Church of the AssumpƟon December 21, 2014 29 South Adams Street, Manchester, Connecticut 06040 Website: www.assumptionmanchester.org E-mail: [email protected]Pastor Father John E. Pahl Permanent Deacon Arthur Dickman Mass Schedule Saturday Vigil Mass - 5:00 PM Sunday Morning - 7:30, 9:30, 11:30am Daily Mass Schedule Monday - Friday - 7:00am Saturday - 8:00am Holy Days - as published in the bulletin Confessions Saturday 4:00pm or by appointment Rosary and Novena Miraculous Medal - Mondays at 7:10pm Baptisms All parents desiring the Sacrament of Baptism for their children, must participate in a Pre-Baptismal Program. Please contact Sister Colleen at 860-643-7596 for further information. Marriages Couples must make arrangements at least six months prior to wedding date Rectory, 860-643-2195 285 West Center Street Office hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00am-3:00pm Religious Education Program Sr. Colleen Doyle, RSM: 860-643-7596 Religious Education, Grades 1-8 High School Confirmation Preparation RCIA Assumption School, 860-649-0889 www.assumptionschoolct.com Pre-K - Grade 8 Accepted Miss Marguerite Ouellette Assumption Convent, 860-643-0452 Mother M. Bernard Sister M. Joan Marie Sister Mary Loreto Bulletin Deadline Friday by 12:00 Noon in writing Please remember to patronize the companies that advertise on the back of this bulletin
Pastor Father John E. Pahl Permanent Deacon Arthur Dickman Mass Schedule Saturday Vigil Mass - 5:00 PM Sunday Morning - 7:30, 9:30, 11:30am Daily Mass Schedule Monday - Friday - 7:00am Saturday - 8:00am Holy Days - as published in the bulletin Confessions Saturday 4:00pm or by appointment Rosary and Novena Miraculous Medal - Mondays at 7:10pm Baptisms All parents desiring the Sacrament of Baptism for their children, must participate in a Pre-Baptismal Program. Please contact Sister Colleen at 860-643-7596 for further information. Marriages Couples must make arrangements at least six months prior to wedding date
Rectory, 860-643-2195 285 West Center Street Office hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00am-3:00pm Religious Education Program Sr. Colleen Doyle, RSM: 860-643-7596 Religious Education, Grades 1-8 High School Confirmation Preparation RCIA Assumption School, 860-649-0889 www.assumptionschoolct.com Pre-K - Grade 8 Accepted Miss Marguerite Ouellette Assumption Convent, 860-643-0452 Mother M. Bernard Sister M. Joan Marie Sister Mary Loreto Bulletin Deadline Friday by 12:00 Noon in writing Please remember to patronize the companies that advertise on the back of this bulletin
CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION MANCHESTER, CT
MEMORIAL CANDLES
December 21, 2014 Due to the early submission to the publisher, the candles for this week have been lit per your requests, the names for who the candles were lit for will appear in the December 28th Bulletin.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
There will be no Bingo, Tuesday, December 23rd. Merry Christmas There will be no Bingo, Tuesday, December 30th Happy New Year
PARISH SUPPORT
Immaculate Conception December 8th—$899.00 Due to the early submission of the bulletin, the Offertory for December 14th will be in the December 28th bulletin
Mary received and responded to the Lord’s will through the invitation of an angel. Who are God’s messengers in your life? Listen to God speaking to you through them. If you hear the
call to priesthood or religious life, call Fr. Anthony Smith, Director of Vocations, Archdiocesan Center at St. Thomas Seminary, Tel 860-242-5573, e-mail [email protected] or visit the web at www.vocationshartford.org.
Christmas Coffee Hour: Come to the Church Hall after all the Masses this weekend. Come enjoy the Christmas spirit with your fellow parishioners and friends. Take a free chance on the poinsettia plants donated by Botticello farms and the Botticello family. For questions: Joan O’Loughlin, 860-643-4031
Advent is a season we observe the 4 weeks prior to Christmas we know it as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming".
Latin adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia, commonly used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ. For us, the season of Advent anticipates the coming of Christ from two different perspectives. The season offers the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, and to be alert for his Second Coming.
Advent is also the beginning of our liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday. This is not only for Roman Catholic, but also Anglican, Lutheran, Moravian, Presbyterian and Methodist calendars, Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25, which is the Sunday between November 27 and December 3 inclusive. Folk Traditions: In England, especially in the northern counties, there was a custom (now extinct) for poor women to carry around the "Advent images", two dolls dressed to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A halfpenny coin was expected from every one to whom these were exhibited and bad luck was thought to menace the household not visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.
In Normandy, farmers employed children under twelve to run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting fire to bundles of straw, and thus it was believed driving out such vermin as were likely to damage the crops.
In Italy, among other Advent celebrations is the entry into Rome in the last days of Advent of the Calabrian pifferari, or bagpipe players, who play before the shrines of Mary, the mother of Jesus: in Italian tradition, the shepherds played these pipes when they came to the manger at Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus.
In recent times the most common observance of Advent outside church circles has been the keeping of an advent calendar or advent candle, with one door being opened in the calendar, or one section of the candle being burned, on each day in December leading up to Christmas Eve.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT DECEMBER 21, 2014
MASSES FOR THE WEEK SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20 8:00AM Rev. Nerva Gouin 5:00PM Marva Williams 9th Anniversary
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21 7:30AM Leo Belval 9:30AM Joyce B. Larko 11:30AM Richard Egan
MONDAY, DECEMBER 22 7:00AM Saintomas & Ronchi Family
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23 7:00AM Irene Fisette & Deceased Family Members
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24 4:00PM Special Intention 10:00pm Special Intention THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25 10:00AM Church of the Assumption Parishioners
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26 NO MASS
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27 8:00AM Special Intention 5:00PM Living Members of Michele Family
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28 7:30AM Special Intention 9:30AM Pat D’Jock 11:30AM Raymond Stearns
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION By the year 800, when anointing was defined as the proper office of priests, very complicated rituals began to take shape. Perhaps this was to reassure the laity, who had memories of an earlier practice, that the new way was not only better, but impossible for a layperson to conduct. Blessings and sprinkling of holy water, the singing of as many as seven psalms, penance, anointing of all the senses, viaticum, all capped off by the clothing of the sick person in penitential garments, were part of the rite. This proved unwieldy, and creative spirits got to work. By the 1500s people made distinctions between visiting the sick, anointing, and viaticum. The attempt of the Church to be faithful to the image of a healing Christ has some complicated history, including centuries when the celebration was rare. Most sick people had no access to the rites at all; only monastics or the well-off had much hope of this care. Today, those unhappy days are long behind us, and the care of the sick is an essential task in every parish's life. As Christmas approaches almost everyone comes in contact with someone who is a candidate for pastoral care. You live out the best of our tradition when you arrange for a sick person to receive Holy Communion or the sacrament of the sick and the consolation of regular contact with the faith community. -Rev. James Field, Copyright (c) J. S. Paluch Co.
ECHOING MARY'S DECISION The angel Gabriel today confronts Mary with a mystery. The mystery of salvation in Christ is not a mystery that is solved, but a reality beyond our comprehension that we must choose to enter into. In the liturgy of the Eastern Church, everyone waits to see if Mary will enter into the mystery: God waits, Adam and Eve and all the souls of the dead who long for paradise wait, angels wait for new heavenly companions. And there is much rejoicing when her decision is "yes." We have less dramatic choices offered to us, but the mys-tery of our salvation in Christ is by no means "solved." We may understand it a bit better due to Mary's "yes." We may be a bit closer to it through the passion, death, and resur-rection of Jesus Christ. But it still remains a mystery to which we all must give our own "yes." Soon we will be singing "O come, let us adore him." May our Advent pray-er, our echo of Mary's "yes," continue then, so we may enter into the mystery of our salvation in Jesus Christ, God among us. Copyright (c) J. S. Paluch Co.
Barbara C. Tierney Thomas J. TierneyDaniel R. Troiano Thomas F. Tierney
Family Owned & Operated
John F. Tierney Funeral Home Inc.Serving the Community for Fifty Years.
219 West Center Street • Manchester, CT 06040 (860) 643-1222
