St. Mary-Big River Catholic Church H o l y F a m i l y D e c e m b e r 3 0 t h, 2 0 1 8 Oh Sacrament most holy! Oh Sacrament Divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine. Praised and adored be Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, now and forever. Amen The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary W10137 570th Ave. River Falls, WI 54022 Mass Schedule Confessions Devotional Times Weekend. Saturday 6:00 pm Sunday 9:30 am Weekday. Mon. to Fri. 8:30 am First Friday & First Sat. 8:30 am Holy Days.See bulletin - One hour before each Weekend Mass - Thurs. before First Fri. 9:00 am - First Friday 9:00 am - First Sat. 9:00 am - Any time by appointment Eucharistic Adoration - Every Tuesday 7:00 am - 7:00 pm - 9:00 to 10:00 am every First Friday Militia Immaculata (MI) Prayer Group - Meets Wednesday - 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the church http://missionimmaculata.com/
P a g e 2 News & Events Welcome to St. Mary s! Welcome Visitors! If you would like to become a member of our parish call the Administrative Assistant and we will help you register. Parish Calendar Monday - Dec. 31 St. Sylvester I, Pope New Year s Eve 7:00 pm Holy Day Vigil Mass Tuesday - Jan. 1 New Year s Day World Day of Peace NO Adoration Today 9:30 am Holy Day Mass - Mary, Mother of God Wednesday - Jan. 2 Sts. Basil the Great & Gregory the Nazianzen, Bishops & Doctors of the Church NO CCD - 6:30 pm Catechist Meeting 6:30 pm MI Prayer Group Thursday - Jan. 3 Most Holy Name of Jesus 9:00 am Confessions Friday - Jan. 4 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton 1st Friday 9 to 10 am Confessions and Adoration Saturday - Jan. 5 St. John Neumann 1st Saturday 9:00 am Confessions 5:00 pm Confessions 6:00 pm Holy Mass Sunday - Jan. 6 Epiphany Sunday 8:30 am Confessions 9:30 am Holy Mass Children s Christmas Play after mass in the School Hall - everyone is invited! Holy Day of Obligation Jan. 1st, 2019 The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God Vigil Mass 7:00 pm Dec. 31st (New Year s Eve) Holy Day Mass 9:30 am Jan. 1st (New Year s Day) 2019 Church Calendars We are grateful to the Bakken Young Funeral Home for generously supplying our church calendars for 2019. They are available in the back of the church. Enjoy a delicious multi-course Ukrainian Christmas dinner hosted by Valentyna Pavsyukova of Chalice of Mercy. Special guest Dr. Santiago Valderrabano will speak about his experience leading a medical team from Madrid on two missions to Ukraine to assist the people of the war zone. Hear also about the opening of St. Maria Goretti House and much more. Adults $30, Children under 10 free, table of 8 $200. Begins 5:30 pm at 236 Pumphouse Rd, Chippewa Falls. All proceeds go to assist the work of Chalice of Mercy. To reserve, contact Trudy Bement (715) 226-0376 Saint of the Week: Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it. If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards. - St. John Neumann St. Mary s Children s Christmas Play Performance - Epiphany Sunday, January 6 after mass in the school Hall. Everyone is invited!! Children in grades pre-k through 5 th will perform. Final practice Fri., January 4, 4-5:15pm If you have questions call: Rachel Digman rachel.wepner@gmail.com or 920-904-1631 S t. M a r y - B i g R i v e r
H o l y F a m i l y P a g e 3 News & Events Food Shelf Sunday, January 5th & 6th: St. Mary s Parish will now collect food for the hungry one Sunday a month. The first Sunday of each month is the drop off day (including the Sat. evening before). Please do not drop off food at another time. Please check your food donation to make sure the item s are not expired. Please donate nutritious, wholesome food. No perishable food please. There will be a drop box in the entry of church. Thank you for helping those who go hungry! Thank You Thank you for supporting the National Retirement Fund for Religious. May the following represent the gratitude of all beneficiaries: Our congregation has greatly benefitted from the collection. We are able to provide better care for our senior members, whether through personnel or additional equipment. As a teaching community, many families with limited resources were impacted by the ministry of our sisters. Now our sisters are receiving help at a time when our resources are limited. Know that you are remembered in the prayers of our sisters for your generosity, whether it be financial or through prayer Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis (Stevens Point, WI). If you haven t donated to the Religious Retirement Fund, please do so soon. A Christmas Gift for You! St. Mary s is giving each parish family a copy of Edward Sri s book, Into His Likeness, for Christmas! In the ancient disciple-rabbi relationship, the disciple would follow the rabbi so closely that he would be covered in the dust kicked up from his rabbi s feet. Thousands of years later, though we walk on roads of pavement and not dust, we are still called to be disciples to follow our Rabbi, Jesus Christ, so closely that we are covered with his life, changed, and made new. But this transformation in Christ doesn t happen overnight. In his newest book, Edward Sri reminds us of two basic truths: First, (A) The truth of our human condition: we are full of many weaknesses, wounds, and sins. And second, (B) The truth of our high calling we are called to be perfected in God s love and transformed in Christ. Living as a disciple is all about the process of getting from A to B. Edward Sri intertwines engaging prose and relatable stories with biblical wisdom and the lives of the saints, demonstrating that transformation in Christ is possible in all ages. We are reminded that the saints were not always perfect, but works in progress just think of Matthew the tax collector, Paul the persecutor of Christians, and Peter the denier of Christ. Edward Sri reminds us that the earliest disciples are models not of perfection but of a process. And it s that process that Jesus wants to reproduce in our lives today. Do you sense that movement in you that desire to go deeper in your relationship with Christ? Do you have a longing to follow Jesus more closely, to be transformed by him? Do you notice a stirring inside, a longing to love God with all your heart, but feel unsure what steps to take next? If you answered yes to any of these questions, know that God is the one who has put those yearnings in your soul. He has already given you the heart of a disciple. This book simply aims to help you follow those initial promptings of the Holy Spirit so that you may more intentionally encounter Jesus anew each day and be more disposed to the power of his grace molding you, transforming you ever more into his likeness.
Income for 12/23/18 2018 Plate.. $1241.45 Youth Envelopes.... 5.00 Adult Envelopes... 2901.00 Initial Offering... 2.00 Project Milk.. 10.00 Bishop s Appeal.... 175.00 Flowers... 78.00 Total.... $4412.45 Thank you to all those who made the liturgical celebration of our Savior s birth so prayerful and beautiful at Saint Mary s cleaners, decorators, readers, altar servers, ushers, musicians, vocalists, instrumentalists, Deacon Dan Gannon, and each one of you through your participation! May the many graces the Lord Jesus bestowed upon us at Christmas bear much fruit in our parish in 2019! Thank you for your kindness and generosity to me during this sacred season. I am most grateful for the many cards, notes, and gifts (many gifts being edible and quite delicious!) that have been delivered to the rectory. I appreciate, too, your words of encouragement written in so many cards and the assurances of your prayers. May you and your loved ones have a very blessed New Year! You are daily remembered in my prayers. In 1981 Saint John Paul II made the following observations on the Holy Family of Nazareth in his Apostolic Exhortation On The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World: Through God s mysterious design, it was in that family that the Son of God spent long years of a hidden life. It is therefore the prototype and example for all Christian families. It was unique in the world. Its life was passed in anonymity and silence in a little town in Palestine. It underwent trials of poverty, persecution and exile. It glorified God in an incomparably exalted and pure way. And it all the families in the world to be faithful to their day-to-day duties, to bear the cares and tribulations of life, to be open and generous to the needs of others, and to fulfill with joy the plan of God in their regard (86). To promote family life and build up devotion to the Holy Family, this Sunday s Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was established for the Church in 1921. May we frequently invoke the intercession of the Holy Family that our families may, too, be holy. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for our families! Besides, of course, being the beginning of a new calendar year, January 1 is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, a holy day of obligation for us to assist at Holy Mass. Called in the Gospels the mother of Jesus, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her Son, as the mother of my Lord (Luke 1:43; John 2:1; et. al.). In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father s Eternal Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Hence, the Church confesses that Mary is truly Mother of God (Θεοτόκος) (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 495). Masses for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, are New Year s Eve, Monday, December 31, at 7:00 pm and New Year s Day at 9:30 am. May the Virgin of Guadalupe Mother of God and our mother intercede before her Divine Son for us in 2019! Father Kevin C. Louis, STL will not fail to help Christian families indeed, P a g e 4
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Pastor - Fr. Kevin Louis, STL 10137 570th Ave. River Falls, WI 54022 Rectory Phone: 715-425-5806 Fr. Louis Cell: 715-505-3870 email: crossensis89@gmail.com Deacon - Deacon Dan Gannon 651-210-9651 gannon.dan@gmail.com Administrative Assistant - Traci Campion 715-307-8844 reginahope1917@gmail.com Bookkeeper - Lori McNamara 715-821-3373 llmbigriver@outlook.com Director of Religious Education (DRE) - Traci Campion 715-307-8844 reginahope1917@gmail.com Youth Ministry - Corrie Loe 715-262-3663 corrieloe@gmail.com Cemetery - John Matzek 715-792-2582 Rod Janovec 651-341-9203 Prayer Chain Requests - Pat Bjork 715-273-3577 bjork.p@outlook.com School Hall Office - 715-425-7830 Altar Rosary Society (ARS) - Angie Dosdall 715-792-2447 Finance Council - Pat Pechacek 715-262-4089 Stewardship Committee - Andy Mishek 651-200-5272 Grounds & Building Maintenance - Danny McNamara 715-821-1197 Mass Intentions Monday, Dec. 31 - Lisa Ebbers By Pat Bjork 7:00 pm Vigil Mass - Living & Deceased Members of St. Mary s Big River Parish Tuesday, Jan. 1 9:30 am Mass - Living & Deceased Members of St. Mary s Big River Parish Wednesday, Jan. 2 - Jim Huppert By Howard Burfeind Thursday, Jan. 3 - Leroy & Dorothy Franrup By Dallan Frandrup Friday, Jan. 4 - Herman Reis & Mitch Reis By Joe & Kerry Reis Saturday, Jan. 5 - All priests, seminarians, religious, and for vocations By - Ed & Arlene Siewelo 6:00 pm Mass - Living & Deceased Members of Altar Rosary Society By ARS Sunday, Jan. 6 9:30 am Living & Deceased Members of St. Mary s Big River Parish January 5th Saturday - 6:00 pm Mass Reader..... Carol Betzel Ushers... Mark Huppert, Jon Matzek, Randy Maier, Peter Pechacek Servers...Nathaniel & Marcus Merta Music...... Joanne Maier Rosary.......Pat Bjork Liturgical Assistants January 6th Sunday - 9:30 am Mass Reader.. John Matzek Ushers/$ Counters...Craig Zuelke, Rodger Oestreich, Shawn Dosdall, Charles Beeler Cross/Incense..Isaac Loe, Brent Coppler Candles.. Ben & Joseph O Malley Rosary.... John & Joyce Matzek Gift Bearer....Jay Loe Family Has your contact information changed? Do you want us to contact you? Would you like to register? Cut out this little form, fill it out, and place it in the collection basket. Name: Address: Phone: (home) (cell) Email: