Church of Saint Monica Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Saint Stephen of Hungary

Transcription

1 Church of Saint Monica Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Saint Stephen of Hungary 413 East 79 th St., New York, NY Church Offices and Parish Center: 406 East 80 th St., New York, NY (212) Fax: (212) Fourth Sunday of Advent Sunday, December 24th, 2017 Office Hours Our Offices are open: Mo. 9am 5pm Tu.-Th. 9am 7pm Fri. Closed Sat. 10am -2pm Sun. Closed Our offices close for lunch: 1pm 2pm daily Parish Staff Pastor Rev. Donald C. Baker Associates: Rev. Msgr. Leslie J Ivers msgrlivers@stmonicanyc,org Rev. Joslin K. Jose frjoslin@stmonicanyc.org Pastoral Associate: Ms. Maryann Tyrer mtyrer@stmonicanyc.org Parish Manager: Mr. Michael Ward mward@stmonicanyc.org Interim Music Director: Ms. Lora Cohan lcohan@stmonicanyc.org Cantor: Mr. Joseph Neal Wedding Coordinator: Ms. Debbi Burdett DBweddingsnyc@gmail.com Mass Schedule Saturday: 12:00pm Saturday Vigil: 5:30pm Sunday: 7:30am 9:00am 10:30am 12:00pm 5:00pm Monday Friday: 7:30 & 12:00pm Confessions: Saturday 5:00 5:30pm and by appointment Our church is open: 7am 4pm daily for private prayer St. Stephen of Hungary School Pre-K through 8 th Grade Catholic Parochial School 408 East 82 nd St., New York, NY (212) Fax: (212) Ms. Caroline Walker Principal: Interested in admissions to our parish school? admissions@saintstephenschool.org

2 TODAY S READINGS First Reading -- I will fix a place for my people. I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance (2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16). Psalm -- For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord (Psalm 89). Second Reading -- To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever and ever (Romans 16:25-27). Gospel -- Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word (Luke 1:26-38). The English translation of the Psalm Responses from Lectionary for Mass (c) 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved. READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: Vigil: Is 62:1-5; Ps 89:4-5, 16-17, 27-29; Acts 13:16-17, 22-25; Mt 1:1-25 [18-25] During the Night: Is 9:1-6; Ps 96:1-3, 11-13; Ti 2:11-14; Lk 2:1-14Dawn: Is 62:11-12; Ps 97:1, 6, 11-12; Ti 3:4-7; Lk 2:15-20 Day: Is 52:7-10; Ps 98:1-6; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18 [1-5, 9-14] Tuesday: SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES Sunday: Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Ps 31:3cd-4, 6, 8ab, 16bc, 17; Mt 10:17-22 Wednesday : 1 Jn 1:1-4; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12; Jn 20:1a, 2-8 Thursday: 1 Jn 1:5 -- 2:2; Ps 124:2-5, 7cd-8; Mt 2:13-18 Friday : 1 Jn 2:3-11; Ps 96:1-3, 5b-6; Lk 2:22-35 Saturday: 1 Jn 2:12-17; Ps 96:7-10; Lk 2:36-40 Sunday : Sir 3:2-6, or Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3;Ps 128:1-5 or Ps 105:1-6, 8-9; Col 3:12-21 [12-17] or Hb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Lk 2:22-40 [22, 39-40] Fourth Sunday of Advent The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) St. Stephen; Kwanzaa begins St. John The Holy Innocents Fifth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord; St. Thomas Becket Sixth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord SATURDAY December 23rd Vigil 5:30 PM Thomas Costello SUNDAY December 24th Fourth Sunday of Advent 7:30 AM Jozsef Tomahatsh 9:00 AM Helen, John Flack & Family 10:30 AM Helen & James Quinn 12 NOON Parishioners of St Monica, St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Stephen of Hungary 5:30 PM Vigil Family Mass MONDAY 12MN 7:30AM 9AM 10:30AM 12NOON TUESDAY 9:00AM December 25th The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) For the Parishioners of St Monica, St Elizabeth of Hungary & St Stephen of Hungary December 26th St. Stephen Jack Dowd WEDNESDAY December 27th St. John 7:30 AM Lynn Lemay 12 NOON Anne Cora THURSDAY December 28th The Holy Innocents 7:30AM Lane Moran 12NOON Dr. Maria Litrenta (Living) FRIDAY December 29th Fifth Day within the Octave Nativity of the Lord 7:30AM John Williams 12NOON Stephen McFadden SATURDAY December 30th Sixth Day within the Octave Nativity of the Lord 12 NOON Stephen McFadden PRAYERS FOR THE SICK Please remember in your prayers Fr. Peter Colapietro, Fr. Jim Gavin, Rosemary Catalano, Sotero Matta, James Baker, Kathleen Reddington, Bette Dewing, Ed Lucas, Benjamin Soleo, Roger & Franklin White, Manuel Cuenca, Edgardo Halagao, John Healey, John Shegina, Tobias Bustamante, Victor Worizid, James Leung, Raymond Feeley, Broley Gus, Frank Krescanko, Luis Gonzalez AND ALL VICTIMS OF MILITARY ACTIVITY PRAYERS FOR THE DECEASED Bridget Murray, Donald Fitzgerald, Patricia McGuire-Randt, Larry Eivens, John Gambino, Donald Fitzgerald & Gerhard Goede, Please pray for our deceased parishioners and family members If you wish to add the name of a loved one to the prayer list, please notify the parish center: (212)

3 K-8 Religious Education, Adult Faith Formation, and RCIA all resume sessions on January 7. Catechist Assistants and Greeters Needed Can you give us two hours of your time a couple of Sundays a month? We need some extra adults to help with our larger classes, and to mind the front door of the parish center during Religious Education. Safe Environment training will be provided. Middle School Catechist needed! We are grateful to Anh Duong for her awesome service, but she is moving away, and we need a catechist to work with our small but dynamic middle school group beginning in January. Training will be provided at your convenience. Attention All Young Adults On New Year s Eve, we will have a champagne reception in the church following the 5pm Mass. Let s worship together, and then toast the New Year before heading out to holiday parties. Considering becoming Catholic? Catholic adult but not yet confirmed? Contact Maryann, our pastoral associate, to continue your faith journey with our Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or Adult Confirmation processes. Want to deepen your faith in the new year? We have Adult Faith Formation every Sunday morning that Religious Education is in session, 10:15-11:45am in the Parish Center. Come and join other adults for an informal discussion of Scripture over coffee and tea!

4 Discover the Trail of Martin Luther The Reformation in Germany Hosted by Father Donald C. Baker September 12 22, days 14 meals included Highlights... Mainz Worms Gutenberg Museum Erfurt Wartburg Castle Lutherhaus Eisleben Dresden Leipzig St. Thomas Church Wittenberg St. Mary s Church Berlin For information contact Maryann Tyrer Pastoral Associate St. Monica St. Elizabeth of Hungary St. Stephen of Hungary mtyrer@stmonicanyc.org Holiday Mass Schedules Masses for the 4th Sunday of Advent: Saturday, Dec. 23 at 5:30pm, and Sunday, Dec. 24 at 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, and 12noon (no 5pm Mass!) Masses for Christmas (a Holy Day of Obligation): Sunday, Dec. 24 at 5:30pm Vigil (Family Mass), Monday, Dec. 25 at Midnight, 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, and 12noon Masses for the Feast of the Holy Family (the Sunday after Christmas): Saturday, Dec. 30 at 5:30pm, and Sunday, Dec. 31 at 7:30am, 9am, 10:30am, 12noon, and 5pm Masses for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God: Monday, January 1 at 9am

5 SPECIAL DEVOTIONS After all weekday masses Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament Every Friday after the Noon Mass to 3 PM, with Benediction following the Divine Mercy Chaplet Devotions Miraculous Medal on Mondays after each Mass Divine Mercy The Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed each Friday afternoon at 3 PM Sacrament of Reconciliation: 5:00 PM on Saturdays Anytime by appointment BAPTISMS & MARRIAGES: Please call the rectory office for more information. COMMUNION FOR THE HOMEBOUND: If you know of anyone who cannot attend church because of illness or age, and would like to have communion brought to them, please contact the parish office, so that we can arrange for a Eucharistic Minister to bring communion to them. SEEKING WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA HELP The parish is seeking a volunteer to help maintain its social media presence as well as keep current its website content. Familiarity with navigating these areas of technology is a necessity. Time commitment would be anticipated at an hour or two a week. Anyone interested can contact our parish manager, Mike Ward, at mward@stmonicanyc.org or by phone at the parish office Thank you TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION. Children of the parish are somewhat focused on Santa Claus these days, who is keeping an eye on who's naughty and who's nice. Santa Claus, with his heavenly patron Saint Nicholas, has been more or less in charge of gift-giving to American children for a hundred years or so. In other places, perhaps more attentive to our Christian tradition, there are different giftbearers. In Greece, Saint Basil delivers the presents on his feast day, December 31, and makes sure everyone is sprinkled with holy water. The Baby Jesus is in charge elsewhere, called the Christ kind in Austria and Belgium, El Niño Jesús in Columbia, and Le Petit Jesus in France, where he shares his duties with Père Noël. In the Czech Republic almost everyone is atheist, but Je í ek, the infant Jesus, brings gifts to one and all. In Poland the "Star Man" is said to bring the gifts, although often he turns out to be the village priest in disguise. Saint Nicholas, not his Americanized cousin, is the giver in Holland, where he wears a bishop's miter, and in Russia, where he wears a bishop's crown. Soviet Russia tried to dethrone Saint Nicholas and promote Grandfather Frost, but no one was much fooled by this attempt to squeeze religion out of Christ's birth. One country has a saintly woman in charge of the gifts, Saint Lucy, honored in Sweden on December 13, when children serve their parents breakfast in bed, and others awake to news that they have been nominated for a Nobel Prize. Some children have a second round of gifts on Epiphany, when the magi assume the gift-giving duties. In general, the gifts of Christmas are simple pleasures, not great heaps of treasures. Once upon a time, a new pair of socks or an orange was enough for us. No matter what gifts we receive, all of them are to point us to the true gift, and the true giver. -Rev. James Field, Copyright (c) J. S. Paluch Co. Sanctuary Lamp This Week s Sanctuary Lamp Intentions for Dr. Maria Litrenta Bread & Wine This Week s Bread & Wine In Memory of Mr. & Mrs. Bellevue Offered by Rita Bellevue

6 Now the Work of Christmas Begins Join us at 11 PM Sunday, December 24th For the St Monica Choir presentation of Lessons and Carols prior to Midnight Mass, under the direction of Lora Cohan. When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart. - Composed by Howard Thurman, African- American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.

7 From Your Pastor December 24th, 2017 Merry Christmas Happy Holidays, a woman said to me in the store this past week. Another person said it to me in the airport as I returned from retreat two weeks ago. Happy Holidays has become the default greeting in America at this time of the year. Not many years ago the media was filled with dire warnings of a war on Christmas where this banal greeting represented the end of Christianity in America. No one declared the war on or lost. But it is no longer mentioned, and the greeting continues. On one level, Happy Holidays makes a lot of sense. This time of year is crowded with all types of celebrations Thanksgiving is American. Christmas, and Hanukkah are religious. Kwanzaa is cultural and ethnic. When faced with a stranger, I guess it makes sense from a marketing point of view, to try and avoid offending someone by mentioning a holiday they do not celebrate. And yet, when we seek to avoid offense by removing the religious, cultural and ethnic context of the holidays we celebrate, what is inevitably left is their customs, robbed of their meaning and so the holiday season becomes a six-week period of endless consumerism, as we rush about, buying gifts, decorating homes and stores and businesses, running from party to party and celebrating something we dare not mention. Little wonder we forget the reasons for this season, and why our children often times never learn them. But then tonight comes. The office parties are over. We have finally exhausted our credit cards, wrapped the gifts and decorated our homes. All those customs which seem so meaningless to so many, now find their focus in what we celebrate this evening. The birth of Jesus means many things to people, and to many means nothing at all. Many have been alienated from faith in the Church which celebrates it. Many people see the excess of this season as just one more reason to reject it, and us. But for us who celebrate it, the birth of Jesus is itself a gift. He is the gift that takes a lifetime to unwrap as we learn from him, seek to follow his teachings and put them into practice. Jesus reveals the world the way God created it to be and shows us the way to become the people God calls us to be. Because of that gift, we give gifts. Because of that gift, we decorate houses, and celebrate. Because of that gift we come together tonight and remember in the midst of the holiday season the REASON for the season at least for us. It is Jesus his birth, yes, but also his life. So celebrate this night both here at mass and at home. Give gifts, eat and drink and, well, be merry. For we have reason to celebrate. Jesus is born. MERRY CHRISTMAS Fr. Baker.