ADVENT
Year of Prayer for Priestly Vocations

Christmas Masses
Check the parish's schedule and read about the pieces to be performed.

Don't forget Daily Mass!
Fr. Mark has reinstated daily Mass in our cluster. Mass is held Monday and Tuesday in Latin, and Wednesday in English at St. Joseph's at 12:10 p.m. Thursday noon Mass is at St. Josaphat's, and Fridays at Sweetest Heart of Mary, also at noon. Take the time for midday worship!

ADULT FAITH FORMATION RETURNS
Adult faith formation is starting again in our cluster:
Time: 7:15 p.m., biweekly from October 6, 2005 through May 4, 2006.
Place: Parish hall at Sweetest Heart of Mary
Subject: The Gospel of Mark
Materials: Study guide to Ignatius Catholic Study Bible ($10.00)

We desperately need more advertisers for our church bulletin! At the present time we are down to one patron. We need 13 to pay for our printing. Suburban parishes are subsidizing the bulletins for St. Joseph & Sweetest Heart of Mary but will not continue to do so much longer. We will soon have a combined bulletin for our cluster. One unit of advertising 1 x 2 1/2 inches is $332.47 per year. A half unit 1/2 x 2 1/2 is $202.54. Please contact the parish office if you know of anyone who will advertise with us.

WE STILL NEED USHERS!
Mike Singelyn is the interim captain of the ushers' club. Men and women who are able to usher at our regular Sunday Masses and the monthly German Mass are asked to call Mike at 313-885-5333 to volunteer their services.

Choral Mass schedule

Christmas Midnight Mass (Jakub Jan Ryba, (1765-1815) Missa Pastoralis in B-Flat (first American performance)

New choir members -- trained or not -- are very welcome!

News: December 25, 2005
CHRISTMAS

Prayer
O Adorable Infant Jesus, my Savior and my God, Who are so good and Who have loved me so much! In this night in which you bestow great Graces on so many souls, grant Your heavenly consolation to this poor soul of mine also. I ask of You the Grace to love You always, from this day forward, with all my heart. Set me all on fire with Your Holy Love. I love You, O my God, Who have become a Babe for love of me. Never let me cease from loving You evermore. Dearest Jesus, our Lord and God, deign to grant me, during this joyful Season of Christmas, (mention your request), if it be Your Holy Will. Amen. (Our father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.)

YEAR OF PRAYER FOR PRIESTLY VOCATIONS
November 1, 2005—October 31, 2006. Is Jesus calling you to be another Christ to the Church? Are you being called to parish work or to religious life in a community? Check out the premier vocations internet portal religiouslife.com. Do you have what it takes? Test Your Call; vocational selfassessment survey. Want the “real deal” in religious life? Vocation Search; on-line research tool. Need guidance and direction? Inspiring and informative reflections, photos and downloads. Helpful links to keep you connected to a wide network of vocations resources and valuable contacts. Discerning your call might be just a click away. Also check testyourcall.com.

News: December 18, 2005
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Please lend a hand!
Your help is needed today to clean and decorate the church for Christmas. We will meet after the noon Mass. It is also Coffee & Doughnut Sunday, so all volunteers can partake of refreshments in the Social Hall before the annual preparation begins for the Birthday of Our Lord. Many hands make light work!

AN INVITATION!
The Bishop Plagens Knights of Columbus Council that serves the parishes of our cluster will hold an open house this Wednesday, December 21 here in our church hall at 7:30 pm. The council is seeking practicing Catholic men of the cluster who are at least 18 years old, to consider membership. A great evening of fellowship and friendship is promised. The K of C distributes 10,000 rosaries every month. It also supports seminarians studying for the priesthood. It donated $116 million to charitable causes last year. Come! Consider joining the largest Catholic Fraternal group in the United States. Refreshments will be served.

We desperately need more advertisers for our church bulletin! At the present time we are down to one patron. We need 13 to pay for our printing. Suburban parishes are subsidizing the bulletins for St. Joseph and Sweetest Heart of Mary but will not continue to do so much longer. We will soon have a combined bulletin for our cluster. One unit of advertising 1 x 2 1/2 inches is $332.47 per year. A half unit 1/2 x 2 1/2 is $202.54. Please contact the parish office if you know of anyone who will advertise with us.

YEAR OF PRAYER FOR PRIESTLY VOCATIONS
November 1, 2005—October 31, 2006.
Father, in every generation you provide ministers of Christ and the Church. We come before you now, asking that you call forth more men to serve our Archdiocese in the ministerial priesthood. Give us priests who will lead and guide your holy people gathered by Word and Sacrament. Bless us with priestly vocations so that we can continue to be a truly Eucharistic Church, strengthened in our discipleship of Jesus Christ, your Only Son. Rise up, we pray, men who are generous in their service, willing to offer their lives and all their gifts for your greater glory and the good of your people. We make our prayer in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through Christ, our Lord. Amen. St. Joseph pray for us.

News: December 11, 2005
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

YOUR ELBOW GREASE IS NEEDED to clean and decorate the church for Christmas. We will meet after the noon Mass next Sunday, December 18th. It is also Coffee & Doughnut Sunday, so anyone volunteering can have refreshments in the Social Hall before the annual preparation for the Birthday of Our Lord. Dust rags and dust mops will be provided. All we need are people to do the tasks.

Giving Tree for Cancer-Afflicted Children
As announced last week, we are having a Giving Tree this year to benefit the children who have cancer and are cared for by the Sisters of Christian Love who reside in our rectory. These children come from working families who live below the poverty level. Most of the families are without cars and find it practically impossible to take off work and take their children for weekly treatments on public transportation. Many of these children do not survive their disease. Deadline for the Giving Tree gifts is next Sunday.

Disaster has struck one of our storm windows! Parishioners may have noticed the scaffolding behind the church last week. Glass fell out of the framing high up on the storm window on the far right behind the high altar. Broken, it lodged itself between the lower portion of the storm window and the stained glass. Then the panes above came sliding down but all did not break. It costs $154.00 for one pane of reinforced glass and many days' work by our custodian Tom Cracchiolo along with helpers from Sweetest Heart of Mary to make the necessary repairs. All of our storm windows, which were installed in 1945 just after the Second World War, are in pitiful condition. Much of the wood framing is rotted away and we will soon need to start making major repairs on all of them. As stated in an earlier bulletin, the remainder of the stained glass window fund will have to be used toward this project. We need your financial assistance.

News: December 4, 2005
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Our Historical Ties
Months back in our History Corner we learned how Saint John’s Last Gospel became a part of the Tridentine Latin Mass. It was read over the sick after Mass during the years of the plague in Europe during the Middle Ages. This practice carried on for decades and when the plagues finally subsided, the Last Gospel was added to the end of the Mass. That is why when the priest prayed: Ite, Missa est (Go the Mass is ended) it truly did end up until the time of the plagues in the Middle Ages. The 2nd Vatican Council, restored the Latin Mass to what it was before the Middle Ages. But what about the other Mass prayers? Most date from the earliest centuries except the Gloria. Originally it was a hymn sung only during Christmas time, much like our Christmas Carols today. It was Pope Saint Symmachus who guided the Church from 498 to 514 who expanded the use of the Gloria beyond being just a Christmas Carol. He was a kind ruler of the Church who spent money on ransoming captives, founding many hospices for the needy and relieving victims of raids by Barbarians in northern Italy. The world was not a peaceful place during his reign. The bishops of North Africa were driven from their sees into exile on the Island of Sardinia by King Thrasimund. Symmachus sent them material assistance and relics of the martyrs for spiritual solace. We are reminded that daily Mass is available throughout the cluster since Father Paul Ward’s assignment as assistant to Father Mark. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Mass is celebrated at Saint Joseph Church at 12:10 pm. The perpetual novena to Saint Joseph follows the Wednesday Mass. Mass on Thursday is at noon at Saint Josaphat followed by the perpetual novena to Our Lady of Czestochowa. Friday, Mass is at noon at Sweetest Heart of Mary followed by the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

News: November 27, 2005
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Our monthly bake sale will take place next Sunday, December 4th. We ask everyone to bake and to buy an item. This enables everyone to sample other folks' recipes. For anyone new to the parish, the bake sales are raising funds to restore the candelabra in the right rear of the church. The one on the left was the subject of an act of vandalism some months ago and was horribly smashed. When it was repaired, it was also cleaned, polished and replated. Its mate now looks rather shabby to say the least and the cost to have it match the restored candelabra is estimated at $2700. This type of restoration is specialized and unfortunately is expensive. We are also raising the $500 deductible that it cost the parish to restore the candelabra that was vandalized.

STEWARDSHIP
Our stone church was dedicated in 1873 but no heating system was installed until 1885. Even then the church had no electricity and no primitive blower system that we have today. The heat came from the handful of radiators that we see scattered in the church. The temperature in those days would have been slightly above freezing so that the holy water no longer froze solid in the founts as it did before the first boiler was installed. Older churches in Europe still do not have heating systems and people who travel to Europe in the winter witness the fact that those old buildings are colder inside than the temperature is outside. Natural gas bills have risen dramatically this winter. Throughout the cluster, the folks who attend daily Mass are noticing that the three cluster churches are not as warm as they were last winter. This is of necessity. Each one of us may want to re-evaluate our church donations based on the increase in expenses that are occurring this winter. Our Lord has promised that he will return to us a hundredfold, both in this life and in the next, all of our tithes and offerings. But He asks us to be generous in order that we may be rewarded.

THANKS BE TO GOD! Word has come to us that Bro. Daniel Goeddeke F.S.C. who has been on our sick list for some years has returned to teaching and recently completed a ten mile walk to raise funds for charity.

In the charity of your prayers, remember the sick

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