Mark your Calendars St. Patrick’s Church Christmas Boutique November 11, 2023 9am—3pm. We would love to have more vendors! Please contact Joyce McCraw or the church office, if you are interested in a booth. We will have a Bake Sale again! Please bring any bake sale items or diabetic goodies on Friday before 4pm. Lunch will be served from 11am-2pm with soup and sandwiches! Please join us for all the FUN!
Eucharistic Adoration
Thursdays 6am-8pm
|
Bulletin  News If you are a Lector, Hospitality Minister, Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, or an Altar Server and you need to contact us in regards to scheduling questions for your ministry - please contact the Stewardship office at stewardship@stpatsnp.org. Liturgical minister schedules are posted in the weekly bulletin (see the link above).
|
|
“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults. Pope Francis offered his condolences after at least four people were killed and 54 injured in a bombing at a Catholic Mass on Sunday in the Philippines. The pope sent a condolence telegram on Dec. 3 expressing his spiritual closeness to all affected by the bombing of the 7 a.m. Mass held in a gymnasium on the campus of Mindanao State University in the southern Philippines. During this Advent season, we are called to contemplate three distinct comings of Christ. The first is his coming in the past, twenty centuries ago at the first Christmas. Answering the Prophet Isaiah’s plea, our Lord rent the heavens and came down for the sake of his servants by assuming a human nature. Through the Incarnation, God wrought an awesome deed we could not have hoped for, something unheard of from of old... The equator is an imaginary line at zero degrees latitude that wraps around the center of Earth, dividing the planet into Northern and Southern Hemispheres. There are 13 countries located along this 24,901-mile-long boundary — seven in Africa, three in Asia, and three in South America. All of these countries are known for their similar climates, experiencing year-round hot and humid weather with little seasonal variation. Despite similar weather, each of these nations has its own unique history, geography, and culture. Here are eight fascinating facts you might not know about countries along the equator. Pope Francis for the second consecutive Sunday was assisted by an aide in praying the Angelus as he continues to recover from an acute bronchial infection. “Even today I won’t be able to read everything: I’m improving, but my voice still doesn’t work,” the pope said during the Sunday morning broadcast on the first Sunday of Advent. Instead “it will be Monsignor [Paolo] Braida who reads the catechesis,” Francis continued. Perhaps under the heading that no good deed ever goes unpunished, Pope Francis today finds himself dragged into a new controversy which, among other things, illustrates that even the very best of intentions have the potential to generate heartache. The case centers on an Italian non-governmental organization called “Mediterranea,” the head of which is a former leader in the “no-global” movement and a longtime leftist activist named Luca Casarini, who recently took part in the Synod of Bishops on Synodality as a special nominee of Pope Francis. As an adult convert to the Catholic faith of long standing (I came into the Church in 1997 at the tender age of 23), I am very grateful for the completion of the faith first given to me in baptism in a Christian Reformed Church in 1978. For most of my life as a Catholic I have experienced both love and admiration from cradle Catholics. While I’m happy to take the love, sometimes the admiration makes me a bit nervous. Taking a break from doom-scrolling about the war in Israel, I noticed chatter on social media about Christmas. For many, this was the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend — those last moments before getting back to regular routines. Rather than focusing on the coming of the Infant Jesus, the comments were about hell. Specifically, going to hell for putting up Christmas decorations early... |
