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 Gianna Bielenda 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 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time..July 19, 2015 SATURDAY, JULY 18TH 5pm Julian Nesta SUNDAY, JULY 19TH 8:30pm Olga Spera 10:30am Nicholas & Helen Rago MONDAY, JULY 20TH 9:00am Mike Orsini, Nico Filippa & Vinny Filippa TUESDAY, JULY 21ST 9:00am James, Honora & John Shea WEDNESDAY, JULY 22ND 9:00am For all our parishioners THURSDAY, JULY 23RD 9:00am Joanne Louise Gordon FRIDAY, JULY 24TH 9:00am Carol Moriarty SATURDAY, JULY 25TH 5:00pm Deceased members of the Jedidian Family SUNDAY, JULY 26TH 8:30am Pasqualino D Appollonio 10:30am Vincenza Bulanti There is a House of Bread collection this weekend. Coffee & sugar are requested as well as lemonade drink mixes for the summer months. Thank you. SAVE THE DATE - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 TH 1:00 4:00 PM The Men s Association will again be hosting the Incarnation Parish Picnic. Food will include hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, desserts, soda & water. Cost is $10 per adult or $25 per family. Tickets will be available the day of the event. Call John Ewaski at (860) The Sanctuary Candle will burn from 7/20/2015 7/26/2015 in memory of Raymond DeLuca. The Blessed Virgin Mary Candle will burn from 7/20/2015-7/26/2015 For A Special Intention.

3 Page Three 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time...July 19, 2015 All Faith Formation communities are in summer recess. Have a safe & peaceful summer! MISSION God has created me to do some definite service. God has committed some work to me which has not been committed to another. I have a mission. John Henry Newman GOD WITHIN God dwells in a secret and hidden way in all souls, in their very substance, for if God did not, they could not exist at all. St. John of the Cross Corpus Christi after school program is currently seeking aides to fill paid positions for the school year. The hours are 2pm-5:15pm M-F. The position would be working with children in Pre K-8th grade. Responsibilities include supervising daily activities in all settings of the program. Contact Mrs. DeLuca at (860) Faith Formation Registration letters for 2015/2016 season were mailed out. Please send in one form for each child. New students must provide a copy of their Baptismal certificate unless your child was baptized at Incarnation. Congratulations to all graduates! We thank and extend best wishes to our 2015 graduates who have served The Church of the Incarnation as Altar Servers, lectors and cantors for many years and are now on their way to college: Gianna Bielenda, Matthew Carcia, Nick DiFiore, Kevin Dudley, Jay Gallo, Corinna Marinelli, Estefania Maya, Taylor Melillo, Pat Murphy, and Alicia Susi. May God Bless You All! Natural Family Planning (NFP) Information Session NFP is an umbrella term for modern, healthy, scientifically accurate, natural, and reliable methods of family planning. An introductory NFP session will be held on Saturday August 22, 2015, 10:00 am-12:00 pm. at St. Joseph Church, 149 Goodwin St. Bristol, CT Open to anyone interested in understanding more about NFP. Free. Registration required. Call Office of Family Life (860) Ext. 2683

4 Page Four 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time...July 19, 2015 Are you interested in joining either The Incarnation Men s Association or The Knights of Columbus: Please call Mike White at (860) for more information. Prayer Shawl Meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 9th in Fr. Crawford Hall at 9:30am. If you need yarn during the summer call Audrey at the rectory BAPTISMS Married couples observing their 25th, 50th, 60th & other special wedding anniversaries in 2015 are invited to attend the Archdiocesan Anniversary Mass on Sun., October 25th, 2pm at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford. Archbishop Blair will be the main celebrant. Mass will include the renewal of marriage vows, followed by a reception & photo opportunity with Archbishop Blair. Family members & friends are invited. Call Audrey (860) to register. Joseph Robert Catino Eleanor May Todaro ABC s of Catholic Relief Services: Guatemala Half of all Guatemalan children are malnourished. American Catholics via CRS in 357 communities in Guatemala work with agriculture projects to help households gain more access to food via improved production. Crop diversification projects help more communities shield themselves from volatile coffee markets. For more info visit: ABC s of Catholic Relief Services: This week CRS & Farmers Technology is a useful tool for farmers in poor countries. Backed by reliable water sources incomes grow and farmer to market communications become feasible for researching commodity prices. People go from drinking water from mud-holes to carrying cell phones in a short time. For info visit: The Immaculate Heart of Mary New York Catholic Homeschool Conference will be held at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, New York on July 31 & August 1st. Call (540) for more information.

5 Page Five 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time..July 19, 2015 A Weekly Bible Study 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Mark 6:30-34 Jeremiah 23:1-6 Was there a greater good in today s Gospel? Jesus is about to show us. We often hear of the importance of balance as we live out our Christian life. Our activity must be supported by prayer and our prayer must infuse our good deeds. Mark seems to underscore this theme as he portrays Jesus and the Apostles looking for a place of rest following intense activity. The efforts of Jesus and the Twelve seem to fail as the needy and growing crowd hastens on foot to find Jesus. Somehow he cannot escape their demands. Jesus serves the greater good in this account. He recognizes that the people are like sheep without a shepherd. Their need for guidance and care moves his heart to pity. And so, in spite of his physical exhaustion, he reaches out to them. Is Jesus somehow fulfilling the promise we hear in today s first reading? Five centuries before this hillside event, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of a lost, wayward people badly in need of a shepherd. The long line of failed kings had brought them into devastation of land, temple and more importantly, of hearts. It would take more than a wise and skilled leader. It would take a Shepherd, one like David, to restore their hope and guide them with care and compassion. Jesus emerges as that very Shepherd in today s Gospel story. Long after the activity of the day is done, searching and needy hearts continue to make their way to the Galilee hillside, longing for the Shepherd s gentle words. We sit among them, aware of an intense attraction to Jesus. It is more than that, however. We recognize our need for him, one that wells from within our hearts. The Lord s compassion and mercy are limitless. We need only sit quietly on the hillsides of our lives and simply allow the Lord to shepherd us.

6 Page Six 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time..July 19, 2015 CHRIST S PRESENCE IN THE WORLD There s a bit of a missing link in the first two sentences of today s Gospel from Mark. In the first, the apostles return from having been sent out on mission two by two ( one who is sent is the meaning of apostle ). Their instructions were to preach repentance, drive out demons, and heal the sick in Jesus name. In the second sentence, Jesus tells them to come away with him and rest a while. It would be nice for us to imagine that, between those two sentences, a look of amazed gratitude and pleasure crossed the face of Jesus as he hears of the kingdom proclaimed in his name, and how they didn t have to shake the dust off their feet anywhere. They deserved a rest! It might not be bad for us, when we gather together with Jesus as the apostles do today, to do this kind of debriefing, allowing the Lord to hear what we ve sought to do in his name, our successes, our failures, our need to get away with him for a while to be fortified for further work in God s name. For we, the baptized, are not only the flock of Jesus Christ; through water and the power of the Spirit we have also become the Body of Christ, the presence of the Shepherd for the life of the world. TODAY S READINGS First Reading I shall gather the remnant of my flock and bring them back to their meadow (Jeremiah 23:1-6). Psalm The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want (Psalm 23). Second Reading You who were once far off have become near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13-18). Gospel When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he began to teach them many things (Mark 6:30-34). READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: Ex 14:5-18; Ex 15:1bc-6; Mt 12:38-42 Tuesday: Ex 14:21 15:1; Ex 15:8-10, 12, 17; Mt 12:46-50 Wednesday: Ex 16:1-5, 9-15; Ps 78:18-19, 23-28; Jn 20:1-2, Thursday: Ex 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20b; Dn 3:52-56; Mt 13:10-17 Friday: Ex 20:1-17; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 13:18-23 Saturday: 2 Cor 4:7-15; Ps 126:1bc-6; Mt 20:20-28 Sunday: 2 Kgs 4:42-44; Ps 145:10-11, 15-18; Eph 4:1-6; Jn 6:1-15 SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES Sunday: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Monday: St. Apollinaris Tuesday: St. Lawrence of Brindisi Wednesday: St. Mary Magdalene Thursday: St. Bridget Friday: St. Sharbel Makhlūf Saturday: St. James

7 Page Seven 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time..July 19, 2015 Defending Our Religious Liberty Pope Francis has stated that religious freedom is a fundamental human right. Each individual must be free, alone or in association with others, to seek the truth, and to openly express his or her religious convictions, free from intimidation and external compulsion. Genuine worship of God bears fruit not in discrimination, hatred and violence, but in respect for the sacredness of life, respect for the dignity and freedom of others, and loving commitment to the welfare of all. It is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of our U.S. Constitution. If you haven t done so already, please voice your opposition to the federal health care mandate by calling U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell at , and your elected representatives. Let them know that the mandate is in violation of our First Amendment right to religious freedom. ABC s of Catholic Relief Services: CRS/ Hai Always challenging work in Hai con nues. American Catholics via CRS are commi ed and are helping Hai- ans in many aspects of their lives. The agency responds to emergencies, such as the 2010 earthquake, provides agricultural assistance, supports educa on and bolsters the health care system. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your people and kindle in them the fire of your love. May many of your people choose to serve you by becoming priests, brothers, and sisters. Please pray for an increase in vocations to priesthood, diaconate, and religious life. If you are being called to serve as a priest or religious 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. Join us the 1st Friday of the month at 9:30am, Blessed Sacrament Chapel for Vocations Holy Hour. The Archdiocese of Hartford will offer a three-day pilgrimage to Philadelphia to attend a Papal Mass celebrated by Pope Francis from September 25-27th. See bulletin boards. ABC s of Catholic Relief Services CRS/Ecuador: Ecuador hosts the largest number of refugees in South America, Colombians who have fled armed conflict in that country. CRS helps children, women, indigenous people, people disabilities and the poorest of the poor including Afro- Colombians are most vulnerable. For more info visit:

8 Page Eight 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time...July 19, 2015 TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION When Catholicism encounters a culture, it tends to approach the culture with a measure of respect for its key customs, especially those touching family life. Around the world, these long established customs are often received into the liturgy, sometimes with a new level of interpretation. From Old Mexico, the custom of the lasso ( cord ) has migrated across borders, and is now firmly established in the marriage liturgy of Spanish speaking Catholics in the United States. It s a large cord, sometimes resembling rosary beads, looped around the necks of the newlyweds in a figure eight shape. It is a great honor for a person, normally a godparent or close relative, to place the lasso around the shoulders of the couple, groom first. The lasso, a symbol of profound unity, remains in place throughout the liturgy until removed, usually by the priest. The bride keeps the lasso as a memento of the day, a sign of her ties of love to her husband in heart and home. The tender ministry of the godparent in this ceremony clearly links this sacrament of vocation with baptism. It s not unusual to see the lasso made of fragrant orange blossoms, harking back to very ancient pre Christian rituals seeking the blessings of fertility and happiness.