St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish 5361 Dry Ridge Road Cincinnati, OH 45252 (513)385-8010 Fax (513)385-8080 www.stjohnsdr.org MASS SCHEDULE Saturday 4:30 pm Sunday 8:30 am & 11:00 am Weekday & Holyday - See Bulletin PARISH OFFICE Rev. Timothy S. Kallaher, Pastor Deacon Ken Schnur, Pastoral Associate Deacon Vincent Lutz Douglas Schmutte, Pastoral Associate for Music/Liturgy Amanda Weickert, Pastoral Associate for Faith Formation Rod Dunlap, Director of Youth Ministry Terri Reder, Business Manager Tom Cunningham, Plant Manager/Maintenance Supervisor Michelle Zerhusen, Office Manager PASTORAL COUNCIL John Stehlin, Chairperson, 476-9665 Ryan Vitolo, Vice-Chairperson, 519-1518 Kevin Wood, Secretary, 885-9860 Steve Bissmeyer, Member at Large, 923-2633 Gene Culman, Member at Large, 385-6669 Shannon Meyer, Member at Large, 385-6970 Al Grote, Member at Large, 245-9943 Lisa Severt, Member at Large, 309-8067 Teresa Gagnon, Member at Large, 515-8179 Heather Smith, Development Commission Rep., 923-2893 Betty Dirr,, Faith Formation Comm. Rep., 385-3954 Sharon Bachman, Finance Commission Rep., 385-8267 Patti Rice, Worship Commission Rep., 385-5410 Larry Weinheimer, Communications Comm. Rep, 652-2563 RECONCILIATION: Saturday at 2:30 p.m. & Seasonal Service MARRIAGE: Call the Parish Office at least 6 months prior to your wedding. BAPTISMS: Call the Parish Office ANOINTING OF THE SICK/COMMUNION: Call Parish Office WELCOME NEW MEMBERS. Please contact the Parish Office CURRENT PARISHIONERS: Moving? New email? Contact the Parish Office. ST. VINCENT DE PAUL - 513-301-6881 1 PRIEST S MASS INTENTIONS Monday, November 28 8:30 a.m. William Spaeth/Don & Mary Lou Tuesday, November 29 8:30 a.m. For the residents Wednesday, November 30 8:30 a.m. Rosemary Beischel/Elizabeth Lierer Tursday, December 1 8:30 a.m. Charlene Bosse/Dale & Marlene Friday, December 2 8:30 a.m. Martha Wagner/Bucher Family Saturday, December 3 4:30 p.m. Edward Mohr/Family Sunday, December 4 8:30 a.m. For the Parish 11:00 a.m. Glenn Templeman/Doris Norrish EUCHARIST MINISTERS & LECTORS The schedule for January - March 2017 will be done in the next few weeks. If you have any changes or if you know of particular dates that you will be unable to minister, please let me know by December 11. Please, if you cannot serve, get a sub. If you no longer wish to be on the list or if you have special scheduling requests, please let me know. You can r e a c h m e a t 7 4 1-2 8 0 8 o r a t marciaschmidt@cinci.rr.com. TABLE OF CONTENTS Breakfast in Bethlehem Page 4 Bulletin Sponsors Page 10 & 11 Finance Report Terri s Tidbits Page 3 Food Pantry News & Pastoral Area Christmas Project Page 6 & 9 Liturgical Ministers Page 1 Musician s Notes Page 7 Shopping Cent$ Page 3 This Week in Advent Page 4 This Week in our Parish Page 2 Youth Ministry Update Page 8
THIS WEEK IN OUR PARISH Monday, November 28 Mass, 8:30 a.m., Chapel Adoration, 9:15 a.m., Chapel Monday Martha s Group, 9:15 a.m. Rosary, 7:00 p.m., Chapel Tuesday, November 29 Mass, 8:30 a.m., Northgate Atria Consoling Heart of Jesus Program, 6:00 p.m., LBRY Young Adult Ministry, 7:00 p.m., YM Room Wednesday, November 30 Mass with 8th Grade, 8:30 a.m., Chapel Thursday, December 1 Mass, 8:30 a.m., Chapel Homeless Meal Prep., 3:00 p.m., Cafeteria Martha s Group, 3:30, Gathering Space Confirmation Prep Mtg., 7:00 p.m., Gathering Space Friday, December 2 Mass, 8:30 a.m. All School Morning Prayer, 8:30 a.m., Church Poinsettia sale pick-up, Gathering Space LITURGICAL MINISTERS Saturday, December 3, 4:30 PM Mass Servers: A. Threm, AJ Brockhaus, S. Brockhaus Lectors: Joe Siefert, Jack O Brien Eucharistic Ministers: Kathy Wood, Frank Sunderhaus, Jerry Schmidt, Lynn Cracchiolo, Sue Hines, Annette Arszman Sunday, December 4, 8:30 AM Mass Servers: R. Severt, P. Severt, G. Vidourek Lectors: Mary Ann Bowling, Bob Reynolds Eucharistic Ministers: Dale Bosse, Debbie Schneider, MJ Gabriel, Meghan Gabriel, Sophie Betsch, Lisa Severt Sunday, December 4, 11:00 AM Mass Servers: F. Haun, T. Hilgeman, B. Hilgeman Lectors: John Gilmore, Jack Hart Eucharistic Ministers: Claire Sillies, Terri Molony, Michael Hayes, Matthew Fejer, Machell Kroner, Andrea Neff, Erin Seimer, Megan Threm, Tabitha Peters, Renee Gilmore Saturday, December 3 Reconciliation, 2:30 p.m., Eucharistic Chapel Mass, 4:30 p.m., Church Sunday, December 4 Mass, 8:30 a.m. Mass, 11:00 a.m. Parish Library Spot When critiquing the book Thea s Song: The Life of Thea Bowman, Cyprian Davis, O.S.B. summed it up the way. She sang she taught she told the old story, she prophesied she inspired she made us listen...she taught us to hear. Thea s Song: The Life of Thea Bowman by Charlene Smith and John Feister is a story of a black childhood in a majority-black region among the former plantations of central Mississippi, of a formative adulthood in an all-white setting far north of her home, and that of a growing national reputation as a beacon of intercultural awareness. It is a story of a person who ultimately said, Let me live until I die and showed those around her how to drink deeply of life s promise to the very end, even as she spent her final years struggling against cancer. Check it out! PREPARE TO HEAR GOD S WORD READINGS FOR SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT Isaiah 11:1-10 Even when everything around seems full of upheaval and threat, the Lord s justice and love for his people promises hope, and a future of peace and knowledge of his friendship. Romans 15:4-9 Hope in God s great love for us is the foundation of a deep security, which frees us to offer true friendship to all people, regardless of how different they seem from us. Matthew 3:1-12 The coming of Jesus is a moment of promise but a moment, too, of a difficult message for those like the Pharisees. The promise of God s love in Jesus calls for repentance, a change of life built on an honest humility about who we really are. 2
STEWARDSHIP OF FINANCE TERRI S TIDBITS Due to the early bulletin deadline, the financials will be reported next week. Thank you for your generosity. SHOPPING CENTS Check out the order form on the parish website for a list of retailers we carry in stock and a sample of what we can special order (right column). Save time in line by calling in (699-6960 ext. 240) or emailing (lthrem01@gmail.com) your order by Wednesday night (large quantities or specials need to be placed by Sunday evening). We will pack your order during our Thursday hour and have it ready for you to pick up before or after weekend masses with your payment (cash or check only). What access to cards now? Sign up for ShopWithScrip and PrestoPay to order ecards or r e l o a d c u r r e n t c a r d s ( l i m i t e d retailers). ShopWithScrip has a mobile website so you can manage your ecards and Reloads and redeem them right from your Apple or Android device! If you would like more information please contact Linda Threm at lthrem01@gmail.com or download the information from our school website www.stjohnsdrschool.org - go to the Parent Info tab and under Shopping Cent$. For a limited time Shopping Cent$ will carry Panera $5 and Starbucks $5 gift cards in regular inventory. Great for stocking stuffers. Christmas is only 6 weeks away! Feel good about your holiday spending by using Shopping Cent$ gift cards to give as gifts or to purchase your holiday food, decorations and gifts. About 5% of your purchase of Shopping Cent$ gifts cards will help reduce tuition for families at St. John's school. Shop ahead to avoid sell-outs and long lines. Please make sure to double check your order before you leave the Bell Tower. Errors cost our school valuable funds. Due to Thanksgiving our walk-in orders will be filled on Wednesday, November 23 from 9-10 am in the parish office basement. DID YOU KNOW that on Saturday, November 19 St. John s Performing Arts Troop presented A Night at the Wax Museum. Thank you to director, Amy Eyers and co-director, Tracy Rawlings, for your hard work and dedication to the arts here at St. John s. If you missed this show, please support the next performance which will be held in the Spring. DID YOU KNOW that our eight graders are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation? Rod Dunlap, our Director of Youth Mnistry, prepares them each month until they receive Confirmation on May 4, 2017. Monthly meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. Since the Immaculate Conception is on the second Thursday in December, Confirmation preparation will be held on December 1. 1 st Sunday of Advent STEWARDSHIP For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Matthew 24:42 People who have had health issues or near-death experiences generally have a greater appreciation for each day being a gift from God. The rest of us usually take for granted that we will be around tomorrow. But when you start to look at each day as a gift, you realize all the little miracles that happen daily and grow in gratitude for all that we have been given. 3
We Love God. We Love Others. We Make Disciples. St. John the Baptist s Church What s Happening this Week in Advent Monday, November 28: 9:15 a.m. 7:00 a.m. Exposition SJB 7:00 p.m. Rosary SJB Tuesday, November 29: 6:00 Simple Supper Corpus Christi 7:00 Taizé Prayer Corpus Christi Saturday, December 3: 2:30 p.m. Reconciliation SJB Reflection on This Sunday s Opening Prayer Collect: Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ... Reflection: This prayer captures the imagination for it provides us with an image of the People of God running toward Christ, doing so by our good works, in hope of being gathered at his right hand. We pray for resolve and we pray that we might one day be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. During this Advent Season, we long for the second coming of Christ and we long for the fullness of redemption that Christ offers us by his dying and rising. Yet, our world has not been completely redeemed, and with this knowledge we call upon God to strengthen us, to give us the desire to make straight the path of our lives by acts of charity and good works. Prayer: Lord Jesus, strengthen my resolve to run toward you and help me to live a life of charity so that I may meet you every day in the faces of others. Karen Kane Director of Worship Archdiocese of Cincinnati Excerpt from The Roman Missal, Third Edition 2010, ICEL. Reprinted with approval of the Committee on Divine Worship, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 4
Parish Event December 10, 2016 9:00: Music and Prayer Service in the Church 9:45-11:30: Breakfast and Crafts in the Cafeteria Please join us for a morning of fun, fellowship and food! The morning begins with a prayer service Followed by Breakfast, music, crafts, prizes, and much more Cost: $5 per person or $20 per family All ages are welcome Please consider bringing a small baby item to donate to the Pregnancy Center West To RSVP or to offer to volunteer contact Cathy Hale at 315-9424 or cathyknueven@hotmail.com or sign up at www.signupgenius.com/go/5080d45adab2ca20-breakfast Jesus is the Reason for the Season 5
PASTORAL AREA FOOD PANTRY NEWS JR. HIGH NEWS The Marsh Grocery Store at 11865 Hamilton Avenue (near the intersection of Kemper Road and Hamilton Avenue) is partnering with our Pastoral Area Food Pantry to have an in-store food drive October 24 thru November 19 and again November 28 thru December 17. There are several ways to donate to the food drive: Purchase Holiday Bags of non-perishable food for $5, $10 or $20. Donate any non-perishable item you choose. Or make a tax deductible cash donation in the amount of $3, $5, or $10. We would appreciate your support of this food drive by our neighborhood Marsh grocery store. Thank you! Pastoral Counseling Services Are you wishing to improve your relationship with yourself, your God, your spouse or your family? Do you desire some help? Professional assistance is available to deal with emotional, psychological and spiritual issues. Pastoral Counseling Services are available through St. John the Baptist and Corpus Christi parishes by a certified degreed Pastoral Counselor. Sr. Jane Frey, OSF, LPC. Call 923-4241, Monday thru Friday, between 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Hours are by appointment only. 7th and 8th Grade Poinsettia Sale Wouldn t you just love to have some beautiful poinsettias for this Christmas Season? The St. John the Baptist seventh and eighth graders are selling poinsettias to help reduce the cost of their eighth grade trips. These poinsettias are from Northgate Greenhouse and are beautifully foil wrapped. They come in red, pink, and white. The poinsettias come in two sizes. A 4.5 pot sells for $7.00 and a 6.5 pot sells for $12.50. If interested, please stop by the parish office on Monday to place and pay for your order. The flower order is being placed on Monday, November 28. Please contact Shawnna Wurzelbacher at 385-4983 or via email at cswurzelbacher@fuse.net should you have any questions Please make checks payable to St. John the Baptist School. Poinsettias must be picked up in the St. John the Baptist Church Gathering Space on Friday, December 2 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 pm. Thanks for your support! O ver the last two weeks, our students in grades third through fifth and grades six through eighth received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. On Monday, November 21 our students participated in an All School Morning Prayer of Thanksgiving at 2:00 p.m. Mrs. Mary Lou Veerkamp, Director of our Liturgical Dancer program, had been working with several of our seventh and eighth grade girls who danced a prelude for the Prayer Service. Thank you to Mrs. Veerkamp and the dancers for a job well done. The fifth grade has been learning about our great republic as they discuss citizenship rights and responsibilities, American symbol meanings and ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST SCHOOL UPDATE 6 how democracy works. They visited The National Flag Company to see how American flags are made (and made our own flags). They made posters honoring our Veterans and topped it all off on Veteran's Day by inviting several the students relatives in to speak including Mr. Blank (Army), Mr. and Mrs. Martinez (both Marines), Mr. Zipperer (Army), and Mr. Tozier (Army). Mr. Powers, our P.E. teacher, also spoke about his time in the Navy. It has been an exciting few weeks and hopefully our fifth grade students have a deeper appreciation for our country!
T oday we began a new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent. As I wrote last week, I hope you noticed many differences at Mass from the moment you entered church all the way through the recessional hymn. This year we are in year A of our lectionary cycle, or the year of Matthew. Today our gospel focused on Jesus promised second coming at the end of time. Twice today in our scriptures we heard very similar phrases. First, from Paul s letter to the Romans we heard, it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. Then, in our Gospel passage from Matthew we heard, Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Every year, I have the wonderful opportunity to work with the kindergartners in our school as they prepare for their pageant. One of the hymns that we have perennially sung states Stay awake! Be ready! You do not know the hour when the Lord is coming. Stay awake! Be ready! The Lord is coming soon. Hearing these scriptures this weekend makes me think of that hymn. And whether we are in kindergarten or many many years beyond, those words of that hymn should resonate with all of us. We sang a couple of hymns today which also alluded to the above scripture passages. Before Mass we sang the hymn, Find Us Ready, by Tom Booth with the refrain: Find us ready, Lord, not standing still. Find us working and loving and doing your will. Find us ready, Lord, faithful in love, building the kingdom that s here and above, building the kingdom of mercy and love. We must wait for the Lord for we know not the time. So hear and today we gather and pray, discovering love in our midst. Then for the Preparation of the Offerings, we sang a brand new piece for our parish, though written about ten years ago by Ed Bolduc, called Awake to the Day with its call to: Awake to the day of the coming of the Lord. Sing out! Rejoice in this land. Make straight the way for the kingdom of God is at hand. I think you will like this piece very MUSICIAN S NOTES BY DOUG SCHMUTTE much even though it will be very new to our parish. Both our scriptures and hymns of this day call all of us to awake from sleep and put on the armor of light. In his reflection on this First Sunday of Advent my colleague Jerry Galipeau writes: Advent can easily become a neglected season. We can get so busy with our preparations for Christmas that Advent is quickly behind us. Perhaps this year s four full weeks of Advent might help us to slow down and breathe in the joy that comes from expectation. The Advent scriptures call us to live in a state of alertness. So, maybe we need not be so much physically alert, as we are spiritually alert to the joyful expectation of the season to prepare the way of the Lord. Then, if we remain awake, we can be an Advent people who God will grant, as we prayed in our Opening Prayer of Mass today: Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom. And, if we remain alert, we will definitely, with full voices sing as we did in our psalm today, Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. Have a wonderful first week of Advent. 7
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST 11/27/2016 The youth and young adults of St. John s hoped that everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! 8
Pastoral Area Food Pantry Christmas Project It s that time of year again and once again our three pastoral area parishes (Corpus Christi, St. John Neumann, and St. John the Baptist) will be participating in the Food Pantry Christmas gift and dinner give away. We have 281 families signed up to receive Christmas assistance via a dinner or dinner and gifts for their children. Last weekend, November 19 and 20, the Food Pantry provided gift tags for families requesting Christmas assistance. Any tags remaining will be put out the weekend this weekend, November 26 and 27. Many families have signed up for Christmas gifts for their children 17 years of age and younger. We asked the parents to provide a gift suggestion in the $20 range for their children. The items on the gift tags are just suggestions. Please use your judgment when purchasing gifts. We want to share some procedures about the gift program that would assist us in managing this Program. Family Dinners If you choose a gift tag to provide a dinner for a family, please provide the entire meal for the number of people listed on the gift tag. This can be done in one of 3 ways: 1. Provide meat and food items 2. Provide food items and a gift card for meat Provide a gift card to a grocery store for the entire dinner Dinners should be packed in a container, box, basket, etc. Examples will be on display in the Gathering Space. Grocery store gift cards for meat should be sealed in an envelope, Christmas card, etc. and placed inside the container, box, basket, etc. If you have anything perishable in the dinner you are providing, please notify us when returning your dinner. The family gift tag you choose should be taped securely to the outside of the dinner container. If giving a grocery gift card for the entire dinner, put the gift card in a sealed Christmas card or envelope and secure the gift tag to front of the envelope. We prefer that restaurant gift cards not be given to families since many of our clients do not have their own transportation. They would be unable to get to a restaurant and many restaurants are closed on Christmas day. Children s Gifts All gifts must be wrapped with the gift tag you picked up at church affixed securely and should be visible on the outside of the package. DO NOT put the gift tag you chose inside boxes, bags, envelopes, etc. Include store gift receipt inside gift or taped securely to outside of gift in an envelope. Please do not order gifts online unless you are certain the gift will arrive by the return dates below. Return Date It is very important that all gifts and dinners be wrapped and returned at masses the weekend of December 3 and 4. If you have any questions, please contact Diane Arnold (arnoldd1@cinci.rr.com) or Pat Koebbe (pkoebbe@hotmail.com) or call the Corpus Christi Parish Office at 825-0618 to leave us a message. You can also leave a message by calling the Parish Office and ask to be connected to the Food Pantry voice mail, ext. 114. Thank you for your wonderful support of our Pastoral Area Christmas Program. You make so many families smile and sometimes cry with joy and happiness when they pick up their items. 9