Sunday, 4 January 2015 Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish Bridgewater, MA

Transcription

1 Sunday, 4 January 2015 Saint Thomas Aquinas Parish Bridgewater, MA Weekly Mass Schedule Saturday 9am St. Thomas Lower Church 4pm St. Thomas Upper Church Sunday 7:45am St. Thomas Upper Church 10am St. Thomas Upper Church 10am St. Basil Chapel Noon St. Thomas Upper Church 5pm St. Basil Chapel Weekdays 7am & 9am St. Thomas Lower Church Weekly Devotions St. Thomas Aquinas Lower Church Adoration Saturdays 9:30am to 1pm. We encourage all parishioners to spend some quiet time with the Lord. Divine Mercy Holy Hour Thursdays 3pm. Readings for the Week Sunday: Is 60:1-6/Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6/Mt 2:1-12 Monday: 1 Jn 3:22--4:6/Mt 4:12-17, Tuesday: 1 Jn 4:7-10/Mk 6:34-44 Wednesday: 1 Jn 4:11-18/Mk 6:45-52 Thursday: 1 Jn 4:19--5:4/Lk 4:14-22a Friday: 1 Jn 5:5-13/Lk 5:12-16 Saturday: 1 Jn 5:14-21/Jn 3:22-30 Next Sunday: Is 55:1-11 or Is 42:1-4, 6-7/1 Jn 5:1-9 or Acts 10:34-38/Mk 1:7-11

2 I would like to thank all who contributed to the beauty and dignity of our Advent/Christmas celebrations. I would first like to thank the staff who work more hours than they are paid and who willingly and tirelessly complete all that is asked of them without ever losing their smile and can do attitude. Our parish is also blessed to have countless volunteers who give so generously of their time and talent throughout the year but particularly during this Christmas season. I am grateful for those who organized the Christmas Giving Tree distribution of gifts, those who purchased gifts for families and individuals in need, those who donated food gift certificates, those who worked extra hours in our food pantry, those who cleaned and those who decorated the church and chapel, those who coordinated, sang or played instruments at the different Masses, the ushers, greeters, lectors and Eucharistic Ministers. I look forward to thanking all our volunteers personally at the Volunteer Appreciation Social next Saturday. Additionally, I d like to thank you and all our parishioners who with little recognition support our parish every week with your presence, prayers, time, talent and treasure. Our parish has an incredible number of individuals and families that strive to live our Christian faith not only by praying together each week but reaching out with compassion and care for others. I am grateful to those who made a special effort during Christmas to attend Mass and pray with us. My hope and prayer is that their experience of our faith and love for the Lord and each other will inspire them to come more regularly. Fr. Adrian and I would like to thank our parishioners for the cards, expressions of appreciation and gifts that were given us. We are slowly and happily eating our way through the meals, delicious homemade desserts, fresh fruits and chocolates. Our membership at the Y is proving most beneficial. This past year was busy and thanks to your generosity and support a lot was accomplished that will benefit our ministries, stability and growth now and in the future. As the New Year begins I m sure that there will be new and different opportunities to grow in our faith, to reach out to others, to seek the Lord s guidance, to need each other, to use the gifts the Lord has given us and to appreciate our blessings. May we all be open and responsive to the Lord s spirit working in our lives and in our parish. Happy New Year. Fr. Bill Financial Blessings We Can t Thank You Enough! You Are a Blessing! Our Grand Annual Appeal is off to a great start with over $40K collected so far, and more pledged for the coming months. Thank you all for your continued generosity. Your gifts make our many ministries possible. We ask you to pray for the leadership of our parish that your gifts may be used to accomplish God s will in our faith communities. Today s second collection is for Capital Improvement. This parish collection will continue to support the ongoing maintenance costs at the church and chapel. Thanks to your generosity we ve been able to put a ministry focus on our monthly collections. Next week s second collection will be dedicated to the growth of our wonderful and expanding music ministry. I hope that many of you experienced the children s choir with child musicians also on trumpet and flute on Christmas Eve. We look forward to many more musically enhanced celebrations! Thank you to all our Parish Pay givers who have already transitioned to WeShare, our new online giving platform. We are hoping to terminate our two Parish Pay accounts by the end of January in order to gain efficiency and reduce costs. We encourage all remaining Parish Pay givers to make the change prior to the end of the month. Please feel free to contact the parish offices if you need assistance. 12/21 Combined offertory $7982 Christmas Collection and December 28 th offering will be reported next week. Thank you again for your faithful support which helped us close 2014 on a strong note. We wish you all a faith-filled, healthy, and prosperous New Year! St. Thomas Aquinas Parish 2

3 The Epiphany of the Lord January 6 is the feast of the Epiphany, the day when we remember Christ being revealed to the world first in the arrival of the three Wise Men who came to worship Christ soon after his birth and then in his Baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. In this way we are responding to the great gift of Jesus, given to us on Christmas, by uniting ourselves to those who recognize him for who he is and respond with joy and worship. It is easy to let the joy and sacredness of Christmas disappear from our hearts as quickly as the decorations disappear from store windows after Christmas day. Epiphany will hopefully help keep that from happening, reminding us that Jesus birth is not a single moment that we remember quickly and then forget but rather a reality that has a lasting effect on our lives. Jesus is being revealed to us as God every day the poor and the helpless. Like the Three Kings who were willing to set aside their lives and travel long distances to be able to see the newborn king, so we must set aside our prejudices, vices, and selfishness in order to come to the baby Jesus and worship him as our Lord. When we come, instead of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, let us bring gifts of repentance, forgiveness, and generosity and, when those gifts bring us to conversion of heart, let us return to our lives by a different route, following in the footsteps of Christ rather than the old way of attachment to sin. The Three Kings humbled themselves by leaving their comforts behind and setting out on a long and difficult journey to kneel before the Christ. In finding the baby Jesus, they were able to rejoice in the presence of God in a greater way than ever before. It is a wonderful example of how we can live out this Christmas season well. Let us follow their example and make a spiritual journey to visit Christ, letting ourselves experience his presence in our lives in a new and powerful way. In Christ, Fr. Adrian Wonders shared Share your wonderment, And multiply my wonders, For therein lies a great gift of companionship. Upon a single stretch of path, infinite wonders await... each wonder a moment... each moment an eternity complete, with a vastness as far beyond the limits of human perception as God is beyond human understanding. Faced with awe, focus narrows to embrace a single beauty when it should expand beyond the reaches of ordinary comprehension. Allowing ourselves to be captivated by an instance of wonderment, we forsake infinite beauty, waiting to be known. Companions help one another to look up, calling each from wonder to wonder, awakening the senses in new direction lest too many gifts be overpassed. Let the nearness of a companion s sigh cause me to look up often, for it is only by looking above the gifts that we find the most wondrous gift of all... the benevolent countenance of the Giver. Thank you for sharing the path with me this past year. Thank you for helping me to look up. I look forward to whatever the new year brings in your company. Blessings, Gina M. Lewis St. Thomas Aquinas Parish 3

4 Our Mission is to be a welcoming community of believers who are continually growing in our faith and in our love of Jesus Christ through worship, education, evangelization and service within our local and broader community. Growth and Stewardship: SUSTAINING THE PROGRESS Since the start of the Growth in Stewardship initiative ten weeks ago, we as a parish family, have realized an increase in our regular offertory of 28% over last year. This is a great accomplishment, and we want to thank all of those who contributed to make it possible. Now we need to sustain this growth without diminishing our other primary revenue, the Grand Annual Appeal in order to allow the parish to continue developing. Below we have highlighted how the offertory has risen since our Commitment Weekend on 9/28/2014: Fall 2014 Average Monthly Offertory: $42,741 Fall 2013 Average Monthly Offertory: $34,005 % Increase over 2013: 28% Thank you again for making this possible. Your generous support will enable us meet the basic expenses of the parish and fund growth in our current and envisioned ministries. May the Lord reward your generosity and faithfulness and may his blessings help you find peace and joy in the coming year. An Opportunity to Return to The Lord Have you been away from your faith for any reason and/or feel a desire to re-connect with God? If yes, you are not alone. There are many people today that have drifted away from the faith and from the Church for a number of different reasons. The Lord Jesus awaits your return with patience, mercy and love. Two parishioners, Brandon Hudson and Alison Conroy are starting a new group for those who want to return to him; The Prodigal Sons and Daughters. We invite those who would like to re-connect to their Catholic faith as well as those who are currently involved in the faith but feel the call to deepen their spiritual journey through prayer and fellowship with other Catholics. The group will meet once per month to pray, encourage each other and to discuss faith issues. The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 7th, 2015 from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. For meeting location and/or further information about the group please contact the group at prodigalsonsanddaughters2014@gmail.com or (978) Flyers will be available at the back of the church. All are welcome! We hope to hear from you. Peace & be well, Alison & Brandon From the Office of Spiritual Life Archdiocese of Boston MEETING CHRIST IN PRAYER can bring people to a new level of discipleship and a renewed sense of Christian mission. MEETING CHRIST IN PRAYER is an 8 week guided prayer experience based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. It calls for a commitment of eight weeks of daily prayer and eight weekly meetings of faith sharing. The Office of Spiritual Life is offering this program at: The Pastoral Center 66 Brooks Drive, Braintree Wednesday Evenings 7:00 pm 8:15 February 25 through April 15, 2015 For further information and to register call: Sister Anne D Arcy Or sdarcy@rcab.org St. Thomas Aquinas Parish 4

5 Attention All Parish Volunteers All volunteers should have received an invitation to our Volunteer Appreciation Social, which will be held Saturday, January 10th from 5-8 pm at the parish center. If you have not received your invitation, please contact your ministry coordinator asap. We look forward to a great night of celebrating you! Music Ministry Save the Date! The Social Committee has planned an evening of dining and entertainment, which will be held on April 11th in the Parish Center with doors opening at 5:30 pm. It will feature the Las Vegas act "The Edwards Twins." Take a look at: The Edwards Twins sell out at every show they play so tickets will go fast. Beer and wine will be offered during the sit down family style dinner. Ticket prices include both the dinner and the show. You must be 21 or over to attend. This will be a great time to have fun and meet fellow parishioners while enjoying a great show. Tickets will be $55.00 for a single ticket and $ for a full table of 10 and will be sold online. Details and ticket availability will be forthcoming in the Bulletin and during Mass announcements. Many thanks to all who offered their time and talent to the parish music ministry in order to enhance our Christmas liturgies, including the children's choir and their peer instrumentalists; and to the adult choir. May you all enjoy a blessed and holy Christmas season and good health throughout the New Year. Pax, Regina St. Basil Chapel, BSU - Winter Break Sunday Masses will be celebrated at 10am and 5pm during break. The chapel is closed Mon-Fri for the student s winter break until January 21st GIVING TREE UPDATE The Knights of Columbus, Bridgewater Council #488 will be conducting the annual basketball Free Throw Championship competition. All boys and girls ages 9-14 are eligible to compete. The competition will be held at the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Center gym. Saturday, January 17, 2015 Parish Center, 103 Center Street Registration 5pm Proof of age required For more information please contact Aimee Vacher at (508) A sincere thank you to our very generous and kindhearted parish for their support of this year's Giving Tree. Over 200 tags were taken with gifts purchased and donated to support local families. A number of people made unexpected donations and these were crucial in helping a few additional families at the last minute. All of the families were overwhelmed with gratitude! A special thank you to the 9th and 10th grade students who helped sort and wrap for the Giving Tree. It was a special night and their generous spirit was apparent. Andrea & Beth St. Thomas Aquinas Parish 5

6 Mass Intentions Saturday, January 3 4:00 Lorraine Faria Sunday, January 4 7:45 Jose & Virginia Santos 10:00 James Lynch 10:00 St. Basil: Mary Gould Wednesday, January 7 7:00 Manuel & Angelina Coelho Saturday, January 10 4:00 Mary E. O Donnell Sunday, January 11 7:45 Manuel Fernandes 10:00 The Vasapollo Family 10:00 St. Basil: Tracy Hand 12:00 Paul & Eleanor Bumpus The Sanctuary Candles for the month of January were donated in loving memory of Mildred Querzoli and Sandra Klein with love from Debbie Querzoli Sacraments Confessions: Saturday 3:00-3:45 or by appointment. Baptisms: Ordinarily celebrated on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month at 1:30pm. Please call the Rectory to speak with a priest prior to making any arrangements. Parents are welcome to attend classes during the pregnancy if it is more convenient. Upcoming classes at the Parish Center: Bringing Forward Your Gifts We encourage all individuals and families, both young and old, to take the opportunity to bring up the gifts for each of our Masses. The gifts being brought forward represent the prayers, hopes, and lives of the community gathered together to worship, so it is a beautiful sign to have all sorts of people come forward to participate in this part of the Mass. If this is something that you would be willing to help with, please see an usher before the start of Mass. Thank you for your willingness to represent the community in this way. Wednesday, January at 7pm Marriage: Please call the Rectory at least eight months in advance. Attendance at Marriage Preparation Course is required. Anointing of the Sick: If you wish to receive the sacraments at home or in the hospital due to illness, handicap or age, please contact the Rectory. Parish Contact Information Saint Basil Chapel, BSU Pastor - Rev. Bill Devine Campus Minister - Marlene DeLeon (508) marlene.deleon@bridgew.edu Campus Chaplain - Rev. Adrian Milik Administrative Assistant - Barbara Henault b1henault@bridgew.edu Address: 122 Park Avenue, Bridgewater, MA Phone: (508) Fax: (508) Website: Parish Music Director - Regina R. Reale music.aquinas@yahoo.com Saint Thomas Aquinas Church Pastor - Rev. Bill Devine Parochial Vicar - Rev. Adrian Milik Senior Deacon - Jerry Ryan Business Manager - Gina M. Lewis Administrative Assistant - Nancy Nastari Address: 103 Center Street, Bridgewater, MA Phone: (508) Fax: (508) stthomasaquinas@comcast.net Website: Religious Education Office: (508) Coordinator Gr Karen Geraghty Coordinator Gr. 9&10 - Debbie Hill St. Thomas Aquinas Parish 6

7 MIRIAMGOODMAN ARTHUR GURIFFIN GRIFFIN CORY SILKEN Through a unique collaboration The with Cambridge Homes, a local assisted living residence and The Griffin Museum, come view remarkable and inspiring photog in a comfortable home-like setting. Subscribe to on Amazon.com $1.49 a month Bring the Good News WITH YOU. EVERYWHERE. From GetCatholicTV.com Place an ad in this bulletin and we will design your ad for FREE! Call To Take Advantage of this Special Offer! Free Ad Design With Every Placed Ad Please support your priests at the Christmas collection. Clergy Health and Retirement Trust Caring for the Well-Being of our Boston Priests Evangelization Focus Evangelization must be the first focus of our Church. Then, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which result from living and sharing the Gospel, will transform the culture around us. We have the mission to repair the world, what the Jews call Tikkun olam. ~Cardinal Seán O'Malley ECHOES A Forum of CAtholiC thought Dialogue shaped by revelation and reason Come DisCover echoes.thebostonpilot.com the NEW opinion section of thebostonpilot.com Quality color for your print jobs. Watch this video and see how your bulletin is made. Scan this qr code with your smart phone and app Save 30% to 50% On Most Printing Costs! If you bring your printing to a chain store or other printer, money is leaving with those print jobs. We can help save you money. Saturday, June 26 th, 2 4 pm Join us as we welcome Summer with delicious desserts and music from the Jazz Trio String Swing. Enjoy our lovely outdoor garden area, and tour our beautiful community. Kindly RSVP by June Bulletin Printer Provider For Advertising Information, Please Call Pilot Bulletins Saint Thomas Aquinas, Bridgewater, MA 68 Commonwealth Avenue West Concord, MA ConcordPark.net What s Inside SUMMER 2010 Chowd Ramp up Your Game June 14th to August 27th Mondays - Fridays 1:30-5:30 pm 8 years and up FEST Booklets Bookmarks Business Cards Calendars Door Hangers Flyers/Brochures Greeting Cards Magnets Newsletters Notepads Plastic Cards Postcards Posters Presentation Folders Stickers Table Tent Cards & much more Proud Printers of This Bulletin printing@pilotprinting.net

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