St. Lambert Parish Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord July 10, 2016 Rectory: 8148 N Karlov Avenue Skokie, IL 60076 Phone:(847) 673-5090 E-mail: [email protected]St. Lambert Parish - Skokie, IL Website: www.StLambert.org Sunday Masses: (5 pm Sat) 8am, 10am, 12pm Weekday Masses: 7:15 am (Mon-Fri) 8am on Saturday Confessions: Saturday at 8:30am Pastor: Rev. Richard Simon Rev. Know-it-all: reverendknow-it-all.blogspot.com Deacon: Mr. Chick O’Leary Music Director: Mr. Steven Folkers Religious Education : Jonathan Rivera [email protected]Office Staff: Debbie Morales-Garcia [email protected]Mr. George Mohrlein To Register as a Parishioner: Call the rectory or email us. Baptisms: Third Sundays of the month at 1:30 pm. Please call the rectory for guidelines and more information Weddings: Arrangements must be made 6 months in advance. Bulletin Guidelines: Submissions should be received 10 days preceding the date of bulletin publication. Send to [email protected]. Love your neighbor as yourself
Transcript
St. Lambert Parish Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord July 10, 2016
Rectory: 8148 N Karlov Avenue Skokie, IL 60076 Phone:(847) 673-5090 E-mail: [email protected]
St. Lambert Parish - Skokie, IL
Website: www.StLambert.org Sunday Masses: (5 pm Sat) 8am, 10am, 12pm Weekday Masses: 7:15 am (Mon-Fri) 8am on Saturday Confessions: Saturday at 8:30am
Pastor: Rev. Richard Simon Rev. Know-it-all: reverendknow-it-all.blogspot.com Deacon: Mr. Chick O’Leary Music Director: Mr. Steven Folkers Religious Education : Jonathan Rivera [email protected] Office Staff: Debbie Morales-Garcia [email protected] Mr. George Mohrlein
To Register as a Parishioner: Call the rectory or email us. Baptisms: Third Sundays of the month at 1:30 pm. Please call the rectory for guidelines and more information Weddings: Arrangements must be made 6 months in advance. Bulletin Guidelines: Submissions should be received 10 days preceding the date of bulletin publication. Send to [email protected].
July 10, 2016 Christ Jesus . . . is the head of the body, the church. — Colossians 1:15, 18
READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: Is 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23; Mt 10:34 — 11:1 Tuesday: Is 7:1-9; Ps 48:2-8; Mt 11:20-24 Wednesday: Is 10:5-7, 13b-16; Ps 94:5-10, 14-15; Mt 11:25-27 Thursday: Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19; Ps 102:13-14ab, 15- 21; Mt 11:28-30 Friday: Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8; Is 38:10-12abcd, 16; Mt 12:1-8 Saturday: Mi 2:1-5; Ps 10:1-4, 7-8, 14; Mt 12:14-21 Sunday: Gen 18:1-10a; Ps 15:2-5; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42
The Coffee hour will be hosted by the Couples for
Christ and the contact person is Jean De Guzman She can be reached at 847-674-8054. your assistance
and donations are vey much appreciated.
Masses for the Week
Catholic Charities Maternity & Adoption Services
If you are pregnant and in need of advice or help you can turn to Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities Maternity & Adoption Services has resources to serve teens,
women and their families facing unplanned
pregnancies. We can talk about your options as you plan for your child’s future. Whether
you decide to parent your child, or make a plan of adoption, we are here to help. If you are not
sure what to do, our 24-hour hotline has caring & professional counselors available. Our services are free and confidential. Call
1-800-CARE-002 or 312-454-1717. Visit www.catholiccharities.net/adoptionservices
for more information.
July 10, 2016 Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord Page 3
“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than to give a helping hand to someone in the dark.”
- Helen Keller
Come One, Come All and share in the
Family Fun! Food, Drinks and a Raffle with a Grand
Prize of $5,000!
andi and i 3-4pm Jazz, Folk & Soul The Pawnshop Band 6-8pm Dance, Pop & Soul
Kids Games and... Live Music! Where? St. Lambert Parking Lot 8148 Karlov Ave., Skokie, IL 60076
Urban Rhythm 4-5 pm Reggae, Caribbean & Soul
Last week I mentioned that a friend of mine had talked about the faith with a younger man, mid-twenties or so. The young man had not been raised in the Church nor had he received the sacraments, apart from baptism as an infant. When asked why he was not a churchgoer he just said, “Why do I need it?” This simple question is aimed right at me and my fellow clergy. We have spent more than forty years telling people that they don’t need it. Why are we surprised that they agree with us? We have at least implied that the Almighty is far too nice to punish us for our sins or to demand certain behavior from us. If there is a heaven our nice God would never send anyone to hell. Mass is a wonderful thing, but certainly, no one is obliged to participate in it. We keep trying to make Mass more understandable and more entertaining, but the more entertaining we make it, the less people seem to be interested. We have stripped Mass of its mystery. One enters a church and sees very little he wouldn’t see anywhere else. We have removed the images, the stained glass the altar rail that implies something remote and forbidden. We’ve painted over the frescoes and chosen the banal art of the late 60’s. When one meets a Catholic, is that Catholic any different from anyone else? We do not fast; we do not live by any other sexual code than the world. We practice artificial birth control, abortion, co-habitation at the same rates as non-believers, and now we seem to be moving toward relationships that were formerly forbidden. How would the lives of those outside the Church be any different were they to join the Church? Oh, yes. We urge people to be socially just, but so do the Boy Scouts. The pearl of great price is currently offered at bargain basement discount price, but no one is buying cheap pearls these days. Why are we amazed that our churches are filled with grey heads. We offer nothing of enough value to cause someone even to inconvenience themselves on a Sunday
morning by getting out of bed much less give up their lives for it. Catholicism is growing explosively around the world. It continues to grow everywhere except here. People around the world are dying as martyrs every day, just not here in the so called first world. So what’s the answer? What do we have that a young man or woman may eventually fine useful? We have beauty. Admittedly in much of the church we have thrown off beauty for kitsch, but the beauty is still there. It’s just been stored for a while in the basements and attics of our souls. The world has become very ugly. We need to make sure that the liturgy is beautiful and not simply flashy. The consistent and sustained beauty of the Mass, a ceremony that has endured in quiet simplicity for two thousand years is still the Catholic ace in the hole. I would be so bold as to suggest, as did Pope Benedict, that we stick to the rubrics. There is nothing so impressive as a priest turned away from the congregation for a few minutes while leading the congregation in addressing the Father in Heaven. Perhaps it is time to return this small bit of mystery to the celebration of Mass. The altar is not a stage where the main protagonist faces the audience. It is an altar. A child who comes to his first Mass must wonder “Who is that man in the special clothes talking to, Mommy and Daddy?” “Be quiet junior, He is talking to God.” Prayerful silence before Mass is another little bit of mystery that we might add, as suggested by the general instruction in the Roman Missal. Have you ever thought how unusual it is for a group of people to be gathered together in silence? We live in a world filled with noise. A group of people sitting and kneeling in silence is a most unusual thing. “Why is no one talking, Mommy?” “Because they are talking to God in their hearts. Now be quiet.” Another way to add mystery is to dress up. People attend church in the same clothes that they use for working in the back yard. Maybe if we dressed like we were going to a wedding, we might eventually understand that we are attending a wedding, that of Christ and his Church. As it is, Mass is no more special that any event to which I would wear an old T-shirt. Let’s talk about music. This is not my strong suit. The
(Continued on page 6)
The Reverend Know-it-all “What I don’t know… I can always make up!”
July 10, 2016 Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord Page 5
Page 6 St. Lambert Parish 15th Ordinary Sunday
council very much wanted the congregation to participate in the Mass, especially by singing. In much of my experience, Church music is a spectator sport. People don’t sing. The music is either too hard, or too entertaining to actually sing along with. If you are a church musician and the congregation is not singing, you are failing. Don’t assume they are singing. Put a recorder in the back of church. Get some spies to go sit in the eighth row from the back to listen to what people are actually doing. If all the congregation hears is you, you are failing. The Vatican council re-emphasized the place of chant in worship. Chant ties us back to the temple in Jerusalem and to the early Church. Most of all, chant should be simple so that it can be sung. I will never forget crossing the Adriatic years ago on a Greek ship. Since I couldn’t sleep, I went up top and from the bridge of the ship I could hear the grizzled Greek sailors singing along with the Sunday morning liturgy as it played on the ship’s radio. Music should be simple enough to be sung. Why? Where else in the modern world do people sing? We listen to music, but a group of adults singing together happens nowhere but in church. Even at ball games the national anthem is sung by a celebrity, of sorts. What passes as music blares out of speakers and phones and gizmos, but children have forgotten how to sing. “Daddy what are these people doing making noise? “ “They are singing, junior.” Next week: More suggestions to come
(Continued from page 5)
June 26– July 9, 2016
CLOSE THE DOOR
It’s one of those phrases that when I was a kid I never thought I’d say: In or out. Make up your mind. Close the door. Now it seems like something that I say to Teresa almost every day. Apparently, it’s a universal trait among children. Or maybe just in my family. I appeal to logic: You don’t like it when bugs get in the house. If you leave the door open, bugs can fly in. We have the air conditioner (or the heater) on. You’re letting all the cold (or warm) air out. Please move. If
you stand in the doorway, no one else can get in or out. I use parental prerogative. Get out of the doorway. Because I told you to. Another phrase I never thought I would say. Sometimes I get tired of explaining why. Sometimes I want to ask what the appeal of the doorway is. Why have your face in the bedroom and your back in the hall? Your left shoulder in the dining room and your right shoulder in the kitchen? One foot in the living room and the other on your front porch? When it comes to standing in the doorway, you can go either way. And really, most of the time, you can always change your mind — unless your mom has told you to make up your mind already. Walk into the living room and forget why you wanted to go in there? Go back to the kitchen and see if it comes back to you. But in the larger scheme, backtracking isn’t always an option. Life is a journey, from birth to death, from this world to the eternal. Each step forward is a step away from where we’ve been, and sometimes, as we move one place to another, a door closes behind us. We can’t always go back. Staying in the middle isn’t always a choice. We tend to celebrate the big transitions: births and baptisms, graduations and weddings, because most of the time, we don’t want to go back. The transition through death to eternal life is different, perhaps because none of us here has been through it. No one can accompany those we love as they move from one life to the next. That’s where faith comes in. Faith that the communion of saints surrounds us, that our loved ones who have died will welcome us the same way our families welcomed us at birth. Teresa is pretty sure about it. She’s pointed out that I’m pretty old, that I’ll likely die before she will, and she’ll miss me until he sees me in heaven. I hope so, I tell her. Until then, I’ll keep reminding her to go in or out and close the door so the bugs don’t fly in. If she changes her mind, she can always go back and think again. Martin is assistant editor of the Catholic New World. Contact her at [email protected].
The newspaper for the Archdiocese of Chicago
Providing a strong Catholic voice in Cook and Lake counties for over 120 years. Subscribe or Renew your
subscription today! 312-534-7777
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:31-34)
A priest happened to be going down the road: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveler came upon him and was moved with compassion at the sight, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
