St. William Catholic Church 4932 Easley Street Millington, TN (901) February 2018

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1 Mass Schedule for Ash Wednesday Wednesday, February 14th In the Church: 8:30am and 6:00pm On the Base: 11:30am St. William Catholic Church 4932 Easley Street Millington, TN (901) February 2018 Do you feel like your soul could use a good spring cleaning? Lenten prayers can help! Each year during the season of Lent, we prepare to celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The 40 day penitential period of prayers, fasting and almsgiving (acts of charity) marks our Lenten journey from Ash Wednesday until Easter. Lent offers us a wonderful opportunity for spiritual renewal, just as spring approaches! (The term Lent itself comes from the Old English word for spring.) Prayer, fasting and almsgiving bring us closer to God by helping us to detach from our selfishness and worldly distractions (such as that TV series we just have to watch or our thoughts about keeping up with the Joneses, for example). With many blessings and prayers from our staff! Rev. Michael Werkhoven (Fr. Mike) Deacon Jimmy Schmall Debi Yetman Lisa Schmidt Debbie Breckenridge St. William Website: St. William Facebook Page: -TN / QR Code

2 ! YOUTH NEWS! Children s Mass Every third Sunday will be a Children s Mass at the 11:00. In January, we were blessed to have the 4th grade class give of their time and talents to serve at our Children s Mass. They did a wonderful job and we are thankful for all of you! In February, we will have the pleasure of the 3rd grade taking care of business on February 18th at 11:00. Please keep these young people in your prayers and help build the excitement up for them to be a part of our wonderful celebration! They are our future and we need them to take an active and attentive role in the church! 4th grade 3rd grade Dominic Waugh, Brady Brown, Rowan Melander, Julianna Cook, Gaige Concepcion Valls, Gavin Concepcion Valls, Dylan Mallady, Aiden Olson, Tlaloc Castro and Leanice Parker Teachers: Angela Moore, Anna & Rommel Langomez Aedan DiCello, Gabrielle Asbill, Joel Resendiz-Gonzalez, Matthew Lechner, Caden Knighton, Abrielle Arocha, Ethan Olson, Logan Quick Teachers: Carole Ann Sneed & Mary Woodard Our 8 th grade confirmation class, recently did a class service project at St. Mary s Soup Kitchen in downtown Memphis. The confirmation class will be having a clothing drive to provide much needed clothing for so many people (men and women) in need. Please look for their insert in the upcoming bulletins. Start making some stacks of gently used clothing that you might not wear that much anymore that you can do without. It will be a blessing to someone in need. Also please remember our High School Youth Group provides breakfast on the third Sunday of every month (the same Sunday as the Children s Mass). They accept donations that go towards all that they do. Please come and have a wonderful breakfast that they prepare and serve, while supporting them in the process!

3 from the Deacon s corner Lent is here! In keeping with my promise to share with you Saints who have made a difference in my life through the Divine Office, I d like to focus this month on St. Ignatius. In the Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent Jesus goes into the desert. A good way to help us through the desert during these forty days is the Daily Examen by St. Ignatius. St. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, one of 13 children of a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man Ignatius Loyola was inflamed by the ideals of courtly love and knighthood and dreamed of doing great deeds. But in 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, Ignatius Loyola experienced a conversion. Reading the lives of Jesus and the saints made Ignatius happy and he became full of desire to do great things for God. Ignatius realized that these feelings were clues to God s direction for him. Over the years, Ignatius became expert in the art of spiritual direction. He collected his insights, prayers, and suggestions in his book the Spiritual Exercises, one of the most influential books on the spiritual life ever written. With a small group of friends, Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Ignatius conceived the Jesuits as contemplatives in action. This also describes the many Christians who have been touched by Ignatian spirituality. While I was in Diaconate Formation our spiritual director, Msgr. Al Kirk, shared with us and encouraged us to use the Daily Examen, a part of the Spiritual Exercises, to help us with our prayer life, especially during Lent. A great way to pray is to look for God s presence in your life. The Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God s presence and to discern his direction for us. Try this version of St. Ignatius s prayer: 1. Become aware of God s presence. Look back on the events of the day in the company of the Holy Spirit. The day may seem confusing to you a blur, a jumble, a muddle. Ask God to bring clarity and understanding. 2. Review the day with gratitude. Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God. Walk through your day in the presence of God and note its joys and delights. Focus on the day s gifts. Look at the work you did, the people you interacted with. What did you receive from these people? What did you give them? Pay attention to small things the food you ate, the sights you saw, and other seemingly small pleasures. God is in the details. 3. Pay attention to your emotions. One of St. Ignatius s great insights was that we detect the presence of the Spirit of God in the movements of our emotions. Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day. Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? Confidence? What is God saying through these feelings? God will most likely show you some ways that you fell short. Make note of these sins and faults. But look deeply for other implications. Are you concerned about a friend? Perhaps you should reach out to them in some way. 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight a feeling, encounter, or detail from the day. Take a closer look at whatever God brings to mind. Let your heart respond spontaneously with gratitude, intercession, praise, or repentance. 5. Look toward tomorrow. Anticipate tomorrow s challenges. Pray for hope, guidance, and understanding. Whatever you feel inside, apprehension, tiredness, or excitement, invite God into your feelings and ask him to be with you and give you his light. St. Ignatius encouraged people to talk to Jesus like a friend. End the Daily Examen with a conversation with Jesus. Ask forgiveness for your sins. Ask for his protection and help. Ask for his wisdom about the questions you have and the problems you face. Do all this in the spirit of gratitude. Your life is a gift, and it is adorned with gifts from God. End the Daily Examen with the Our Father. ( Happy Lent! Deacon Jimmy

4 The Theological Virtues This month our focus will be on the virtues that relate directly to God The Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity (Love). We cannot acquire these through our own human effort but only through God. These virtues are given to us from God beginning with our Baptism. These gifts dispose us to live in relationship with God. These virtues also influence the Cardinal (human) Virtues by increasing their stability and strength in our lives. Growth in these virtues is very important for every Christian, as they aid us in living out our Christian moral life. As we learned in our last series on the Cardinal Virtues, virtue is the habitual and firm disposition to do good. The virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity inform all the Cardinal Virtues and give life to them (CCC, nos. 1833, 1834, 1841). Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and all that he as said and revealed to us. Faith is our personal response to God s revelation of his holiness, love, beauty and transcendence. By faith, man believers seek to know and do God s will. The Catechism tells us that we must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to and spread our faith (CCC 1816). Faith is a gift of grace from God. And is constantly nourished by the Holy Spirit from the moment of Baptism, through our prayer life, our participation in the Eucharist and the Sacraments and by our Christian witness. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ s promises and relying on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 1817). Hope fills us with the confidence that God is with us and guides us to life with him. Hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of everyone. Hope sustains us in times of abandonment and keeps us from being discouraged. Hope opens our hearts in expectation of eternal peace. St. Teresa of Avila wrote: Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end. Charity (Love) is the greatest virtue. This virtue is the one by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God (CCC 1822). God asks us to accept this live and respond to him with it. Jesus made the love of God the first of the two greatest Commandants. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus said: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. In the Gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love and then he goes on to say This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. It is through living this love that we can keep God s commandments. The fruits of Charity/Love are joy, peace and mercy. St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It is through charity, that all virtues are lived and shared. With love, all is possible in Christ.

5 Overview for the Month of February The month of February is dedicated to the Holy Family. This year the first thirteen days of February fall during the liturgical season known as Ordinary Time which is represented by the liturgical color green. Green, the symbol of hope, is the color of the sprouting seed and arouses in the faithful the hope of reaping the eternal harvest of heaven, especially the hope of a glorious resurrection. The remaining days of February are the beginning of Lent. The liturgical color changes to purple a symbol of penance, mortification and the sorrow of a contrite heart. The month of February is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Family. Between the events which marked Christmas and the beginning of Christ's public life the Church has seen fit to recall the example of the Holy Family for the emulation of the Christian family. The Feast of the Presentation (February 2) or Candlemas forms a fitting transition from Christmas to Easter. The small Christ-Child is still in His Mother's arms, but already she is offering Him in sacrifice. Though the shortest month of the year, February is rich in Liturgical activity. It contains a feast (Presentation of our Lord) that bridges two other seasons (Christmas and Easter)! In addition, the faithful may receive in February two of the four major public sacramentals that the Church confers during the liturgical year: blessed candles and the blessing of throats. The Solemnity of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd harkens back to the Christmas mystery of Light except that now, Christ, the helpless babe, is the Light of Revelation to the Gentiles who will save his people from their sins. Candles, symbolizing Christ our Light, will be carried in procession this day, as will be the Paschal candle during the Easter Vigil Liturgy. "The Light of Revelation" shines more brightly with each successive Sunday of Ordinary Time, until its magnificence exposing our sinfulness and need for conversion propels us into the penitential Season of Lent. We prepare to accept the cross of blessed ashes on Ash Wednesday (March 1) and plunge ourselves into anticipating the major exercises of Lent fasting, prayer, almsgiving laying our thoughts and prayers on the heart of our Mother Mary. She, who offered her Son in the temple and on the Cross, will teach us how to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow after her Son. BUNCO IS A HIT! WE PLAY ON THE SECOND FRIDAY THIS MONTH DUE TO LENT! PLEASE PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDARS TO JOIN US ON FEBRUARY 9th. IF YOU VE NEVER PLAYED IT DOESN T MATTER! IT IS SUPER EASY AND WE WANT YOU THERE! St. William Youth Group, along with our 8th grade confirmation class, will be hosting a diocesan wide Youth Adoration Night on Sunday, February 11th from 6-7pm. We would also like to open this up to the entire parish. Fr. Mike will be providing information to allow for a better understanding of this beautiful experience. This is the perfect opportunity for those that have never been to adoration, or do not get to go as often as they d like, to attend! Please contact Janna Dominguez with any questions. Thank you! WE LIKE TO EAT AND IF YOU DO TOO, COME AT 7:00pm WITH A FINGER FOOD IF NOT SHOW UP AT 7:30pm TO PLAY! TAKE A CHANCE ON SOMETHING NEW GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! COME HAVE SOME FUN WITH US! MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW!! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CALL DEBBIE BRECKENRIDGE

6 We can t wait to see you at the 8 th annual Women's Morning of Spirituality Saturday, February 10, 2018 Catholic Church of the Incarnation 360 Bray Station Rd, Collierville, TN :15 am - 1:30 pm Continental Breakfast beginning at 7:15 Join over 1,300 women of all ages as we praise God together! Most Reverend Martin David Holley, D.D. will celebrate Mass with many of the priests of our diocese. Theme: Philippians 4:7 The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Keynote Speaker: Mother Dolores Hart Witness Speaker: Glenna Bradshaw Music: Kevin and Bethany Paige Registration: Although we do not charge a fee for WMOS, it costs approximately $15/person. A donation or love offering toward the expense would be greatly appreciated. PLEASE CARPOOL Parking lot attendants will be there to help. Overflow parking will be at Collierville Town Hall at 500 Poplar View Pkwy, Collierville, TN with continuous bus service to Incarnation. We wanted to share the schedule with you. 7:15 Continental Breakfast in Gym 7:40 Divine Mercy Chaplet (optional) 8:00 Church doors open 8:15 Program begins 11:00 Adoration, Rosary, Reconciliation 12:30 Celebration of Mass Our Mornings together have strengthened the faith of many. How has WMOS made a difference in your life? Please post on WMOS Facebook or respond to wmosmemphis@gmail.com (Indicate if you want your name kept anonymous.) For more information or to Register, go to our website at

7 January OT NT Ps/Prv 1 Job 22, 23, 24 Matthew 21:18-32 Proverbs 3: Jb 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Mt 21:33-46, 22:1-14 Psalms 18: Jb 30, 31, 32 Mt 22:15-46 Ps 18: Jb 33, 34 Mt 23:1-39 Ps 18: Jb 35, 36, 37 Mt 24:1-31 Prv 4:1-9 6 Jb 38, 39, 40:1-2 Mt 24:32-51, 25:1-13 Ps 18: Jb 40:3-24, 41, 42 Mt 25:14-46 Ps 18: Exodus 1, 2, 3 Mt 26:1-30 Ps 19:1-6 9 Ex 4, 5, 6:1-12 Mt 26:31-46 Prv 4: Ex 6:13-30, 7, 8 Mt 26:47-68 Ps 19: Ex 9, 10 Mt 26:69-75, 27:1-10 Ps 20: Ex 11, 12 Mt 27:11-44 Ps 21: Ex 13, 14 Mt 27:45-66 Prv 4: Ex 15, 16 Mt 28:1-20 Ps 21: Ex 17, 18 Mark 1:1-28 Ps 22: Ex 19, 20 Mk 1:29-45, 2:1-17 Ps 22: Ex 21, 22 Mk 2:18-27, 3:1-30 Prv 5: Ex 23, 24 Mk 3:31-35, 4:1-29 Ps 22: Ex 25, 26 Mk 4:30-41, 5:1-20 Ps 23: Ex 27, 28 Mk 5:21-43, 6:1-6 Ps 24: Ex 29, 30 Mk 6:7-29 Prv 5: Ex 31, 32, 33:1-6 Mk 6:30-56 Ps 25: Ex 33:7-23, 34 Mk 7:1-30 Ps 25: Ex 35, 36 Mk 7:31-37, 8:1-13 Ps 25: Ex 37, 38 Mk 8:14-38, 9:1 Prv 6: Ex 39, 40 Mk 9:2-32 Ps 26: Leviticus 1, 2, 3 Mk 9:33-50, 10:1-12 Ps 27: Lv 4, 5:1-13 Mk 10:13-31 Ps 27:7-14 Read the Bible in One Year

8 W O R D S E A R C H

9 And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry (Matthew 4:2). The devil perceived Jesus hunger as weakness and tried to tempt him in the desert; however, Jesus fasting armed him with a clarity of mind that strengthened his refusal of worldly things. This month, we have the opportunity to make ourselves hungry, to remove distractions and pleasures, that we may clearly understand that only God can truly fulfill. Study Listen Read Watch For Children Read For Children Watch

10 Formed.org February Liturgical Calendar (More online at PRESENTATION OF THE LORD Listen: Drawing Strength from Our Lady of Sorrows ST. BLAISE Read: The Year and Our Children ST. JOSEPHINE BAKHITA Watch: Bakhita: From Slave to Saint Ver: Bakhita: De Esclavo a Santo ST. JOSÉ SÁNCHEZ DEL RÍO Escuchar: Ataque a la Libertad Religiosa Listen: Attack on Religious Liberty OUR LADY OF LOURDES Watch: Bernadette Ver: Bernadita Watch: Lourdes: A Story of Faith, Science, and Miracles Ver: Lourdes: Una Historia de Fe, Ciencia, y Milagros Listen: St. Bernadette of Lourdes ST. VALENTINE S DAY Study: Beloved: Mystery and Meaning of Marriage Estudiar: Amado: El Misterio y el Significado del Matrimonio Audio: For Love and Marriage ASH WEDNESDAY LENT BEGINS Study: A Lent to Remember Listen: My Beloved Son: Meditations for Lent Listen: Glimpses Along the Way of the Cross Escuchar: Cristo en el Credo, Pasión, Muerte, y Resurrección Read: Awakening Read: Meditations for Lent BLESSEDS FRANCISCO AND JACINTA MARTO Study: Divine Mercy, Episode 6: Fatima Watch: The 13th Day Ver: El Día 13 FEAST OF THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER Study: Lectio: Peter Watch: Saint Peter Ver: San Pedro