Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 August 13, 2017 FROM THE PASTOR S DESK JESUS STRENGTHENS PETER S AND OUR FAITH n today s Gospel, St. Matthew, describes the scene where Jesus is praying while the disciples are at sea in the midst of a storm. Jesus, aware of their situation, goes to meet them I walking on the water which causes more fear in the disciples for they think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus assures them that it is He and calms the storm. He challenges them to not be afraid and to have faith. Peter asks the Lord to let him walk on the water. Jesus told him to walk on the water but then Peter begins to be afraid. Jesus challenged him to not be afraid. He calls Peter and all of us to have faith in Him and not be afraid. He is the All Powerful Lord Who is in charge of all things Who invites us to trust Him even in the midst of storms. God is aware of all our needs and He cares about us. Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Intentions To request a Mass, please call the Parish SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 5:30pm Dale & Arlene Fuller Portillo Family Nita Hazen The Sax Famiy SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 8:00am Rev. William Kiley Stolz, S. J. 9:30am Gary Razo Razo Family Don & Barbara Brincka 65th Anniversary Brinkca Family 11:00am Urse Hughes Pat & Jerry Laumer John O Donnell O Donnell Family 7:30pm OLA Parishioners MONDAY, AUGUST 14 St. Maximilian Kolbe 8:00am Margaret Rodrigues TUESDAY, AUGUST 15 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8:00am Margaret Rodrigues In honor of the Holy Family in thanksgiving for all we have received Doud Family 11:00am Noelle Malone Joan and Greg Claudia Hight Conroy Smith Robert Srabian WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 St. Stephen of Hungary 8:00am Souls in Purgatory THURSDAY, AUGUST 17 8:00am Souls in Purgatory FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 8:00am Wilma Bower Dale & Risa Fuller Bower Family Portillo Family (Intention for wedding) SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 5:30pm Marion Moorse David Mulgrew Donald Moorse Donald Moorse Facility Reservations Calendar Please confirm events at SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 Curia Meeting 10:00am, St. Paul s Room Preschool Meet Your Teacher Party 10:00am, Other Piano Recital Reception 3:00pm, St. John s Hall Piano Recital 7:30pm, Church SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 Open Gym - OLA Basketball 7:30am, Parish Hall New OLA Family Gathering 5:00pm, Offsite MONDAY, AUGUST 14 Troop 328 Scout Meeting 6:45pm, Seton Hall RCIA Inquiry 7:00pm, St. Anne s Room Christian Meditation 7:30pm, School Library TUESDAY, AUGUST 15 HOLA Coffee 7:00am, Parish Hall PERT Club 9:00am, St. John s Hall OLA School Mass 11:00am, Church OLA Finance Council Meeting 7:00pm, St. Paul s WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 Photo 8:00am, St. John s Hall Legion of Mary Meeting 8:45am, St. Paul s Room Youth Choir Rehearsal 6:00pm, Church OLA Finance Council Meeting 6:30pm, St. Paul s Music Ministry Rehearsal 7:00pm, Church THURSDAY, AUGUST 17 Photography Training 8:00am, St. John s Hall FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 DeFrank Baby Shower 10:00am, St. John s Hall Parish Feast Day Celebration 6:00pm, Parish Hall Hearing Assist Devices Available Please ask an Usher for assistance.

3 OUR PARISH PERT CLUB MEETING Tuesday, August 15, 2017 Join us to celebrate our 13 th Annual Hawaiian Food Festival in OLA St. John s Hall, at 11:00am. There will be a brief meeting of club news, stories, door prizes, and LOTTO drawings, potluck with your special mouthwatering delicacies to fit the occasion. Bring your own place setting, cup and glass, and some non-perishable foods for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Locker. There will be BINGO, with cash prizes immediately after lunch and cleanup are completed. The Kitchen Crew is asked to arrive by 9:30am to help decorate and prepare food presentation. Questions? Call Jane at , or George at We want to congratulate our former and awesome Seminarian Dean Marshal for being granted with the Youth and Young Adult Ministry Seminarian of the Year Award Please welcome our new Ministry Coordinator/ Administrative Assistant, Shannon Blecha. She will be helping coordinate ministries and running the Parish office. Stop by and say Hi! We prayerfully welcome our new Principal Ms. Nicole Grant, all of the new families and students, as well as our old ones. May the Holy Spirit be upon you and fill you with His wisdom and blessings. May you be devoted to your duties and studies and draw ever closer to Him, the source of all knowledge. OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION MINISTRIES All Saints Social Club is a group that strives to improve the spiritual, educational, and social welfare of its members. Altar Servers light candles, hold the books, and handle the vessels, etc. so that the celebrant can focus on leading the assembly in prayer. Servers, Girls and boys, 5th grade and older, are invited to participate. Bereavement Committee Members provide caring support while assisting with funeral planning. Building and Grounds coordinates the regular maintenance and improvement of the buildings and grounds. Catholic Daughters of America strive to be helping hands where there is pain, poverty, sorrow or sickness. Christian Meditation Group meets once a week in prayerful of silence called Christian Meditation in which we find God who dwells in our hearts and in doing so finds ourselves.. Eucharistic Homebound Ministers bring homebound parishioners Eucharist to their homes or care facilities. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion assist in the distribution of Holy Communion. Faith Formation for Children volunteers teach the Catholic Faith to our parish children once a week. Family Promise Ministry provides fellowship and healthy meals to homeless families with children. Permanent housing is the ultimate goal, along with developing the self-sufficiency needed to sustain them. The Parish Finance Council advises the Pastor in matters pertaining to the financial affairs of the parish. Habitat for Humanity volunteers provide time and talent to build homes for families in need. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic Family Fraternal Service Organization, which assists the Church and communities in the Arden Carmichael areas. Lectors are lay ministers who read from the Lectionary at Mass or other liturgical celebrations. The Legion of Mary is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They take the Eucharist each week to homebound persons and care facilities in the area, as well as facilitating a Mass once a month. The Liturgy Committee under the direction of the Pastor, sets goals, direction and principles for the liturgical life of the parish, assesses the needs of the worshipping assembly, trains competent liturgical ministers, and implements directives from the universal Church and the diocesan Church, our Faith Family. Continued

4 Our Blessed Mother THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY: A BELIEF SINCE APOSTOLIC TIMES By: Father Clifford Stevens The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated. Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c ). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as <Aelia Capitolina> in honor of Jupiter. For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived. On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried. At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption. For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God. Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven. That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.) At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later... was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven." In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: "Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay.... You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth." All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior. The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over. The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended. The prayer for the feast reads: "All-powerful and ever -living God: You raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul, to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory." In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution <Munificentissimus Deus>, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven." With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

5 MARIAN REFLECTION Listen: Arm yourself with prayer rather than a sword; wear humility rather than fine clothes. ~St. Dominic Family Connection Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus walks on water, and the disciples acknowledge him as the Son of God. Ponder: Do I wear humility? What do arm myself with? How is Mary an example of humility and prayer fulness for me? Respond: Lord God, I pray that I might always be faithful to you. Parents certainly know there are many stormy times in trying to raise children. As we fall into bed exhausted at night, we may realize that we focused on the storms instead of Jesus' loving presence. Take a few minutes today to think about where Jesus tired to break in. Discussion Starters 1. Deep down inside I know Jesus is always with me. I feel his presence most is when 2. There's a part of my behavior I would like to change when things in my life get stormy. Rather thani'd like to try to... WISDOM OF THE DAY Either God will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then; put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. ~St. Francis de Sales Senior Living LETTER OF ST. JOHN PAUL II TO THE ELDERLY, 1999 To my elderly brothers and sisters Part III The autumn of life 5. What is old age? At times it has been referred to the autumn of life so Cicero calls it (9) following the analogy suggested by the seasons and the successive phases of nature. We need but look at the changes taking place in the landscape over the course of the year, on the mountains and in the plains, in the meadows, valleys and forests, in the trees and plants. There is a close resemblance between our human bio-rhythms and the natural cycles of which we are a part. At the same time however man is set apart from all other realities around him, precisely because he is a person. Made in the image and likeness of God, he is conscious and responsible. Even in his spiritual dimension, though, he experiences the succession of different phases, all equally fleeting. Saint Ephrem the Syrian liked to compare our life to the fingers of a hand, both to emphasize that its length is no more than a span, and to indicate that each phase of life, like the different fingers, has its particular character, and the fingers represent the five steps by which man advances.(10) Consequently, whereas childhood and youth are the times when the human person is being formed and is completely directed towards the future, and in coming to appreciate his own abilities makes plans for adulthood, old age is not without its own benefits. As Saint Jerome observes, with the quieting of the passions, it increases wisdom, and brings more mature counsels.(11) In a certain sense, it is the season for that wisdom which generally comes from experience, since time is a great teacher.(12) The prayer of the Psalmist is well known: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart (Ps 90:12). - ((9) 2 Cf. Cato Maior, seu De Senectute, 19, 70. (10) On All is vanity and affliction of spirit, 5-6. (11) Auget sapientiam, dat maturiora consilia : Commentaria in Amos, II, prol.

6 LIVE, LEARN & ENJOY YOUR FAITH LAY MINISTRY FORMATION Catechists before the busyness of the year begins, join us for a Spiritual Retreat. First Love: A Spiritual Retreat for Catechists Saturday, August 19, 2017 from 9:00 am 1:00 pm St. Robert Parish, 2243 Irvin Way, Sacramento Cost is only $5.00 (includes snacks, but not lunch) Register at Questions: Martha Haig at mhaig@scd.org or Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center Institute For The Study Of The Passion Fall Series Preparing for the Commemoration of the Reformation Presented by: Fr. Tom Bonacci C.P. Thursday August 31 St. Paul of the Cross (Founder of the Passionists) and Martin Luther s Doctrine of the Cross Companions Gathered at the Foot of the Cross. Thursday September 14 The Cross of Jesus in the Theology of the Reformation. Thursday September 28 Revisiting the Protestant Doctrine of Justification in Light of the Catholic/Lutheran Agreements 1999 and Conflict to Communion Meets in La Casa on Thursday mornings 10:00 am 12:00 noon. $12 per session or $30 for the three-week block, paid at first session. Payment and registration will be taken at the door. ON FiRE NOR CAL JAM The Dioceses of Northern California are proud to announce ON FiRE NorCal Jam 2017 featuring your favorite Catholic artists like Steve Angrisano, Sarah Hart, Jesse Manibusan, and Joe Melendrez, special guest talks by Fr. Joseph Espaillat II and Cecilia Flores, and more to be announced! Saturday, September 16, 2017from 9am 9pm at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA. Buy your tickets now at THE MELCHIZEDEK PROJECT The Office of Priestly & Religious Vocations, invites young adult Catholic men ages s to join us for the upcoming The Melchizedek Project. This is a seven session series program that will be scheduled on every second Thursday of the month at St. Mel Parish in Fair Oaks from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. beginning on Thursday, September 14, These sessions will be led by a priest and will help gain the spiritual tools in discerning your vocation. There is no cost. To register, please contact our office at or by at msmith@scd.org.

7 STEWARDSHIP OFFERING July 24 th - July 30 th Weekend Offertory: $ 7, Electronic Giving : $ 1, Total: $ 8, Average Weekly Budget Amount: $ 13, He said, Come. Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. - MATTHEW 14:29 When you hear Jesus calling, do you responded immediately and trust that He knows what He s doing? If so, you are walking on water! When we say yes to Jesus, we feel the power of his presence in our lives. We can feel the freedom it gives us! Listen how Jesus is calling you to live the extraordinary life He has in mind for you. Support OLA Via Amazon Smile Thank you to everyone that supports our parish with their purchases. Remember this doesn t cost you anything! The Amazon Foundation contributes half a percent of your total purchases to our Parish. Just shop via OLA Parish s Amazon smile portal: smile.amazon.com/ch/ We appreciate your support! SECOND COLLECTION CHURCH IN LATIN AMERICA COLLECTION This weekend is the Collection for the Church in Latin America! Please prayerfully consider supporting this collection, which strengthens the faith of our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Your support is bringing the faith to people in remote villages who would otherwise not have access to church programs and outreach. Share your faith! Support the second collection. To learn more, please visit -america. OLA Ministries Continued The Environment Committee liturgically adorns the church. Greeters receive the community and welcome them to our Faith Family. Ushers help worshipers find seats, take up the collection, coordinate the presentation of the gifts, assist persons who need hearing assist devices and give visitors necessary information. Martha & Mary Gathering is open to all parish ladies. They meet for fellowship, spiritual growth, and to assist with parishioner funeral receptions. Ministry of Small Things volunteers help parishioners with various one-time tasks according to their abilities. Music Ministers offer their gifts by singing or playing an instrument in our adult and youth choirs. Offertory Counters are volunteer teams who count the offertory collections. The Pastoral Council is a pastoral consultative body which strives to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit among God s people in the parish. It gives its help to the Pastor in fostering pastoral activity. P.E.R.T. (People Enjoying Retirement Together) promotes the spirit of friendship while providing opportunities for programs and activities to enhance the temporal and spiritual life of their later years. Respect Life Committee, through prayer and events, promotes life from conception to natural death. Social Committee engages our parish community in a welcoming manner through the planning and execution of social events like our community dinners. Social Justice Ministry Committee will coordinate social justice activities for the parish. Sowing for Jesus is a group who craft and grow spiritually together once a week. St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVdP) OLA Conference is a group of Catholic lay persons who respond to the needs of the poor living within the OLA parish boundaries. These needs are met through the twiceweekly on-site food locker and home visitation teams who provide temporary assistance with rent, utilities, clothing, etc. Vocations Committee prays and has events to inspire people to consider the religious life. Women s Book Club will meet to share the joy of reading.

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