During COVID-19, the Mass schedule is as follows:
SUNDAY MASS DAILY MASS St. Catherine Sat 4:00pm St. Catherine Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri 6:30pm St. Catherine Sun 10:30am St. Ignatius Sun 8:30am
CONFESSIONS ADORATION St. Catherine Sat 3:00-3:45pm St. Catherine Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri 5:30-6:30pm
St. Ignatius Sun 7:45-8:15am St. Catherine Thu 5:30-6:15pm
St. Ignatius of Loyola Established 1859 Hilltop, Maryland
St. Catherine of Alexandria Established 1911
Port Tobacco, Maryland
January 3 ~ Epiphany of the Lord
OFFICE & STAFF
St. Catherine / St. Ignatius
7640 Port Tobacco Rd. Port Tobacco, MD 20677
Website: www.stcsti.org
Phone: 301-934-9630 Flocknote: Text “ROUTE6” to 84576
Pastor
Rev. Aaron Qureshi [email protected]
Administrative Assistant
Linda Harrigan
Bookkeeper
Theresa Wegand
St. John Paul II
Faith Formation Program
Director, Bill Wannall 301-934-2261 ext. 107
Youth Ministry Anna Albrittain
301-934-2261 ext. 105 [email protected]
Archbishop Neale School Principal, Linda Bourne
301-934-9595
www.archbishopnealeschool.org
Catholic Counselor
Caitlin Langreich 301-541-3740
Ann Moreland Francis Rodriguez Amanda Gushura David Price Mary Ann Skinger Polly Butler Delores Jamieson Alicia Brady Sam Gray Leon Higgs Mike Hancock Joe Cooper Marie Boteler Marcella Palmer Hank Galotta
Ramona Dobry Ignatius Cooper Kelly Welch John Shifflett Avery Sandiford Bobby Vermillion Marcus Elam Robert Ansell
Robin Proctor Sarah Smith Daniel Jameson Sissy Cooper Craig Doshen Irene Proctor Aubrey Proctor
Jean Carter Michael DeLane Dawn Walters Brenda Greer Raymond DiGiovanni Hailey Sellers Linda D. Welch Vincent Jamieson Clarke Hettel Jean Ambrose DeAngelo Ball Carina Gibbs Kayla Kiley Xenia Hernandez
Please keep in your prayers those with long term illnesses and their caregivers. To have names added to or removed from the prayer list or if you need a priest at the hospital, nursing home or assisted living facility, call (301) 934-9630. Please leave your name, phone number, person's name, facility and room number.
Sacrificial Giving
Weekend of December 27, 2020
Thank you for your support of our church and ministries!
St. Catherine Offertory: $2,006
St. Ignatius Offertory: $2,790
No Adoration/Masses on January 4th and 5th
Fr. Q will be away on well-deserved rest, so the daily Masses
at St. Catherine on January 4th and 5th will be cancelled and
will resume on Thursday, January 7.
Communion for the Homebound
Fr. Q can bring Communion to those who are homebound
and not attending Mass. Please send him an email or call the
Rectory.
Mass Intentions and Readings
Saturday, January 2—Vigil—Epiphany of the
Lord
4:00pm Michael Dobry Sr.
Is 60:1-6 Eph 3:9, 3a, 5-6 Mt 2:1-12
Sunday, January 3—Epiphany of the Lord
8:30am People of the Community
10:30am Carline Edwards
Is 60:1-6 Eph 3:9, 3a, 5-6 Mt 2:1-12
Monday January 4—Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
No Mass at St. Catherine
1 Jn 3:22, 4-6 Mt 4:12-17, 23-25
Tuesday January 5—Saint John Neuman
No Mass at St. Catherine
1 Jn 4:7-10 Mt 6:34-44
Wednesday January 6—Christmas Weekday
No Mass at St. Catherine’s
1 Jn 4:11-18 Mt 6:45-52
Thursday January 7—Christmas Weekday
6:30pm Repose of the soul of Chris Seiler
1 Jn 4:19; 5:4 Lk 4:14-22
Friday January 8 - Christmas Weekday
6:30pm John Blaschke
1 Jn 5:5-13 Lk 5:2-16
Offertory Envelopes
By now, most parishioners have received their Offertory Enve-lopes via the US mail. If you have not received your enve-lopes, kindly give the mail a week or so to catch up to deliver your mail. With Coronavirus,
mail deliveries have been delayed.
Until your envelopes arrive, you can write a check with your envelope # on it so we may rec-ord accordingly.
The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic Men's
Fraternal organization dedicated towards the
principles of charity, unity, fraternity, and patri-
otism. If you are interested in joining, please
contact WGK James Hojnowski at jho-
[email protected] or 301-861-6407 for more infor-
mation.
We love having you as part of our flock!
Let’s keep in touch!
Make sure we have your current email address
for church news and updates.
Visit our church website at:
www. stcsti.org
From Fr. Q’s Desk
At the end of this crazy year (phew!), I wanted to share some of my own top memories from the year. Even with the many challeng-es that Covid-19 posed to our par-ish and the many difficult decisions that needed to be made, nonethe-less our Lord’s grace has very much been with us. Here were some of my favorite moments.
Holy Thursday Altar of Repose. Although we did
not gather for Mass, we set up the altar outside St.
Catherine Hall and kept vigil with our Lord. So many
parishioners attended in their cars as the sun went
down over the horizon. In a time of fear and uncer-
tainty, it was an unforgettable moment of prayer
for us all.
Easter House
Blessings. It
was such a
joy to visit
you all in the
Easter season
and to bless
your homes.
Outdoor Mass. Mass southern Maryland style..
from the back of a trailer bed!
Improvements at St. Ignatius. Like so many people,
we too took advantage of our Covid downtime to
tackle some of those home improvement projects!
How to bless your home with Epiphany chalk
It is a power-
ful blessing
that lasts the
whole year.
Each year around the
feast of the Epiphany many parishes through-out the world participate in an annual blessing of chalk. It is an ancient tradition that not only places God at the entrance of your home, but also places your entire family under his protec-tion. The Epiphany blessing of chalk and homes is a centuries old tradition with biblical roots, deeply tied to the Passover in the book of Exo-dus. The Blessing
Once you acquire the blessed chalk, either a priest or another member of the household can bless the home in the following manner: Head of Household: Peace be to this house.
All: And to all who dwell herein.
Head of Household: The three Wise Men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, followed the star of God’s Son who became human in Bethlehem. May Christ bless our home and remain with us throughout the new year.
All: Amen.
Inscribe with chalk over the doorway:
20 + C + M + B + 21
Head of Household: Visit, O blessed Lord, this home with the gladness of your presence. Bless all who live or visit here with the gift of your love; and grant that we may manifest your love to each other and to all whose lives we touch. May we grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of you; guide, comfort, and strengthen us in peace, O Jesus Christ, now and for-ever.
All: Amen.
Coronavirus Vaccines The Vatican offered guidance about the use of the various vaccines coming to market for corona-virus. Some of research for these vaccines has involved material derived from aborted hu-man fetuses, and the Vatican confronted the vari-ous moral questions around that. To sum up their findings:
• The vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfiz-er are morally acceptable.
• The vaccine produced by AstraZeneca is more problematic.
Therefore, the Vatican requests that if given the
option, Catholics should opt for the vaccine made by Moderna or Pfizer. However, if the AstraZene-ca vaccine is the only one available to you, the Vatican has determined that the good of being vaccinated is sufficiently significant so as to out-weigh the moral concerns with the virus' produc-tion, and Catholics may in good conscience re-ceive it.
You can read the entire statement by googling "CDF vaccine morality" and going to the Vatican site.
Catechism of the Catholic Church The Liturgy - Work Of The Holy Trinity
II. Christ's Work in the Liturgy
1086 "Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might preach the Gospel to every creature and pro-claim that the Son of God by his death and resur-rection had freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the Kingdom of his Father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments, around which the entire liturgical life revolves."
1087 Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his pow-er of sanctifying:, they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This "apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacra-mental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Or-ders.
. . . is present in the earthly liturgy . . .
1088 "To accomplish so great a work" - the dis-pensation or communication of his work of sal-vation - "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of his minister, 'the same now offer-ing, through the ministry of priests, who former-ly offered himself on the cross,' but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is pre-sent in the sacraments so that when anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has promised 'where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them."'
EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP
Recognize God in your Everyday Moments
Wise Men See God in the Simple Things
If you’re on social media, you have probably
seen a meme going around that features this
quote: “God has a plan for your life. The enemy
has a plan for your life. Be ready for both. Just
be wise enough to know which one to battle and
which one to embrace.”
There were certainly two competing plans for
the Magi: God’s and Herod’s. And, wise as they
supposedly were, it wasn’t entirely easy for the
Magi to discern which was which.
After all, Herod posed as a friend. He offered
the Magi hospitality and kindness. Though the
Gospel doesn’t say so, he probably flattered
them and appealed to every moral weakness he
could observe in them. In his palace, they must
have felt great physical comfort — rest and ta-
bles of plenty on what was an otherwise long
and treacherous journey.
But if the Magi were honest with themselves, I’ll
bet they would have admitted that, regardless of
Herod’s charm, they felt a gnawing sense of
doubt while in his presence. When they looked
upon the Christ Child, born in a stable without
any of the comforts of the world or protections
of wealth, they probably felt the opposite. They
probably felt safe.
The Magi were lucky enough to have the right
plan spelled out for them in a dream, but for the
rest of us, it’s enough to remember this: God’s
plan is often the one that leads us to places of
great simplicity, great humility and great love.
Let’s have the wisdom to view power with sus-
picion, and innocence with admiration.
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS
Epiphany of the Lord January 3, 2021
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SAINTS THIS WEEK
SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, SC, was the first person born in what would become the United States to be can-onized by the Catholic Church. She established the first Catholic girls' school in the nation in Em-mitsburg, Maryland, where she also founded the first American congregation of religious sis-ters, the Sisters of Charity. Elizabeth Ann Se-ton was a wife and mother, and then found her-self a widow at just 29 years old in 1803. Despite the hardships that she faced, she went on to do amazing work, and eventually became the first American-born saint in 1975. Visit this historic site and Shrine and see the museum, her historic homes, and the Basilica dedicated to her.
SAINT JOHN NEUMANN
John Nepomucene Neumann CSsR was a Catholic priest from Bohemia. He immigrated to the United States in 1836, where he was ordained and lat-er joined the Redemptorist or-der and became the fourth Bish-
op of Philadelphia. He is the first United States bishop to be canonized. While Bishop of Phila-delphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States. He is a Roman Catholic saint, canonized in 1977.
READ: Married Saints and Blesseds through the Centuries by Ferdinand Holbock
Countless saints have been priests or religious, living out lives of penance and sacrifice for the sake of the Church. But many Catholics don't re-alize that married couples are called to holiness as well.
Fr. Holböck's tells the inspiring stories of over 200 married saints and blesseds from the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph to Margaret of Scotland, King Louis of France, Thomas More, and modern examples like Gianna Molla and Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The ex-ample of these holy men and women is essential to living a truly Catholic married life. Important Church documents and Scripture passages are also included to guide and enlighten the reader further.
LISTEN: Prepare the Way of the King by Dr. Scott Hahn
Dr. Scott Hahn, one of the most eminent Catholic theologians in our country today, reveals what scholars now know about the shepherds, the mysterious Magi, and King Herod. Your Advent journey will take on new meaning as you prepare your heart for the birth of our Lord. This illumi-nating presentation is sure to help you grow in appreciation of the greatest gift ever given to mankind—Jesus Christ.
KIDS CORNER