FOURTH
SUNDAY of LENT
MARCH
2, 2008
(M -
Memorial, A - Anniversary)
KATHERINE DREXEL, virgin
6:45 THE FONTANA FAMILY
9:00 RICHARD J. MAHON--M req. by the Shields Family
TUESDAY, MARCH 4
6:45 THE WENZEL FAMILY
9:00 FRANK and JULIA SANTOLIQUIDO--M
req. by Ralph Santoliquido
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5
6:45 AGNES DORAN--M
9:00 BERTHE
and LOUIS BREUIL--M
reg. by the Shields Family
THURSDAY, MARCH 6
6:45 WALTER WASSELL--M
req.
by Mrs. Albert Wassell
9:00 TED
MANNO--M
req.
by Norma Manno Luther
PERPETUA and FELICITY, martyrs
6:45 EMILY D’ANDREA--A
req. by Anthony D’Andrea
9:00 LOUIS MENNO--M
req. by Sts. John & Paul
School Student Council
JOHN of GOD, religious
9:00
CARL LAMBIASI--M
req. by Mr. & Mrs. Carl
Mirande
5:30 SPECIAL
INTENTION for the LIVING: JOEY MILETI
req. by Maria D. Markey
SUNDAY, MARCH
9
7:30 ANTHONY
GAGLIARDI--M
req. by the Mendes Family
9:00 IRENE
TOFFEY--M
req. by Peter & Kathleen Marcon
10:30 FOR
THE PEOPLE OF THE PARISH
12:00 JIM
MC MULLIN--M
req. by the McMullin
Family
5:00 BRIAN HICKEY--M
req. by Kathleen & Peter Marcon
PRAYERFUL
REMEMBRANCES
Your prayers are requested for
the sick at home, and in the hospitals, especially: Pam Blaney, Susan Wynkcoop,
Winnie Mullin, Caroline Weldon, Ralph Giampietro, Ray Galinski, Alice
Malgrande, Joan Genaro, Gabriel Fay, Barbara Santorsola, John O’Keefe, Jean Harder, Bill Sabia, Robert O. Walcovy, Rev. Robert Gannon, Beth Hersh, Charles Donovan, Msgr. Joseph Boyd, Joey
Mileti, Dotty Doherty, Joan Porrazzo, Lenny
Cavalieri, Jenna Mussolini, Teresa Civetta, Frank Maiola, Aileen O’Brien, Ed
Lenard, Pam Hissey, Tricia Eigo, Skylar Bahrenburg, Mary & Tony Fraioli, Hank Lawlor, Sarah Butler, Mimi Cosgrove,
Kristen Long, Patrick Lamont, Elizabeth Kim,
for our service men and women at home and abroad; for the faithful
departed, REV. EUGENE J. KEANE, ANITA TRAINOR, JOHN KEANE and REV.JAMES J. LE
BAR, and for those who have no one to pray for them; and for the honored dead
of the Armed Services.
SUNDAY COLLECTION
Last week’s collection: (02 – 24 – 08):
$ 9,591
Attendance: 846
The parish of Saints John and Paul thanks you for
your support. We are grateful to our parishioners who use the envelope system.
If you wish to receive Church support envelopes, please call the Rectory at
834-5458.
STATIONS
of the CROSS
There will be Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent at 2:00 PM
and 7:30 PM.
BAPTISM
PREPARATION for PARENTS of INFANTS
To arrange for a
Baptism, please call the rectory and you will be given an appointment with one
of the parish priests.
Water in the
Word
Baptismal
Preparation Session Schedule
All sessions are
offered on Saturday mornings from 10 AM – 11:30 AM. Please call the rectory to attend.
Classes in 2008 will be: April 5th, May 3rd and June 7th.
10:30 AM
MASS MUSIC NOTES
The familiar and comforting
words from Psalm 23 are repeated in the Anthem today – “The Lord Is My
Shepherd”, a beautiful contemporary piece by Thomas Matthews.
FR.
BRIAN’S CLASS
Fr. Brian’s class will
be held on MONDAY, MARCH 3rd, at 7:30 PM in the rectory.
EASTER
FOOD BASKETS
Yes, it’s that time of
year. The sign-up charts for Easter Food Baskets will be going up this week.
The baskets will be collected on Sunday, March 16th, between 4 and 5
PM and again on Monday morning, March 17th, between 8 and 9:30. We
are also collecting small canned hams. If you wish to make a cash donation
which we can always use, please make your check out to Sts. John & Paul
Food Bank.
Thank you in advance
for all your help.
CALENDAR
of EVENTS for the WEEK
SUNDAY, MARCH 2nd:
7:00 AM: Breakfast Run
10:00 AM AUD: Baby Shower for Daystar
10:10 AM SCH: Religious Ed. classes
12 Noon GYM: Basketball
1:00 PM CH: Practice for The Living Stations
3:00 PM CH: Altar Server Investiture
MONDAY, MARCH 3rd:
3:00 PM GYM & AUD: PSPA
4:00 PM GYM: Basketball
7:30 PM RMR: Fr. Brian’s class
TUESDAY, MARCH 4th:
8:45 AM AUD: PSPA
3:00 PM GYM: PSPA
4:00 PM GYM: Basketball
6:00 PM AUD & SCH CONF RM: Cub Scouts
7:30 PM RMR: K of C Meeting
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5th:
10:30 AM SARAH NEUMAN: Service followed by Mass
12:45 PM RMR: 4th grade Girl Scouts
2:50 & 7:15 PM SCH: Religious Ed. classes
THURSDAY, MARCH 6th:
9:30 AM RMR: Interfaith
4:00 PM GYM Basketball
FRIDAY, MARCH 7th:
2:00 PM CH: Stations of the Cross
4:00 PM GYM: Basketball
7:00 PM LSC: PSPA Fundraiser
7:30 PM CH: Stations of the Cross
SATURDAY, MARCH 8th:
9:00 AM GYM: Basketball
12:00 PM CH: Practice for “The Living Stations”
USED CELL
PHONES
Chemo Comfort, a local
nonprofit which provides kits for chemotherapy patients, is collecting used
cell phones as a fundraiser. Please drop these off in the blue bin at the school
entrance to the church during Lent.
Chemo Comfort was
founded by the daughter of Sts. Augustine’s parishioners. Please go to www.chemocomfort.org for more
information about this healing organization.
ST.
AUGUSTINE/ STS. JOHN and PAUL CANCER GROUP
The St. Augustine/Sts.
John and Paul Cancer Group will resume on Monday, March 3rd, at 1:30
PM in the cafeteria at St. Augustine’s School. The group makes cancer pads for
Rosary Hill. We would love you to join us in this most rewarding activity.
YOUTH
GROUP MEETING…
There will be a Youth
Group Meeting next Sunday, March 9th, at 6:00 PM in the RMR. The
guest speaker will be from the Sisters of Life.
THE LIVING
STATIONS
The teens of our parish will present “The Living Stations” on
Wednesday, March 12th, at 7:30 PM in the Church. Please plan to
attend this very reverent and spiritual recreation of the last hours of Jesus’
life.
NEWS from
the KNIGHTS of COLUMBUS
“The Knights of
Columbus are looking for new members to help continue and expand their service
to our parish and community. All men over the age of 18 who value faith, family
and community (and fun); please consider joining our council, one of the
largest lay Catholic organizations in the world. Please visit our website at
http://home.catholicweb.com/larchmontknights/
ANNUAL
WOMEN’S RETREAT
The annual Sts. John
& Paul Women’s Retreat weekend, at the Passionist Spiritual Center in
Riverdale, will be held from Friday, April 11th, until Sunday, April
13th. This year’s retreat theme is “Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled
-- Come To Me – And Let us Live Life With Passion.”
The weekend retreat
donation is $175, of which $75 reservation deposit is included. If you have not
received your reservation form or are interested in attending for the first
time, please contact Karen, reservation secretary (718-549-6500) or Lorraine
Stratis (834-6012).
CARE
PACKAGE DRIVE at ST. AUGUSTINE’S CHURCH on SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008
We will again be
collecting care items and packing boxes to send to our Troops serving in Iraq
and Afghanistan on Sunday, March 16th, in the St. Augustine’s Church
Cafeteria from 10am – 1pm. Soldiers’ Wish List includes: toiletries (Chap
Stick, q-tips, razors etc.), food (gum, dry cereal, cup-a-soup, etc.), misc.
items (black socks, AA & AAA batteries, flip flops, etc.) and
magazines/newspapers (sports, fitness, comic books, etc.) The smaller ‘travel’
sizes work best.
Go to
Carepackagedrive.com if you need more information or email Jennie.McFarland@verizon.net.
GOV.
SPITZER’S ABORTION BILL
Governor Spitzer has
introduced a radical abortion bill, (S.5829) which, if passed, would mandate
abortion in New York State as a “fundamental right”, just like the right to
free speech and the right to vote. Regardless of future U. S. Supreme Court
decisions, the bill would guarantee any woman in New York State an abortion,
for whatever reason, at any time during her nine months of pregnancy. If
passed, this bill could force doctors and Catholic hospitals to perform
abortions, require employer healthcare insurance plans to cover abortions,
authorize non-physicians to perform abortions and undermine parental
involvement in the life decisions of their children. This bill would violate life, family and your civil rights! Cardinal
Egan and the Catholic Bishops of NY urge you to take action now! Please call
your NY State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer at 934-5250 and ask her to “Please
oppose
Gov. Spitzer’s radical abortion bill S.5829!” Next weekend, postcards will be
available at all Masses for you to send to Senator Oppenheimer. Please take a
minute to communicate your opposition to this disastrous bill!
THE
PASTOR’S COLUMN
In the beginning of his biography of Dwight
David Eisenhower, Michael Korda observes: “There is no place in American life
for the enduring cult of a hero, no equivalent of France’s national passion for
Napoleon,… England’s sentimental hero worship of Nelson and … Russia’s
glorification of Peter the Great. Perhaps, it is the price of being a democracy
and of a deep, inherent distrust of the very idea of elite – we are all
egalitarious at heart, or at least feel a need to pay homage to the idea of
equality. We have a natural tendency to nibble away the great figures of the
past; to dig through their lives for flaws, mistakes, and weaknesses; to judge
them severely by the standards and beliefs of the present, rather than those
that prevailed when they were alive.” (3 - 4). While I would agree with this
analysis, some other points might be also in play. There is hubris in this
modern era which denies value to historical precedent. “Our times are so
unique, no rules apply.” Ego often monitors behavior to a degree in which
personal opinion overrules the authority of any other time, place, or person.
Though these attitudes might be common currency among our secular contemporaries,
as Catholics we realize that our faith experience has strength from God’s
revelation which has been lived and shared by our ancestors.
Pope Benedict XVI in his Wednesday
audiences has been teaching all of us about the contributions of the Church
Fathers to our present-day faith community. In these past weeks, he has been
focusing on Saint Augustine. He has said about this historical figure: “When I
read St. Augustine’s writings, I do not get the impression that he is a man who
died more or less 1,600 years ago; I feel he is like a man of today: a friend,
a contemporary who speaks to me, who speaks to us with his fresh and timely
faith. In St. Augustine, who talks to us, talks to me in his writings, we see
the faith that comes from Christ, the Eternal Incarnate Word, Son of God and
Son of Man! But it was not always such.
His story begins in Tagaste, a small town
in Numidia on the Africa continent. His father followed the Roman system of
belief in gods. His mother, Monica, a future saint, was the holiest of
Christians. Through her words and example Augustine became acquainted with the
historical figure of Jesus Christ. Though he was drawn to the faith community
by maternal influences his youthful rebelliousness and formal education led him
down different paths. The Pope notes his journey: “It was in Carthage itself
that for the first time Augustine read the Hortensius,
a writing by Cicero later lost, an event that can be placed at the beginning of
his journey towards conversion. In fact, Cicero’s text awoke within him love
for wisdom, as, by then a Bishop, he was to write in his Confessions..”The book changed my feelings”, to the extent that
“every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom
with an incredible ardour in my heart” (III, 4, 7).
However, since he was convinced that
without Jesus the truth cannot be said effectively to have been found and since
Jesus’ Name was not mentioned in this book, immediately after he read it he
began to read Scripture, the Bible. But it disappointed him. This was not only
because the Latin style of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures was
inadequate but also because to him their content itself did not seem
satisfying.
In the scriptural narratives of wars and
other human vicissitudes, he discovered neither the loftiness of philosophy nor
the splendor of the search for the truth which is part of it. Yet he did not
want to live without God and thus sought a religion which corresponded to his
desire for the truth and also with his desire to draw close to Jesus.
Thus, he fell into the net of the
Manichean, who presented themselves as Christians and promised a totally
rational religion. They said that the world was divided into two principles:
good and evil. Their dualistic morals also pleased St. Augustine, because it
included a very high morality for the elect: and those like him who adhered to
it could live a life better suited to the situation of the time, especially for
a young man.
He therefore became a Manichean, convinced
at that time that he had found the synthesis between rationality and the search
for the truth and love of Jesus Christ. Manicheanism also offered him a
concrete advantage in life: joining the Manicheans facilitated the prospects of
a career.
By belonging to that religion, which
included so many influential figures, he was able to continue his relationship
with a woman and to advance in his career. By this woman he had a son,
Adeodatus, who was very dear to him and very intelligent, who was later to be
present during the preparation for Baptism near Lake Como, taking part in those
“Dialogues” which St. Augustine has passed down to us. The boy unfortunately
died prematurely.
Having been a grammar teacher since his
twenties in the city of his birth, he soon returned to Carthage, where he
became a brilliant and famous teacher of rhetoric. However, with time Augustine
began to distance himself from the faith of the Manicheans. They disappointed
him precisely from the intellectual viewpoint since they proved incapable of
dispelling his doubts. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, through the good
offices and recommendations of the Prefect of Rome, Symmacus, a pagan hostile
to St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.”
Pursuing the career of a rhetorician, the
Catholic bishop served as an exemplar to Augustine initially not for what he
said but how he said it. As he listened, however, he became enraptured by
Ambrose’s message. Seeing the wisdom of the ancients through the perspective of
divine revelation he began his preparation for Baptism. As many do today, he
entered the Church on the Easter Vigil. He desired to return to his homeland
with his happy mother but those plans were thwarted in a most heartbreaking
way: she died. With sorrow, he ultimately returned to Hippo. Though he thought
that he would want the contemplative life and write concerning the mysteries of
life, he soon was made to realize that God’s will for him was different. As the
Holy Father concludes: “He was ordained a Bishop in Hippo four years later, in
395. Augustine continued to deepen his study of Scripture and of the texts of
the Christian tradition and was an exemplary Bishop in his tireless pastoral
commitment: he preached several times a week to his faithful, supported the
poor and orphans, supervised the formation of the clergy and the organization
of men’s and women’s monasteries.
In short, the former rhetorician asserted
himself as one of the most important exponents of Christianity of that time. He
was very active in the government of his Diocese – with remarkable, even civil,
implications – in the more than35 years of his Episcopate, and the Bishop of
Hippo actually exercised a vast influence in his guidance of the Catholic
Church in Roman Africa and, more generally, in the Christianity of his time,
coping with religious tendencies and tenacious, disruptive heresies such as
Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism, which endangered the Christian faith in
the one God, rich in mercy.
And Augustine entrusted himself to God
every day until the very end of his life: smitten by fever, while for almost
three months his Hippo was being besieged by vandal invaders, the Bishop – his
friend Possidius recounts in his Vita
Augustini – asked that the penitential psalms be transcribed in large
characters, “and that the sheets be attached to the wall, so that while he was
bedridden during his illness he could see and read them and he shed constant
hot tears” (31, 2).
This is how Augustine spent his last days
of his life. He died on 28 August 430, when he was not yet, 76.”
May our Lenten season draw us closer to
Christ as we meditate on the journey on Saint Augustine.
Jesus vivat,
Fr. Brian