4 Dracut Road, Hudson, NH Tel (603) Fax (603)

Transcription

1 4 Dracut Road, Hudson, NH Tel (603) Fax (603) PARISH OFFICE PARISH STAFF Monday - Thursday 8:00AM-12:00N and 1:00-4:00PM Closed Friday/Weekends Rev. Joseph M. Cooper, Pastor Deacon Raymond Marcotte, Permanent Deacon Sister Janice Rooney, SNDdeN, Catechetical Leader Jeanette Cassidy, Religious Education Secretary Charlene Maniotis, Parish Secretary Janis Sigman, Accountant/Bookkeeper Larry Franchitto, Music Director Robert Oliver, Facilities Technician Rick Wickham, Business Manager Rick Balboni, Religious Goods Store Manager PARISH RELIGIOUS GOODS STORE Monday and Wednesday Tuesday and Thursday Saturday and Sunday PARISH WEBSITE 9:00AM 1:00PM 4:00PM 7:00PM 9:00AM 12:00N ( contacts as well) 1

2 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, For the better part of the last year, we have marked the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. During the course of this year, many people were reconciled to God through the sacrament of Penance, many families made strides toward forgiveness within the home, and others have experienced peaceful resolutions to soured relationships. But this was just the beginning of the vision of the Holy Father. Mercy is intended to be a way of life for us as Christians. Today, as we begin this new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent, there are many opportunities available to us. Saint Kathryn s is well-known for generosity and care for the poor. The Be a Star Program, food drives, Catie s Closet, and so many other opportunities are acts of mercy that continue within our parish. Our parish mercy meal team, our prayer shawl ministry, extraordinary ministers to the homebound, and so many others are the face of mercy all around us. Contributing to the work of our sister parish, Saint Andrew s in Fiji, we hope we are showing the face of the Merciful Christ to others beyond our own parish boundaries. When you think of it, we are always trying to live out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick, ransoming the captive and burying the dead. Similarly, we are involved in educating others in the faith, counseling the doubtful, admonishing sinners, bearing wrongs patiently (well we re all working on that one!), forgiving offenses, comforting the afflicted, and praying for the living and the dead. All of this is part of our life together, and each of us is now called to live in mercy more conscientiously. During this holy time, I cannot help but encourage and invite all of you reading this letter to mark the season well. With the return of Advent Vespers on Sunday, we all have the opportunity to take those few moments of silence to simply be with the Lord. Our world is always so busy and noisy that sometimes we re not quite sure how to be silent. But those who have taken advantage of some time of adoration and then praise have discovered some of the greater beauty of the Advent season. It s also a time to celebrate the sacrament of Penance. Although Advent isn t a penitential season per se, it is a wonderful opportunity to take stock of our lives before the Lord and to focus on His unending merciful love. The sacrament will be celebrated according to the regular schedule but also on Sunday afternoons. Do use this time to make things right with the Lord and to rediscover that freedom of heart that only He can give. Believe me you ll be happy you did! Even if you ve been away from the sacrament for a while and may have forgotten how to go to confession, I haven t! It s always a great gift to celebrate the sacrament with someone and helping someone through the sacrament is really quite a joy. So please don t be afraid. This is the time to make things right with God! Later on in today s bulletin, you ll see a bit of information from Rick Wickham concerning the business manager s side of our life here at Saint Kathryn s. Prior to that though, we are humbled and grateful for a bequest that we received this week from the estate of Grace J. Connolly. Mrs. Connolly left our parish a gift of $42,000 that is unrestricted. With that gift, we expect to be able to do some significant work in our church that will preserve our investment in the building, but also enhance our programs and our worship. You will notice during the coming year that both Mrs. Connolly and John and Patty Murphy will be remembered in a monthly Mass in thanksgiving for their generosity to our parish and for loving this community so much as to include us in their estates. While we could never be grateful enough for their generosity, we will offer them the very best gift that we can the gift of the Eucharist! May this coming Advent season be a time of great joy for each of us as we await the glorious return of our Lord, Jesus Christ! Until next week God bless! FROM THE PASTOR S DESK 2 Father Joe

3 NOVEMBER 27, 2016 Saturday, November 26 Vigil (The First Sunday of Advent) 4:00PM +Selma Gebing (1 st Anniversary), by Emerson and Laura Gebing Sunday, November 27 (The First Sunday of Advent) 8:30AM +Frank Altobelli (7 th Anniversary), by his wife, Louise 10:30AM For the People of the Parish 6:30PM +Raymond Jerome, by his wife and family Monday, November 28 (Advent Weekday) 8:30AM +Andrew Dworek (5 th Anniversary), by his sister, Alina Tobin Tuesday, November 29 (Advent Weekday) 7:00PM +Jeannie O Laughlin, by Chris Haigis Wednesday, November 30 (Saint Andrew) 8:30AM +Craig Dion, by the Phillips family Thursday, December 1 (Advent Weekday) 8:30AM +Dr. Jos T. DeGrinney, II, by Mr. and Mrs. R. Levasseur Friday, December 2 (First Friday) 8:30AM +Lucille Hebert and William Souza, by their daughter 7:00PM +Clement Lajoie, by his daughter, Lena Saturday, December 3 (Saint Francis Xavier) 8:30AM +Ray Smouse, by Karen and Jim Kilcoyne Vigil (The Second Sunday of Advent) 4:00PM +Doris Gill, by Paul and Claudette Roy Sunday, December 4 (The Second Sunday of Advent) 8:30AM +Arthur Leary, by Kathy and Urs Nager 10:30AM For the People of the Parish 6:30PM +Judy Dubowik, by Deacon Ray ARE YOU UP FOR A CHANGE? Our parish choir will host coffee and donuts this weekend, BUT it won t be coffee and donuts! This weekend, the choir will serve some delicious homemade soups and accompaniments following the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Plan to come down for a bowl of great soup or chili and enjoy the hospitality of the choir and the fellowship of your fellow parishioners. Are you up for the change? It s this Sunday only, so don t miss your chance to enjoy a little spin on our old favorite! (And it s probably better for all of us!) 3 Sunday, November 27 th Soup Sunday/Hall A (11:30A) Religious Ed Group 2/RMs 1-4/Grades 3 and 4 Hall B (10:00A-12:00N) Baptism of Carter James Marcotte/Church (1:00P) Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Confessions/Church (3:00P) Advent Vespers/Church (4:00P) Monday, November 28 th RCIA-RCIC/Parish Office (3:00P) Religious Ed Grades 7-9/RMs 1-3 (5:00-6:30P) Tuesday, November 29 th Staff Meeting/Office (8:30A) Crafters/Craft Room (1:00-8:30P) RCIC/RM 2 (4:00P) Cub Scouts/RMs 1-3 (6:00-7:30P) Boy Scouts/Hall B (7:00-8:30P) Wednesday, November 30 th Adoration/Chapel (5:30-8:15A and 1:00-7:00P) Evening Prayer and Benediction/Chapel (7:00P) Adult Choir Rehearsal/Church (7:30-9:00P) Friday, December 2 nd First Friday Masses/Chapel (8:30A and 7:00P) Homeschool Group/RMs 1-5 (9:00-11:00A) Moms Rosary Group/RM 1 (9:30-11:00A) Adoration for Homeschool Group/Chapel (10:30-10:45A) First Confessions for Second Graders/Church (5:00-6:30P) Nocturnal Adoration/Chapel (7:30P ) Saturday, December 3 rd Rosary and Benediction/Chapel (...8:00A) First Confessions for Second Graders/Church (9:15-11:15A and 1:00-2:00P) Blood Drive Setup/Halls A and B (8:00A) Blood Drive/Halls A and B (9:00-2:00P) PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS For our men and women in formation for religious life: Sister Faustina Kolbe Burda, DMN Roxanne Day Diane Dube Sister Athanasius Munroe, OP Brother John Mark Solitario, OP Brother Marius Strom, TOR

4 THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT BE A STAR PROGRAM Thanks to the astounding generosity of our parishioners, 70 families received gifts and food for Christmas last year through our Be A Star program. This effort, co-sponsored with the Food Pantry at Saint John s, offers stars that list the needed gifts for children and adults as well as food items. We invite you to browse through them in the baskets at the Divine Mercy Shrine in the narthex after the bazaar weekend. Please be sure to read what you or your children take and only take it if you are able to purchase the items. We are relying on you! There are differently priced items to fit your budget. You will be asked to return the items unwrapped and placed near the sanctuary trees no later than December 13 th. We can use some helpers to sort and arrange the items as they come in, especially in the final week before the distribution. Please note that there will be a second white star attached to the yellow one asking for your name and telephone number. Please complete the information on the white star and deposit it in the appropriate basket. Thank you! As a star led seekers to find Christ in their midst, so we pray that our charity will help those we share with to find Christ s care and presence in our outreach and caring. Be a Star! PRAY FOR OUR DEACON-CANDIDATES Pray for our Deacon-Candidates: Joseph Dion Randy O Neill VOCATION BIRTHSTONE ROSARIES This week, Kevin Walsh will be praying the traveling rosary for our parish seminarians and permanent deacon candidates and Cheryl McQuaid for vocations to the religious life. Thank you to all who are part of this ongoing spiritual support for our men in formation for the priesthood and diaconate and for our religious in formation. STOP AND PRAY For our Parishioners in the Armed Services: Joshua Keller Zach Keller Clare Handy Frank Cunniff David Jarry Zack Hurley Thomas Laste For our beloved dead: James Hebert Dolores Robillard Jean Gagne Elaine Sevigny RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE The need is great especially at this time of year! Please consider taking part in our next blood drive sponsored by Council 5162 of the Knights of Columbus. Please join us on Saturday, December 3 rd, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in our parish hall. If you d like to save time, you may pre-register for a certain time slot by calling Walk-ins are also welcome! BUSINESS MANAGER S CORNER In light of Father s announcement in this week s bulletin regarding the very generous bequest, there were several ideas filtered through the Finance Committee. One of these struck a chord with all in that we had requested a quote last year to reconfigure the incandescent lights within the church to LEDs. Some of you may remember that we accomplished this 4 years ago with the parking lot lights. To date, we have not done any maintenance to any of those lights and have enjoyed reduced electric bills over that period. Our monthly electric bill currently averages $3000 per month and we were looking at ways to reduce our expenditures. This would be the largest reduction and could begin immediately. We are in final negotiations with the same company that did our parking lot and are planning on having this changeover accomplished before Christmas. It all depends upon the suppliers of the hardware. Our contractor is sensitive to the environment here and will do everything possible not to disrupt our liturgical schedule. We are hoping to get this accomplished before Christmas as a gift to us all. Thank you for your patience. 4

5 NOVEMBER 27, 2016 RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS Last weekend, we celebrated the Rite of Acceptance and Welcome for our catechumens and candidates who are committing themselves to further their study of the Catholic faith and enter into a period a careful discernment to determine if the Lord is calling them to be a part of the Catholic community. We pray for them during their journey and support them through their time of study. It s a common misconception to think that because we celebrate the Rite of Welcome today that we cannot accept anyone else into the process for this year s Vigil. In fact, we are happy to receive those who may have been discerning but have not yet come forward up through January 1. If, by chance, you are a baptized Catholic but have not received Confirmation and the Eucharist, why not consider joining us for the process to complete your initiation this year? Or maybe you belong to another Christian community but are interested in learning more about the Catholic faith. This would be the time to join us in the process! There may also be some among us who are not yet baptized in any Christian tradition but interested in investigating the possibility of baptism in the Catholic Church. Like the candidates for full reception and initiation, this would be the time to step forward. We cannot accept anyone else into the process after January 1, so this could be your time! LAST CALL FOR CHOIR! If you worship with us at the 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays, you know that the choir leads us in sung prayer regularly. Rehearsals these last few weeks have been intense, and they are now increasing in intensity. We are able to accept new members until this week, but after this week, we need to concentrate on the voices we have. If you ve been considering the choir, now is the time! Join us on Wednesday evenings from 7:30-9:00 p.m. in the church and experience the joy of singing with a great group of people who are committed to their church and to their Lord! We are in particular need of sopranos and basses, so if you re out there and thinking about it, why not join us in praise? (Of course, we ll always accept more altos and tenors!) The choir will also present the Fourth Annual Lessons and Carols on Wednesday, December 28 th, and Tenebrae on Monday, April 10 th, at 7:45 p.m. Mark your calendars or even better join us! FAMILY IN NEED We received a request for help for a family in our area who is in need. They need a new twin box spring and mattress for a 12 year old boy and a new headboard and footboard for a 10 year old girl. If you are able to help us, please contact Charlene at the parish office at or Charlene.maniotis@stkathryns.org. There is also a box in the main entrance of the office building and on the lower level of the church for gently used/new shoes donations for the Hudson Early Learning Center fundraiser. Do you have shoes that never fit quite right and are taking up room in your closet? Have the kids feet grown faster than the lifespan of their shoes? Then this could be a perfect opportunity to empty the closet and at the same time help someone in need. For more information, please go to The shoes will benefit needy communities overseas. Thank you! Remember the boxes are in the vestibule of the parish office and near the elevator on the lower level of the church. THANK YOU! Dear Saint Kathryn s Community, It is with gratitude that this letter of appreciation is written on behalf of the Hudson Feeds Our Kids Program. We express thanks to the entire Saint Kathryn s community for both your special collections and food drive done in the name of our program. These have been the primary source of funding that has allowed us to exist for two and a half years. In those two and a half years, we have served many of Hudson s students in need from kindergarten up to senior year in high school. This includes our hidden homeless in Hudson. We currently are serving 76 children in the Hudson School District. Over the period of this calendar year, we have delivered 565 bags. Each bag contains a simple kid friendly food for dinner Friday night, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Saturday and Sunday. The bags unfortunately do not come back so we have gone through over 1,000 bags. Your donations make all of this a reality and allow us to continue to exist. The program is the annual service project of the Alvirne National Honor Society and has countless volunteers learning the true meaning of community service. Together we honor the Bible s message to Love thy neighbor. Thank you for your continued support. Peace, /s/ Emma Beals 5

6 THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT LITURGICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE HOURS SUNDAY EUCHARIST Saturday Vigil 4:00PM, Sunday 8:30 and 10:30AM, 6:30PM WEEKDAY EUCHARIST Monday, Wednesday, Friday 8:30AM Tuesday and Thursday 7:00PM Saturday 8:30AM First Friday 8:30AM and 7:00PM EUCHARISTIC ADORATION Wednesdays 5:30 to 8:15AM and 1:00 to 7:00PM Evening Prayer and Benediction 7:00PM Wednesday First Fridays 7:30PM to 8:15AM Saturday Rosary and Benediction 8:00AM First Saturday RECONCILIATION Confessions Tuesday and Thursdays 6:30-6:50PM Saturday 9:00-9:30AM and 3:00-3:30PM BAPTISMS AND MARRIAGES Preparations begin with a call to the parish office. MINISTRY TO THE HOMEBOUND Arrangements for Communion and / or the Sacrament of the Sick can be made by contacting the Deacon through the office. CHURCH AND THE EMMAUS CHAPEL The main door of the Church is open daily from 7:00AM to 8:00PM; the Emmaus Chapel, in the office building, is open 7:00AM to 9:00PM daily PARISH OFFICE Monday - Thursday 8:00AM - 12:00N and 1:00-4:00PM Closed Friday/Weekends PARISH RELIGIOUS GOODS STORE Monday and Wednesday 9:00AM 1:00PM Tuesday and Thursday 4:00PM 7:00PM Saturday 9:00AM 12:00N PARISH WEBSITE ( contacts as well) PARISH WEBSITE Many of you have already noticed a different look to our website. While it is true that we have changed things up a little bit, most of the information has remained the same. We are indebted to Betsy Gamrat who has, for many years, maintained and updated our website. Betsy has faithfully renewed our server, protected our web address, and has been our go to person for technical assistance. All of us at Saint Kathryn s are grateful to Betsy for her work, diligence, and support of the website. We are now working with ecatholic as a webhost. There are several pieces to this new host which will keep us fresh and up-to-date. You ll notice that Bishop Barron has a regular video lesson; the Scriptures of the day will be accessible from the website; and there will be secure areas for catechists and musicians. We will also be able to upload pictures a little more frequently to add to the experience of the website. Thank you for your patience with us as we update web areas! WELCOME! Welcome to the newly baptized members of our parish: Bennett Michael Camire; Gabriel Nicholas Cino; Mason Daniel dacunha; Piper Rose Demers; Lucas Archer Fauteux; Lucas Alfred Fiorella; Thomas Henry Gleason, III; Shea Michael Kelley; Zoey Grace Lorenzo; Grace Catherine Lyko; Maddyson Abigail Midgley; Kinsley Joan Miller; Samantha Grace Siler; Cian Oisid Timmins. May God continue to bless these children and their families and fill them all with great joy and peace as they begin their journey of faith! REFLECTING GOD S GENEROSITY TO US Last Week s Offertory $ 8, Online Giving $ 2, Total $10, Catholic Campaign for Human Development $1, Thank you for your generosity to our parish. Our weekly budget is $11, Saint Kathryn s now offers the option of Online Giving. Find out more on our parish website at Thank you to all who have helped us to make up some of our deficit over the last few weeks! 6

7 NOVEMBER 27, 2016 PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY The Prayer Shawl Ministry here at Saint Kathryn s involves a group of people who knit or crochet prayer shawls for those among us who may be in need of healing, consolation, or comfort. When completed, they are brought to a daily Mass for blessing by Father Joe. They are then placed before the Eucharistic Lord during our monthly Intercessory Prayer Holy Hour and prayed over by those assembled. The shawls are distributed with a scroll of explanation, prayer, and best wishes to those in need. If you know someone who should be presented with a shawl or you would like to help create them, please contact Eileen Gosselin at or Egosselin423@yahoo.com. These shawls have been a great source of blessing and consolation to those who have received them. LECTIO: PETER You all know the saying, man proposes; God disposes. Well such is the case for this week! Although we had hoped to reconvene on Thursday, December 1, Bishop Libasci has asked all priests to join with him for a formation institute on December 1 and 2. With this said, our session for December 1 is postponed and we will reconvene on December 8. Please watch the video for Peter and Pentecost: The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit on Formed (see the blurb for information in the next column), and we will discuss it at the outset of our meeting on December 8. Then, we ll watch together Peter bar Jonah: How Peter Came to Rome after some brief discussion, and discuss that segment. It will be a bit of a rushed presentation on that day, but we want to be able to finish the series before Christmas. We re Saint Kathryn s we ll make it work! Our sessions will take place on Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. until 12:00 noon and again in the evening from 7:45 until 9:15 p.m. Thanks for your understanding and willingness to adapt. We ll do our very best for you! PARISH RELIGIOUS GOODS STORE Well, the bazaar has been behind us for a week or so now and we have spent the last week ordering to replace our stock. The store definitely looks full again. In fact we re having problems on some days trying to fit our product on the shelves and walls! The ordering has been focused on Advent and Christmas of course, and surprisingly even this late in the year we have managed to find a number of new products to bring in as well as to restock all the items that literally flew off the table at the bazaar. We tried to keep an eye on items that could be purchased inexpensively as stocking stuffers and/or friendship gifts. In that vein we have purchased items like rosary bracelets (gorgeous!), rosaries, Advent calendars for children, beautiful Christmas cards in packs of about 18 cards at great pricing, Catholic calendars for the upcoming year, candles and lotions from Vine candles, and a wide variety of children s Christmas books. Also available in the store (and only in the store this year) will be the Christmas wafer (oplatek). After this weekend, candles for your Advent wreaths will also only be available in the store. Most of these items are under $20.00 and would make anyone proud to give them as a gift this Christmas. Of course we still have a full line of nativities and statuary from our top quality vendors as well as our complete line of Bliss jewelry. Some of us recently had the opportunity to visit the Shrine at LaSallete in Attleboro, MA and spent some time in their bookstore (doing a little reconnaissance on products, price, and quality!). It is certainly much, much larger than our store (best guess is times the size). The interesting thing is in many cases we were able to compare apples to apples in terms of specific products, and guess what? We were at the exact same price point and actually lower in many instances! Our tag line for our advertising has been All Things Catholic and we adhere to that. It was interesting to see a varied mix of products being sold in the store. It was reassuring to see that we are selling only quality items and we are doing a good job of selling them at prices comparable to stores that have much more buying power than we do. Makes us think we re on the right track here at Saint Kathryn s. FORMED Sign up today at Our code is (Go to Register: Sign up free using your parish code. Then enter the access code.) Share this information with your family and friends. You ll find plenty of talks and lectures, Catholic movies, aids to prayer, the entire Symbolon, Lectio and Catholicism series. 7

8 ST. KATHRYN PARISH HUDSON, NEW HAMPSHIRE November 27, 2016 Week 1 8