A Parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford The St. Catherine Parish Legacy Fund is commied to ensuring the long-term stability of our parish and its ministries. Please consider a giſt in lieu of flowers upon a love one's passing as a way to ensure our community will thrive well into the future. Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 5 July 2015 Parish Office Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. Pastor The Reverend Michael Whyte 860 658 1642 PARISH STAFF Administrave Assistant-Parish Office Mrs. Lisa Cerchia 860 658 1642 or [email protected]Director of Religious Educaon Mrs. Kathi Bonner 860 658 4737 or [email protected]Director of Youth Ministry Mrs. Judy Pluta 860 408 9888 or [email protected]Coordinator, Young Adult Group Mrs. Sandi Smith 860-392-9789 or [email protected]Music Director Mrs. Susan Zybert 860 216 6519 or [email protected]Facilies Manager Mr. Michael Grappone 860 658 1642 Parish Council President Mr. Tom Tanski, 860 658 4430 Finance Council Chairman Mr. Sco Muryasz 860 693 4164, Parish Legacy Fund Chairman Mr. Peter Pabich, 860 408 1254 Parish Lay Trustees Mrs. Melissa Horbal, (860)651-7844 Mr. Joseph Capozzoli, (860)352-2390 Thanks for worshiping with us. If you would like to join our parish family, fill out a yellow membership form found in the vestibule or atrium and mail it to us, drop it in the collection basket or call us at 658 1642. Mass/Liturgy Schedule: Saturday Vigil at 5:00 p.m. Sunday Masses at 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend, NO 5:00 p.m. Sunday Mass) Daily Mass at 8:30 a.m., Monday through Wednesday, and Friday. (Yearly) Sacrament of Reconciliaon: Saturday from 4:00 p.m. unl 4:30 p.m. Monday from 6:00 p.m. unl 7:00 p.m. Bapsms and Bapsmal Preparaon: Please call the parish office at 860 658 1642 Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: Please call the parish office at 860 658 1642 at least 6 months in advance Choir Pracces: Adult—Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. Youth—Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Contemporary Music Group—Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. Bullen Deadline: Monday at 10:00 a.m. Website News: email to: [email protected]265 Straon Brook Road, Box 184, West Simsbury, Conneccut 06092 Tel: 860 658 1642 /Fax: 888 297 3134 Email: [email protected]Website: www.stcatherine.info WELCOME! We welcome all visitors who are celebrating with us today. As is our custom at St. Catherine of Siena, please remain in your pew for the singing of the first and last verses of the recessional hymn.
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A Parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford
The St. Catherine Parish Legacy Fund is committed to ensuring the long-term stability of our parish and its ministries. Please consider a gift in lieu of flowers upon a love one's passing as a way to ensure our community will thrive well into the future.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 5 July 2015
Parish Office Hours: Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m.
Pastor The Reverend Michael Whyte 860 658 1642
PARISH STAFF Administrative Assistant-Parish Office Mrs. Lisa Cerchia 860 658 1642 or [email protected]
Director of Religious Education Mrs. Kathi Bonner 860 658 4737 or [email protected]
Director of Youth Ministry Mrs. Judy Pluta 860 408 9888 or [email protected]
Coordinator, Young Adult Group Mrs. Sandi Smith 860-392-9789 or [email protected]
Facilities Manager Mr. Michael Grappone 860 658 1642
Parish Council President Mr. Tom Tanski, 860 658 4430
Finance Council Chairman Mr. Scott Muryasz 860 693 4164, Parish Legacy Fund Chairman Mr. Peter Pabich, 860 408 1254
Parish Lay Trustees Mrs. Melissa Horbal, (860)651-7844 Mr. Joseph Capozzoli, (860)352-2390
Thanks for worshiping with us.
If you would like to join our parish
family, fill out a yellow membership form found
in the vestibule or atrium and mail it to us, drop
it in the collection basket or
call us at 658 1642.
Mass/Liturgy Schedule: Saturday Vigil at 5:00 p.m. Sunday Masses at 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend, NO 5:00 p.m. Sunday Mass) Daily Mass at 8:30 a.m., Monday through Wednesday, and Friday. (Yearly) Sacrament of Reconciliation: Saturday from 4:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Baptisms and Baptismal Preparation: Please call the parish office at 860 658 1642 Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: Please call the parish office at 860 658 1642 at least 6 months in advance Choir Practices: Adult—Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. Youth—Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Contemporary Music Group—Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION REGISTRATION is on-going. RE-REGISTRATION can be done online or through email. NEW REGISTRATION (any child new to our RE Program, K-10 including siblings of current students) must be done in person using the blue forms found in the atrium and vestibule. New students cannot be accepted online. For more information, contact Kathi Bonner, DRE @ [email protected] or 658.4737. The deadline of June 30th has passed, however, we will still accept late re-registrations through the summer. Late fee of $50.00 will apply. Rel Ed is looking for a high school student with experience working with middle-school/high-school aged special needs kids. If you have done unified sports and/or theater and would like to be a buddy to one of our Rel Ed students, we want you! Please call Mrs. Bonner at 658.4737 or email- [email protected] for more details.
Saturday, July 4th @ 5:00 pm Mass for Alex Reale,
requested by Ken & Pat Provencher;
July 5th @ 8:00 am Mass for Rosa Renna, requested
by her family;
Sunday, July 5th @ 11:00 am Mass for George &
Patricia Reynolds, requested by the Jahne family;
Monday, July 6th @ 8:30 a.m. Mass for
Richard Fallon; requested by Marianne &
Jim Flynn;
Tuesday, July 7th @ 8:30 am Mass for
Jack Winters, 5th anniversary, requested by Ann
Winters;
Wednesday, July 8th @ 8:30 a.m. Mass for
Herb Lohmuller, requested by the
O’Bryan Family;
Friday, July 10th @ 8:30 am Mass for
Rev. Ronald L. Genua;
Saturday, July 11th @ 5:00 pm Mass for Harry &
Eileen Geary, requested by their family;
July 12th @ 8:00 am Mass for Stanley Burk,
1st anniversary, requested by his family; and,
Sunday, July 12th @ 11:00 am Mass for Maureen
Crowley, requested by the Jahne Family.
WEEKLY MASS INTENTIONS
Offertory Collection Weekly Collection: $9,783.81 Loose Cash/Checks $1,473.50 Envelopes $8,310.31 Cathedraticum* -$ 538.11 School Tax* -$ 538.11 *Parish taxes (5.5%) paid to the Archdiocese for services to the parish.
Repair & Refurbishment……$ 141.00(additional)
Next week’s second collection is for Repair & Refurbishment.
Young Adult Office I will be working in the Youth and Young Adult Office every Tuesday and Wednesday from 2pm-7pm. I would love it if you would stop by to introduce yourself, to share your suggestions for the new Young Adult Group or just to chat! Don’t know where the office is? It’s off the vestibule of the church (go through the doors nearest the Mary garden) and the office is on your left, next to the children’s books. Do those days and times not work for you? No problem! Just send me an email ([email protected]) or give me a call or text (860-392-9789) and we can set up a more convenient time for you to come by. Sandi Smith
SCHOOL SUPPLIES NEEDED— to help children of Hartford. Please donate the
following items for Family Life Ministry to distribute to the children:
backpacks, calculators, notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers, 3 ring
binders, loose leaf paper, markers, crayons, erasers, and glue.
All items can be placed in the boxes in the Atrium or the Vestibule.
THANKS All The Way Around! Religious Freedoms Celebrated! Thanks to the Defenders of the Faith Ministry for the wonderful celebration acknowledging our religious freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. The First Amendment calls for religious freedom in our nation and was noted as the First Amendment because of its importance to our way of life. In fact a famous unattributed quote states, “It was not the United States that created religious freedom but it was religious freedom that created the United States of America!” While the weather did not cooperate and we moved the celebration of the prayer service from the decorated Mary Garden to the vestibule, the prayers of praise to God for this gift of religious freedom were still heard…and the hotdogs and ice cream were equally enjoyed by all. Thank you to all involved!
Volunteers Appreciated To the Community Life Ministry go my sincere thanks for all their hard work in planning and executing the fantastic 2015 Volunteer Gala! It is a wonderful way to thank all those in our parish who give of their time, talent and resources to bring our parish to life and celebrate the Christian faith of our Catholic Church, which is evidenced in the feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, the knitting of prayer shawls, the Eucharistic Ministers, lectors, the Men’s and Women’s Club Ministries, the choir members, those who serve on Parish and Finance Councils, the ladies who care for the altar linens, those who decorate our Church and those who care for its grounds, for all those who worked on our new parish directory, the RCIA team and those who train our altar servers and volunteer in our religious education program or in the youth ministry and so many more! We are blessed to have so many wonderful people of God actively involved in this beautiful parish!
Sadly, Weddings on the Decline Brings Negative Outcomes It’s “A sad state for a state to be in” said Evita Peron or so she is attributed saying, but while the Argentine First Lady wasn’t talking about marriages we can say the same thing about the state of marriage in our country today. Weddings are down and the cause is due a number of concerns: a poor economy, lots of college debt on not-so-new graduates, as well as the decline of the American family evidenced in our culture and seen in music, television, movies and politics. Marriages are down nationwide: Census data cited in a 2014 Pew Research Study and which appeared in a February 6, 2015 New York Times article noted that in 1960 72.2% of all households were married in the United States and in 2012, the number drops to 50.5%. This trend will not be “good for the country in a round-about-way” (again, Eva Peron!) as the impact on the family will be felt as well as on certain financial aspects nationally: For most of the latter-half of the twentieth century, divorce posed the greatest threat to child well-being and the institution of marriage. Today, that is not the case. New research – made available for the first time in this third edition of "Why Marriage Matters" – suggests that the rise of cohabiting households with children is the largest unrecognized threat to the quality and stability of children's lives in today's families. (Institute for American Values, NY, NY). Further research illustrates that children born to parents married
tend to live in stronger financial situations and healthier homes. Marriage also, according the US government, provides for greater access to healthcare for the couple and children, greater health outcomes for those in a marriage, and better adult-health for children of marriage couples. My unofficial research last week found four sitcoms in a row one night which were comprised of either a divorced household, a same-sex couple household, or two heterosexual girlfriends living together and proclaiming how they would never marry; in order to find a family comprised of a mother and father, children and sitting down to dinner together with grace prayed before the meal—I had to watch the Walton’s. Today’s television image of the “typical” American family could leave one sad as well as thoroughly bored.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time In today’s first reading we hear that while a people may
not listen to a prophet’s words they will know a prophet by the way they image God among them. In the second reading St. Paul illustrates to us that when he is weak God makes him strong by the fact that Paul is open to God’s grace; with God nothing is impossible: In the Gospel today, we learn that it is a lack of faith on the people’s part that becomes the obstacle to God’s power being manifested for them. It is only by God’s grace that we can be completely free—freedom is not achieved by how we mere mortals do whatever they want when they want. But true freedom is becoming Christ-like in this world they proclaim the image and likeness of God in the words we use, the things that they do for others, and the way in which we align our very lives to the Will of God, that’s what makes us free. Thus we come to learn that “freedom” is not comprised of having what we want today, but rather attaining the highest virtue and value of being human, imitating Christ in ways of compassion, hope and love to those around us.
But by our human nature, from before the time of the Old Testament right up until the current age, we are a rebellious lot. Perhaps we get a little education and think we know everything—even more than Christ knows; we see our manipulation of the economy and think we as a nation have great power, only to have a bubble burst because of our s elfishness; science, which is wonderful and offers us many solutions to horrific problems can led us to thinking we are “mini gods” capable of being and doing all that we need—only to realize later that just because we “can” do it doesn’t mean we “should” do it. Arrogance and power take root within us and lead us away from the God who created us.
But when we realize these missteps, we can turn back and trust in God’s plan for us that He will make us truly free, and then we can hear St. Catherine of Siena’s wonderful quote: When you become want Christ meant you to be, you will set the world ablaze, thus be truly free to be what God desires and wants of us. In this freedom we are truly free to be the image and likeness of God.
What more could one ask for—now and forever? As we contemplate the meaning of freedom on this national Independence Day—from our freedom to move about from place to place without permission papers or the freedom to speak our minds and practice our faith not only in the Church but in the secular world, then Freedom will not be bound-in by a date like 1776 but rather will be an endless and glorious and joyous reign, for it will enable us to see the Face of God.
Happy Fourth of July!
Upcoming Meetings/Events
JULY
-Mon, 6th—Office Closed for the Holiday.
-Mon, 6th— Mass at McLean Home, 11 a.m.
-Mon, 6th—Confession, Church, 6 p.m.
-Mon, 6th—Rosary, Church, 7 p.m.
-Mon, 13th—Confession, Church, 6 p.m.
-Sat, 18th—Pantry Partners, Vestibule, 9 am.
-Sun, 19th—St. Elizabeth House
-Mon, 20th— Mass at McLean Home, 11 a.m.
-Mon, 20th—Confession, Church, 6 p.m.
-Mon, 27th—Confession, Church, 6 p.m.
-Tues, 28th—Cantor Rehearsal, MR, 7 p.m.
Social Outreach
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Pantry Partners—July 18 is the next distribution date for
SCPP. The last date to place an order for your family or a
friend is July 11. You can find a simple grocery list and
envelopes in the vestibule or the atrium. Donations are
welcome any time! Thank you for your continued support.
FEED THE HUNGRY—The next Youth Group
visit to Saint Elizabeth House in Hartford will be
Saturday, July 18th. You must reserve your spot as
there is a limited amount of space in the serving
kitchen. Please contact Lisa Sheary @ 860-658-2899
Your Women's Club Ministry is sponsoring an exciting new cookbook project
to be readied for Christmas giving, 2015. Ambitious? Perhaps. Doable? With your help,
ABSOLUTELY!
Titled "Saint Catherine of Siena Heavenly Hosts”, it will contain a collection of your family favorite recipes, contributed by YOU, our very own cooks and bakers. We ask all our parishioners to please contribute your tried and true food traditions, preferably in digital form. This will be our first fundraising effort of the Fall 2015 season, benefiting the "Hands of Christ" service award and other Women's Club activities. Recipe Submission: As soon as possible in digital form (i.e. Word document (preferred), e-mail, or PDF’s; if you plan to scan recipes, please select PDF format). Hard copies will be accepted but we hope to minimize them for ease of publication. To the Editor: Rosemary Clarke, [email protected], or: 21 Watson Drive, West Simsbury, 06092, 860-651-5507. Deadline: September 15, 2015 but sooner rather than later is best! Multiple submissions permitted but please prioritize (#1, #2, #3, etc.) for publication. Please only kitchen-tested recipes. Women’s Club volunteers welcome for editorial staff (typing & text editing skills; July through October) and in the fourth quarter, October through December, for cookbook orders, sales and pick-up and distribution. Contact Rosemary if you would like to help. Thank you in advance. We look forward to your support. Bon Appetit!
2nd Parish Trip—Our parish is in the process of plan-
ning its second guided tour abroad in the fall of 2106 or
spring of 2017. We would like your input as to which trip to
pursue.
Potential Destinations The Holy Land: Jerusalem, Gaililee, Bethlehem. Walk
in the footsteps of our Lord!
Lourdes (France), Fatima (Portugal) nd the Way of St.
James (Spain). Departs: Paris; returns from
Lisbon
Northern Italy including Milan (The Last Supper);
Bologna, the Lake Region and Piedmont region.
Each trip will be approx. 9-12 days. If you are interested in
traveling with fellow parishioners and invited guests, please
indicate which trip you have a desire to join. Please vote for
only ONE option using the “Trip Selection Form” found in
the atrium. Please your completed form in the Parish Trip
Box.
Remember our Parishioners and Friends Who Have Died in your Prayers. May they Rest in Peace! Please remember in your prayers the noble souls of: Joseph Spada on 26 June Barbara Hartman Tucker, on 23 June Janice Russell, on 19 June Charlotte Paterson, on 16 June Walter Haasser, on 5 June
