OCTOBER 2017 IN THE PARISH. The Celebration of Halloween, All Saints and All Souls. October 29, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 IN THE PARISH October 29, 2017 Helpful Information Join the Parish Anyone wishing to register for membership in the parish is asked to fill out a registration form and drop it in the collection basket. Request Prayers Our INTERCESSORY PRAYER MINISTRY provides prayer for anyone in need throughout the parish. Contact MARY ANN MAGDA at or make your intention known on our parish website at Remember your Parish Your parish serves you faithfully throughout your life. Please remember your parish with a memorial gift or a Bequest in your will. Make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done for you. The Celebration of Halloween, All Saints and All Souls Everybody knows the secular holiday of Halloween. But not everybody knows it derives from a holy day, All Saints' Day on Nov. 1, which is followed by All Souls' day on Nov. 2. The root word of Halloween - ''hallow'' - means ''holy.'' The suffix "een" is an abbreviation of "evening." It refers to the Eve of All Hallows, the night before the Christian holy day that honors saintly people of the past. "All Saints is a celebration of the communion of saints, those people we believe are in heaven, through good works and God s grace," said the Rev. Richard Donohoe, vicar of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Birmingham. by Greg Garrison Day there s a call to live as saints, to remind us how we re supposed to live. On All Souls' Day, we re talking about all souls and asking God s mercy for them. We re talking about those people who have died before us, and their process of getting to heaven, through Christ." All Saints' Day emanates from early Christian celebrations of martyrs in the Eastern Church, Donohoe said. "It has its roots all the way back to the fourth century," he said. SACRAMENTAL PREPARATIONS Anointing of the Sick The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick may take place at any time, but, sadly, too many families wait until the last minute to call the priest to anoint their loved ones. If someone in your family is seriously ill, preparing for surgery, or suffering a prolonged illness, please contact the parish office to arrange a time for Fr. Ken to visit. IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY or if Fr. Ken is unavailable to visit immediately, we will contact the first available priest to celebrate the Sacrament of Anointing with your loved one. Funeral Preparations We collaborate with the local funeral directors in arranging the times of the funerals. Please be aware that there is an additional fee for funerals on Saturdays imposed by most cemeteries in the area. Baptismal Preparations Parents of newly born infants may call the parish office to arrange a time for the Baptism of their child. Baptisms are celebrated, for the most part, on any Sunday, with the exception of the season of Lent. Wedding Preparations Couples contemplating Marriage are asked to contact the parish office at least one year prior to the contemplated date of marriage, before making other plans. All Souls' Day is a day to pray for all souls. Among Catholics, prayers are offered for those in purgatory, waiting to get into heaven. On All Souls' Day, Catholic churches have a Book of the Dead, in which parishioners have an opportunity to write the names of relatives to be remembered. "That s placed near the altar," Donohoe said. "That s done all through November. It's an All Souls' tradition." More than a thousand years ago in Ireland and Britain, a common custom of Christians was to come together on the eve of the feast of All Hallows Day to ask for God's blessing and protection from evil in the world. Often, they would dress in costumes of saints or evil spirits and act out the battle between good and evil around bonfires. That's the source of the modern observance of Halloween. The Christian concept of the importance of the individual soul underlies All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, which are observed worldwide primarily in the Catholic and Anglican traditions. The ''Dia de los Muertos,'' or ''day of the dead,'' in Latin countries keeps alive some of the tradition of honoring souls of the dead. "All Hallows was considered a time when evil could manifest itself," Donohoe said. "We do believe in the visible and the invisible. There is good and there is evil. There is invisible evil and invisible good. It s an acknowledgement of that existence." In the Catholic Church, Nov. 1 is a holy day of obligation, when all Catholics are expected to attend Mass. "All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are related, but they are two separate celebrations," Donohoe said. "On All Saints' OCTOBER 2017 Weekend of October Tuesday, October 31 Wednesday, November 1 Thursday, November 2 Friday, November 3 Weekend of November 4-5 SUNDAY, November 5 9:15 am Faith Formation Social Justice Collection Toy Collection for Bingo HALLOWEEN 5:30 pm ALL SAINTS VIGIL MASS 6:30 pm Choir ALL SAINTS DAY 8 am Mass Noon Mass PARISH OFFICE CLOSED NO 8 am MASS NO ADORATION 6 pm Mass of Remembrance FIRST FRIDAY 8 am Mass 6 pm Confessions 6:30 pm Devotions 7:00 pm Mass Clergy Collection Dues Envelopes 1 pm TOY BINGO St. Mary s Hall Doors open at noon

2 October 29, 2017 PARISH MINISTRIES VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION DINNER will be held on Sunday, November 12th at 4 pm Anyone who volunteered in any way in the parish in the last year is welcome to participate. Liturgical Ministers Cantor, Choir, EMOC, Servers, Lectors, Ushers, Hospitality Ministers, Sacristans, Parish staff, Toy Bingo Workers, Dance Committee members, Night at the Race Workers, Catechists, Facilitators of Faith Formation Groups, bulletin folders, money counters, etc. Call Mary ( ) with your RSVP by November 3rd. $32, $21, $10, Thank You to All who have already Pledged to the Diocesan Annual Appeal. Our Parish Appeal Goal is $32, To date, pledges and payments equal $8,853.00, which is 15% of our goal. HELP for THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS Many people struggle just to feed their families! Please contact Anna Hudock ( ) if you or someone you know is having a difficult time financially and could use help during the holidays. All requests for Holiday Help, whether for Thanksgiving or Christmas, must be in by November 6, Please be aware that we do not keep records from one year to the next. If you need help this year, you need to contact us. Homebound and Parishioners in Nursing Homes If you or a loved one or neighbor has been recently confined to their home because of age or illness, please let us know so that we can continue Sacramental care for them and keep them connected to the fabric of the parish. Also, please notify us if a relative, friend, or neighbor has been placed in a care facility. Call Anna Hudock at TOY BINGO TO-DO LIST SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29th ALL TOY DONATIONS ARE TO BE IN THE BOX IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE CHURCH. MONDAY, OCTOBER 30th The Committee will gather in the Rectory Lower Meeting room at 10 am to begin sorting and wrapping toys which will be used as prizes for the various games and specials of the Toy Bingo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd ALL COOKS will gather in Fr. Zolcinski Hall at 10 am to begin preparing food for the BINGO. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4th Committee Members and Volunteers will gather at St. Mary s Hall at 10 am to set up for the Bingo. Many hands make light work. BAKERS are asked to drop off their baked goods at St. Mary s Hall on Saturday between 9 am and 3:30 pm. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5th ALL HANDS ON DECK! Workers are asked to report to St. Mary s Hall by 11:00 am to make sure everyone knows what they are doing! The Hall opens at NOON and people will be filing in for food and good seats. FOLLOWING the Bingo, Volunteers are needed to take down everything and restore the hall to its former beauty. ANY QUESTIONS?? Contact Pat Baran at ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCILS The Liturgical Council will meet on Wednesday, November 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Fr. Murgas Conference Room. The Parish Social Justice Council will meet Thursday, November 9 th at 6:00 p.m. in the Fr. Murgas Conference Room The Finance Council will meet on Thursday, November16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Fr. Murgas Conference Room. All members of the Finance Council are asked to plan to attend. The Pastoral Council will meet on Thursday, December 7 at 6:30 pm in the Fr. Murgas Conference Room. FAITH SHARING St. Andre s Faith Seekers with Michael Boris will meet at 6 pm on Monday November 6 in the Fr. Murgas Meeting Room of the Parish Office. Disciples of the Spirit of Jesus with Sr. Madonna will meet on Saturday, November 11 at 10:30 am in the Fr. Murgas Meeting Room of the Parish office. There is still room in this group for anyone desiring to join. Sharers on the Journey with Christ with Rosemary Shedlock will meet on Sunday, November 12 at 2:00 pm in the home of Elaine Snyder. PARISH COMMITTEES The Development Committee will meet on Monday, November 13 at 6:00 pm in the Lower Meeting Room of the Parish Office. The Young at Heart Committee will meet for their next monthly meeting on November 15th at 1 pm in the Fr. Murgas conference Room. Loaves & Fishes Food for October Hot Chocolate

3 THE LITURGY October 29, 2017 Learning to Sing Lament If we are to be honest when we pray and sing to God, then we have to bring the whole of our experience into that prayer and make it part of that song. We need to bring every situation before God and that includes moments that call for lament. This is hard for us, because we lament about things that seem insoluble. Sometimes it even seems as if God cannot take away the pain that causes us to lament. Lament comes from the core of our being, where our deepest feelings are born. It is not the primal wail or scream that comes when a person s or a people s world falls apart, when even articulate language fails. Rather, lament comes in a return from the edge of chaos, when we find ways to make the unspeakable spoken, when we find some measure of faith that someone will hear our cry and respond. Lament is truth telling that captures heart and mind; it is a complaint against continuing evil. Lament really is an act of hope. St. Augustine said that the two beautiful daughters of hope are anger and courage. Our anger arises when we recognize that something is terribly wrong and therefore has to change. Such anger can propel us to courageous action to make that change. Lament, then, is the opposite of what the Bible calls hardness of heart. Our faith tells us that even lament has become part of the redeeming act of God in Jesus Christ. There is a saying among theologians: Anything human that was not taken up by Christ was not redeemed. But, since Christ was fully human as well as fully divine, everything that is human is part of the redemption including lament. And when we put on Christ in baptism, we become joined to all the suffering in the Body of Christ that leads to lament, anger, and a commitment to change things for the better. How do we bring this lament to prayer? The psalms offer repeated examples. They call on us, as a community, to bring our complaint to God (and even to complain about God). They teach us that a final resolution to human tragedy will only come about with God s help or through God s. intervention, and they bring us, finally, to place our trust in God s word and God s presence among us. Our liturgy offers a further library of prayers, postures, gestures, and environmental and musical resources to express our lament to God. They sum up the horrors that bring us to lament as death and sin, but they also promise salvation from death and redemption from sin. Baptism and reconciliation (penance) are sacraments of lament and reconciliation, and the Order of Mass offers moments for lament as well. Our songs, too, call us to voice our lament, for any church that goes around singing happy songs all the time, in the face of raw reality, is doing something very different from what the Bible and our liturgy call us to do. We need songs of lament, lest we unintentionally give the message that all is well with the world, that suffering doesn t touch us, or that there is no need for Christians to be concerned about what is going on around us. We need to face and name the hard realities of human experience. Without prayers and songs of lament, we may fail to stir up compassion in our churches and so fail to move toward the deeds of mercy to which Jesus Gospel calls us. For lament, like the liturgy, calls us to action. The Gospel tells us that there is a way things ought to be and that disor - der needs to be corrected. We require that things be other than the horrors that human beings seem to manage on a regular basis because we have a dream and a promise of a different way of being human. We not only look forward to a future that we call the reign of God; we believe that this future is here among us now and that we are caught up in it and are called to do what we can to make it real. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and because we are incorporated into Christ through the sacraments of initiation, we have a sense of what God s future is like and a call to help others experience what the reign of God is like now. Copyright 2013 National Association of Pastoral Musicians. This page may be reproduced in its entirety as a bulletin insert by parish members of NPM without further reprint permission. For other uses, contact the NPM editorial office by npmedit@npm.org.

4 October 29, 2017 IN THE DIOCESE Do You Want to Know More About the Annulment Process?: In the Diocese of Scranton, the annulment process is now more user friendly than you might expect, and there is no longer a processing fee. Please contact your pastor or the Diocesan Tribunal Office ( ) to begin a conversation. It is possible to get clear answers to these questions and to renew your connection with the Church. Notice Regarding the Sexual Abuse of A Minor It is the policy of the Diocese of Scranton to report any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor to law enforcement. If you are a victim of sexual abuse, you are encouraged to immediately report the matter to law enforcement. If any priest, deacon, religious, lay employee or volunteer of the Diocese of Scranton has cause or reason to suspect that a minor has been subjected to any form of abuse, including child sexual abuse, the matter will be reported to law enforcement. In accordance with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania s Child Protective Services Law, reports of suspected child abuse should also be made immediately by phone to the 24 hour Child Abuse Hotline (ChildLine) at or electronically at cwis. It is also the policy of the Diocese to adhere to all civil and state regulations. To this end, the Diocese is equally committed to adhering to the norms of the Code of Canon Law and to upholding the tenets of the USCCB Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which includes supporting victims of sexual abuse in their pursuit of emotional and spiritual well-being. As such, information regarding an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor should also be reported to the Victim Assistance Coordinator, Mary Beth Pacuska at or to Diocesan Officials, including the Vicar General, Msgr. Thomas M. Muldowney, V.G. at Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson Lay Ministry Skills Workshop The Virtues of Christian Discipleship During this workshop, Dr. Bernard G. Prusak will explore the formation of conscience, the virtues the excellences of character internal to Christian Morality and the principles and implications of Catholic Social Teaching. Saturday, November 11, am 3 pm St. John the Evangelist Parish Pittston, PA TRICKS of the TRADE : A Panel discussion on what we ve learned along the way. Join with other musicians and liturgists to discuss what has worked and what has not worked in your experience. Monday, November 6, 2017 at 6 pm Immaculate Conception Parish, 801 Taylor Ave., Scranton For more information, contact David Baloga, Director for Worship, at , ext or by at David-Baloga@dioceseofscranton.org For more information, or to register, contact Kitty Scanlan at , extension 1157 or kitty-scanlan@dioceseofscranton.org. JACKPOT! #LEAVEAMARK 17 A Gathering of the YOUNG CHURCH with Bishop Bambera to kick-off NATIONAL VOCATION AWARENESS WEEK Sunday, November 5, pm Mass St. Peter s Cathedral Scranton Reception to follow in the Diocesan Pastoral Life Center For more information please call the Diocesan Vocation Office at or visit Facebook.com/scrantonvoc A training for adults in the Protecting God s Children (PGC- VIRTUS) program is scheduled for Monday, November 13, 2017, at 4:00 p.m., in Mercy Hall, Second Floor, Room 232 on the campus of Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. Complete and detailed information can be found on our diocesan website: If you are an adult employee or volunteer who as direct contact or routine interaction with children, please make every effort to participate in this training. Your attendance IS important! Register by contacting Dr. Steve Broskoske at: or sbroskos@misericordia.edu

5 FOR OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE October 29, 2017 WE VE FORGOTTEN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CATHOLIC! Who s Talking About Holiness by Jeff Arrowood We have come to treat Catholicism like a social club. We pay our dues. We attend the events. We may even volunteer our time. But being Catholic isn t really central to our personal identity. Being Catholic doesn t inform our everyday life. What we ve forgotten is that being Catholic means first and foremost to be a member of the Family of God. This isn t some pie-in-the-sky sentiment. It s a reality. To be Catholic means to be in a dynamic, growing relationship with the God of the universe. It means to live every day as disciples of Jesus. It means to really and truly participate in God s divine life. And the ultimate goal of everything we do as Catholics is holiness to become holy and to lead others to holiness. But wait... really? Isn t holiness just some impossible ideal of perfection? Doesn t holding holiness up as an ideal just set us up for failure and guilt? It s just not realistic, is it? Well... yes and no. Yes holiness ultimately means perfection and perfection is impossible for us to achieve. No but holiness is FIRST a relationship with God empowered by grace. God wants us to be holy, so He will help us get there. So holiness is not something achievable only by a special few. As the Second Vatican Council reminded us in Lumen Gentium, we are all called to be holy. Here s how we do it: Make our relationship with God the center of our very lives Do everything we can to participate in that relationship through grace Let God work in us and through us to build our love for Him, and to bring us to perfection Trust that if we don t actually reach perfection in this life, God will complete the good work He began in us as long as we persevere. Being holy doesn t mean being good by our own power. It means being in relationship with He who is Good, and working with Him to become good through grace. One of my spiritual mentors growing up liked to say, God doesn t judge us by where we are. He judges us based on how hard we re trying to get to Him. As long as you re trying you re OK, no matter where you re at. I don t know about you, but I caught myself not trying anymore. And the sad thing is that my life is smaller because I ve stopped trying. I find myself surviving more than thriving. I find myself increasingly frustrated with my life. But how often are we even encouraged to strive for holiness? Has this been your experience? My pastor (who is a great priest) has been focusing this last year on being a community. Most of the Catholic Tweets and social media posts I see are about abortion and homosexual marriage. People at Catholic social gatherings are more likely talking about sports than God. I hear more and more Catholic organizations talking about what s going wrong in the Catholic Church and what needs to be fixed. But I hardly hear anyone talking about holiness. Let s start by exploring in more depth what it means to be holy. Loving God is the Only Guarantee of Holiness I ve heard many Christian teachers define holy as being set apart. And this is true, especially when we are talking about holy objects. A chalice used for the Precious Blood at Mass is holy in that it is set apart for that use. We don t use a chalice as a beer stein. It s also true that set apart is the root meaning of the word holy. But when we talk about being holy, we can t stop there as if God has set us apart, and we re good. If that s all there was to holiness, Jesus would not have commanded us to be perfect. So let s take a deeper look at what it means to be holy. Yes! We are set apart. If you are baptized, you are set apart as a child of God and co-heir with Christ. You are a prince or princess of the Kingdom. You are the apple of God s eye. But just as importantly, you are set apart because you called out by God to be more. Now, the kind of real, heart-to-heart relationship that God wants to have with us wouldn t be possible for mere humans, even without Original Sin. But add sin and ignorance to the mix and there seems to be just no possibility at all of reaching the level of perfection necessary to have a real relationship with God. That s why Calvinists preferred to see grace as covering our imperfections. They preferred to see God s mercy as God overlooking our weakness and accepting us as His children anyway. But that s not the picture of grace we see in Sacred Scripture. Grace invites us into a true relationship. And true relationships require the participation of both people. And this is why holiness is so exciting! We re not just called to be rescued. We re called to love to really love. God wants us to freely love Him. He wants us to participate in His life. Because that s what people do when they love each other. TO BE CONTINUED

6 LOCAL EVENTS October 29, 2017 Adult Faith Formation Opportunity READING THE SCRIPTURES with Fr. Leo McKernan St. Ignatius Loyola Parish Conlan Hall Maple Ave, Kingston. 6:30 pm TUESDAYS thru Nov. 21st. IF TOYS AREN T YOUR THING. St. Ignatius Loyola Mary s Ministry AUTUMN FLING BINGO Sunday Nov. 5, 2017 Conlan Hall Kingston, PA Doors open 11:45 am Games begin at 1:15 pm. Prizes include assorted gift items for all age groups perfect for holiday giving. Ticket Donation $25 ($20 is pd before 10/31) (include 20 games 3 cards each game and door prizes) Call for more information or Holy Name Society of St. Leo s/holy Rosary Parish Sunday, November 19th 1 pm. Church Hall 33 Manhattan St., Ashley. Admission is $3.00 and includes 2 baby cards. Specials and door prizes will be offered. The Kitchen will be open and available for takeout starting at 11 am. Regal Rooks Chess Club for students in grades 2-8 Meets Tuesdays from 6:30 8:00 pm in the Parish Center of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Plains. For more information contact Frank Procopio at or visit the website at Anyone interested in furthering their faith and knowledge of Scripture is invited to participate. There is no fee and there is no commitment. Come as often as you can. Homemade Pasta & Sausage Dinner Church of St. Maria Goretti Banquet Center Laflin Rd, Laflin, PA Sunday, November 12, 2017 Noon to 5PM Take outs: Noon to 4PM (container will be provided) Tickets available at the door: $10 Children 5 years old and younger are FREE eat in only 33rd Annual BANQUET FOR LIFE Monday, November 13, :00 pm at Genetti s Wilkes-Barre Speaker will be Steven Ertelt Editor of LIFESITE NEWS Tickets: $35.00 per person Tickets are by Reservation only We have reserved a PARISH TABLE! Make Reservations to the Parish Office by November 3rd. ( ) Make Checks payable to St. Andre Bessette Parish and we will write one check to cover all parish reservations. The Morris Family Funeral Home will once again be sponsoring OPERATION SWEATERS FOR VETERANS. Beginning Saturday, November 4th thru Sunday, November 12th, new sweaters and gloves may be dropped off in the box which will be provided in the vestibule. These will be distributed through the local VA hospital, nursing home and other Veterans Service Organizations. Everyone in the community is invited to support our veterans by donating new sweaters and gloves to this worthy cause. CRAFT and GIFT FAIR St. Maria Goretti Parish Center Laflin Road Laflin, PA NOV am 3 pm NOV. 19 9am 3 pm A Specialty Basket Raffle will be held featuring Baskets and Gifts which have a value of $150 and up! Tickets will be sold for $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00 FREE ADMISSION HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE

7 October 29, 2017 Renewal of the Parish: Why It Is Needed by Jason King STEWARDSHIP We need to renew our parishes. In two earlier posts, I argued that our politics and economics often defines us more than the gospel and that the widespread breakdown of community life in our culture makes it difficult for parishes to counter these frameworks. These dynamics present challenges to the parish, but God gives the parish its mission. It is to be a community that loves God with all of its heart, mind, soul, and strength and loves its neighbors as itself. I worry that we look for some cheap grace to solve this challenge, some extraordinary policy or radical practice that would make everything work correctly. Yet, if the task is truly building up love, there seems to me no other solution than the demanding and daily task of ordinary love. It is not lying, stealing, killing, and committing adultery. As John the Baptist said, it is giving your extra clothes and food to the person who has none, stop overcharging for goods, do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages. It is, as Jesus said, providing food and water, clothing and sheltering people, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming strangers. Moreover, love must fundamentally be this way if salvation is for everyone. Love must be able to be practiced by 8 year olds and 80 year olds, by middle managers and the mentally challenged. Thus, what I see as essential for the renewal of parish life might not seem radical, but I believe that it should not seem that way. In this way, it can respond to the challenges that the culture presents. 1. Liturgies: Doing liturgies well is the most fundamental task of the parish. It is an essential way in which people learn about God s love for humanity and embody their love for God. I do not think that liturgies need to be a weekly parade of ecstatic experience but rather the priest and people performing worship in an unassuming and reverent way, a way that focuses on God. (This is M. Therese Lysaught s point in chapter one of Gathered for the Journey.) The counterpart to this is, of course, people must go to mass. Just as one of the most significant factors in success at school is going to school, going to Mass consistently is crucial for living the faith and renewing the parish. 2. Homilies: An essential part of good liturgies is the homily. It is an opportunity for people to hear the gospel interpret contemporary life (instead of politics or economics being the dominant framework). Homilies need not be long or presented with rhetorical flourish, but they should emerge from a week of study and reflection, built on a lifetime of prayer and formation. While it is hard to quantify this, if one were to follow the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. who liked to spend 40 hours preparing for a 1 hour lecture, then homilists should spend roughly 5 ½ hours preparing for an 8 minute homily. Parishioners also have a responsibility to be attentive to it. The better the homily, the easier it is to do this. Yet, this responsibility need not be limited to just listening. A former colleague of mine once noted that the most fruitful part of the homily for his family was the way they discussed, analyzed, applied, and revised it in the car on the way home. 3. Religious Education: Parishes typically have religious education programs. These are important and need to be vibrant. Almost all of my theology majors and almost every active member in our campus ministry came from strong youth ministry programs. Related to this, adults should prioritize their religious education. Whether this is personal study or parish programs, it is needed because, no matter how excellent one s religious education was in one s youth, it will be insufficient for handling life as a grown up and because parents have a responsibility to be the first teachers of their children (as John Paul II noted in Familiaris Consortio #36). 4. Prayer: There is no replacement for prayer. Whatever form it takes, it is the way loving God and neighbor grows within us. It does not replace action but it makes it possible to call forth our faith to guide our actions. It is the way we learn to frame our lives by the gospel. Parishes need to offer prayer opportunities like Eucharistic adoration, Stations of the Cross, and Vespers, but parishioners also need to find some time to pray in their lives. 5. Reconciliation: The sacraments give shape to the Christian life. As Michael Gorman has argued, much of Christian activity revolves around finding ways to overcome discord between people. Jesus ministry of forgiveness was central to his work. Paul s pastoral advice entailed ways for communities to overcome division. So much of contemporary life is fraught with discord politically, culturally, and personally that a robust understanding of the sacrament of reconciliation and its practice could help us with this process of reconciliation. Along with its current emphasis on personal reconciliation with God, its implication for social reconciliation needs to become more pronounced. 6. Social Gatherings: There has to be moments when the community gathers just for the sake of fellowship. There has to be a time when people can get to know one another better. To carry out the task of love of neighbor that is celebrated in liturgy, people must get to know their neighbor. It is coffee and donuts after church or potluck dinners or game nights. 7. Family Ministry: Family life is difficulty, has always been and will always be. In fact, it seems that the best indicator for couples staying together is how they manage conflict. This should not surprise us as family life is rooted in love and love, as Christians understand it, entails the way of the cross. Moreover, family life is crucial for the well being of people, affecting their happiness, safety, finances, and work and educational success. People must work at their fidelity to one another and, even when marriages break down, they must work to avoid hostility and violence toward each other. It is such a fundamental institution that parishes need to (and do) attend to it. Marriage preparation should always be improving. Ministry to the divorced, widowed, and separated should continue. Ministry to maintain marriages should increase. 8. Hospitality: Parish life cannot stop with socials and family ministry. Love for Christians must always be expansive, moving out from the self to the friend then the neighbor, the stranger, and even the enemy. Parishes should thus be attentive to those who are new to the parish, welcoming them, making them feel like people are happy that they are there. On the individual level this entails basic kindness to those one meets in the pews. At the parish level, this needs to be a ministry. When I joined my current parish, they sent me a welcoming note, invited all the new members to a special reception (and a make up date for those who could not make it). The reception, put on by the parish s hospitality ministry, featured a meet the pastor, tour of the church, registration forms for volunteering, and an impressive breakfast spread. 9. Visiting People: Feeling disconnected in our society is common. Being old or sick or poor or imprisoned exacerbates it. There are long standing ministries of the Church to attend to those who seem forgotten by the society at large. These ministries need to remain front and center. After the Eucharist in my current parish, they bring to the front all of the people doing home bound ministry to bless them in their work. It emphasizes that this is a work of the whole community. It should remind us not only that we as members of the parish have a responsibility to visit these people but also that we should attend to those in our own extended families who might be old or sick, poor or imprisoned. 10. Personal Invitations: When I was a child, our priest would visit our house about once a month. It was not something planned or elaborate. Often times it was just to say, hello. The result was that the priest found out that my father worked in accounting and computers and tapped him to help manage the church s finances. Of course, the priest did not do this for just our family but almost every family in the parish. Because he knew what people could do, he could call upon them to help in unique ways. It created a vibrant parish where people experienced God s call to love each other very concretely. At my current parish, we have 26 ministries. They are run by a cadre of lay volunteers and organized by a professional staff. Part of the reason for such a vibrant ministry, as best I can understand it, is the encouragement of the pastor. He hired a good staff, trusts them to do what is correct, and encourages their good ideas. He shows up to their events and promotes them but does not feel like he has to be in charge of or micromanage them. He encourages people to participate, his staff encourages people to participate, and the result is people participate. These people reach out to other people, and the result is a parish with a variety of ministries reaching a variety of people for a vibrant parish that constantly reminds me of the body of Christ metaphor that Paul used in 1 Corinthians. These are ten practices that I see as important for renewing the parish. Some help us overcome the dominance of political and economic frameworks by fostering an understanding of the world in terms of the gospel liturgy, homilies, prayer, religious education while others, applying this perspective, helps us to address the breakdown of community life by nourishing our relationships with others reconciliation, social gathering, family ministry, hospitality, visiting people, and personal invitations. They also should seem familiar, possible, and ways to love. On the surface, these practices might seem too individualistic or make the parish too sectarian.

8 October 29, 2017 FINANCES INCOME EXPENSES October 21-22, 2017 October 19 25, 2017 PARISH COLLECTION Administration In Church Mailed In Clergy Residence -0- Loose Liturgy Offering 3, Religious Education -0- Holy Days Social Justice -0- Initial Maintenance 1, Dues Deposit to Savings -0- Debt Reduction Insurance -0- Holiday Flowers Taxes -0- TOTAL PARISH COLLECTION Diocesan Collection TOTAL DIOCESAN $4, $ Capital Outlay -0- DIOCESAN COLLECTIONS Diocesan Collections $ $ Debt Service (Principal + Interest) -0- School Subsidy -0- Prior Balance DIOCESAN ASSESSMENTS Current Assessment Amount Paid BALANCE DUE (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018) Diocesan Assessment School Assessment BALANCE , , , , , , , , PLEASE NOTE: We owe $58, toward the Assessments by October 25th. OTHER INCOME TOTAL EXPENSES $3, Candles Perquisites -0- GENERAL FUND RECAPITULATION Rental -0- Previous Balance $ Donation Income 6, Miscellaneous Expenses -3, TOTAL OTHER INCOME $40.00 BALANCE FORWARD $3, TOTAL INCOME $6, Your Gift to God Mass Attendance October 21-22, 2017 People In-Church Collection Average Offering per person 4:00 p.m , :30 p.m :00 a.m. 83 1, :00 a.m Total 390 4, REMINDER: In order for our parish to remain solvent, the average weekly offering per person MUST equal or be greater than $15.00 consistently. Intention Offered by Intention Offered by Votive Offerings Bread and Wine Sanctuary Candle Deceased Parents Paul & Pat Baran PARISH DEBT SERVICE Parish Loan October 21-22, 2017 Over $ $20 38 $ $ $ $15 16 $75 2 $ $ $10 83 $50 7 $ $ $5 73 $25 15 under $5 29 $ Amount Paid Total Envelopes used BALANCE Due PRINCIPAL 400, , , INTEREST 12, , , BALANCE 412, , , Please Note: The Parish Debt service has been paid to date. This Account is current. 307 Is your gift to the parish each week an honest reflection of God s goodness to you?

9 FROM THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH October 29, 2017 The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a "purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," which is experienced by those "who die in God s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified" (CCC 1030). It notes that "this final purification of the elect... is entirely different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1031). The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. A Catholic "Invention"? Fundamentalists may be fond of saying the Catholic Church "invented" the doctrine of purgatory to make money, but they have difficulty saying just when. Most professional anti-catholics the ones who make their living attacking "Romanism" seem to place the blame on Pope Gregory the Great, who reigned from A.D But that hardly accounts for the request of Monica, mother of Augustine, who asked her son, in the fourth century, to remember her soul in his Masses. This would make no sense if she thought her soul would not benefit from prayers, as would be the case if she were in hell or in the full glory of heaven. Nor does ascribing the doctrine to Gregory explain the graffiti in the catacombs, where Christians during the persecutions of the first three centuries recorded prayers for the dead. Indeed, some of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, like the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity (both written during the second century), refer to the Christian practice of praying for the dead. Such prayers would have been offered only if Christians believed in purgatory, even if they did not use that name for it. (See Catholic Answers Fathers Know Best tract The Existence of Purgatory for quotations from these and other early Christian sources.) "Purgatory Not in Scripture" Some Fundamentalists also charge, as though it actually proved something, "The word purgatory is nowhere found in Scripture." This is true, and yet it does not disprove the existence of purgatory or the fact that belief in it has always been part of Church teaching. The words Trinity and Incarnation aren t in Scripture either, yet those doctrines are clearly taught in it. Likewise, Scripture Purgatory teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesn t use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory. Christ refers to the sinner who "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:32), suggesting that one can be freed after death of the consequences of one s sins. Similarly, Paul tells us that, when we are judged, each man s work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15). Now this loss, this penalty, can t refer to consignment to hell, since no one is saved there; and heaven can t be meant, since there is no suffering ("fire") there. The Catholic doctrine of purgatory alone explains this passage. Then, of course, there is the Bible s approval of prayers for the dead: "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43 45). Prayers are not needed by those in heaven, and no one can help those in hell. That means some people must be in a third condition, at least temporarily. This verse so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine. Prayers for the dead and the consequent doctrine of purgatory have been part of the true religion since before the time of Christ. Not only can we show it was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified. It was not the Catholic Church that added the doctrine of purgatory. Rather, any change in the original teaching has taken place in the Protestant churches, which rejected a doctrine that had always been believed by Jews and Christians. Why Go To Purgatory? Why would anyone go to purgatory? To be cleansed, for "nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]" (Rev. 21:27). Anyone who has not been completely freed of sin and its effects is, to some extent, "unclean." Through repentance he may have gained the grace needed to be worthy of heaven, which is to say, he has been forgiven and his soul is spiritually alive. But that s not sufficient for gaining entrance into heaven. He needs to be cleansed completely. It is entirely correct to say that Christ accomplished all of our salvation for us on the cross. But that does not settle the question of how this redemption is applied to us. Scripture reveals that it is applied to us over the course of time through, among other things, the process of sanctification through which the Christian is made holy. Sanctification involves suffering (Rom. 5:3 5), and purgatory is the final stage of sanctification that some of us need to undergo before we enter heaven. Purgatory is the final phase of Christ s applying to us the purifying redemption that he accomplished for us by his death on the cross. No Contradiction The Fundamentalist resistance to the biblical doctrine of purgatory presumes there is a contradiction between Christ s redeeming us on the cross and the process by which we are sanctified. There isn t. Our suffering in sanctification does not take away from the cross. Rather, the cross produces our sanctification, which results in our suffering, because "[f]or the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11). Nothing Unclean Purgatory makes sense because there is a requirement that a soul not just be declared to be clean, but actually be clean, before a man may enter into eternal life. After all, if a guilty soul is merely "covered," if its sinful state still exists but is officially ignored, then it is still a guilty soul. It is still unclean. Catholic theology takes seriously the notion that "nothing unclean shall enter heaven." From this it is inferred that a less than cleansed soul, even if "covered," remains a dirty soul and isn t fit for heaven. It needs to be cleansed or "purged" of its remaining imperfections. The cleansing occurs in purgatory. Indeed, the necessity of the purging is taught in other passages of Scripture, such as 2 Thessalonians 2:13, which declares that God chose us "to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit." Sanctification is thus not an option, something that may or may not happen before one gets into heaven. It is an absolute requirement, as Hebrews 12:14 states that we must strive "for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."

10 October 29, 2017 WEEKLY CALENDAR Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time October 30 November 5, 2017 Day and Date Time Intention Offered by Events of the Week Monday, October 30 Weekday Tuesday, October 31 Weekday NO Morning Mass Scheduled 8 am Frank Cronauer Family 10 am Toy Bingo Committee TOY WRAP ALL HALLOWS EVE 6:30 pm Choir Solemnity of All Saints Vigil Tuesday 5:30 pm Eugene T. Lucas Myra Tarantini Feast Day 8:00 am Johanna Zapotoczny Richard Matzel Feast Day NOON Parishioners Pastor Choir will follow the Vigil Mass on Tuesday Evening Parish Office is CLOSED on WEDNESDAY Thursday, November 2 Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) 6 pm Mass of Remembrance Parish No 8 am Mass today No Adoration Friday, November 3 St. Martin de Porres Saturday, November 4 St. Charles Borromeo 8 am All Souls Parish 7 pm Men of the Sacred Heart Men of the Sacred Heart NO Morning Mass Scheduled FIRST FRIDAY 8 am Mass 10 am Cooks for Bingo FZH 6 pm Confessions 6:30 pm Sacred Heart Devotions 7:00 pm Mass 10 am Toy Bingo Set Up 3 pm Confessions Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time VIGIL 4:00 pm Joseph O Hara Maureen Lavelle VIGIL 5:30 pm Ken Blower Family SUNDAY 8:00 am Parishioners Pastor SUNDAY 11:00 am Barbara Ritsick Robin Ritsick LITURGICAL MINISTRY SCHEDULE 9:15 am Faith Formation Clergy Collection Dues Envelope 1 pm Toy St. Mary s Hall. Doors open at Noon. Clean up follows Bingo October 31, November 1, November 2nd November 4-5, st Sunday in Ordinary Time Server Lector Extraordinary Minister of Communion Server Lector Extraordinary Minister of Communion October 31 5:30 pm Manuel Baez Ann Bergold John Bergold 4:00 pm Ted Harowicz John Bednarz Ted Harowicz November 1 8:00 am AJ Kondracki Anna Hudock AJ Kondracki 5:30 pm Rosemary Shedlock Jackie Barkus Rosemary Shedlock November 1 NOON Maggie Benish Sr. Tina Hanrahan Ted Harowicz 8:00 am Nicholas Kreidler Anna Hudock A.J. Kondracki November 2 6 pm Michael Boris AJ Kondracki Rosemary Shedlock Jackie Barkus Joe Boris Pat Baran David Alusick Mimi Tosh 11:00 am Manuel Baez Sr. Tina Hanrahan Mimi Tosh