Parish Office (863) 453-4757 Fax (863) 453-2620 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time June 17, 2018 Parish Office Hours Monday through Friday 9 AM to 2:30 PM Pastor Fr. Nicholas McLoughlin Assisting Clergy Fr. Gerald Grogan Pastor Emeritus Fr. Leo Frechette Deacon Fred Simon Dan Hoppe Schedule of Masses Saturday Confession 3:30 PM English 6:30 PM Spanish Vigil Mass 4 PM English 7 PM Spanish Sunday 8 AM and 10:30 AM Holy Days Vigil Mass 5:30 PM 8 & 10:30 AM Daily Mass Monday-Friday 8 AM First Friday Mass and Holy Hour 8 AM Happy Fathers Day Visit us on the web! www.ologap.org
Page 2 Our Lady of Grace Dear Parishioners: Douglas Hyde, the editor of the Daily Worker, a Communist Daily Newspaper in London in the early 1940 s, would attend a Catholic Church in London on Sundays from time to time with a view toward undermining whatever topic the priest preached on a Sunday morning, in an opinion or editorial column during the week in his paper, the Daily Worker. On one such Sunday, while waiting for the priest to process down the aisle to begin the Mass, he was distracted by a young girl she must have been 8-10 years old who entered the Church, blessed herself with Holy Water. Hyde noticed that she had a very anxious look on her face. So, his eyes followed her down the main aisle. When she got to altar, she genuflected, and went over to the side altar, where there was a statue of the Virgin Mary. She prayed for about five minutes. Then, she got up, and came slowly back down the aisle again. Douglas Hyde noticed that all the anxiety in her face was gone. He was so impressed with the young girl that later that day he went to a local Catholic rectory and asked if he could receive instructions in the Catholic faith. The young girl was like the man referred to by Jesus in today s Gospel who went to scatter seed on soil. It was the little girl s lived faith a kind of seed - that triggered something in the soil of Douglas Hyde s heart, mind and soul that initiated one of the great conversion stories in England in the mid 1940 s. St. Francis of Assisi used to say, Preach, and, if you must, use words. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that her life was a pencil in the hand of God, writing messages that He wanted to write which like seeds germinate in the soil of the hearts and minds of searchers. Avery Dulles, the son of the Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, was an undergrad student at Harvard University. He was an agnostic someone who believes nothing can be known about God s existence. But then, in 1939, one grey February afternoon, in Harvard s Widener Library, as he wrote in his conversion memoir, A Testimonial to Grace (1946), I was irresistibly prompted to go out into the open air..... As I wandered aimlessly, something impelled me to look contemplatively at a young tree the thought came to me suddenly, with all the strength and novelty of a revelation, that these little buds in their innocence and meekness followed a rule, a law of which I as yet knew nothing.... That night, for the first time in years, I prayed. That was his seed of faith that led him to become a Catholic, a Jesuit priest, a Cardinal, and one of the greatest American theologians of the 20 th century. That incident in Harvard yard, with the emergence of a bud on a barren young tree in spring, was the mustard seed that led to a life of faith, which later led Dulles to feed the branches of a tree that is a growing U.S. Church in the 20 th century. I had Fr. Dulles as a professor at Catholic U. in Washington D.C. Fr. Nick.
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Page 3 Fathers Day Those of you who saw the Mel Gibson blockbuster movie Apocalypto some years ago saw a movie that showed the end of one of the most sophisticated civilizations before the arrival of the Conquistadors and missionaries in the New World, the Maya civilization. There are no credits at the beginning of the movie, just an opening quote, A great civilization is not conquered from without until it is destroyed from within. The methods of educating the young Mayans, which were typical of most other Native American Indian tribes, were based on endurance: the more difficult almost to the point of being inhuman tests a child survived, the better the child would be prepared to meet the hazards and challenges of adult life. In one such rite, the youth is taken at dusk by his father to a clearing in the forest. He is told that he must spend the night there on his own, armed only with a spear. Then the father withdraws. When the child comes out of the forest he will no longer be the child he was. What a daunting challenge the youth faces. There is the impenetrable, haunting darkness. There are the innumerable eerie sounds, the most harmless of which assume a menacing tone. There is that eerie feeling that some animal is lurking nearby, waiting to pounce, and a feeling which causes a cold sweat to break out all over his body. If only he had a friend by his side, how different things would be. But he is on his own. Time goes by ever so slowly. Every minute is like an hour. But somehow the night passes, and finally the dawn begins to brighten the sky. As the shadows retreat, the youth s fears evaporate, and he begins to breathe again. Then from the dense forest a human figure emerges. It is his father. The youth runs to his father, throws himself into his arms, and exclaims, Oh, thank God you ve come! Then it is the father s turn to embrace his son. As he does so he says, Son, I m proud of you. You conducted yourself like a true adult. What the youth did not know was that the father had been sitting close all night long, keeping an eye on him. Everybody who wishes to grow up has to face the dark forest in some shape or form. Isn t that what Simon and Garfunkel sing about in their biggest hit, The Sounds of Silence hello darkness my old friend, I come to visit you again Oftentimes, the life into which our young people are thrust is a very confusing world symbolized by the dark forest - in the movie Apocalypto - or by darkness - in The Sounds of Silence. How do we prepare young people today for the confusing world into which they will enter as young adults? By doing nothing! By letting them just drift! By letting them experiment with every in-thing that comes down the pike! Where are the fathers and mothers to take them to the forest today for some kind of formation to prepare them for the confusing world into which they will enter? Jesus, in the Gospels, talks about the kind of training and formation that God gives us. We are trained in a school of discipline a word which comes from the same root as disciple. Here is what the teacher Jesus tells us: If you wish to be my disciple, you must deny your very self, take up your cross and follow me. An over-indulgent culture is deaf to this message and even more, to the formation to which it leads. If you are tired on Sunday mornings, Just stay in bed or Go to the beach to relax. We have forgotten the prophetic words of Van Gogh: One must bear hardship in order to ripen. Our children are drowning in information: they are famine stricken with formation. You don t just hand a training manual to a prospective flight-pilot. He/ she must go through intense formation before you let them fly an F-16 jet. As Jesus informed and formed his disciples so fathers are reminded on this Fathers Day to inform and form their children. Fathers are the sculptors called to form their children in the vision and values of Jesus, which will give purpose and meaning to their lives. Happy Fathers Day.
Page 4 Our Lady of Grace Vatican Presents Holy See s 1st Document on Sport To Give the Best of Oneself. On the Christian Perspective of Sport and of the Human Person JUNE 01, 2018 15:42 DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOV CULTURE & SOCIETY Today, June 1, 2018 the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life published a new document entitled To Give the Best of Oneself. On the Christian Perspective of Sport and of the Human Person. This marks the first document of the Holy See on sport. The document is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1: the relationship between the Church and sport; Chapters 2 & 3: a description of the sporting phenomenon with a close look at the human person; Chapter 4: some of today s challenges that sport must face; Chapter 5: the Church and the pastoral approach to sport. In a press conference at the Holy See Press Office this morning, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery; researcher Antonella Stelitano, member of the Italian Society of the History of Sport (Societa Italiana di Storia dello Sport); Jesuit Father Patrick Kelly, Professor of Theology at Seattle University (U.S.A.) and Santiago Perez de Camino, in charge of the Dicastery s Church and Sport Office, presented the text. The document, Cardinal Farrell explained, stemmed from a project already undertaken by the then Pontifical Council for the Laity, to which Saint John
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Page 5 Paul II had entrusted the task of being a point of reference for sporting associations at international and national level, and of inspiring in the local Churches a renewed awareness of the pastoral care of sporting environments. The document, the Prefect explained, does not claim to respond to all the questions and challenges that the world of sport poses today, but rather seeks to recount the relationship between sport and the experience of faith, and to offer a Christian vision of sporting practice. Giving the best of yourself is without doubt, said Cardinal Farrell, an expression that can be applied both in the field of sport and in that of faith. On the one hand, in fact, it recalls the effort, the sacrifice that a sportsperson must take on as a constant in his or her life to obtain a victory or simply to arrive at the goal. But also in the area of faith, he noted, we are called upon to give the best of ourselves to arrive at holiness, which as the Pope has shown in Gaudete et exsultate, is a universal call, addressed to all, including sportspeople. It is not by chance that the Holy Father, in the message that accompanies this Document, the Cardinal said, writes that sports can be an instrument of encounter, formation, mission, and sanctification. It is not a text for scholars or researches, but rather a reflection on the state of sport today, accompanied by indications and suggestions that may undoubtedly be useful not only for the Episcopal Conferences and the dioceses to develop a pastoral approach to sport, but also to amateur clubs and associations, and individual athletes, for reflecting on Christian life and on the way of practicing sport. According to a Holy See Press Office statement regarding the document, numerous lay collaborators took part in the document s redaction, among others Italian Daniele Pasquini, President of the CDI Rome (sports center); Dries Vanysacker, Professor Theology at the KU Leuven University at Louvain (Belgium); Alexandre Borges de Magalhaes, General Coordinator of the Christian Life movement of Peru and Manoj Sunny, former Olympic athlete in India and Founder of the Jesus Youth Movement. The Document: https://zenit.org/articles/giving-the-best-of-yourself-the-vaticansnew-document-on-sport/ Pope s Letter to Cardinal Farrell: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-letter-tocardinal-farrell-on-new-document-on-sport/ Sports Can Open the Way to Christ, Says Pope Francis: https://zenit.org/ articles/sports-can-open-the-way-to-christ-says-pope-
Page 6 MASS INTENTIONS SATURDAY JUNE 16 4:00 pm + Joseph Lopykinski by M/M Raymond Munday. 7:00 pm + Anastacio Pagan by Teresa Torres. + Tito Batista by Tata Batista SUNDAY JUNE 17 8:00 am + Teri Heiring by Jerry Heiring. 10:30 am Mary Powell by Alan Powell August Camantro by Arline McGann. MONDAY JUNE 18 8:00 am + William Gentry by Erika Munoz. TUESDAY JUNE 19 8:00 am +Efrain Cosillo by his family WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 8:00 am + Thomas Gildea by Gary,Fran & Steve Gildea THURSDAY JUNE 21 8:00 am + Susan Raccine by Mom & Dad. Special Int for Harold & Jan Raccine (60 th Anniversary) FRIDAY JUNE 22 8:00 am + William Manint by Jan & Marsha Durrua SATURDAY JUNE 23 4:00 pm + George Voelker by Diann Voelker. 7:00 pm + Souls in Purgatory by The Chavez Family. SUNDAY JUNE 24 8:00 am + Rosella Tederous & Rosalie Kingsley by M/M Nelson Tederous. 10:30 am + John Kennard, Jr by Bill & Kareen Simmons. + Texin Vellapally by Salve Philomina. Our Lady of Grace FOR THE SICK OF THE PARISH Claudette Laverriere Gregory Syfert Patty Meegan Eleanor Whetstine Jade Jackson Gerald Martin Glenna Thompson John Minadeo Lise Sevigny Bruno Litwinski Patricia Martin J.R. Lejeune Andres Clavijo Melvin Kloehn Gerald Ott And for those who care for the sick, for the deceased member s and benefactors of the parish, and for our loved ones. MONTH 3 - Developing Baby "I can suck my thumb!" Spiritual Adoption Program Your spiritually adopted baby is quite active in the womb now--although his mother won't feel him for another couple of months. If his mother's womb had a window, you could watch your spiritually adopted baby squint, swallow, and move his tongue. He can make a tight fist if you touch his palm. He is breathing amniotic fluid which continues until birth, although he obtains the oxygen his body needs through the umbilical cord. The baby you are praying for weighs one ounce. Early this month--at just nine weeks--he began to suck his thumb. Psalm 139:14-16 "I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know. My bones are not hidden from you. When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be." FLAGS FOR THE CHURCH If anyone has a flag that they would like to donate to the church for the flag pole out in front of the church please call the parish office.453-4757.
Staff & Ministries Administrative Assistant Betty Heiring betty.heiring@ologap.org Religious Education Judy Nugent Angie Heiring angie.heiring@ologap.org (863) 453-7537 Music Gene Ryan mee@generyan.com Associate Youth Director Angie Heiring (863) 453-7537 Prayer Group Kevin Murphy Women s Guild Debbie Augusta - President (863) 385-8872 Respect Life Dick & Marie Carlson (863) 471-2134 Parish Council President Judy Pounds Vice President Piedad Sarmiento- Noriega Secretary Judy Nugent Members Debbie Augusta Maureen Cool Darlyne Devany John Paul Heston Jim McGann Karen Hecker Tina Starling Teresa Torres John Wolbert Follower My father worked with a horse-plough, His shoulders globed like a full sail strung Between the shafts and the furrow. The horse strained at his clicking tongue. An expert. He would set the wing And fit the bright steel-pointed sock. The sod rolled over without breaking. At the headrig, with a single pluck Of reins, the sweating team turned round And back into the land. His eye Narrowed and angled at the ground, Mapping the furrow exactly. To close one eye, stiffen my arm. All I ever did was follow In his broad shadow round the farm. I was a nuisance, tripping, falling, Yapping always. But today It is my father who keeps stumbling Behind me, and will not go away Follower Poem by Seamus Heaney In the poem, the Nobel Poet, Seamus Heaney, the oldest of 9 children, speaks of his admiration for his father as a child and how he identified with the virile trait of the father embodied in his command of the plough and in his ploughing of the field. As a child the poet indicates that he wanted to be just like his father and learn to plough like him. But by the end of the poem we realize that this identification with this trait of the father has supported him in another way, and has been transformed into his wish to be a writer. At the end of the poem the son has become a successful writer. It is he who is now the expert at his craft. But he is still troubled by his relation to his father who stumbles after him. How? Perhaps it is simply because, preoccupied with his relation to his father, the poet has written a poem about him and so sees him stumbling in the furrows left by his pen as he ploughs the page and with it the field of poetry. Thus while the son followed in the wake of the father's plough at the beginning of the poem, at the end this role is reversed - the son not able to leave the father behind because it is the trait of the father's ploughing that supports his own craft. The two remain bound together in the metaphor of the pen-plough. How connected are fathers and children?