The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad, or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know. Council of Catholic Women The Council of Catholic Women will meet after the 10:30 Mass next Sunday. Please pick up your brunch and attend the meeting.

Discovering Christ
The Discovering Christ program, a 7-session adult education series will kick off October 2nd at 6:00 pm. This evangelization process is the first of a 3-part series that we will explore this year. In addition, other topics of interest will be presented on weeks when Discovering Christ is not presented.

Questions about Catholicism?
Beginning on Wednesday October 3rd at 6:00 pm, and continuing through the winter, we will be offering an opportunity to learn more about the Catholic faith. No prior experience or homework required. All are welcome!!!!!

 
Youth religious education will begin on October 7th at 9:15 am, prior to the 10:30 Mass. Please tell your friends and all the young people that classes are starting and that all are welcome.


“Every day we have a decision to make: Will I rise up and follow Jesus today? The choice is ours” “God will give you exactly what you need, even if it is not what you desire or expect.”

Parking Lot Paving
The numbers say that we have reached our initial goal for the parking lot paving. The conduits with water and electrical are in along the sidewalk and the bases for the parking lot lighting are in. Solar lights are being contemplated for further out in the lot to avoid trenching. Now is time to pray for good weather to allow the pavers to do their thing. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!

Knights & Ad Space
The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad,
or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know.

RCIA Sponsors

Do you know someone who is interested in learning about the Catholic Church? Have you ever considered being a sponsor to help them through their discernment?
Why not consider bringing your friend to RCIA beginning Oct. 3rd at 6:00 pm?


September - The Month of Our Lady of Sorrows

The Church dedicates the month of September to Our Lady of Sorrows. This devotion recalls the Blessed Virgin Mary’s spiritual martyrdom in
virtue of her perfect union with the Passion of Christ. This was her role in salvation history,
and what merited her place as the spiritual Mother of all Christians.
This is symbolized by a single sword, or seven swords, piercing Mary's suffering heart, as foretold in Simeon's prophecy. Traditionally the Church meditates on the "Seven Sorrows" of our Blessed Mother: the prophecy of Simeon;
the Holy Family's flight into Egypt; the loss of the Child Jesus for three days;
the meeting of Mary and Jesus as he carried his cross; Jesus' crucifixion and death;
Jesus' sacred body taken down from the cross; and Jesus' burial.
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is September 15th.


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Exaltation of the Holy Cross- Sept. 14th Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.”

To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.

Reflection
The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome’s authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine’s edict of toleration.

Back to School Needs

Donations from Holy Family and other churches resulted in donations to 7 schools in the Valley and to the Afton food bank. School supplies consisted of 86 spiral notebooks, 33 pencil pouches, 44 composition notebooks, 28 packages of paper, 20 packages of markers, 12 Clorox wipes containers, 4 sets of permanent markers, 19 packages of pens, 127 boxes of crayons, 93 boxes of colored pencils, 22 packages of pink erasers, 69 pairs of scissors, 9 dry erase marker sets, 33 dry erase eraser sets, 59 backpacks, 69 bottles of glue, 78 headphones, 10 sets of earbuds, 28 rulers, and over 200 glue sticks.
Thank you Holy Family!

Parking Lot Paving
Since the Finance Council approved the paving of the parking lot on August 5th, you have donated $10,082.00. Our goal is to raise at least $11,000 to meet the paving challenge. This past week the area along the sidewalk was trenched to allows placing conduit for lights
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!

Knights & Ad Space
The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad, or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know. Holy Family Survey The additional Sunday Mass will be discussed in the clergy meeting on September 7th for inclusion in the June thru September 2019 calendar. The additional Mass has been a success and points up the need for more priestly presence plus a close look at the possibility of “canned” music. We will be working on our religious education program before classes start in early October.

Discovering Christ

The Discovering Christ program, a 7-session adult education series will kick off October 2nd at 6:00 pm. This evangelization process is the first of a 3-part series that we will explore this year. In addition, other topics of interest will be presented on weeks when
Discovering Christ is not presented.

 

Back to School Needs



You responded most generously to help needy children in the Valley with school supplies. A large box of items and a check for $100 were delivered last Tuesday. Thank you so much.

Parking Lot Paving



On August 5th, the Finance Council approved the bid to pave the parking lot. On that day we were made aware of a challenge to match $11,000 - dollar for dollar. On the 5th our building fund donations were $217.00. On the 12th, the building fund received $3825.00 and last Sunday the collection for the building fund was $3330.00. At this pace we should have the lot paved and hopefully lighting installed. The bonus is watching the challengers sweat as you respond so generously. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!


Holy Family Survey
The most glaring omission from our survey was liturgical music. We have been encouraged to use “canned” music if needed and to encourage more people to become involved in music ministry. Our two Sunday morning masses point out our need to “grow” our music group. Adult education will kick off with the “Discovering Christ” program on October 2nd at 6:00 pm. Details will be in the bulletin in upcoming weeks. We will also update you on feedback and resulting changes that will be implemented from your comments.
 

FORMED.org (54063) - The 13th Day
Discover the Incredible Story of Our Lady of Fatima

When the world was torn apart by persecution, war and oppression, three children in Fatima, Portugal were chosen by God to offer an urgent message of hope. The film, The 13th Day dramatizes the true story of the six apparitions of Our Lady between May and October 1917, which culminated in the final prophesied Miracle of the Sun on October 13. WATCH NOW!

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Friday, August 31
Dinner at 6:00 pm for $8.00
Bingo at 6:45 pm for $25.00

Homemade Artisan pizza on the grill!!!
Pepporoni & mushroom or Margarita Pizza

Salad Bar

Homemade cupcakes and ice-cream!

 

Back to School Needs

Thank you for your support of the needy school children in the Valley. The supplies will be allocated on Thursday evening and distributed to the schools.
 

Bulletin Ads

The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad, or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know.

Parking Lot Paving

The Finance Council has approved paving the parking lot this year, if sufficient funds are raised. In round numbers, the Building Fund has $35,000. The bid is $55,000, so we need to raise $20,000 to complete the paving this year. The Long Range Planning Committee has secured challenges of $11,000. For every dollar raised, the challengers will match dollar for dollar up to the $11,000 mark. If we meet the challenge, the lot will be paved before October 1st. If we exceed the challenge, we can pave additional areas. WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!!!!!

Dynamic Catholic

“Jesus wants to turn your life upside down, and then it will be right side up.” “Let everything be open to God; turn to him in every situation.” “Some days you will feel like praying and many days you will not, but if you keep showing up you will develop a phenomenal friendship with God.”

Parking Lot Paving

The Finance Council has approved paving the parking lot this year, if sufficient funds are raised. In round numbers, the Building Fund has $35,000. The bid is $55,000, so we need to raise $20,000 to complete the paving this year. The Long Range Planning Committee has secured challenges of $11,000. For every dollar raised, the challengers will match dollar for dollar up to the $11,000 mark. If we meet the challenge, the lot will be paved before October 1st. If we exceed the challenge, we can pave additional areas. WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!!!!!

Dayspring Church’s school supply drive will end next Sunday the 19th. If you have items to donate, please place them in the box in the gathering area and Holy Family will get them to Dayspring.

Bulletin Ads

The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad, or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know.

August - The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and treasured the sacred events from the life of Christ in her holy heart, as attested in Scripture, her pure heart was recognized as something to be imitated. Devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower, so much so that in the 17th century St. John Eudes promoted it alongside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion rose to a new level after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, when Mary revealed an image of her Immaculate Heart to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco. (The Catholic Company)

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The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Wednesday, August 15th - a Holy Day of Obligation - Mass at 6:00 pm



Addressing a jubilant crowd of over 500,000 people packed into St. Peter’s Square, Pope Pius XII solemnly defined in Munificentissimus Deus on November 1, 1950 that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Although the solemn definition may have been at the midpoint of the twentieth century, the belief in the Assumption of our Blessed Mother exemplifies the dynamism of revelation and the Church’s ongoing understanding of it as guided by the Holy Spirit.

Granted, the word Assumption does not appear in Sacred Scripture. For this reason, many fundamentalists who literally interpret the Bible would have a difficulty with this belief. Nevertheless, we must first pause and reflect on the role of our Blessed Mother in the mystery of salvation, for this provides the foundation for the belief in the Assumption. We firmly believe that from the first moment of her conception, Mary was free of all sin including Original Sin by a special favor of Almighty God. The Archangel Gabriel recognized her as “full of grace,” “blessed among women,” and “one with the Lord.” Mary had been chosen to be the Mother of our Savior. By the power of the Holy Spirit, she conceived our Lord, Jesus Christ, and through her, true God became also true man: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” During her lifetime, although the Gospel citations are limited, Mary always presented our Lord to others: to Elizabeth and her son, John the Baptist, who leapt for joy in the womb at the presence of the Lord still in His own mother’s womb; to the simple shepherds as well as the wise Magi; and to the people at Cana when our Lord acquiesced to His mother’s wish and performed the first miracle. Moreover, Mary stood at the foot of the cross with her Son, supporting Him and sharing in His suffering through her love as only a mother could do. Finally, she was with the Apostles at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended and the Church was born. Therefore, each of us can step back and see Mary as the faithful servant of God who shared intimately in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord.(catholicstraightanswers.com)

Back to School Needs

Dayspring Church in Etna is leading an effort within the Valley’s churches to provide back to school supplies for children in need of assistance. If you have school supplies or daypacks, there will be a box in the gathering area for these items. Donations to the poor fund will also be used to help the children. The effort ends on the 19th of August.

High School Scholarship

Information about the Knights of Columbus scholarship is on the table in the gathering area.

Bulletin Ads

The Knights will begin renewing bulletin advertisements this month. If you have an ad, or would like to advertise, contact Mike Hobby about details. If you know of someone who should be advertising, please let Mike know.

Holy Family Survey

The comments are very slowly trickling in, we have received 8 responses. If you have forgotten to voice your opinion, please do so on line @ https//goo.gl/sffsHC.

Dynamic Catholic

“The yardstick we use for understanding and forgiving others will measure the forgiveness we receive.” “God asks everything of us, yet he also gives everything to us. He does not want to enter our lives to cripple or diminish them, but to bring them to fulfillment.”

8:30 am & 10:30 am Masses

Will begin next Sunday, August 5th. Please bear with us as we iron out the growing pains. We will resume regular schedule on October 7th when CCD begins.

Back to School Needs

Dayspring Church in Etna is leading an effort within the Valley’s churches to provide
back to school supplies for children in need of assistance. If you have school supplies or daypacks, there will be a box in the gathering area for these items. Donations to the poor fund will also be used to help the children. Thank you for your concerns.

High School Scholarship

Information about the Knights of Columbus scholarship is on the table in the gathering area.
 

Pastoral Council

Your newly formed Pastoral Council consists of 7 members. Three members, Carolyn Norman, Tom Hensel, and Vicki Canoso, were appointed by Fr. Lucas per Diocesan guidelines.
Stephanie Ivie, Donna Kelsey, Valentine Almanza, and Jack Leaven were selected by ballot last Sunday. Take the time to express your thoughts, wishes and ideas to the Council members.

Pictures for the Hall

We are still in need of pictures of our Veterans, First Responders and Active Duty Personnel for the Parish Hall. Don’t be bashful please.

Dynamic Catholic

“Love is a verb, not a noun. Love is something we do, not something that happens to us.”

“Even when our efforts don’t bear the fruits we expect, we must trust that God knows what he is doing.”

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Without seeing any vision, he understood and knew many things, as well spiritual things as things of the faith." —Ignatius of Loyola, writing of himself

"Soul of Christ, make me holy." So says the first line of a prayer that Ignatius of Loyola recommends to those who take up his Spiritual Exercises, one of the most influential devotional books in the church's history—it's still being published, and followed, some 460 years after he first conceived it.
In fact, whatever Ignatius touched seemed to be set apart as something special: the order he founded, the Society of Jesus, became one of the most influential of Catholic orders.

Yet Ignatius' little prayer sums up not only his legacy but also his person. He was born Iñigo Lopez de Loyola, to a noble and wealthy Basque family, and sent to the Spanish court to become a page. He embraced court life with enthusiasm, learning weapons, gambling, and courtly love—he was "a man given to the vanities of the world," he later wrote in his autobiography, "whose chief delight consisted in martial exercises, with a great and vain desire to win renown."

In a battle with the French for the town of Pamplona, Spain, he was hit by a cannon ball the size of a fist. The five-foot-two-inch Iñigo was helped back to Loyola by French soldiers (who admired his courage). He underwent surgeries to reset his right knee and remove a protruding bone. For seven weeks he lay in bed recuperating.

During this time, he began reading spiritual books and accounts of the exploits of Dominic and Francis. In one book by a Cistercian monk, the spiritual life was conceived as one of holy chivalry; the idea fascinated Iñigo. During his convalescence he received spiritual visions, so that by the time he recuperated, he had resolved to live a life of austerity to do penance for his sins.

In February 1522, Iñigo bade farewell to his family and went to Montserrat, a pilgrimage site in northeastern Spain. He spent three days confessing his life sins, then hung his sword and dagger near the statue of the Virgin Mary to symbolize his break with his old life. He donned sack cloth and walked to Manresa, a town 30 miles from Barcelona, to pass the decisive months of his career (from March 1522 to mid-February 1523). He lived as a beggar, ate and drank sparingly, scourged himself, and for a time neither trimmed his tangled hair nor cut his nails. He attended Mass daily and spent seven hours a day in prayer, often in a cave outside Manresa. While sitting one day by the Cardoner River, "the eyes of his understanding began to open," he later wrote, referring to himself in the third person, "and, without seeing any vision, he understood and knew many things, as well spiritual things as things of the faith." At Manresa, he sketched the fundamentals of his little book Spiritual Exercises. (Christianity Today International).

Addition of a Sunday Mass

To alleviate the crowding we have experienced in the past month (a blessing to be sure) we will add an additional Mass beginning on August 5th at 8:30 am. The additional Mass time will end on September 30th, and youth religious education (CCD) will begin on October 7th. There will be growing pains with the addition - for instance, music may be acapella, and we will undoubtedly be short servers. However, we will overcome these minor inconveniences as we have overcome other obstacles to our growth.

Council of Catholic Women

The Council will meet after Mass this morning. Please pick up your brunch on your way to the meeting.

Back to School Needs

Dayspring Church in Etna is leading an effort within the Valley’s churches to provide back to school supplies for children in need of assistance. If you have school supplies or daypacks, there will be a box in the gathering area for these items. Donations to the poor fund will also be used to help the children. Thank you for your concerns.

Catholics with Questions

A meeting will be held after Mass in the classroom area next week. Your voice matters regarding positions taken by leaders within the Catholic organization on: Redistribution of Wealth, Immigration, and Gun Control.

Holy Family Survey

The comments are very slowly trickling in. If you have forgotten to voice your opinion, please do so on line or use the bulletin form or request that we put extra forms out.
 

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Pastoral Council The Pastoral Council will meet after Mass this morning. Please pick up your brunch on your way to the meeting. If you are interested in being elected to the Pastoral Council, please let Sharon Backus or Kim Frome know immediately. Elections to the Council will take place at Mass next Sunday, the 22nd.

Holy Family Survey

The comments are very slowly trickling in. If you have forgotten to voice your opinion, please do so on line or use the bulletin form or request that we put extra forms out.

Council of Catholic Women

The Council will meet after Mass on the 22nd. Please plan to be there to discuss changes and happenings within the organization.

Addition of an additional Mass

To alleviate the crowding we have experienced in the past month (a blessing to be sure) we will add an additional Mass beginning on August 5th at 8:30 am. The additional Mass time will end on September 30th, and youth religious education (CCD) will begin on October 7th. There will be growing pains with the addition - for instance, music may be acapella, and we will undoubtedly be short servers. However, we will overcome these minor inconveniences as  we have overcome other obstacles to our growth.
 

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The feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel



“What’s that thing you’re always wearing?” And so began another discussion of the Brown Scapular that hangs around my neck. This time it was while visiting New Orleans with my sister. A city suffused with Catholicism plus voodoo shops, gris-gris and the like was, perhaps, the perfect place to explain the two small pieces of brown wool on a cord that I always wear. The Brown Scapular is neither a good luck charm, talisman, amulet nor gris-gris. It is a sacramental; a symbol of devotion and yoke of obedience to Our Lady of Mount Carmel whose feast we celebrate on July 16. Simply put, in the words of the always humorously orthodox John Zmirak, the Brown Scapular is “a sleek and minimalist version of the Carmelite habit.”(1)

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is – no surprise here – the patroness of the Carmelite Order. Mt. Carmel, near the modern port city of Haifa, Israel, is not far from where Christ grew up. This had been a holy mountain long before the birth of Our Lord and by the twelfth century it had become a home to Carmelite monastics with a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary as their patroness. By the end of the thirteenth century assorted political and religious strife had caused the Carmelites to depart from Mt. Carmel and travel to Europe. Some Carmelites established monasteries as far north as England.

For more background, a brief yet thorough explanation of the history of the Brown Scapular has been written by the brilliant Discalced Carmelite writer and translator, Reverend Kieran Kavanaugh. It can be read here.

It was in England in the thirteenth century that one Carmelite, St. Simon Stock, is said to have received the Brown Scapular from Our Lady after having written the beautiful Flos Carmeli prayer. In (small t) tradition, St. Simon Stock was also given Mary’s promise of final perseverance and the Sabbatine privilege to those who die wearing the Brown Scapular. Simply put, the Sabbatine privilege consists of the intercession of Our Lady to take the soul of the scapular wearer to heaven on the first Saturday after his death. As I said, small t tradition. The Carmelites themselves have said, “Well-meaning people have often spread the devotion with extravagant claims that have no historical background and which are difficult to reconcile with sound Christian Doctrine.

The Carmelite Order certainly does want to share Our Lady’s patronage with those devoted to her and still extends their habit (in the form of the Scapular) and affiliation to the Church Universal. Regarding the promises made to St. Simon Stock, “Carmelite Superiors then point out that private revelation can neither add to nor detract from the deposit of faith in the Catholic Church.”(3) Rather than dwell on concerns of scapular promises, it may be better to remember the words of the great Carmelite, St. John of the Cross, “Strive to preserve your heart in peace; let no event of this world disturb it; reflect that all must come to an end.” (wordonfire.org)