Saint Marianne Cope Parish Rev. Stuart H. Pinette - Pastor

St. Catherine of Siena

6 Windsorville Road Broad Brook, CT 06016

Weekday Masses - Monday & Wednesday - 12:10 p.m. Tuesday - 6:00 p.m. Thursday - 8:00 a.m.

Parish Office Hours -

Mon, Wed, Fri: 9:00 a.m. - Noon

St. Philip the Apostle

150 South Main Street East Windsor, CT 06088

Weekend Masses -

Saturday Vigil - 4:00 p.m.

Sunday - 8:30 & 10:30 a.m.

Sacrament of Reconciliation -

Saturday: 3:00-3:30 p.m.

Parish Office Phone - (860) 623-4636 (ext. 101)

Parish Fax - (860) 292-8550

Parish Website - smceastwindsor.org

Parish Office email - office@smceastwindsor.org

Fr. Stu’s email - frstu@smceastwindsor.org

Pastoral Assistant - Theresa Jablow

Director of Music - Wendy Quinn

Pastoral Minister - Jan Albetski

Email - JanA@smceastwindsor.org

Faith Formation Office - (860) 623-4636 (ext. 106)

Parish Rectory - 150 South Main Street

East Windsor, CT 06088

Sacrament of Baptism

Please call the parish office to make arrangements for the celebration of the sacrament as well as a pre-baptismal session for parents and Godparents.

Sacrament of Matrimony

Please call the parish office at least six months in advance before making any other arrangements.

New Parishioners

Please call the parish office or registration forms are available on the church bulletin boards.

Christian Stewardship

We are a stewardship community. Parish members are invited to use offertory envelopes or Online Giving to support the mission & needs of our parish. Please call the parish office for more details.

Saint Marianne cope parish East Windsor

NEW PARISHIONERS – Welcome! There are registration forms on the bulletin boards in the church foyers at St. Philip & the foyer table at St. Catherine. Just fill one out and drop it in the Giving Box or Basket or return it to the parish office. You may also register by calling the parish office during weekday business hours.

YOUNG FAMILIES – At St. Philip Church, the quiet room is available for families with young children attending Mass and at St. Catherine Church the foyer is available if your child needs a break.

PARISHIONERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS - The first pew is available for parishioners that have any type of physical limitations, and you may also receive communion while staying in your seat if you’d like. At St. Philip, those in the quiet room may proceed in front of the first pew for communion as well.

ANOINTING OF THE SICK - can be celebrated at any time for those who are ill or infirmed. When someone’s condition worsens, please call the parish office to arrange for Fr. Stu to visit and celebrate the sacrament rather then waiting until the final moments of their life.

PLEASE PRAY FOR – Joyce Benoit, Jeannie Bernier, Maria Brenza, Linda Brown, Inez Cabral, Helen Calsetta, Donald Daigle, Gabriel Desrocher, Donald Fitzgerald, Laurie Gallipo, David Gieseke, Joanne Gird, Ciera Green, Regina Jackmauh, Concetta Kopp, Auralie LaChance, Martha Leonard, Bill Mager, Ethel Morin, Rosemary Murak, Francine & Rita Nadeau, Mabel Ouellette, Laura Palmer, Donald Quist, Rob & Lilly, Bob & Gen Roy, Steven Solesky, Meghan Tully, Mary Winn, Heidi Wormstedt, and Deborah & James Wrann. Also, remember all health care workers, first responders, missionaries and those serving in the armed forces.

The Pastor’s Desk There’s a tradition that those of Irish descent observe this time of year called “Taking the Waters.” It’s based on the legend that when Mary of Nazareth was assumed into heaven, she wept tears for the beloved she was leaving behind and those tears fell into the oceans of the world. So each year, on the Feast of the Assumption, its be-lieved that the healing powers of that day long ago are stirred up again as many make pilgrimages to the sea to wade and swim. Some take containers of the special water to loved ones who can’t make the journey so they can share the healing graces. It’s such a Catholic gesture as the divine and human merge in a homey act of faith. When we celebrate the Assumption of Mary we tend to focus on the divine side since she was brought body and soul into heaven. Its a special gift for the mother of God’s Son who uniquely participates in his resurrection. But Luke’s gospel reminds us of the human parts too and how her life as a disciple of her son began before his birth. It starts with the visit of the angelic messenger as she tends to her daily tasks. Throughout the Annunciation encounter, Mary shows what it means to be a good listener, trying to understand the things she’s told. Once she hears then she speaks, filled with questions, some fear, and a final leap into the unknown. After he leaves, she lets his message sink in and focuses on the last part: that her older cousin was wrapped up in this incredible act too, with her own part to play as her little one grows into a prophet within her. Then Mary heads out, traveling to Elizabeth’s home so they can be together. Recently I was talking with a member of our community who’s been caring for her daughter’s large family as they struggle with the coronavirus. She and her husband contracted the virus last summer and have since been vaccinated. As she tends to her beloved ones, it’s been a challenging few weeks. Tired, she’s been there for them as they love her back, a vigil of compassion and shared support. It was this kind of time together that marked the visit of Mary and Elizabeth. They had much to tell each other and lots to figure out. And their graced lives mingled in an extraordinary way, leading to Mary’s song of hope, grounded in the hymns and ways of the anawim of Israel, the little folk who believed that the mighty one, the God of their ancestors, cared for them. They are the ones she speaks for, saying that God will lift them up when life is too heavy, feed them when they’re hungry for food and strength, remember them as de-scendants of the covenant people of the desert. Mary reaches back into the past, continuing the song of faith, magnificent words of quiet joy even as she looks to the future and the mission of her son as beatitude Lord of the poor. The past few months of the pandemic have been particularly hard for the people of the developing world. Not only do they have so few vaccines, but many live in extreme poverty. This is the case in Indo-nesia, an island country with the fifth largest global population filled with poor ones like Debi and his family, three generations living in a small house. Weeks ago he began to lose his sense of taste and smell, sure signs of Covid. But he couldn’t take time off from his job as a hotel handyman to get checked out and ended up passing on the disease to his baby Kimi, who died quickly. When the time came to lay her to rest his neighbors, fearful of the virus, refused to let her be buried in the village cemetery. Instead, her grave is just nearby, in a small plot. There Debi and his wife visit, placing their hands on it, sprinkling flower pedals. “She has a final resting place even though she’s all by herself,” he says. “We didn’t abandon her.” Neither has our God of the Magnificat who gathers up their waters and remembers them.

Scripture Readings - 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 50:4c-9a James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35

Worship at SMC Each week different disciples have been gathering to worship, choosing one or more of our various Mass times for sabbath prayer. It may be a weekend liturgy, with more people gathered, or a week-day Mass which is smaller and a little more quiet. Everyone decides on a time that suits them best while continuing to practice good stewardship in the Giving Boxes & Baskets, mailing or dropping off offerings to the parish office, or joining the Online Giving team..

Here’s some other practices we’re following during worship.

Entering & Sitting in Church – Please enter through one of the two side doors in the main foyer of St. Philip where the Giving Boxes are also located to share your stewardship gift of treasure. Following the new recommendations from the archdiocese, everyone is asked to please wear a face covering as we continue to be safe and prayerful, worshiping together during this latest Covid surge.

Communion Time – Ministers of the Eucharist will continue to wear face coverings and hand-sanitize before serving at commun-ion. Communion is received in the hands, flat and extended towards the minister. After receiving the host, each person is asked to step to the side, consume the host, and return to your seat. Then we all depart together, being safe - we care for one another here at SMC.

Connecting the Scriptures -

“Then will the ears of the deaf be cleared; the tongue of the mute will sing.” (Is 35:5)

Persons born deaf rarely learn to speak and only with great difficulty. It’s not hard to catch Mark’s application of this experience to the life of faith on this 23rd Sunday. “Be opened!” Jesus commands the deaf-mute man as he heals him. It is more than a physical healing. It is a sign of salva-tion: God's superabundant life breaking open the closed human condition. The summons of faith usually comes through a word heard and requires healing from spiritual deafness, being freed up by the Lord’s touch to receive the message fully and deeply. Any time is a good one to ask the risen Lord to bless us with the prayer, “Ephphatha” (“Be opened!”). That ena-bles us to communicate to others what we have heard. It is difficult to speak unless we hear.

The Sunday Website, Sept 5, 2021. All rights reserved.

“The Lord is my help, he is near upholding me.” (Is 50:7-8)

On Sunday OT24, the servant song from Isaiah

challenges us to be determined and committed in the

midst of difficulty and to be dedicated to what we be-

lieve even in the midst of opposition.

We live in a culture where we can encounter val-

ues different than our Christian values. The needs

and perspective of the poor are often ignored. The

“faith in practice” described by James in the second

reading is not always the value of our dominant cul-

ture. People of faith cannot ignore the needs of those

without food or clothing or shelter. We are called to

have a special concern for those who are poor or

struggling.

Education for Justice, Sept 13, 2015. All rights reserved.

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Use prayer to harmonize with God

Many mornings, before my family gets up, I walk out of the bedroom, go outside, kneel down, and pray. I pray because I do not know what else to do. I am overwhelmed. I talk to God because only God can listen. Only God knows. And, as Black preachers have said for centuries, only God can make a way out of no way. I open my deepest self—in all of my brokenness and wounds, darkness and light, concerns and anxieties—to the living God of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I have words. Sometimes I do not. Sometimes I improvise linguistic sounds into prayer like a jazz saxophonist or a blues guitarist. Sometimes I remain silent. But always I seek to shed my daily disguise and be fully transparent before God. At times that disguise includes more “traditional” prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Litany of Saints. Obviously, these prayers have deep wisdom and resonance. They are valuable. This time, however, is not the time for such prayers. At least not for me. Now is the time for a kind of spontaneous, improvised prayer in the literal sense: a full uncovering of oneself to God called “suffering unto God.” That is, crying out to God while clinging to God. Or raging at God while relying upon God. Through the crying out I become honest, respectful, and integrated before God. And in response God celebrates this honesty, respect, and integrity with healing, guidance, and new life. In praying like this, I have learned that prayer ends neither with the conversation nor with cries and anguish. It continues long after the “Amen” and the sign of the cross. Prayer disciplines and attunes me to where and how God’s spirit is moving in the world. That is, the God who is “new each moment” and who “does not want humankind to suffer,” as Dominican Father Edward Schillebeeckx once observed. In praying like this, I better understand what St. Paul meant by “pray without ceasing.” A person becomes a living prayer, a small sacrament of salvation who just might be able to exist in a moment as fully human in a way that is joyful to God and life-giving to others. As St. Irenaeus said, “God’s glory is the human creature fully alive.” Such prayer enables me to discern how to think and act in ways that might harmonize with the flow of God’s spirit. We in the United States are living through a time when things are falling apart. Our choices, past and present, have consequences, and we are suffering because of these choices. I feel this each morning as I smell the morning air, kneel down, raise my hands, and try to speak with God. Such a time also means that the possibilities for a renewed society, a more just and humane society, are knocking at our door. They are alive and waiting to be realized. If we attune ourselves more acutely to God’s spirit, even in seemingly small or insignificant ways, our future may yet be bright. I sense this too in the mornings as I attempt to pray. So perhaps the most appropriate response comes from Lutheran minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “I do not understand Your ways. But You know the way for me.” For all of us. Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to follow your spirit. Teach us to walk in justice, mercy, and humbleness wherever you may lead. For your path is our salvation. Amen.

Kevin P. Considine, “Catholic Voices” in US Catholic, 4/5/21. All rights reserved.

Mass Intentions

Saturday, September 4 4:00PM +Memorial for Frances Keenan requested by the Teixeira and Maslow families

Sunday, September 5 8:30AM +Departed Members of Saint Marianne Cope

10:30AM +Departed Members of Saint Marianne Cope

Tuesday, September 7 6:00PM +Memorial for Deacon Carmen Guzzardi requested by Sue Cote Saturday, September 11 4:00PM +Departed Members of Saint Marianne Cope

Sunday, September 12 8:30AM +Departed Members of Saint Marianne Cope

10:30AM +Memorial for Clifford Gardner requested by Allen and Carmen Pinette

Parish Sharing & Support (Aug 15 - 29)

Weekly Offertory - $6,701 Online Giving - $2,222 Holy Day Offertory - $798 Haiti Relief Collection - $792

(Thank you for sharing your gift of treasure with our parish.)

SMC Outdoor Mass 2021 On Sunday, Sept 19, the 10:30 Mass will be

celebrated outdoors at St. Philip Church. Bring a

lawn chair and picnic lunch as we gather spaced

safely, praising God for the autumn season. Bottled

water, snack packs, and ice cream treats will be

provided. Sign-up sheets to help out can be found on the tables in the main foyer and the wooden

shelves in the side foyers at all Masses. Mark your

calendars for this prayerful, fun event as our Faith

Formation families start off their new year too. We’ll

also bless our catechists who will share their time

and faith with our kids in the coming days!

A Labor Day Prayer -

“By our work, we participate as co-creators of God’s Kingdom.” - Pope John Paul II

Loving God, thank you for the grace of work.

You create each one of us with talents and gifts,

calling us to use them in the service of hope and justice.

As we reflect on our Church’s teachings,

we pray for those currently employed

and ask that they enjoy all the rights to which

workers are entitled.

We pray for those who are unemployed, seeking work;

grace them with strength so they do not despair.

Gift us with good work and jobs well done.

God of creation, hear our prayer. Amen.