Sunday: 5:30PM Vigil Mass $619; Sunday 8:30AM $394; 10:00AM $428; 11:00AM $297; 12:30PM$877; 8:00PM $393; Week Masses & donations $986; Total $3,994 — Thank you!
–Tomorrow we begin the month of February. Ash Wednesday this year will fall on the Feb. 17th. Not that far. Two more Sundays and then we’ll be into Lent. Easter this year falls on April the 4th. Feb. 2nd , next Tuesday, is the feast of the Presentation of the Lord or Candlemas day. Liturgically speaking it is a biggie even though it is not a day of obligation. There is a special ceremony in which candles are blessed. Then Feb 3rd is the Feast of St. Blaise with the blessing of throats at all Masses for those who wish to receive it. It is a pity that these feastdays were not transferred to Sunday for greater participation.
–I want to acknowledge $560 further donation for Haiti, $500 on behalf of the Filipino community. I think we can be proud.
–If there are young Catholics in our parish desiring to meet other young Catholics maybe you should participate in some of these events. 1st Annual Pilgrimage of New York City: A coalition of Catholic young adult groups in New York City welcomes you to this first annual pilgrimage. Our city has been blessed throughout history with great saints, great churches, and holy Catholic men and women, and we invite you to join us in celebrating their legacy and finding inspiration in their life stories. On March 20, 2010, we will walk from the shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, near Manhattan’s northern tip, to the shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton , close to Battery Park. Along the way, we will visit other churches connected to New York’s Catholic history. The event is free but you must register for the pilgrimage. Browse our website to learn more about the famous churches you can visit, the saints you will honor, and the routes you can follow. If you wish you can make donations to worthy charities such as Pilgrimage of Our Children’s Future and St. Joseph’s Seminary on the web site. (Get involved young people!!!, says Fr. Victor)
– Theology on Tap-NYC (a young adult apostolate) presents “Does God Really Forgive Sins in the Confessional?” on March 1, 2010 at Metro 53 Bar, 307 East 53rd Street at 7pm-9pm. Ever wonder why we need to tell our sins to a priest, whom many feel is a complete stranger to us? Can’t we talk to God directly to get forgiveness? If God knows what we do and forgives no matter what, then why do we need to go to confession? Come and find out this night! The speaker is the Rector of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, Monsignor Robert Ritchie. Visit us at www.totnyc.org.
– Brick Church Adult Education hosts Four Questions, Four Paths, One Great Journey: A New Paradigm for the Gospels. A workshop with Alexander J. Shaia, Ph.D. author of The Hidden Power of the Gospels: Four Questions, Four Paths, One Journey. For clergy, teachers, Bible study leaders, and interested members. Tuesday, March 2, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The Carnegie Room of The Brick Church 62 E. 92nd St (at Park Avenue) $35 pp, lunch included. RSVP to rsvp@brickchurch.org –Questions? Contact Rev. Christiane Lang at clang@brickchurch.org –212-289-4400.
–Dear Father Muzzin, Just want to say “Well done”. As I walked into our church on Sunday for 12:30 mass I thought there was a celebration of some kind, ( I now know it was the feast of St. Francis De Sales). It was wonderful to see our church so full, in fact I was in awe to find no missalettes available, the altar looked very festive & the singing simply beautiful. I like the idea of the choir on the altar; it feels more comfortable & entices the rest of the congregation to join in. Your sermon was inspiring as usual. (Funk defiantly gone!) Thanks to you I have just started reading the Life of St. Francis. Ann.
–Courtroom drama has long been a staple of the theater, and of novels, movies, and television. Shakespeare used it effectively in The Merchant of Venice. The courtroom novels of John Grisham are best sellers. Films like The Caine Mutiny Court Martial are classics. The TV series Law and Order is a hugely successful show, but it is only one of dozens of series about trial lawyers, which almost always lead to a dramatic courtroom scene. Of course, the genre is far older. The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament gives us the wonderful story of Susanna, who is accused of a capital crime by two corrupt old men. The young and clever Daniel is the brilliant prosecutor, and he saves Susanna’s life. The trial of Jesus in the New Testament is very different; there an innocent man is convicted and condemned in an unjust trial but, in God’s mysterious plan, his unjust death brings justification to many sinners. Saint Paul sees the human race, too, in terms of a courtroom drama. Because of sin, the whole human race was rightly condemned. But – and here we see the mystery of God’s action, which does not follow the rules of human trials and sentencing – the sentence of condemnation is not the last word. Rather, through the mystery of Christ, we are later acquitted, because Christ’s action drew the punishment away from us. The story is told of a judge in traffic court. At the end of a long day, the judge’s own son is brought before him. The young man is clearly guilty. What does the judge do? He imposes the highest possible fine on his own son. Then he takes off his black robe, walks with his son to the cashier, and pays the fine himself; and they go home together. Do you see a parallel here?
– Addressing a service marking the closure of the week of prayer for Christian unity, Pope Benedict lamented “religious indifference and a growing aversion to the Christian faith“. Benedict urged Christians to invigorate efforts to spread their faith’s message despite what he described as the unfriendly climate to Christianity in parts of the world, The Washington Post reports. ‘”In a world marked by religious indifference and even by a growing aversion toward the Christian faith, a new, intense activity of evangelization is necessary,” the pope said. He urged Christians to overcome their differences through dialogue so that they can unite their efforts to influence debates in society on ethical issues like abortion, euthanasia and the limits of science and technology. Benedict was leading a Vespers service in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.
–Pope John Paul II whipped himself with a belt, even on vacation, and slept on the floor as acts of penitence and to bring him closer to Christian perfection, according to a new book by the Polish prelate spearheading his sainthood case. The book “Why He’s a Saint” also includes previously unpublished speeches and documents written by John Paul, including one 1989 signed memo in which he said he would resign if he became incapacitated. The book also reported for the first time that John Paul forgave his would-be assassin in the ambulance on the way to the hospital moments after he was shot on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square. And it reported that he initially thought his attacker was a member of the Italian terrorist organization the Red Brigades. The book was written by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator, or main promoter, for John Paul’s canonization cause and was released Tuesday. It was based on the testimony of the 114 witnesses and boxes of documentation Oder gathered on John Paul’s life to support the case. At a news conference Tuesday, Oder defended John Paul’s practice of self-mortification, which some faithful use to remind them of the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, said that in 1989, the Pope signed a resignation letter in case he became incapacitated. Apparently, the late Pope reflected deeply on the matter and did a close study of canon law as well as the theological implications with Joseph Card. Ratzinger. In 1994, when the Pope was about to undergo surgery for his broken leg, he said to the surgeon Gianfranco Fineschi: “Doctor, both you and I have only one option. You have to cure me. I have to heal. Because there is no place in the Church for a Pope Emeritus.” In the book, Oder wrote that John Paul frequently denied himself food – especially during the holy season of Lent – and “frequently spent the night on the bare floor,” messing up his bed in the morning so he wouldn’t draw attention to his act of penitence.
–TIME MAGAZINE. Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long says if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade’s worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife. Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of near-death experience, the intersection between religion and science and the Oprah effect.
– Pope Benedict XVI asked priests around the world to use Web sites, videos and blogs as tools of pastoral ministry. “The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more St. Paul’s exclamation: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel,’” the pope said in his message for the 2010 celebration of World Communications Day. “Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word,” he said. (The Pope would be proud of what we do here at SFDS and our nice website-blog)
