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A Time for Giving
Advent is a time for preparation to receive to Lord at
Christmas. One way to make room for Jesus is to share our blessings
with others. The St. Francis Center in Vinton County needs our help
again this year to provide for needy children through their "Santa's
Workshop". They can use new shoes and boots, warm clothing, and
new toys for infants and children up to twelve years old. They
respectfully ask that toys guns, wrestling figures, and any other violent
toys be excluded from donations. Because Advent is shorter than usual
this year, please bring your unwrapped gift to the crib in the back corner
of church by Sunday, December 9th. We will
then deliver your gifts to Sister Linda and her volunteers in McArthur to
help provide a blessed Christmas for many families. Thank you for
remembering the less fortunate during this holy season.
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Advent Sunday Funday
What: Pancake Breakfast, Advent
Crafts, Christmas Shopping, Fellowship
When: Sunday, December 2, 9AM-1PM
Where: the Parish Hall
Why: It is fun and uplifting way to
get into the spirit of the Advent season with your family and friends.
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150th Anniversary
Our Lady of
Lourdes
On Friday, December 7th at 6:30 PM,
Bishop Frederick F. Campbell will be celebrating the Vigil Mass of the
Immaculate Conception. This mass will be the beginning of our
parish's celebration of the 150th anniversary of Our Lady's
apparition to St. Bernadette at Lourdes. There will be a reception
following the mass.
The newsletter will feature a series of articles about
St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes throughout the 2007-2008 liturgical
year.
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Baptisms
| Madison Nicole Mathias |
Sept 8, 2007 |
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Weddings
John Hintz
and Jennifer Knotek |
Sept 8, 2007 |
Christopher Petro-Roy
and Sonja Kidder |
Oct 6, 2007 |
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Funerals
James J. Mahon
| June 29, 2007 |
James E. Given
| Sept 8, 2007 |
Dottie Schmelzer
| Sept 13, 2007 |
Isaac N. Boley
| Sept 20, 2007 |
Harold Schwendeman
| Oct 26, 2007 |
Angela Gildow
| Nov 9, 2007 |
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Bloodmobile Update
by Joyce Guenther
Thanks to everyone who helped with my Birthday
Bloodmobile in August. We collected 62 unites of blood (and
$250) for the American Red Cross.
The Red Cross has asked us to host another
bloodmobile this winter. We are scheduled for Saturday, February
23, 2008, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the Parish Hall. Central
Ohio uses 650 units of blood every day, for transfusions for surgery,
car and industrial accidents, chemotherapy patients and blood disorders.
Fairfield Medical Center alone uses over 7000 unites every year.
In order to keep this valuable commodity available, please
consider donating blood.
We will also need volunteers and donations of
food for the participants. Thanks so much for everyone's help.
For more information, or to schedule an appointment,
contact Joyce Guenther at 974-5040 or at joyceguenther@msn.com.
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Mark Your Calendars
Teen-Led Mass
February 3, 2008
11:30 AM
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A Sincere
Thank You to:
The Casto Family
and
The Saddler Family
for helping to assemble the
last edition of Parish Notes
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What if ...
Jesus Were Here at St. Bernadette
Would you be able to spare an hour to be with Him?
Jesus is present in our church each and every day in the
Blessed Sacrament. Our parish has made a commitment to the Perpetual
Adoration of our Lord. When you come to adoration, you are keeping
Him company - in adoration, contemplation, and prayer. There are
currently vacant slots in our adoration program, primarily during the
overnight hours. Please prayerfully consider if the Lord is calling
you to this ministry. Call Dr. and Mrs. Merk at 654-3255 for further
details.
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150th Anniversary Celebration of
Our
Lady of Lourdes
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
To become
the mother of the Savior, Mary was given special gifts by God. The
angel Gabriel told her she was "full of grace." Through the
centuries, the Church has become more and more aware that Mary was redeemed
from the moment of her conception. In 1854, Pope Pius proclaimed
this dogma: "The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, was, from the first
moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God
and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race,
preserved immune from all stain of original sin." And by the
grace of God, Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life.
OUR LADY OF LOURDES AND ST. BERNADETTE
It
was four years that Mary proclaimed to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette
Soubirous, in Lourdes, France: "I am the Immaculate Conception." It
was in the middle of winter on February 11, 1858, when Bernadette,
accompanied by her sister and a friend, went to the cave of Massabielle, an
area outside the town of Lourdes. As she was gathering firewood, she
suddenly heard a sound like a gust of wind. She looked up and saw a
lady dressed in a white dress and a blue belt, a white veil, and a yellow
rose on each foot. The Lady made a beautiful sign of the cross and they
recited the rosary together. Then the Lady disappeared. This
first meeting with the Blessed Virgin Mary was followed by seventeen other
meetings at the Grotto. It was not until the sixteenth apparition, on
the feast of the Annunciation, March 25, that Mary finally answered Bernadette's
repeated question and revealed her identity as the Mother of God. In
the meantime, however, the miraculous spring had begun to flow and healings
began to occur. The Church officially approved the apparitions in
1862. Bernadette was beatified in 1925 and canonized on the Feast
of the Immaculate Conception in 1933. Over six million pilgrims now
visit Lourdes each year.
NATIONAL AND LOCAL CELEBRATIONS
Today there are almost 1,000
parishes, schools, hospitals, and associations throughout our country bearing
the names of Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Bernadette, and Immaculate Conceptions. One
purpose of the Jubilee Year Celebration in 2008 is to proclaim the message
of Lourdes and share it relevance with today's world. On February
11, 2008, the anniversary date of the first apparition of Our Lady to Bernadette,
Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl will celebrate the 150th Anniversary
Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
in Washington D.C. This Mass also marks the World Day of the Sick, as
proclaimed by Pope John Paul II. Mass will be at 11:00 AM. All
are invited, most especially the sick.
Here in our own parish named for St. Bernadette, we will "kick off"
the 150th Anniversary with a family liturgy on Friday evening,
December 7, 2007, the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, at 6:30 p.m.
LETTER AND PRAYER FOR THE ANNIVERSARY
The Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the United States. It is
right that she should have a special place in the hearts of American Catholics.
Letter from Cardinal George:
As we begin the observance of the
150th anniversary if the apparition at Lourdes, I invite you to
consider how you might mark this occasion within your own family and
community. Our Lady gives great graces to those who place themselves
under the patronage of her Immaculate Conception; this I know personally as
my religious community has done so, as has the Archdiocese of Chicago, where
I serve as Archbishop.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Mary's apparition to
St. Bernadette in Lourdes. Your faith will surely grow from reflecting
more deeply on the gifts that Lourdes has brought to the Church and to the
world. God bless you.
Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago
Prayer from the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception:
Most
Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary
Immaculate in order that she may present the country to you. Through
the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church of America. Protect
the family life of the nation. Guard the innocence of our children. Grant
the precious gift of many religious vocations.
Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, the
tempted, sinners - on all who are in need. Mary Immaculate Virgin, Our
Mother, Patroness of our land, pray for us.
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Reflection from Sister Nancy
... [Resurrection] is a reality that gives meaning to all
of life here and now, here and everywhere. Therefore, we can assign
universal and cosmic dimensions to the mystery of resurrection. But
before the resurrection will be experienced in any dimension, there must come
dying, for death is the passage that leads to life.
Jesus died, to his own will so he might accept God's
will fully. He died too soon, too terribly, too sadly, and all this
for us. He died to bring forgiveness to sinners, life to the lost and
love to the unlovable. In following him, therefore, we too shall die -
not just at the end of our time her on earth but as part of the process of
becoming more like the One who died for us. Perhaps our dying might not
be as dramatic and tragic as that of Jesus... More probably it will be
tedious, mundane and lacking in drama. Nevertheless, it is though
dying, all kinds of dying, that we prepare to enter the experience of
resurrection...
[For example,] those who marry begin a new life together, but
not without dying to themselves. Marriage puts an end to the word "I"
with its new vocabulary of "we" and "us" and "you." My
self, my preferences, my opinions, my choices, my desires must necessarily yield
to the other, who because of my love has become foremost.
With parenthood also follows a dying to my free time, my
solitude, my peace and quiet, my expensive hobbies, my desire for freedom
from responsibilities. With all the joys they bring into the lives of
their parents, children also bring with them the opportunities for self-sacrifice
and daily dying that every parent is willing to do for love...
There is also a dying inherent in growing older; as each
year and every illness and ache sap strength and vigor. There is a
dying when plans don't work out or when a business fails. There
is a dying when parents grow old and ill and are no longer the rocks on whom
we can rely and the bottomless resource upon whom we can always depend for
support. This is a dying when friendship is broken or ended. There
is a dying when divorce ends a marriage and disrupts a family. When
loved ones die, the finality of their dying forces its ultimate and most difficult
test upon our belief in the resurrection.
It is that very belief that sustains us and sees us through
these various kinds of dying. The true miracle [of the resurrection of
Jesus] is what this action reveals: the illogical and humanly inconceivable
love of God. In spite of the evil, ugliness and pain of this world,
in spite of our failures, our refusals to love, our violence and destructiveness - God
loves us and remains at the center of our reality, keeping watch over all. Jesus
came to reveal this love... We are called to do the same: to reveal God's
love in all we say and do and to respond to God's love with all that we are
and shall become.
Excerpted from Preaching Resource for the 32nd Sunday in
Ordinary Time (11/11/2007) by Patricia Sanchez in Celebration,
November, 2007.
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St. Bernadette Working
To Purchase a
New
Digital Organ
As part of the renovation of the music area in
our church's worship space, the decision has been made to purchase a new
digital organ to replace the electronic keyboard. The electronic keyboard
is rarely used as its sound has not effectively supported singing during the
liturgy.
An organ will enhance our liturical music by
allowing us to play each hymn on the instrument for which it was composed (usually
organ or piano). It will also allow our parish to celebrate all of its
liturgies in harmony with the universal church's guidelines for liturgical
music, which state that the organ is to be held in high esteem. They also
state that it is also appropriate to use additional instrumentation (piano,
brass, woodwind, other percussion, etc.) as is appropriate to the musical
customs of a local parish culture. The organ will add a solemnity and
versatility which will be a huge asset to our already diverse liturgical
music program.
As the purchase of high quality instruments is
a costly endeavor, the parish will be seeking your assistance with this
project. As we enter the last month of the calendar year, you may be
looking for an appropriate avenue for a tax-deductible end of year donation. Please
prayerfully consider contributing to this project as way of having a lasting
positive impact upon our parish community. If you wish to make a
donation to the organ fund, please contact Father Walter at the parish office.
Further information will be forthcoming in the
parish bulletin as well as in the next edition of this newsletter.
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Christmas Mass Schedule
Christmas Vigil Mass: Monday 12/24 at 5:30 PM
Prelude begins at 5:00 PM with the St. Bernadette Youth Choir
Christmas Vigil Mass: Monday 12/24 at 7:30 PM
with simple hymns led by Fr. Walter
Christmas Day: Tuesday 12/25 at 12:00 AM (Midnight Mass)
Carols and Readings at 11:30 PM with St. Bernadette Adult Choir
Christmas Day: Tuesday 12/25 at 10:00 AM
Music provided by Liz Latorre (cantor), Ann Essman (piano),
and Judy Rehrer (flute)
Feast of the Holy Family: Sunday 12/30
Saturday at 4:30 PM, and Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:30 AM
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God: Tuesday 1/10
Monday at 6:30 PM, and Tuesday at 10:00 AM
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