5th Sunday of Easter GROW. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. - Jn 15:1A

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1 5th Sunday of Easter GROW I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. - Jn 15:1A

2 P _ 2 CONTACTS Office: Fax: Holy Trinity Church Hall: St. Martin Church Hall: Cemetery Office: Rectory, 130 Maple St.: St. Mary Church Sacristy: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) Janet Jacobson Religious Education St. Ignatius Janet Jacobson, Director: Religious Education St. Mary Laurie Lambert: St. Ignatius & St. Mary: Rev. Andrew K. Nelson.. anelson@rcbm.org Deacon David Divins Please see Mass intentions inside bulletin Baptisms take place at the weekend Masses. Please call the office to make arrangements for Baptism and Baptismal preparation. Diocesan policy states that arrangements be made at least six months prior to the date of marriage. Please notify us if a parishioner is seriously ill and would like to receive the Sacrament of the Sick. If you are homebound and would like to receive the Eucharist, please call the office Weekly Parish Calendar April 29th May 6th Sunday, April 29 Mass 7:00 AM Holy Trinity Mass 9:00 AM St. Martin Mass 11:00 AM St. Mary Sunday Choir 6:30 PM St. Martin Monday, April 30 Mass 9:00 AM Holy Trinity Tuesday, May 1 Mass 9:00 AM Holy Trinity Restored Order/ St. Mary Church 6:30 PM Wednesday, May 2 Mass 9:00 AM Holy Trinity NO Mass 6:15 PM St. Martin Thursday, May 3 Mass 9:00 St. Mary First Communion Rehearsal 6:00 8:00pm at St. Martin St. Mary Choir 7:00 PM Church Friday, May 4 NO Morning Mass Adoration 6:00 PM St. Martin Saturday, May 5 First Communion Retreat 9:00Noon at St. Martin Confessions 2:30 to 3:30 St. Martin Mass 4:00 PM St. Martin Sunday, May 6 Mass 7:00 AM Holy Trinity Mass 9:00 AM St. Martin First Communion Sunday Mass 11:00 AM St. Mary Sunday Choir 6:30 PM St. Martin We welcome Jack Hale Wyman son of Brandon and Sarah (Hale) Wyman who was baptized last weekend at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish.

3 S / R From the desk of Deacon Dave: We are a people of productivity. It is, for the most part, the standard by how we live and the measure of our success. It s built into our lives everywhere. Productivity is the basis of our economic system. Those who produce are rewarded and get more. Those who don t produce are thrown out. Within our educational system the students who do well and produce are recognized and supported while those who do not produce get lost in the system. Professors know well the mantra, Publish or perish. Careers and promotions are based on productivity. Productivity at some level is at the core of the debates around poverty, welfare, healthcare, and the elderly. They do not produce and our care of and for them often reflects what we think of that. We have been convinced that productivity is the goal and only the fittest survive. I wonder if that isn t how many of us live our spiritual lives. How many of us have been told, in some form or fashion, or come to believe that pruned branches go to heaven and removed branches go to hell? Pruned branches produced so they are rewarded while non productive branches are punished. In that misunderstanding, fruit is God s demand upon our life and the means by which we appease God. If we aren t careful we ll get stuck categorizing ourselves and one another into fruit bearing or nonfruit bearing branches. There is, however, a deeper issue than the production of fruit. Productivity doesn t usually create deep abiding and intimate relationships. It creates transaction. Jesus isn t talking about or demanding productivity. He wants and offers connectivity, relationship, and intimacy. Fruit or the lack thereof is a manifestation of our interior life and health. It describes and reveals whether we are living connected or disconnected lives. Fruit production is the natural consequence of staying connected. You can see that in longterm friendships, marriages, community loyalty, we don t choose whether or not we produce fruit. We do however, choose where we abide and how we stay connected. You know how that is. Sometimes we lose touch with a particular person. We no longer know where he or she is, what they are doing, or what is happening in their lives. One day we run into them. It s a bit awkward. No one is sure what to say. There s not much to talk about. There was no deep abiding presence, the connection is lost, and it seems as if what was, has been thrown away. Other people we run into after five or ten years and the conversation immediately picks up where we left off those many years ago. Even though we were apart, we never left each other. There was and remains a connection and mutual abiding that time, distance, and the circumstances of life cannot sever. What fruit am I producing? How much? Is it an acceptable quality? Those are good questions if we understand and ask them diagnostically, as questions not about the quantity of our lives but the quality of our lives. That s what Jesus is after. That s the deeper question he is asking. It s the invitation to join the conversation, jump into the game, to participate, and to live fully alive. That only happens when the life, the love, and the goodness and holiness of Christ flow in us. We become an extension of and manifest his life, love, and holiness. It s a relationship of union even as a branch is united to the vine. We live our lives as one. This isn t just about relationship with Jesus; it affects and is the basis for our relationships with one another. Love for Jesus, one another, and ourselves become one love. We soon discover we are living one life and the fruit of that life and love is abundant, overflowing and Father glorifying. In Christ, Deacon Dave THE MOM S GROUP The Mom s Group meets every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month from 9:00 AM 11:00 AM in the Holy Trinity Church hall. Our next session will be on Friday, May 4th. Hope to see you there! Contact: Amanda: alleyamandal@gmail.com or Marybeth: mefpme@gmail.com Assumption College Are you or a member of your family attending Assumption College in Worcester, MA this coming fall? If so, contact Father Andrew about a possible scholarship opportunity.

4 P 4 Sharing God s Gifts Online Giving Give online using our new website: It s as simple as going to our website. Click online giving for either St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish or St. Mary Parish and follow the directions. The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. Does a life of joy in knowing you are following the Lord as a priest or in the consecrated life inspire you? For more information call Rev. Matthew Mason, (603) , or write: mmason@rcbm.org Save the Date! St. Ignatius of Loyola & St. Mary s Parish Shipwrecked Vacation Bible School Is headed your way this summer! Step aboard and join the Shipwrecked Crew as we sail to an uncharted tropical island. Kids ages 3 and up will discover the truth that Jesus carries them through life's craziest storms. August 6 August 10, 2018 At St. Martin Church F S E St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish April 21 & April 22, 2018 Sunday Offertory Envelopes (241) Loose Cash Offertory Online Giving Total Offertory Other Collections & Donations $5, $1, $ $8, Easter Flowers $ 6.00 Ascension of the Lord $ Youth Activities $ Total Offering & Collections $ 8, St. Mary Parish April 22, 2018 Sunday Offertory Envelopes (39) $1, Loose Cash Offertory $ Online Giving $ Total Offertory $1, Other Collections & Donations St. Mary Care $ Total Offering & Collections $1, Thank you for your generosity! Somersworth/Berwick Food Pantry Winter is finally giving way to spring. It has been an extended cold season this year. We have missed the break between the two seasons where we don t spend on heating or air conditioning it would seem. Even though the financial stress is lighter in spring we still have many in our community who are in need. The food pantry is in need of cereals, juice and breakfast items the week of May to the Community Food Pantry. All types of cereals, cold or hot, any juice in nonperishable containers and items such as muffin mixes, pancake and waffle and the like are appreciated. The Community Food Pantry thanks all who contribute to it in any way. Without your continued support many would be left destitute and hungry.

5 P 5 S/R, NH Humility is Salvation Pope St. John XXIII would stop and chat with everyone he encountered. One day as he was wandering the halls of the Vatican he came across an electrician who was working there. The man did not recognize him as the Pope: he thought he was just another of the priests who worked at the Vatican. Pope John asked the man how things were going and the man complained that the Vatican paid terribly low wages. Pope John said We should do something about that. The electrician replied Yes, if it were only possible, Father. The Pope began smiling and answered Just between us, I am not just a Priest. I am the Pope. The next day all the Vatican workers received a 25% raise. My guiding principles remain the same: humility in everything, especially in my speech, union with God and the will of God, and not my own, in all I do. Pope St. John XXIII The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it. Saint Vincent de Paul Good Pope John was a very humble man and there are so many more stories pointing out his humility, his holiness, and his ability to make a spiritual lesson of humbly poking fun at himself. His ability to recognize his own frailty in the face of universal influence and moral and spiritual heights, he never lost sight of the reality of his own limitations! What a beautiful lesson for all of us! And what an imitation of our Savior Jesus Christ! We have seen that in the Nicene Creed we affirm that Jesus is God, of the same substance as the Father and of the same divine nature. We affirm that Jesus is the Word through whom the universe came into being. We have confessed our belief in His preexistent power and glory. But then the Creed leads us to another great mystery: For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. The great and glorious, preexistent Word of God, the divine Person who IS God, does something totally unexpected! He leaves His throne in heaven and becomes a member of the human race, that humanity in rebellion since the introduction of sin through the pride of Adam and Eve. Saint Paul tells us: Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:3 8) Yes, this God of love so desires our salvation, the salvation of the whole human race (for the word man is all inclusive) actually became human. This was a great act of selfemptying, a great act of humility: the Second Person of the Trinity took on a human body by which He was to be born, to grow, to feel love, to feel pain, to endure hunger and temptation, to touch, to heal, to embrace and finally to be tortured and to die. Lucifer, the enemy of our souls, fell from heaven because in his pride he refused to serve the will of a loving God. It was pride that he introduced into the human soul in Paradise, and this pride led to Original Sin, the turning of the human heart and soul away from God. Some ancient commentators mention that it was the Mystery of the Incarnation that caused Satan s rebellion! Jesus came for our salvation. He came to show us how to live holy lives as human beings. He came to show us the Face of God in human form: no longer separated from us by His divinity, but one of us, one with us in life and suffering. It was Jesus humility that saved us, as opposed to the pride of Satan which condemned us. God becoming human is, as St, Paul described, like a Master becoming a slave. He allowed Himself to become subject to the human condition of life in order to redeem that life not from the outside, but from within time and space and a human body! Saint John testifies to this truth in his Gospel: the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

6 P 6 Mass Intentions Monday, April 30 NO 9:00 AM Mass Holy Trinity James Breslin (8th Ann) by his wife and sister Tuesday, May 1 9:00 AM Mass Holy Trinity Gary Gauthier by his wife and family Nancy J. Croteau by her husband Wednesday, May 2 9:00 AM Mass Holy Trinity Rita Vaillancourt (8th Ann.) by Bob and family NO 6:15 PM Mass St. Martin Thursday, May 3 9:00 AM Mass St. Mary John Morrissey by Marty Morrissey Friday, May 4 9:00 AM NO Morning Mass 6:00 PM Adoration St. Martin Saturday, May 5 4:00 PM Mass St. Martin Laurie Demers (1st Ann.) by her daughters Michael Moore by his parents Alida Boulanger (24th Ann.) by Richard Boulanger Sunday, May 6 7:00 AM Mass Holy Trinity Lionel Fournier (15th Ann.) by his family 9:00 AM Mass St. Martin For the Intentions of our Communicants 11:00 AM St. Mary Donald C. Folsom (12th Ann.) by his wife and family Annette (Bobbie) Berube by her daughters Suzanne and Julie Anne F S E St. Mary Parish New Restored Order Meeting Meeting on the Restored Order of the sacraments and religious education for parents and parishioners of St. Mary Parish in Rollinsford will be held at the church on Tuesday, May 1st, at 6:30 PM. Be sure to attend to find out more about the new Restored Order program. St. Ignatius and St. Mary s Prayer Shawl Ministry We invite you to join us Do you enjoy knitting or crocheting? Come join us in The Prayer Shawl Ministry on the first Thursday of every month beginning May 3rd at the St. Mary s Parish house at 421 Pleasant Street (the street next to the church) from 10:00 AM to Noon. The Prayer Shawl Ministry benefits St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Mary Parishes in times of grief, joy or need with a beautiful shawl and prayers. You don t knit or crochet you say? Donations of yarn and a part of you will be worked into a loving embrace for anyone in their time of need. For more information, contact Joyce at Please remember in your prayers Ann M. Bickford and Evelyn F. Shevelin who died recently. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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