rise within the human spirit. Even the prolongation of biological life would be unable to satisfy the desire for higher life, true life as St. Paul calls it, life that lasts, which we instinctively recognize as part and parcel of the human condition.
Surely no one reading this column is as indifferent to the question of death as the gentleman among the ancient Romans who had someone carve on this tombstone the following words: “I was not; I was; I am not; I don’t care.” I think most of us would rightly follow the intuition of our hearts that abhors and repudiates the very thought of utter personal ruin and the total disappearance of our being, a sort of dread of perpetual extinction that wonders how the world can continue to exist without me. Even the Old Testament is somewhat ambiguous about the question of life after death. Job, in the book of Job, seems quite certain that in his flesh after death that he will see God. The 49th Psalm, however, does not express such confidence – “Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places for all generations. They will go to the company of their ancestors. Never again will they see the light”.
Where do we find the truth of things? The new and exciting good news of Easter tells the world that there is a cure for death, that the medicine for immortality has been found. For us who follow Christ, the enigma of death is resolved in Christ. Death means dying with Christ whom we often sing at our Eucharist – “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory.” In this Lord of ours who comes to us each liturgy in word and in sacrament and who indeed will come again at time’s end, is the very Lord who says to us – “I am the resurrection and the life.” This means that whoever lives and believes in him will never die. The medicine of immortality is Baptism.
Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the spirit, the door that opens up to us the good things the Lord wants to give to us. Through Baptism we are freed from sin, reborn as members of God’s household because we share in the life that is proper to God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, we become members of Christ and are made sharers in the mission of the Church. This sacrament has many names. To baptize means to plunge or to immerse someone in water. Baptism is often called “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the spirit”. It is often called enlightenment because those baptized as adults are enlightened in their understanding of the catechism. A person baptized into Christ’s life becomes a child of the light to others.
At Morning Prayer on Holy Saturday there are two antiphons containing words which are placed on the lips of Jesus. The first reads: “Death, you shall die in me; hell you shall be destroyed by me.” The second goes as follows: “I was dead, but now I live forever and I hold the keys of death and of hell.” This is the dramatic way the liturgy is telling us that by his death and resurrection, by what we call his paschal mystery, our savior has done away with our two great enemies – sin and death.
As a sort of footnote, I will add the following. At Christmas time we spoke of the newborn Christ in the words of St. Augustine – “Christ has been born as God of his heavenly Father, as Man of his earthly mother; of his Father without a mother, of his mother without a father; of his father as the beginning of life, of his mother as the end of death.” When we come to the Easter Mysteries we begin to understand more clearly the great truth that Christ our Lord is both the beginning of life and the end of death.
Father Connelly
PROJECT RACHEL RETREAT
Come to the Waters of Healing. This one-day retreat is designed to help women hurting from past abortions experience the personal love of Christ and find hope for healing. Location is confidential, pre-registration required. Spring dates are Saturday, May 21 or Saturday, June 25 from 9 AM to 5 PM. For more information, contact Project Rachel at 508-651-3100 or email help@projectrachelboston.com.
CATHOLIC TV FOR THE FAMILY
Help bring CatholicTV® Network to our entire area and into your home. Please visit: www.CatholicTVeverywhere.com and fill out a simple form. Then get all of your friends to do the same. The more names we have the better chance we’ll have for a new Catholic channel with fresh, faithful and fun programming for the whole family! Thanks for helping to spread the good news about The CatholicTV® Network!
SIGNINGS
We all have different names. We can be called son or daughter from the point of view of our parents. We can be called Mother or Father from our children's point of view. We have a given name, like John or Mary. We have different names but we are one person. The different names are valid, true names.
Christ tells us about His different names. Today's is different. He calls Himself "Sheep Gate." This is a way of saying He is the way into heaven for us. Another way to interpret this title is to say He is death. This is different but St. Paul says as much when he says, "for to me life is Christ, and death is gain". This is a way of saying that Christ is death.
Christ teaches us that He also is the "Only Gate". There isn't any other gate. He tells us that there are others who try to tell us they are the gate but they are all lying tricksters. Why is that?
There are other people who claim to be able to lead us "sheep" into some kind of heaven, some kind of safe and good place. But such people are always trying to convince us that the cost will be minimal compared to the benefit. All the utopian futures promised us in a million ways over and over again are all oppressions by optimism. They are all miserably hopeless.
Christ is the only way to heaven. He is the gate for us; we who are his sheep. He is not a deceiver. He reveals Himself as our death. When we enter that way into His heaven, we are saved. The other "heavens” and the ways to get to those "heavens" are all around us and are all scams. There is one way; it is the way of Christ the good shepherd. It is the way of total generosity and love. Anything less is a lie. Anything less keeps us out of the good pastures of Heaven.
We now know death by a different name: The Sheep Gate tells us that Death is not dead but living and it is Himself and He who is Death now is Life, and Death is Life Eternal.
In Christ,
Fr. St. Martin
BOSTON COLLEGE 2011 SUMMER INSTITUTE
Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry’s Summer Institute offers a rich array of theological and ministerial courses. Enroll in one- or two-week graduate courses (for credit or audit), join our sabbatical program, or begin a master of arts degree in pastoral ministry, a master of education in religious education, or a post-master’s certificate in spiritual formation. For more information, a list of courses, and registration, visit www.bc.edu/stmsummer.
CATHOLIC FAMILY FESTIVAL WITH
CARDINAL SÉAN
You and your family are invited to the Catholic Family Festival with Cardinal Sean O'Malley on Saturday June 25th from 12 - 7 PM at Malden Catholic High School. This year's Family Festival is a Faith and Culture Event honoring Blessed John Paul II our Holy Father who traveled to nearly every country on earth and spoke courageously to the youth and families of our time. The Conference will feature Mass with Cardinal Sean, Eucharistic Adoration, a Marian procession, spiritual and fun activities for the whole family, an International food festival and a Cultural Gala honoring our late Holy Father. For more information please email Fr. Michael Harrington at Mharrington@rcab.org or call 617-746-5794. register at www.CatholicCulturalDiversity.com.
SUMMER YOUTH PROGRAM AT THE COLLEGE OF SAINT MARY MAGDALEN
Once again, the College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, NH is pleased to offer its summer youth program for high school students. This two week program offers participants a two-week experience of living on a Catholic college campus while studying theology, philosophy and music. During the program, students also attend daily Mass and enjoy sports, socials and day trips including hiking and canoeing. The summer youth program is for students who will be entering their sophomore, junior or senior year of high school in the fall of 2011. It is also open to students who have just graduated high school. Session one is from June 26- July 9th, session two runs from July 17-30, and session three is from August 7-20. Register today at www.magdalen.edu! For more information, contact the admissions office at admissions@magdalen.edu or 603.456.2656 x 114.
CALENDAR NOTES
FIRST COMMUNION RECEPTION:
Sunday, May 15 – 10 AM – Parish Center
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, May 15 – following 10:30 AM Mass to 1 PM
SOCIAL JUSTICE FORUM:
Sunday, May 15 – 7:30 PM – Lower Church
BOY SCOUTS:
Monday, May 16 – 7:30 PM – Parish Center
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Tuesday, May 17
Grades 1-5 – 4:00 to 5:15 PM – Lower Church
Grades 6-10 – 7:00 to 8:30 PM – Lower Church
PRAYER GROUP:
Wednesday, May 18 – 7:30 PM – Convent Chapel
COFFEE HOUR:
Friday, May 20 – Following 9 AM Mass – Parish Center
LITURGY, ADORATION AND THE ROSARY:
Saturday, May 21 – 9 AM to 12:30 PM – Lower Church
EXTENDED COFFEE HOUR:
Sunday, May 22 – 10 AM to 1 PM – Parish Center