Sacred Heart Parish Bulletin

I urge all to come to the Advent Penance Service this Sunday evening at 7:00 at Saint Brigid Church. Saint Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians writes: “Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.”

Even though Paul knows that Christ has reconciled us to God, still Paul urges us to be reconciled to God. Actual reconciliation takes place throughout a lifetime.

We know that all virtues have two contrary vices. Hope, for example, has the contrary vices of despair and presumption. In times past we leaned toward despair. Sin was seen everywhere. People did not often go to Communion because they were so unworthy. “Lord, I am not worthy,” was the prayer of everyone. We despaired of ever being a saint.

In more recent time we look upon the mercy and graciousness of God. We easily fall into presumption. We now feel we are totally good. “I have no sins,” one hears more often. As James Keenan, SJ wrote in A Reconciling Spirit: “If we are so good, one wonders why Christ died, why there is a cross, whether we really need God’s mercy.”

We have moved in our belief that many people are going to hell to believe that no one is going to hell. We are all going to heaven because we are so good. The German moral theologian Franz Bockle wrote that we do not know our sinfulness until we begin to acknowledge it; then the act of confessing allows us to see the depth of our sinfulness. Again, from Father Keenan: “No Christian marriage, no Christian community, no Christian apostolate, no Christian parish or diocese can exist without reconciliation.”

Readings for the Week of December 14, 2003

Sunday: Zep 3:14-18a; Phil 4:4-7; Lk 3:10-18

Monday: Nm 24:2-7, 15-17a; Mt 21:23-27

Tuesday: Zep 3:1-2, 9-13; Mt 21:28-32

Wednesday: Gn 49:2, 8-10; Mt 1:1-17

Thursday: Jer 23:5-8; Mt 1:18-25

Friday: Jgs 13:2-7, 24-25a; Lk 1:5-25

Saturday: Is 7:10-14; Lk 1:26-38

Next Sunday: Mic 5:1-4a; Heb 10:5-10; Lk 1:39-45

Join the Sacred Heart Parish Choir for caroling at 7:00 and 10:30 on Christmas Eve.

This week we ask you to pray for those who are ill, including, Brianna Cimino, Rosemary Harvey, Regina Jones, Andrea Hynes, Joyce Amos, James Reilly, Regina Wingard, Elaine Ring, Erin McMehon, Maria Aguis, George Beck, Dr. Kenneth Spengler, Josephine Murphy, Peter Bugda, Norma Berstein, Camille Michals, Rob Morway, Patricia Hassett, Paul McCann, William Francis, Lillian Davenport, James Fontaini, Henri Fradette, William Blair, Agatha Pals, Richard Gaudet, Kath Rodriegas, Estelle Szalajeski, Nancy Driscoll, Dante DiManna, Margie Levine, Ruth Pike, Doug Phillips, Ralph Tatro, Andrew Day, Peggy Sue Grow, Mary Serpa, Deborah Miller, Dorothy Lee, William MacKinnon, Mary Jefferson, Elizabeth Conte, Dave Rissmiller, Violet Caldaroni, Frank Cote, James Bresnahan, Ann Mulray, Bea Lingane, Rita Mahan, Connie Perrotta, Gerard Sarno, Dorothy Grant,Gretin Cervantes, Midge Moran, Marisol O’Brien, Matthew Gablor, Paul Pantano, Marjorie Clougherty, Fran Ressetar, Lori Robbins, Cecelia Hines, Renee Chapman, Peter Bellini, Don Sabat, Nick Manfredi and David De Thomasis Please also pray for Joan Walsh and Kay Rafferty who died this past week.

Our banner today echoes Luke’s call to the people who “were filled with expectation”. The call to all of us by the Baptizer is a call to repentance and conversion. John’s words about judgment are a note of warning, but they are also words to the wise to follow the way of the Lord and to improve where improvement is needed.

The flowers on the altar this weekend have been donated by Louise Mary Nolan in memory of

Dear Friends, Advent finds me still at Sunrise Assisted Living in Weston. Progress has been slow in 2003 but I have hopes for the coming year. I’m enjoying a poetry group and I do keep up with the times. I tire so easily but I think of all of you often, even though I don’t keep in touch. You are all in my prayers and I wish you the best in this holy season. May God bless you all. Fondly, Ruth Pike.

Please save any small Christmas gifts for our next Bingo at Youville Place in January. Our youth will be going there on January 11^th. If you have an item, please leave it at the parish office or outside the YM office downstairs. Thank you. We appreciate your help.

When eating with someone else, calories don’t count if you both eat the same amount.

Yes, you read the title right. That's "O" the letter of the alphabet that most reminds us of breakfast cereal, inner tubes, doughnuts, hula hoops, no hitters and Advent.

In many parishes, "O" is the first word said in the new church year. Actually we sing it in Advent's most popular song, "O Come, O Come, Emmanual." It announces the season which anticipates the coming of Christ at Christmas.

This hymn, which tells us Advent is starting, used to announce that Advent was ending.

The last eight days of Advent form a little season all by themselves. As the church prepares for the birthday of Christ, the liturgy gets more intense. At daily Mass, the Gospels relate the events leading up to the first Christmas. At evening prayer we have a special series of antiphons which beckon the Messiah to come. Each night gives him a new name, drawn from the Old Testament. "O Wisdom," "O Sacred Lord," "O Flower of Jesse's Stem," "O Key of David," "O Radiant Dawn," "O King of All Nations," and the greatest of them all, "O Emmanuel," a name that means "God is with us."

For the reasons which will be immediately obvious, we call that group of refrains the "O Antiphons," a hallmark of Advent, and a collection of music our church has treasured for many generations. The Mass now includes a version of them as the alleluia verses for the same eight days before Christmas.

By the middle ages, those seven antiphons got strung together into a popular hymn. The last one became verse one and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" was born. Thus, the antiphon originally established for the last evening before Christmas Eve is now often sung to begin Advent.

That "O," of course, simply tells us that we're talking to someone. It's like saying, "Hey, you." Only more politely. But "O" reminds us of much more. It makes us think of something having no beginning and no end. Like love. Or an Advent wreath. It resembles the shape of our mouth and the sound we make when we face a mystery we cannot fully comprehend.

Copyright (c) 1997 Resource Publications, Inc., 160 E. Virginia St. #290, San Jose, CA 95112, (408) 286-8505. Paul Turner, pastor of St. John Regis Parish in Kansas City, Mo., holds a doctorate in sacramental theology from Sant' Anselmo University in Rome. His e-mail is PaulTu@aol.com.

Coordinator of YM: Maureen McKeown

January seems a long way off, but with the holidays and a long vacation break, it will be here before we know it!

1:30 – 3:30 meet at Youville Place. Our T.L.C. will be organizing this popular event. If you would like to attend (or if you can bake a dessert) please contact Maureen at 781-861-8385 or e-mail nychick1@worldnet.att.net.

ARE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL?? You’re invited to enter The Christophers Fourteenth Annual Poster Contest for High School Students. THEME: “You Can Make A Difference”. Top prize is $1000. For rules and to view previous winners to on www.christophers.org and click on Contest for Students.

Y.O.W. Congratulations to our ten teens who spent a wonderful weekend at Lake Ossipee Conference Center for a weekend with close to 300 other young Catholics. They are: Sarah Andryauskas, Ryan Bell, Tori Cimino, Emily Coakley, Patrick Healey, Stephen Keefe, Chrissy Kugel, Kurt Kugel, Anna Orduna and Bridgette Trometer. A special thanks to Nancy Keebler who accompanied our group as an adult chaperone. We hope to hear more of their experience in the future!

Sacred Heart Parish Bulletin - Dec 14, 2003

Coordinator of YM: Maureen McKeown

Sacred Heart Parish Bulletin - Dec. 14, 2003