The Church of the Incarnation 544 Prospect Street Wethersfield, CT 06109

Transcription

1 The Church of the Incarnation 544 Prospect Street Wethersfield, CT Rev. James M. Moran Pastor Mrs. Noranne Wamester Pastoral Associate Mrs. Maggie Seaver Coordinator of Middle School Faith Formation Youth Minister Mrs. Audrey Saharek Pastoral Assistant Mrs. Teri Aiudi Rectory Office Assistant Faith Formation Secretary Mrs. Theodora Niver Director of Music Vanessa Crowley Lorissa Heath Rosanne Sweeney Gowdy Andrew Russo Heather Picard Bonney Cantors Toni Munoz Sacristan Marguerite Heinimann Rectory Assistant Mass Schedule Confessions on Saturdays from 3:45-4:30p.m. Vigil Mass: Saturday at 5:00p.m. Sunday Masses: 8:30 & 10:30 a.m. Daily Mass: (Mon. - Fri.) 9:00 a.m. Recitation of the Rosary before 9:00 a.m. daily Mass Sacrament of Baptism By previous appointment Sundays at 12:30 p.m. in the Baptistry of the Chapel. Weddings Please contact a priest 6-10 months prior. New Parishioners and Faith Formation Registration The Church of the Incarnation welcomes new parishioners. All forms are available at the main entrance of the church. Please mail or place in the collection basket. You may also visit our website for printable forms at: Rectory Hours 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Rectory Fax Church Faith Formation Website address: (860) (860) cincarnation@sbcglobal.net (860) gotellit@aol.com

2 Page Two Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 SAT., DECEMBER 20TH 5pm - Joseph Aiudi & Nicholas & Mary Champ SUNDAY, DEC., 21ST 8:30am Miguel & Mariana Gaspar 10:30am Thomas DiMarco MONDAY, DECEMBER 22ND 9:00am Paul & Evelyn Volpe TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23RD 9:00am Marie & Sebastian Amato WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24TH 9:00am Nancy M. Blonski CHRISTMAS EVE, VIGIL MASSES 5:00pm For all our parishioners 12 Midnight Mass For all our parishioners THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25TH CHRISTMAS DAY MASSES! 9:00am For all our parishioners 11:00am For all our parishioners FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26TH 9:00am John Robinson & Baby Siena SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27TH 5:00pm Tommaso Maccarone SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28TH 8:30am George, Stanley & Jerome Czaja 10:30am Anthony Melillo The Sanctuary Candle will burn from 12/22/ /28/2014 in memory of Anthony Melillo. The Blessed Virgin Mary Candle will burn from 12/22/ /28/2014 in memory of Joseph A. Salvatore. Thank you for your Annual Collection donations!. This is a special appeal we make each year to our parishioners for our own parish. Numerous repairs & improvements anticipated in the near future necessitate rebuilding our contingency fund. Our annual collection enables us to do this. Goal is $100,000. We have collected $95,210. This weekend the second collection will be for the Retired Religious. Share your gratitude for the senior Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests who made a difference in our lives. Please give generously. House of Bread collection this wkd. Coffee/sugar are needed. Thank you. Thank you to Fr. Henry Frascadore and Still Small Voice for the wonderful Advent program last Sunday. The message and music was inspiring. A special thank you to Noranne Wamester for planning this event and to Carol Halstead & EleanorReddin for organizing the reception. There is one collection on Christmas and it is for our parish.

3 Page Three Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 Christmas Schedule Of Confessions and Masses: Advent Confessions will be held on Monday, December 22nd from 7-8pm. Confessions will be held on Wednesday, December 24th from noon. Christmas Eve Masses on Wed., 12/24 will be held at 5:00pm and 12 midnight. Christmas Day Masses on Thursday, 12/25 will be held at 9 & 11am. Rectory closed on December 25th & 26th. Emergency calls only please. The Choir will sing 45 minutes prior to the 5:00pm Mass on Christmas Eve and 15 minutes prior to the Midnight Mass. TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION By the year 800, when anointing was defined as the proper office of priests, very complicated rituals began to take shape. Perhaps this was to reassure the laity, who had memories of an earlier practice, that the new way was not only better, but impossible for a layperson to conduct. Blessings and sprinkling of holy water, the singing of as many as seven psalms, penance, anointing of all the senses, viaticum, all capped off by the clothing of the sick person in penitential garments, were part of the rite. This proved unwieldy, and creative spirits got to work. By the 1500s people made distinctions between visiting the sick, anointing, and viaticum. The attempt of the Church to be faithful to the image of a healing Christ has some complicated history, including centuries when the celebration was rare. Most sick people had no access to the rites at all; only monastics or the welloff had much hope of this care. Today, those unhappy days are long behind us, and the care of the sick is an essential task in every parish s life. As Christmas approaches almost everyone comes in contact with someone who is a candidate for pastoral care. You live out the best of our tradition when you arrange for a sick person to receive Holy Communion or the sacrament of the sick and the consolation of regular contact with the faith community. Wishing everyone a Most Blessed Christmas!!

4 Page Four Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 SNOW CANCELLATIONS: will be announced on WFSB, WVIT & WTIC and also via our website. Please do not call the rectory regarding class cancellations Thank you to Carolyn Carcia, all of our 2015 Confirmandi for their help, and to all parishioners who donated gifts for the Angel Tree. All Faith Formation communities are in recess for the Christmas vacation. We will begin accepting the 2016 Masses, Sanctuary & Blessed Virgin Mary Candles on Monday, January 5, 2015 at 10am and not prior to that date. Please keep in mind that our parish has a large number of parishioners who remember their loved ones with Memorial Masses and we request that you limit your Masses to two per household. Thanks for understanding.fr. Moran. We still have a few 2015 candles. The Welcome Mass for the Confirmation 2015 Candidates will be held on Sunday, December 21st at the 10:30 Mass. Father Michael Rogers, SJ will celebrate this Mass. A reception with munchkins and juice will follow. The next Children s Liturgy of the Word will be held on Saturday, January 3rd the 5pm Mass. The Archdiocese of Hartford is searching for highly qualified candidates for leadership positions in our Catholic Elementary Schools. Successful candidates will possess the following qualifications: Practicing Catholic in good standing with the Roman Catholic Church, Masters Degree from a regionally accredited college or university, five years of successful teaching and/or administrative experience. Please call Deputy Superintendent Mrs. Maria Maynard at (860) for information.

5 Page Five Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 A Weekly Bible Study 4 th Sunday of Advent 2 Samuel 7:1-16 King David might be echoing the words of Mary in today s first reading: The Lord has done great things for me. I will honor him by building a suitable dwelling. God cannot continue to dwell in a tent while I enjoy my house of cedar, muses the king. David doesn t seem to have selfish motives or misguided intentions. God, however, rejects his altruistic plan, reminding David that it was divine favor that made him victorious. It was the Lord who took the initiative to turn a shepherd into a mighty ruler. And it is God, not David, who will prepare a most suitable dwelling place for his Anointed One. God will choose to become one of us. In human likeness he will first make his dwelling in the flesh and blood of a woman. In so doing, our incarnate God will embrace the flesh and blood struggles of all humanity. And his own flesh will be torn apart and his blood poured out for that humanity as he carries out the will of the Father on earth. It is within the womb of one like us that God fashions a most fitting dwelling. Residing in the flesh and blood of his people, God awaits our bringing to birth each day his life within us. Have we prepared a suitable dwelling place for the Lord this Advent? God will not be content to dwell in a house fashioned of opulent materials. God will not find his home within finely polished wood, gold vessels and rich tapestries. His dwelling place will be in the heart and womb of a humble virgin who will bear him for the world to behold.

6 Page Six Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 ECHOING MARY S DECISION The angel Gabriel today confronts Mary with a mystery. The mystery of salvation in Christ is not a mystery that is solved, but a reality beyond our comprehension that we must choose to enter into. In the liturgy of the Eastern Church, everyone waits to see if Mary will enter into the mystery: God waits, Adam and Eve and all the souls of the dead who long for paradise wait, angels wait for new heavenly companions. And there is much rejoicing when her decision is yes. We have less dramatic choices offered to us, but the mystery of our salvation in Christ is by no means solved. We may understand it a bit better due to Mary s yes. We may be a bit closer to it through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But it still remains a mystery to which we all must give our own yes. Soon we will be singing O come, let us adore him. May our Advent prayer, our echo of Mary s yes, continue then, so we may enter into the mystery of our salvation in Jesus Christ, God among us. TODAY S READINGS First Reading I will fix a place for my people. (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). READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: 1 Sm 1:24-28; 1 Sm 2:1, 4-8abcd; Lk 1:46-56 Tuesday: Mal 3:1-4, 23-34; Ps 25:4-5ab, 8-10, 14; Lk 1:57-66 Wednesday: 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-5, 27, 29; Lk 1:67-79 Thursday: 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] Night: Is 9:1-6; Ps 96:1-3, 11-13; Ti 2:11-14; Lk 2:1-14 Dawn: 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] Friday: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Ps 31:3cd-4, 6, 8ab, 16bc, 17; Mt 10:17-22 Saturday: 1 Jn 1:1-4; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12;Jn 20:1a, 2-8 Sunday: Sir 3:2-6, or Gn 15:1-6; 21: -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] SAINTS & SPECIAL OBSERVANCES Sunday: 4th Sunday of Advent; Winter begins Tuesday: St. John of Kanty Wednesday: The Vigil of Christmas Thursday: The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Friday: St. Stephen; Saturday: St. John CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART Christmas! Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart. Washington Irving CONTINUAL CHRISTMAS A good conscience is a continual Christmas. Benjamin Franklin

7 Page Seven Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 Incarnation Women s Club Celebrating 50 Years The Women s Club 50 th Anniversary book of history and highlights of the Spiritual, Social and Charitable projects accomplished throughout the years will be available for purchase at the Women s Club general meetings. Please call Paula Melillo at (860) for more info. The cost of this commemorative book is $5.00. Mary received and responded to the Lord s will through the invitation of an angel. Who are God s messengers in your life? Listen to God speaking to you through them. If you hear the call to priesthood or religious life, call Fr. Anthony Smith, Director of Vocations, Archdiocesan Center at St. Thomas Seminary, (860) or him at: vocations@stseminary.org or visit the web at ww.vocationshartford.org. Please join us each first Friday of the month in our Blessed Sacrament Chapel at 9:30am for our Vocations Holy Hour. A Christmas flower envelope is in your packet of church envelopes. You may remember your loved ones with Christmas flowers. This special Christmas envelope will be happily received any time prior to Christmas. SAVE THE DATE: The men's retreat for all men of the parish will be FEB 20-22, 2015 at the Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford. This year's theme will be KNOW GREATER JOY. Visit their web site at; to register.

8 Page Eight Fourth Sunday of Advent...December 21, 2014 Thank you to the Men s Association for sponsoring Incarnation s 13th Annual Children s Christmas Party! A special thanks to Santa Claus and his Elf!! It was a pleasure to see all of the children and their smiling faces as Santa appeared from the North Pole! The pictures with Santa will be available in the Narthex (main entrance of the church) for pick up this weekend. Thank you to the Women s Club for planning the Women s Club Christmas Party. It was enjoyed by all. BEAUTIFUL FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS SAVE the DATE: Sat., May 2, Nationally-recognized master floral designer Ruth Loiseau will arrange seven stunning pieces as she shares her experiences as a White House special events florist during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan through Barack Obama. You won t want to miss this special event and fund raiser sponsored by the Incarnation Women s Club to be held in Fr. Crawford Hall. Tell your friends and block your calendars while we finalize the details. More information will follow over the next several months."