My dear friends,
This bulletin is coming to you about 8am this morning - my apologies to all the early readers!
As we seek to follow Jesus Christ this week and allow the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with divine life, we have many blessings this Sunday in our parish and area, as well as a number of things coming up:
- At the 10:30am Mass will be the blessing of married couples celebrating 25, 50 and greater anniversaries this year 2024 or last year 2023! Please let me know if there is anyone who is not on the list and should be. We will toast you after in the lower church!
- The parish council will be hosting Coffee and Donuts after all the Sunday Masses.
- At 1:30pm our local Msgr. Keogh Council of the Knights of Columbus will be holding an Exemplification for new members (the 35-40 minute ceremony to induct men 18+ years old as new members in the first three degrees). Families and others are welcome to attend. There will be a first-class relic of Blessed Michael McGivney, the priest-founder of the Knights of Columbus, available for veneration.
- At 3:00pm IHM will have our second Sensory Friendly Mass and we welcome families from the area to this needed Mass. The Knights of Columbus will host refreshments afterwards in the lower church.
Seminarian Ian Mendoza turned 24 yesterday - Congratulations, Ian on your Birthday!
This Tuesday, October 1st, will be the memorial of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (of Lisieux - the Little Flower) and patroness of Sister Theresa Chen's religious community. Happy feast and name day Sister!
Upcoming Calendar
Today (9/28) - 11:30am to 2pm HOPE Circle Car Wash in the school lot (get our
cars looking good after the morning weather!)
Tomorrow (9/29) - Coffee and Donuts after all Masses in the lower church
10:30am - Blessing of 25, 50 and greater married couples for their anniversary in 2023 and 2024
1:30pm Knights of Columbus Exemplification (main church)
3:00pm Sensory Friendly Mass
Friday (10/4) First Friday and Saint Francis of Assisi
9:00am - IHM School Community to join the morning Mass
3:00pm & 4:00pm - Blessing of the Animals in front of the Blessed Mother statue in the north (school) lot.
Sunday (10/6)
1:00-2:00pm Life Chain along Route 22 (Post Road spreading out from the
church)
1:00-2:15pm Eucharistic Adoration in the main church to pray for a Respect for
Life, particularly Mothers in Crisis pregnancies and the Unborn.
Monday (10/7)
IHM Development Committee's Golf Outing at Lake Isle
There are still spots available for this wonderful day - deadline is
Wednesday 10/2!
Please join me next Sunday for the annual Life Chain along Route 22 - Post Road - spreading out in front of the church to witness to the dignity and sacredness of unborn human life as we begin October's Respect Life Month. Signs will be distributed. We will also have Eucharistic Adoration inside at the same time and we have our annual Baby Shower collection for items for newborn mothers in need.
Abortion is a huge and sinful wound in our nation (NPR reports just over a million in 2023) and in our New York State in particular (US New reports 131,440 in 2023 - about 10k a month), ever more evident after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. These numbers are staggering - almost beyond belief - and they seem to be met with a complacency and indifference that is more than troubling.
With the Light of Jesus Christ in us from Sunday Mass, may we be a truthful sign of hope and mercy for our fellow New Yorkers, Americans and all people caught up in this evil. Below is a quote from Mother Teresa that seems very appropriate when we seek peace in our world and nation today.
The sick list will start anew next week for the month of October. If a parishioner's name or a loved one is to remain or be added, please contact the rectory by midday Thursday.
From Monday (9/30) of this week I will be on the annual Pastors Week for the Archdiocese of New York in New Jersey. I expect to be back Friday.
A blessed Sunday to you!
“I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
“By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. ...
“If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak -- the unborn child -- must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!”