Saint Casimir Parish

Previous
issues		           Lietuviškai              
Download .pdf

Jan.

                        


MINISTRY OF PRAISE
 

JANUARY, 2018
 
St. Casimir Parish
 

Almighty God,
grant that with the help of St. Casimir’s intercession
we may serve you in holiness and justice.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING INTENTIONS

  • That Christians  and other religious minorities in Asian countries, may be able to practice their faith in full freedom.   (January Papal intention)                                                         

  • That Jesus’ humbling of himself at his baptism will be a model for the way all Christians live their lives.
     

  • That our lawmakers may have the wisdom and courage to uphold rights of conscience thus protecting all people from being forced to violate their moral and religious convictions.
     

  • That all racism, bigotry, and prejudice will be banished from the earth.
     

  • That the riches of creation be preserved, valued, and made available to all, as precious gifts from God to mankind.
     

  • That God bless Father Bacevice and the Pastoral and Finance Councils in their efforts to secure the future of St. Casimir Parish.
     

  • That all parishioners recognize their responsibility to St. Casimir Parish’s future through financial support, commitment to parish activities, sharing ideas, and most importantly prayer.
     

  • That our parish community will grow in its desire for union with Christ, friendship with each other, and generosity to the poor.
     

  • That married couples will be blessed with grace to live their marriage with fidelity, holiness, and joy.
     

  • That those who pray be validated in their belief of its power.

WHAT’S HAPPENING            AT ST. CASIMIR PARISH?

  •     Jan. 5th      First Friday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 8:00 – 9:00am in Church 

  •     Jan.  10th   Evening Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 6:00 –7:00pm in Church

  •     Jan.  14th   Pancake Breakfast, 8:30am – 1:30pm, lower hall

 
SAINT FOR JANUARY
 

SAINT HILARY OF POITIERS

Bishop and Doctor
(? 315-367)

JANUARY 13th

     Impart to us, then, the meaning of the words of Scripture and the light to understand it, with reverence for the doctrine and confidence in its truth. Grant that we may express what we believe.                                                (St. Hilary of Poitiers)

     Hilary was born to pagan parents in Poitiers, France. After a thorough training in the classics and philosophy, Hilary married. He and his wife had one daughter, Afra. His studies led him to read Scripture, and he came to believe that there was only one God Whose Son became man, died, and rose to save all people. This led him to be baptized a Christian along with his wife and daughter.

     Those who knew Hilary considered him a friendly, charitable, gentle man and chose him as their bishop in 353. He soon found himself battling against Arianism, the heresy that denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. At that time it was as much a political as a theological problem, and Hilary endured exile for many years because of his staunch defense of Church doctrine.

     Hilary was one of the leading and most respected theologians of his time. He was an acknowledged leader of the Western bishops in their struggle against Arianism and from them earned the title “defender of the divinity of Christ,” while his enemies labeled him “disturber of the peace.” He is honored as one of the great Western doctors of the Church.

Sources:  IN HIS LIKENESS,  by Rev. Charles E. Yost, SCJ, STL; SAINT OF THE DAY, Leonard Foley, O.F.M., Editor;
SAINTS AND FEAST DAYS, Loyola University Press)

 

THOUGHTS FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Son of God

  

#444  The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his “beloved Son.” Jesus calls himself the “only Son of God,” and by this title affirms his eternal preexistence. He asks for faith in “the name of the only Son of God.” In the centurion’s exclamation before the crucified Christ, “Truly this man was the Son of God,” that Christians confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal mystery can the believer give the title “Son of God” its full meaning.

#445  After his Resurrection, Jesus’ divine sonship becomes manifest in the power of his glorified humanity. He was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.” The apostles can confess: “We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 

 REFLECTION

WHAT THE LEPER WAS WAITING FOR
                                                                                                       See: Luke 5:12-16

     All of us have seeds of hope. We desire a better future, healing, good health, peace, and serenity. We daily experience the reality that true hope is not only something, but Someone. Revealing His face through His Son, God the Father came to meet us, and it is in His Son that our hope takes root, in Jesus, born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. He died and rose for us and tells us that death does not have the final word. He is the hope we are to proclaim, to shout, and to cry out to everyone. The biggest sickness in our world is sadness, indifference, and loneliness. Like parched land waiting for water, so the world is waiting for those who will proclaim hope.

     God has freely chosen us to proclaim this hope. He has given us the strength to follow him and has put in our hearts the desire to embrace this wounded humanity. In receiving mankind, the living hope in us must become love in gestures, in works, and in life. Jesus is telling us to give life, to give ourselves, not only a part of us or a few hours of work. If we do not give our life, spend our life for others, it will vanish from our hands. We want to be a living and an active Church, those who love humanity.

      In order to serve Christ in His members, in the poor, we must be in love with God, madly in love with Him! The vigor comes from this “being in love” with God more than any other person, more than the husband, the wife, the children, or the family. These are all gifts from God and become even more precious the more we respond to God with our heart and gaze upon Him. The poor man, whatever garment he is wearing, is always Jesus Christ with open wounds, with blood flowing on humanity. He is there in that sick or desperate man.

     So then you, who are the living hope, are called to receive him and smile at him. You are called to get your faith moving and your love walking in the world. The Father is calling us to work together and to make this hope, who is the Risen Jesus, grow in the midst of wounded humanity that is waiting to find the light again. We ask the Child Jesus to grant us the gift to contemplate Him, His face and His heart, to contemplate Him who is in the eyes and the face of everyone we meet daily. May He give us a poor, free, and good heart, simple like His, because then whomever we meet will see Him shining through us.

Author: Mother Elvira Petrozzi,
foundress of Comunita Cenacolo, welcoming the lost and desperate in sixty-two houses in fifteen countries

 Source:  MAGNIFICAT, January, 2011, pp.107-108