A Pennsylvania Charitable Trust

December 16/17, 2017 Third Sunday of Advent

WEEKEND MINISTERS - December 23/24

4:30PM - Eucharistic Ministers Judi Valvo, John Vitullo, Ray Werner Lector - Kristen Dotterway Altar Servers - Elizabeth Boal, Aaron Maricic

Head Usher - Mike DiCarlo 9:30AM - Eucharistic Ministers Bernadette Baznik, Larry Carra, Nancy Carra Lector - Felix Fusco Altar Servers - Laura Cronkhite, Ron Lomis

Head Usher - Vince Gori

MISSION STATEMENT We are a Family,

United in the Eucharist,

Guided by the Holy Spirit,

Called by Jesus Christ to Grow

in Faith, Love and Prayer

in Harmony with the

Universal Catholic Church

We will achieve our parish mission by worshipping together and working to evangelize, educate and serve

each other and the entire community.

PASTOR: Rev. Charles J. Baptiste STUDENT RESIDENT PRIEST: Rev. Fortunatus Mugisha BUSINESS MANAGER: Kathleen Ulmer SECRETARY: Marie Perticone MUSIC MINISTRY: Sean Thornton BUILDINGS & GROUNDS: Amy Ference HOMEBOUND MINISTRY: Beverly Mazza SAFE ENVIRONMENT COORDINATOR: Lorraine Carter ABUSE HOTLINE: 1-800-932-0313 VICTIM ASSISTANCE HOTLINE: 1-888-808-1235 MASSES: Saturday 4:30PM (Sunday Vigil) Sunday 9:30AM Weekdays 7:00PM (Monday) 8:00AM (Tuesday thru Friday) RECONCILIATION: After Mass on Monday Evenings & 12:30PM Saturdays BAPTISMS: Call the Parish Office to schedule a class; then a day and time. WEDDINGS: Call the Parish Office at least six months in advance. The Diocese requires each couple to attend a pre-marriage course. ST. CLARE CEMETERY: Worthington Ave. For Information regarding St. Clare Cemetery, call Catholic Parish Cemeteries Association at 412-256-9370.

St. Clare of Assisi Parish

Parish Office: 460 Reed Street Clairton PA 15025

Phone: 412-233-7870 Fax: 412-233-0742

Office Hours: Mondays - Thursdays 8AM-2PM

CLOSED Fridays

Email: stclareparish2@comcast.net

December 16/December 17 4:30PM For the Parishioners 9:30AM Vincent DiLonardo (Pat Yekich) MONDAY, December 18 - Advent Weekday 7:00PM Catherine (Rothbauer) Cassinelli, Floyd A. Cassinelli, & Nancy (Cassinelli) Cost (Nancy & Floyd) TUESDAY, December 19 - Advent Weekday 8:00AM Sophie Jupin (Bob & Donna Bell) WEDNESDAY, December 20 - Advent Weekday 8:00AM Geroge Kacmarik, Jr. (Sister, Marlene Kacmarik) THURSDAY, December 21 - Advent Weekday 8:00AM For the Benefactors of St. Clare of Assisi & Their Intentions FRIDAY, December 22- Advent Weekday 8:00AM Special Intention (Mary Piroch) SATURDAY, December 23 12:30 PM Reconciliation FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - December 23/24/25 4:30PM For the Parishioners (Saturday Liturgy) 9:30AM For the Parishioners (Sunday Liturgy) 4:30PM For the Parishioners (Sunday Christmas Eve Liturgy) 10:00PM For the Parishioners (Sunday Christmas Eve Liturgy) 9:30AM For the Parishioners (Monday, Christmas Day Liturgy)

John 1:6-8, 19-28

THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS - December 16/17 Pages 40-41

NEXT SUNDAY’S READINGS - December 23/24

2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b, 14a, 16 – Page 42 Romans 16:25-27 – Page 43

Luke 1:26-38 – Page 43

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17

10:45AM - Counting Team #3 9:15-10:45AM - CCD - Grades K-4 - Holy Spirit Church

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19

2PM - Liturgy - Arden Court Nursing Home 7-8:15PM - CCD - Grades 5-8 - Holy Spirit Church

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20

6:30PM - Choir Practice

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21

First Day of Winter Last Day to Purchase Oplatky

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23

12:30PM - Reconciliation

Reflection: Worth Repeating?!

How is your Advent Journey coming along? Are you recognizing any more desire or intimacy for our Lord? Seems society has placed in the journey, with its own demands, or expectations, an obstacle to the real intention of this season. Society has made this an even more difficult time to reach our true goals of being one with our Lord. How many times have you been exasperated this Advent season? Since only preaching at one Mass last Sunday, I wanted to share with the rest of you what I shared with those who attended the Saturday evening Mass. I feel there was something to learn from an experience I had with teaching second graders about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Their admittance was to a certain distancing of themselves from those who love them most when they sinned. This made it clear to me that we adults might not be far from them in our relationship with God and, or oftentimes, each other. We spoke about the journey of Adam and Eve. They, of course, knew the story well. ‘Were Adam and Eve afraid of God’?, I asked. Before they took the ‘apple from the tree’ of which God told them not eat its fruits, were they afraid? ‘No’, they replied, ‘they walked with God every day’! ‘What happened when they ate the fruit?’ ‘The serpent made them do it’, they said! Oh, I thought, blame! ‘Ok then, what happened when God came to walk with them’? I asked. They said, ‘They hid from him.’ Why? Looking down, they said, in their own words, ‘embarrassed’. ‘What did God do’?, I asked. They said, ‘He called for them and looked for them’. Hmmm, God still looked for them, had a desire to be with them still, yet the sinners were the ones who pulled away and hid. Is this not true also for us? This season, as in Lent, is a time not necessarily to feel remorse and remain in hiding, but a time to admit our failings and walk with the Lord in the garden again. Adam and Eve no longer enjoyed the beauty of creation after they sinned. Now everything was a burden, an obstacle that got in their way of trying to find purpose without the One who gave them life and purpose in the first place. What a shame. For most of us—no, all of us—have sinned and have drawn back, away from the One who loves us; who still searches us out. Some believe they have sinned too gravely for God to have mercy on them. At other times, we justify our sins to ourselves saying it didn’t really hurt anyone, yet at the same time, again, pull away from the intimacy Our Lord desires to give us and from us. We justify ourselves, by saying, ‘I am only human’, but that in itself is another lie. We, as the baptized, are also one with God in His divinity, not just in humanity. I think, our self-justification, as it was for Adam and Eve, in their blaming each other and the serpent, keeps us, at

what we think, is a safe distance from our God. We believe he is going to take revenge on us. Others will endlessly rationalize everything as if their actions affect no one else. I don’t know what to think about those kinds of thoughts, or people. Asking the second graders what they did when they lied or did something wrong to each other, or their parents and grandparents, they put their heads down. I asked, ‘do you hide from them or stay away’? They just nodded, yes. Did you think your parents would hate you‘? Quietly, they said, ‘No’. Do you ask for forgiveness sometimes? ‘Yes’, they replied. Do they still love you? ‘Yeeesss’ they embarrassedly, but happily replied. The scriptures are written for us through human hands, inspired by God. They are written so that we can understand, at least to some small degree, the love and greatness of our God. Because of those scriptures, I think these little ones will make a good First Reconciliation when it comes time. Couldn’t we learn from them and accept the forgiveness they received from those who love them most on this earth? All sin; there is no private sin, affects our relationship with God and others. Sin affects the way we relate to those around us. The Sacrament of Reconciliation brings that sin to the priest, who in this moment of grace, represents the whole community of the Body of Christ and forgives the repentant sinner as the spokesperson for the living Body of Christ, acting in the person of Christ in the Sacrament. We can receive that grace from the One who loves us at all times. May we all stop running from the truth. May we all run toward the infant unafraid of the One who longs for Our embrace. Peace, Fr. Chuck

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FISCAL YEAR JULY 2017 - JUNE 2018

Budgeted Weekly Offering Required ….... $ 5,249.00 Actual Weekly Offering (Dec. 9/10) …….. $ 4,786.50 Weekly Deficit …………………………….. $ - 462.50 Parish Share 2017 YTD ………………….. $ 28,716.00 Cemetery Envelopes 2017 YTD ..….…..... $ 8,564.00

OFFERTORY COLLECTION

Barbara Antrom, Pete Azzari, Fr. Chuck Baptiste, Joseph Bacha, Eleanor Berggren, Karen Berosky, Frances Bindas, Caden Boring,

Cullen Boring, Maria Campano, Loretto Joseph Capaccia, Gloria Cerasoli, Fran Colonna, Maria Conedera, Paul DeDominicis, Michael DiCarlo, Anne Donnelly, Matthew Duymic, Sheila Eddy,

Rebecca Farabaugh, Irene Fera, Meryl Ferrare, Anthony Gambino, Kathleen Geletko, Rudy (Blu Jay) Gori, Genevieve Hartman, Marie Hodge,

Henry Holland, Richard Jenkins, Joseph Julian, Paul Julian, Off. James Kuzak Jr., Leo Lindley, Edward Lis, Frances Lofstrom, Ed Lucot,

William Marcus, Desiree Medina, Audrey Mihalko, Sandra Milas, Daryl Mitchell, Mary Ann Mitko, Rev. Peter Murphy, Lucille Nero, Eleanor Niccoli, Judy Nolder, Martha Pastorik, Barbara Pavlack, Lou Pavlack Jr., Aldia Pavlik, Virginia Perlick, Sylvia Pittman, Nancy Razorsek, Candi Riggan, Devin Riggan, Betty Rothbauer,

Edgar Shandel, Fr. Angelus Shaughnessy, Mary Ellen Skop, Elizabeth Slivan, Kathleen Slivan, John Sorrentino, Lillian Sorrentino, Cathy Speer, Kenneth Speer,

Kathy Tachoir, Rayne Tortorice, Catherine Vukovich, Mary Ann Walker, Raymond Werner, Rita York, Mary Zwack

~ and all Names and Intentions listed in our Prayer Request Book

Our Sick and Shut-ins ...

Family members of our parishioners serving in the military:

Dante Capane, Richard Cronkhite, Tara Felker,

Michael Goliat, Jason Middleton, Garrett Santoline, Michael Santoline, Anthony Svetz, Luke Thornton,

Zachary Thornton, Andrew West, Jeffery West

Our Recently Departed …

The SECOND COLLECTION NEXT weekend (December 24 & Christmas Day) will be for the Christmas Charities for Children & Youth. Donations

received in this envelope are credited towards our PSP goal.

This week, please pray for Seminarian ...

Jacob H. Gruber from St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish

George Buches, Carmel Donnelly (Former Parishioner)

Robert Hagedorn (Former Parishioner

& Son-in Law of Norma Gecan†)

Edward Zemprelli, Esq. (Former Parishioner)

CHRISTMAS MINISTERS Sunday, December 24 - Christmas Eve

4:30PM - EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS

Rebecca Farabaugh, Desirée Medina, George Medina

LECTOR - Gary Toth ALTAR SERVERS - Elizabeth Boal, Denise Boring

HEAD USHER - Mike DiCarlo 10:00PM - EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS

Tom Caldwell, Br. Raymond Reitmeyer, Marlene Senko LECTOR - Eileen Poorman

ALTAR SERVERS - Elizabeth Marsh, Kevin Stretavski HEAD USHER- Vince Gori

Monday, December 25 - Christmas Day 9:30AM - EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS

Bernadette Baznik, Larry Carra, Nancy Carra

LECTOR - John Baltrus ALTAR SERVERS - Laura Cronkhite, Ron Lomis

HEAD USHER - Mike DiCarlo

Next Drawing: Friday, December 29 Entered to Date: 77

CONCERNING OUR FUNDRAISERS

A Memorial Funeral Mass for

Robert Hagedorn

will be celebrated on Saturday, December 23 at 10AM

I once heard of a little boy who refused to say his evening prayers one night; not out of defiance, but simply because he couldn’t think of anything he wanted. He didn’t see much point in praying when there wasn’t anything to ask for. When his mother heard his dilemma, she suggested he give thanks for all the things he had instead. So the little boy got on his knees and thanked the Lord for everything he could think of ~ from his favorite toy to the fact he wasn't blind like the boy down the street. His evening prayers were longer that night, because he was thankful for more than he wanted. We often have the opposite dilemma. We find it hard to pray; not because we don’t have anything to ask for, but because we are too disheartened to pray. Our prayers seem to hit a stone ceiling; our prayers go unanswered for years; or we simply don’t receive the peace we used to enjoy in these times of prayer. But maybe we can’t pray, because we’ve forgotten to be thankful. Like this little boy, what if we took some time and turned our prayers into words of only thanks? When you pray today, don’t ask for one single thing. JUST GIVE THANKS. While you drive to work, list one thing after another you’re grateful for, and thank the Lord only. When you have a few quiet moments, think of things you know are gifts …

and ONLY THANK the Lord.

When you can’t pray, simply give thanks. Your prayers might be longer than usual,

because you find yourself thankful for more than you want.

When you can’t Pray ... Give Thanks

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BILLBOARD SIGNS FROM GOD

“Everyone you meet,

deserves to be greeted with a smile.”

- God

CONCERNING OUR PARISH & COMMUNITY

PARISH MEMBERSHIP FORM Registering at our Parish is a declaration of your desire to be part of a Catholic community.

We extend a warm welcome and hope you will find our Parish Community a place where your faith will be nourished.

If you are moving into, or out of the Parish, please let us know. Fill out this Form and return it to the Parish Office.

NAME______________________________________________ADDRESS__________________________________________ TELEPHONE________________________________________ __________________________________________ Check One: New________ Change of Address________ Moving out of Parish________ Want Envelopes________

Rachel’s Vineyard, a weekend retreat designed to heal the emotional and spiritual wounds of abortion, will be held on March 2-4, 2018 at Tabor House in Millvale. In a confidential and supportive atmosphere, Rachel’s Vineyard demonstrates God’s love, forgiveness and compassion to women (and men) struggling with abortion’s aftermath. To register or for more information, call Toni Jester at 412-352-5348, or email: toniafj1@comcast.net. Retreat brochures are on the Credenza in the Church Vestibule.

Ascension Church is still selling frozen Potato and Sweet Cabbage Pierogies for $8 a dozen. Call Karen at 412-233-2711 or John at 412-233-4155 to place an order and to arrange for a pick-up.

In All Circumstances Give Thanks—For people of faith, thanksgiving is not just a day in November when we gather with family and loved ones to eat turkey and stuffing and watch football. Instead, thankfulness is one of the foundational

virtues of our lives. In our prayer, we give thanks as we recognize the many ways God is at work. In the Eucharist, which itself means “to give thanks,” we offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for what we consider the joys and blessings of our lives. Yet, are we thankful for the difficulties and challenges? In today’s readings, St. Paul exhorts us to give thanks in all circumstances, recognizing the constant work of the Holy Spirit within and among us. As we journey On Mission for The Church Alive! we reflect with thankful hearts on how our parishes have supported and inspired our faith. And, as we prepare for the changes to come, may our gratitude for God’s constant work in our lives encourage us as we build up new communities of faith. To learn more, visit: onmissionchurchalive.org.

Marriage MOMENTS The Christmas season is traditionally a “family

focused” time and for many people, that means focusing

on children. For newly marrieds, this might be a cozy time

of couple bonding, but for couples longing for children, it

can be a bittersweet time. Remember each other. Parenting POINTERS Christmas is close but it’s not here yet. Although

meeting the needs of the extended family sometimes

means celebrating Christmas before December 25. To get

the full value of Advent, one must wait—expectantly if not

patiently. Waiting is an important life skill and Advent is a

good time to learn it. Family PERSPECTIVE The question put to Jesus in today’s Gospel is also

put to us today: “Are you the one?” Are you the one who

will give guidance to the children in your life, or must they

look to TV sitcoms, films, videos and music lyrics for

direction? Are you the one? Will you be the one?

WeThank Our Bulletin Sponsor This Week

PETERSEN MACHINE SHOP, INC.

Christmas Prayer for Impatient Customers and Frazzled Postal Employees

God our Father, may everything we do be first class. Imprint your own loving zip code upon our hearts so that we may never go astray. Provide in your gracious Providence, special handling for those of us who are fragile and keep in one piece. And when our days draw to a close and we are marked “Return to Sender”, be there to greet us at Heaven’s Door so that nobody may ever say “Unknown at This Address.”

An atheist complained to a Christian friend, ... “You Christians have your special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Jews celebrate their national holidays, such as Passover and Yom Kippur. But we atheists have no recognized national holidays. It’s unfair discrimination.” His friend replied, … “Why don’t you celebrate April 1st?”