CHURCH NAME AND ADDRESS Immaculate Conception 353 Grove Street Worcester, MA 01605-3907 PHONE NUMBER 508-754-8419 CONTACT PERSON Sharon Rainville CHURCH NUMBER 005046 SOFTWARE Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard Windows XP Home Edition, Version 5.1, Service Pack 3 PRINTER Canon MX860 NUMBER OF PAGES 6 SUNDAY DATE OF PUBLICATION October 14, 2012 TRANSMISSION TIME Tuesday, 10:00 AM SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS
Immaculate Conception Parish SUNDAY MASSES SATURDAY VIGIL: 4:00 PM SUNDAY: 7:30 AM, 10:00 AM RECTORY ADDRESS 353 Grove Street, Worcester, MA 01605 Phone: 508-754-8419 Fax: 508-754-8508 Religious Education Phone: 508-791-5887 Rev. Walter J. Riley, PASTOR SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION Saturday 3:00-4:00 PM (or by appointment) KEVIN DEIGNAN, PERMANENT DEACON MARY SYCKS, ADMINISTRATOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND YOUTH MINISTER C. Henry Mason, MUSIC DIRECTOR Sharon Rainville, PARISH SECRETARY Matthew Foster, PASTORAL COUNCIL CHAIRMAN LYNDA MONAHAN, SAFE ENVIRONMENT COORDINATOR Please visit our website at www.icworc.com WEEKDAY MASSES MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY 9:00 AM THURSDAY 8:00 AM SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM Parents and godparents of infants to be baptized are expected to participate in a preparation session. Call the Rectory to register for this process and set a date for the actual Baptism. For Baptism of adults please contact the Rectory. SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE Please contact the rectory one year prior to your desired wedding date SACRAMENT OF ANOINTING OF THE SICK Father Walter can be called whenever someone can benefit from this sacrament of healing. NEW PARISHIONERS Anyone is welcome to join the Parish Community. Please contact the Rectory and introduce yourself.
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME October 14, 2012 MASS INTENTIONS Sat. Oct. 13 4:00 PM Mary Shugrue, 12th Anniversary by family Sun. Oct. 14 7:30 AM Mathew Glavickas, 17th Anniversary by family 10:00 AM Edward Groden by family Mon. Oct. 15 9:00 AM Al Poirier, 6 month Anniversary, by family Tues. Oct. 16 9:00 AM Wed. Oct. 17 9:00 AM Richard Straniero, Memorial Mass by his Uncle John Gillio Thurs. Oct. 18 8:00 AM Sat. Oct. 20 4:00 PM Anna Gallagher by Jim & Marie Riedel & family Sun. Oct. 21 7:30 AM Peter Brothers, 1st Anniversary by family 10:00 AM Msgr. Thomas J. Needham, 10th Anniversary by family THIS WEEK the text for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at #1030 in the Journeysongs hymnal. A SPIRITUAL CONSIDERATION Thank you to the 15-20 parishioners cooperating every week in spiritual fasting and abstaining for the purpose of each week s intention. Please know that every Friday others here at Immaculate Conception and elsewhere are sacrificing for intentions directed at parish, worldwide, national, and local petitions connected to our common Catholic faith. Any others who wish to join our spiritual fasting, please feel free to speak with Fr. Riley. This Friday s intention is for all Catholic politicians to openly and courageously support respect for all human life, from conception to old age. YEAR OF FAITH PRAYER TO BE READ AT SUN- DAY MASSES As a community of faith, at all Sunday Masses beginning this weekend, we will read a short prayer for the Year of Faith after Communion and prior to the final blessing. Please join in this weekly prayer, and may we cherish and deepen our faith over the upcoming year, proclaiming to others Jesus as King and Savior of the world. SCRIPTURE SERIES FOR OCTOBER On the first four Tuesdays of October (2,9,16,23), Fr. Walter Riley and Dr. Frank McGuire will host a brown bag lunch Scripture series. Our topic for reflection and discussion is: The Gospel of John. This will take place in the Coffee Shop starting at 12:00 noon and ending promptly at 1:00 p.m. Bring your lunch along with your appetite for the word of God. Beverages and dessert will be available. Our next gathering will be on October 16th. Hope to see you there! WORLD MISSION SUNDAY Next Sunday is World Mission Sunday in the Church. This collection assists the many missionaries in the Church to continue to spread the Good News of Jesus throughout the world. Envelopes for this mission will be collected at all Masses. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWS Classes resume this week for K-6th grade on Sunday, October 14 at 8:45 a.m. and grades 7-11 on Monday, October 9th at 7:00 p.m. CYC NEWS Our next meeting of the CYC is on Sunday, October 14th at 5:00 p.m. in the church basement. We will be having a potluck dinner. Bring your favorite dish and a friend! We will be playing games and discussing upcoming events and fundraisers. We hope to see you there! RCIA CLASSES Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults classes will commence on Monday, October 15th at 6:30 p.m. in the rectory. These one hour classes in the faith will be preparation that will lead to the reception of the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil next March for any adults who have not been baptized, and/or received First Communion and Confirmation. Please call the rectory to inquire about preparation, or speak to Fr. Riley at any time. CHILDREN S LITURGY AT 10:00 AM Beginning this week at the 10:00 a.m. Mass, we will invite the children in the Church to a children s version of the readings. Hannah Sycks of our parish has volunteered to coordinate this program, to which we are very grateful. The children will be invited to leave prior to the first reading, go to the church Basement, and return at the end of the Prayers of the Faithful. For the parents who wish to, you are invited to either join and participate, or observe. WEDNESDAY SCRIPTURE STUDY We will be starting our annual Wednesday evening Scripture study on October 17th in the rectory from 6:30 7:30 p.m. This is open to all parishioners. No sign up is needed. All one needs to do is show up with Bible in hand.
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH NEW PARISH ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE The upcoming events that have been established are: 1. Coffee Shop open on October 21st. 2. A meeting for the 9th Division Mass and luncheon as well as the Activities Committee meeting that will be held on Oct. 21st from 8:30 9:30 a.m. in the Coffee Shop. HOPE FOR HOUSING FOOD CARDS Thank you to our parishioners who continue to purchase food cards on behalf of Hope for Housing. 5% of the purchase of food cards goes directly toward preventing homelessness in Central Massachusetts. We invite others to consider using this ministry for your food purchases. The cards are sold after each weekend Mass. Last week this program sold $580.00 worth of cards in our parish. Thank you for supporting this ministry. PARISH APPRECIATION DINNER We will hold our annual Parish Appreciation Dinner on Saturday, November 3rd, at 5:30 p.m. This dinner is open for all in the parish who volunteer their services in any way. From altar servers (and parents), to collectors, lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, and so on. If you perform any type of volunteering at any time during the year, you are invited. Please call the rectory by October 30th so an accurate number of persons can be given for the purchase of food. Thank you for all you do to build up our parish. HOLY HOUR FOR LIFE Our parish will hold a Holy Hour for Life on Tuesday, October 30th, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Church. This is an opportunity to come together in prayer, benediction, and humble service on behalf of the many issues affecting our community on a local, state, national, and worldwide level. With the grave threat of assisted suicide present before us in the upcoming Massachusetts election, we beg our loving and saving God to open the eyes and hearts of all Catholics and people of good will to reject this latest attempt at destroying human life. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. (John, 1:5) THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT October 6th & 7th Sunday Ordinary Income $3445.00 Various Envelopes 72.00 RELIGIOUS QOUTE OF THE WEEK Be steadfast, then, and follow the Lord s example, strong and unshaken in faith, loving the community as you love one another. St. Polycarp (69-155) WORCESTER, MA DOCTOR PRESCRIBED SUICIDE IS SUICIDE In countries that have used the idea of personal autonomy to justify voluntary assisted suicide and euthanasia, physicians have moved to take the lives of adults who never asked to die, and newborn children who have no choice in the matter. They have developed their own concept of a life not worth living that has little to do with the choice of the patient. Leaders of the aid in dying movement in our country have also voiced support for ending the lives of people who never asked for death, whose lives they see as meaningless or as a costly burden on the community. USCCB (To Live each Day With Dignity) RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA In this statement, as bishops of the United States, we are addressing ourselves to the situation we find here at home. At the same time, we are sadly aware that religious liberty in many other parts of the world is in much greater peril. Our obligation at home is to defend religious liberty robustly, but we cannot overlook the much graver plight that religious believers, most of them Christian, face around the world. The age of martyrdom has not passed. Assassinations, bombings of churches, torching of orphanages these are only the most violent attacks Christians have suffered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. More systematic denials of basic human rights are found in the laws of several countries, and also in acts of persecution by adherents of other faiths. USCCB on Religious Liberty VISITATION HOUSE BABY BOTTLE DRIVE This weekend we ask parishioners to consider taking a baby bottle to support our annual collection for the Visitation House here in Worcester. This house supports women who are pregnant and have nowhere else to turn in their lives, providing them all that is needed to secure a safe delivery of their child. Visitation House provides secure housing, food, classes for jobs, emotional support, and a spiritual environment in which the women living there may experience throughout their pregnancy. We ask that you consider placing coins, bills, or a check into the baby bottle. Bottles will be collected in late Octoberearly November. Thank you for supporting this powerful, life-giving ministry here in our own city. RELIGIOUS READING A reminder that there are a number of books in a small bookcase located in the candle and prayer room in the back of the Church. These books are from Fr. Riley s personal library. Any one is invited to take one or two, or more, for spiritual reading, with the expectation of returning them when finished. There are many excellent topics on the shelves connected to our faith.
FROM THE PASTOR In the words of this weekend s Gospel, a man runs up to Jesus, kneels before him and asks, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responds, You know the commandments: You shall not kill Stop right there! Hold that thought! You shall not kill. Stand for life. In all cases. This is what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago called the seamless garment of life. That Catholics are to protect and stand up for life in all situations where death is threatened, from the womb to the jail cell. When Jesus said to the man who knelt before him, You shall not kill, no exceptions were added. Jesus certainly had time to add the words, You shall not kill, except if one parent, or both parents of a child in the womb wish not to bring that child to term. If they wish to carry out their individual right, then, yes, they can kill. Or, Jesus could have said, You shall not kill, except in cases where someone is on death row for the horrible crime of murder. In that case, you can move forward with an eye for an eye. Jesus had enough time in his 3-year ministry to add such words if they had fit God s way of relating to us. But he didn t. Nor would he ever add such destructive words that, if applied, would reveal God as anything but the God of life and love. Question 2 is less than a month away on the ballot of every Massachusetts town and city. It s a question that refers to physician-assisted suicide, which, by the way, IS SUICIDE. We have some folks coming into our state, and they view Massachusetts as the perfect testing ground for killing off the elderly and others. They wish to burn our state into killing fields. What an insult to us! They re called Compassion and Choice, which is about a deceiving and phony name as one can come up with. They have an ideology that places additional words into the mouth of Jesus, without any authority to do so. And the words they add to Jesus tongue are, You shall not kill, except in situations where people get old and are no longer useful to society, so let s get them to take some drugs, die off, be done with, and bury them. You shall not kill, except when we decide (not a family) pain is no longer tolerable, thus we can put you out of your misery. And we ll call it compassion. And we ll say on the death certificate that you died from your cancer, and not from the drugs we gave you. I could go on. Death with Dignity involves no dignity at all. There is ultimately no respect for the dignity of the human person. Do we want this lie right on our front doorstep? Do we allow a secular, godless, approach to treating the elderly and infirmed to become law in our state? Massachusetts is much too smart to fall for this prey, I pray. We must pray for people who push this agenda. Voting no on the ever-dangerous Question 2 allows the words of Jesus to remain,, without any human addition. You shall not kill. Stop right there! Fr. Riley
THIS WEEK AT IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Sat. Oct. 13 3:00 PM Confessions 4:00 PM Mass Sun. Oct. 14 7:30 AM Mass 8:45 AM Religious Ed 10:00 AM Mass 5:00 PM CYC Mon. Oct. 15 8:30 AM Rosary 9:00 AM Mass 6:30 PM Cub Scouts 6:30 PM RCIA 7:00 PM Religious Ed Tues. Oct. 16 8:30 AM Rosary 9:00 AM Mass Noon Scripture Series 7:00 PM Boy Scouts Wed. Oct. 17 8:30 AM Rosary 9:00 AM Mass 6:00 PM Girl Scouts 6:30 PM Scripture Study Thurs. Oct. 18 7:30 AM Rosary 8:00 AM Mass Fri. Oct. 19 Sat. Oct. 20 3:00 PM Confessions 4:00 PM Mass Sun. Oct. 21 7:30 AM Mass 8:45 AM Religious Ed 10:00 AM Mass YES, WE WOULD LIKE TO REGISTER AT IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!! Name Address: City &Zip Phone Number of People in Household PLEASE, TEAR THIS OFF AND PLACE IN THE COLLECTION BASKET!