St. Alphonsus Catholic Church 2111 Market street Wheeling, WV 26003 February 7, 2016 Pastoral Staff Rev. Fr. Douglas A. Ondeck, Pastor (ondeck.douglas@gmail.com) MASSES Mon Tues Thurs Fri 7:00 am Wed Communion Service 7:00 am Saturday Vigil Mass 5:30 pm Sunday Masses 7:00 am & 10:30 am MONTHLY MASSES St. Alphonsus Mass Association (1st Friday of month) 7:00 am Polish Mass (3rd Sunday of month) 9:00 am NOVENAS Miraculous Medal - Tuesday after 7:00 am Mass Novena to St. Jude - Fridays after 7:00 am Mass Divine Mercy Chaplet - 1st Friday at 5:30 pm SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION Saturday 4:30 5:00 pm or by appointment SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE Contact the parish office 6 months before desired date. SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM Call the parish office for an appointment. NEW PARISHIONERS We WELCOME new parishioners! Please complete a registration form on the table in the rear of the Church. Mail Registration to the office or drop in the collection basket. Rev. Mr. George Smoulder, Permanent Deacon Bobbi Taylor, Parish Secretary Sister Anna Marie Cole, CSJ, PSR Coordinator Beverly Pockl, Vocalist David Alfred/Caroline Lakomy, Church Organists Parish Phone: 304-232-4353 Parish Fax: 304-232-1993 Parish E-Mail Address/Web: saintalphonsuswheeling@gmail.com www.stalswheeling.org PARISH OFFICE HOURS Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:00 am to Noon; 1:00 to 3:30 pm Friday 9:00 am to Noon
February 7, 2016 Fi h Sunday in Ordinary Time HOLY, HOLY, HOLY! Holy, holy, holy! Ancient languages, like the Hebrew used in the scriptures, did not always have a way to express superla ves in one word. Isaiah could not say God was holiest, so he used the threefold repe on of the same word. This bit of scriptural minu ae about these three li le words that we sing at every Mass serves as a reminder that answering God s call has to be grounded in awareness of God s holiness. In Isaiah and in the Gospel passage today, we hear accounts of the revela on of God s power and might: the seraphim in the temple and the miraculous catch of fish. These are not wondrous revela ons for their own sakes. They lead to a response in mission, Isaiah s Here I am, send me! and the disciples leaving everything to follow Jesus. And so must our own Holy, Holy, Holy! lead us to Christ in the Eucharist every Sunday, and to a life following him day by day. TODAY S READINGS First Reading In a vision Isaiah is called to be a messenger for the L of hosts. Isaiah responds, Send me! (Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8) Psalm In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord (Psalm 138). Second Reading Paul reminds us of the gospel he preached through which we are saved, if we believe it (1 Corinthians 15:1-11 [3-8, 11]). Gospel Jesus directs Simon to take his boat into deep water for a miraculous catch of fish. Simon and his partners leave all to follow Jesus (Luke 5:1-11). The English transla on of the Psalm Responses from the Lec onary for Mass 1969, 1981, 1997, Interna onal Commission on English in the Liturgy Corpora on. All rights reserved. READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: 1 Kgs 8:1-7, 9-13; Ps 132:6-7, 8-10; Mk 6:53-56 Tuesday: 1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30; Ps 84:3-5, 10-11; Mk 7:1-13 Wednesday: Jl 2:12-18; Ps 51:3-6ab, 12-14, 17; 2 Cor 5:20 6:2; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Thursday: Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-4, 6; Lk 9:22-25 Friday: Is 58:1-9a; Ps 51:3-6ab, 18-19; Mt 9:14-15 Saturday: Is 58:9b-14; Ps 86:1-6; Lk 5:27-32 Sunday: Dt 26:4-10; Ps 91:1-2, 10-15; Rom 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13 SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES Sunday: Fi h Sunday in Ordinary Time; World Day for Consecrated Life; Boy Scout Sunday Monday: St. Jerome Emiliani; St. Josephine Bakhita; Chinese New Year 4714 Wednesday: Ash Wednesday; Fast and Abs nence; Almsgiving Thursday: Our Lady of Lourdes; World Day of the Sick; Na onal Shut-in Visita on Day Friday: Lincoln s Birthday; Abs nence TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION As the Roman Empire sha ered and collapsed, the bishops were the people best equipped to catch the falling stones. In the West (that s us), they sought to stabilize society by weaving a structure of laws and courts to uphold the rights and dignity of married couples in a chao c world. The bishops in the East had a different approach, even allowing the dissolu on of marriages in certain cases. To an extent, the bishops took a measure of control away from the fathers of families in order to provide pastoral care for those who suffered most in the social collapse: women and children. In the West, much of the marriage law was contained in the peniten al books the bishops devised to regulate the lives of public sinners. In the seventh century, Theodore of Canterbury s peniten al book said that he had the power to give consent to remarriage in the case of a poor fellow whose wife had been carried off by the Vikings. If the Vikings subsequently brought her back, she could remarry, too! No bishop ever made peace with divorce, but there was never a me when the pastoral concern of the church was not struggling with how to care for people in unhappy situa ons. WHERE GOD IS We cannot go where God is not. And where God is, all is well. Anonymous TESTED LIKE GOLD God wishes to test you like gold in the furnace. The dross is consumed by the fire, but the pure gold remains and its value increases. St. Jerome Emiliani
LENT BEGINS THIS WEEK Attention All Readers! Fr. Doug would like to meet with all the current Readers after Mass. This is an informational meeting that will take about 10 minutes. Chris an Mothers & Ladies Guild Our next mee ng is Tuesday, March 8th at 6:30pm - - - - - - The next bake sale is April 16th Remember to take home goodies ST. ALPHONSUS BAKE SALE Every 3rd Saturday & Sunday a er Mass in the lobby by the glass doors and in the back of the Church To donate please call Mary Ellen at 304-242-1415 to let her know how you can help! All proceeds go to the Church Maintenance Fund In gratitude for their gifts received from God, parishioners and visitors made this joyful return to the Lord to help continue His work at St. Alphonsus Parish: January 30-31, 2016 Thank You! Collections $ 3,378.25 Candles $ 214.75 Church in Latin America $ 740.75 There is a Diocesan Collection February 10th for the Church in Central & Eastern Europe Lent is an important season of the Church s liturgical year. It is a twofold time of PURIFICATION (greater awareness of what leads us into sin, and God s mercy and forgiveness through the Sacrament of reconciliation); and time of ENLIGHTENMENT (greater attentiveness to Christ s teaching). Lent leads us to the solemn celebration of our Redemption in the Pascal Mysteries. Fr. Doug will be available for Confessions on Tuesday immediately following the 7am Mass and again from 12:30 to 1:30pm. Confessions will be heard on Thursdays immediately following the 7:00am Mass and again from 5:30 to 6:30pm. During this evening hour of Confession, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed followed by Benediction. LENTEN SCHEDULE OF MASSES AND STATIONS OF THE CROSS MASSES Ash Wednesday, February 10 7:00am and 5:30pm (distribution of ashes after both Masses) Holy Thursday, March 24 5:30pm Good Friday Liturgy, March 25 5:30pm Holy Saturday Easter Vigil. March 26 7:00pm Easter Sunday, March 27 7:00am and 10:30am STATIONS OF THE CROSS Every Friday during Lent 6:30pm THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!
Fr. George W. Rutler When Lawrence Yogi Berra died last September at the age of ninety, he was remembered with true affection, not only for the kindness that wreathed his life, but also for his charming ways with the English language. He may have seemed like Sheridan s Mrs. Malaprop or Shakespeare s Dogberry when he confused words, as when he said that Texas has a lot of electrical votes, but his unique genre consisted in stating truths with guileless syntax. Others tried to invent Yogi-isms, goading him to say: I didn t say half the things I said. His meaning was clear, grammar notwithstanding, as when he said that in autumn it gets late earlier. When he said, It s déjà vu all over again, some may have snickered, but that is the way with snobs. He was broaching a concept that the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian, Kierkegaard, explored in his considerations of repetition and recollection. Basically, Yogi Berra and Søren Kierkegaard simply acknowledged, as all of us do one way or another, the role of the imagination in relation to time. Perceptions of things past and to come are limited by our mortal intelligence, and memory can be as defective as prediction. In Christ, human and divine, there are no such limitations, so he has a perfect knowledge of past and future. Cynics have thought that his predictions came true only because later editors made them seem so. It should be no surprise, however, that Jesus as the Beginning and the End, should be able to know the Father s will and foresee its consequences. The accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke stress the chronology of Christ s earthly life, while John declares its meaning. It is like the difference between a photograph and a portrait, each conveying personality, but in different ways. Most likely, Jesus cleansed the Temple at the end of his earthly life, but John mentions it at the beginning of his narrative as a foretaste of what Christ would do, just as when I was a boy, I opened the Cracker Jack box from the bottom to get the little prize first. Our Lord hints at the future by showing the Magi his divinity, and exposing the Trinity at his baptism, and letting heaven break through in his Transfiguration. His miracles are signs by which the Lord prepares his Church for what is to come. He recollects seven of them, as a kind of repetition of the seven acts of the world s creation, of which he has a perfect memory. It is not that John was confused about the order of events. He was inspired to know that the events were ordered. The Incarnation of the Eternal Word is déjà vu all over again. And now I have told you before it comes to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe (John 14:29). KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: The Knights of Columbus Council 504 of Wheeling will be holding an Admission Ceremony on February 9 th. If you are interested in joining, we must receive your applica on by February 5 th so that we have me to process the applica on. Please call Brian Gordon at (304) 243-5677 to obtain an applica on or for more informa on. Thank you.
Saturday, February 6 5:30 pm William Campbell (Victor & Diann Bopp) Sunday, February 7 7:00 am People of the Parish 10:30 am Nicholas & Nimnoom Ghaphery (Family) Monday, February 8 7:00 am Dorothy Thalman (Dexter & Midge Strough) Tuesday, February 9 7:00am Connie Hilinski (Brothers & Sister) Wednesday, February 10 7:00 am ASH WEDNESDAY 5:30 PM ASH WEDNESDAY Thursday, February 11 7:00 am Marian Weeks (Matthew & Victoria Gompers) Friday, February 12 7:00 am People of the Parish Weekend Ministry Schedule (Feb 13-14) Saturday, February 13, 5:30 pm Sr. J. Vidonic Eucharistic Ministers: J. Sofka S. Foose P. Romanek J. Bischof Sunday, February 14, 7:00 am M. Bosold Eucharistic Minister: Sunday, February 14, 10:30 am P. Holt Eucharist Ministers: L. Blazier J. Brensinger B. Henry K. McGonigal Saturday, February 13 5:30 pm Julia Backoret (Dolores Trabert) Sunday, February 14 7:00 am Harold Ehni (Angela Howell) 10:30 am Carl Lewandowski (Sisters) Please continue to pray for our military men and women who serve us and their families: Lcpl. Bandon Collins USMC Sgt. L. Joey Henry USMC PFC Jeremy Labuda Sr. Airmen Jordan Lucey Gunnery Sgt. Brian M. Pelsh USMC Specialist E-4 John Niebergall Williams Please Also Pray For Josh Bischof, Cynthia Botizan, Rosemarie Bursee, Bernadette Czerwonka, Bob Heller, Mary Kay Heller, Luke Jordan of the Yankovich Family, Jane Murray, Karleigh Ryan, Dustin Ronevich, Debbie Respole, Mary Schlosser Bishop Hodges Norma Campbell, Stella Czyzewski, John Wayne Evans, Tony Hadom, Stella Rogerson Elmhurst Evelyn Nikolaus Good Shepherd Sara Baker, Mary Bohlman, Selma Hughes, Rose Lewandowski, Mary Rushkevich, Betty Weckerley Mound View Nursing Home Sophie Skrzypek Peterson Elizabeth Bissett, Frank Dombrowski, Diane Moore, Blanche Richard, Leonard Rycerz, Robert Sengewalt, Welty Richard Teachout, Dorothy Coss Home Joan Carp, Beverly Heller, Butch & Jean Mozingo, Betty Rycerz,Harry Zelkowski