st. paul roman catholic parish fort mcmurray tagalog mass ... · tagalog mass sunday september 24...
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St. Paul Roman Catholic Parish Fort McMurray
480 Signal Road, Fort McMurray, AB T9H 4R7
780-791-4305; ; Fax: 587-258-6898 Visit us: Website at www.stpaulparishwb.com
Email: [email protected]
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Parish Staff
Pastor
Fr. Reddy [email protected]
Assistant Pastor Fr. Jhack Diaz
[email protected] Bro. Jayson
Parish Secretary: Janet Alipio [email protected]
Liturgy Schedule Monday-Friday
Rosary & Mass 8:40 am Saturday 7:00 pm
Sunday 9 am & 11 am
Mass/Adoration
RCIA- Every Wednesday at 7pm at St. Paul’s Church
Spanish Rosary -Every Second Friday of each month at 7pm
THANK YOU for your donation made to St. Paul Parish. September
9th & 10th General collections $4,983.
Parish Marriage Enrichment Retreat
All married couples are cordially invited to a Marriage Enrichment Retreat (MER) on Satur-day, September 30, 2017, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at St. Paul Church Hall. This parish activity aims for the couples to discover more intimately the meaning of marriage vocation within the context of God's plan. This retreat will provide time to listen to Christian Talks and opportunities to en-gage in couple discussions, prayer and medita-tion which are all essential for a successful and happy marriage life.
This Parish MER is open to married couples of all Christian denominations. To register and for more details, please contact Fr. Reddy or the par-ish office at (780) 791-4305.
We are looking for Host Homes for the new NET team coming in October. They are hosted in teams of 2 – 6 at a time. Whatever you have room for. They are willing to take a bed, air mattress or space on the floor that you have available; they even travel with their own sleep-ing bags. If you have one spare room 2 team members can share it easily. They can also cook for themselves, they don’t except that you make them three meals a day, as long as you can provide the food, they will often take bag lunches and will also require a couple of bag suppers a week. They are normally hosted for two weeks, but if you can only host for 1 week or a couple days let us know, so that you can partake in this unique ministry. If you are interested in hosting team members or have hosted last year and would like to host
again please email Rebecca at [email protected] or phone the St. John’s parish office (780)-743-3980.
BAPTISM Baptism preparation on every third Tuesday of the month. Next one will be held on September 19th at 7 pm at St. Paul Church. And The Sacrament of Baptism will be celebrated on every fourth Sunday of the month at 2 pm and every masses in St. Paul Church.
Tagalog Mass Sunday September 24 at 6pm at
St. Paul ‘s Church All are welcome!
Musicians Welcome! If you would like to join the adult handbell choir this fall please contact Cathy Larson at 780-715-8570 or [email protected] Beginner to Advanced Skill levels. Many of our beginner players have never played an instrument before. Come out to join our dynamic fun choir!
The second faith strengthening and enrich-ment session for all men of St John and St Paul Parishes will be held on Saturday, Sep-tember 23rd, from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM at St Paul Church. Our plenary speaker for this first ses-sion is Father Reddy. The title of the plenary talk is "Why is Prayer hard work?">. Among other top-ics, Father Reddy will unpack for us our prime responsibility as spiritual head of our families. You are encouraged to bring your Bible to the session along with the Catechism of the Catho-lic Church (we will have some available in the Church as well during the session) Please stay tuned for more details on the agen-da for the day. As a reminder, this is a free event sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Feel to invite other men.
Sunday Reflection By Dn. Raymond 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time Blessed Are the Merciful The conversation between Peter and Jesus in the Gospel reading is really a commentary on the fifth beati-tude in Chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Mercy comes from the Latin word misericordia, which means “a heart which gives itself to those in misery”. Mercy goes against our fallen human nature. We tend to play favourites, hold grudges, resent insults, demand our “rights,” and care much more about our own hopes, plans, and problems than about others’. When we do take an interest in other people, it’s usually because we like them, and not because we value them since God sent His Son to die on the cross for them. When we operate in this way, we always limit our ability to forgive those who offend or harm us. But Jesus is teach-ing us to have unlimited forgiveness: “to be merciful as God is merciful. “Not seven times, but…seventy-seven times.” We are glad that God is gentle and patient with us, always willing to bless us and forgive us, always there when we need him, always ready to understand and sympathize with us before judging us… in short, God is merciful to us even when we don’t really deserve it. And yet, often we are reluctant to be like that with others, like the man in the parable. ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18:32) If we don’t let God help us over-come that reluctance, our hearts will become so closed that eventually Christ’s mercy simply won’t be able to get in.
Forgiveness doesn't mean ignoring an offence or a crime, pretending it never happened. Forgiveness means refusing to let someone else's sin defines and dictates our life. We just passed the anniversary of 9/11. I recall read-ing a news article on forgiveness and mercy on the 15th anniversary last year. Cheryl McGuinness is the widow of the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which was hijacked and smashed into the World Trade Centre on Septem-ber 11, 2001. That morning, she and her two teenage children cried and suffered a horrible loss of her husband Tom. In the midst of her tears, she remembered what her husband had told her long before: "Being a pilot is risky. If anything ever happens to me, you have to trust God. God will get you through it…” She took that to heart, but it wasn't easy. A turning point in the process came almost a year after the attack. She learned the secret of mercy and forgiveness at the foot of a strange cross. When she went to Ground Zero, emotionally stunned, to participate in the Victim Compensation Fund, she looked into the pit where the buildings had once stood. As she looked at the remains, her eyes fixed on the only steel structure left standing. It was in the shape of a cross. With her eyes focused on the cross, she prayed in the silence of her heart, "Lord, they killed my husband." Then she seemed to see herself at the foot of another Cross, Christ's cross on Calvary. She heard God in her heart, inviting her to forgive the terrorists who had committed this atrocity. She asked why, and the answer that came was: "Because I forgave you." It was a moment of grace and spiritual clarity for Cheryl. She saw that although she had never com-mitted horrible acts of terrorism, she had indeed committed sins. And Jesus had forgiven her. It was then that she felt the inner strength she hadn't felt before, the strength to forgive her husband's murderers, and it changed the direction of her life since. God doesn't ask us to forgive on our own strength, but He gives us the strength to forgive by forgiving ourselves first, that's the secret to learning Christian mercy. This is what forgiveness does: it makes sure that something good comes out of something bad, it sets our hearts free to love more like Christ loves, and that is the secret to the happiness that we all crave.
With practice, we can all learn to forgive the little offences of every day. It's harder, though, to forgive the big things like Cheryl did. But sooner or later, each of us will have to forgive a major offence, maybe even a life-shattering wound inflicted by someone we love dearly. Or we may run into a situation in which we ourselves have committed a sin so grave that we can't seem to forgive ourselves, even though we know God has forgiven us. In these cases, it's much harder to follow Christ's command of limitless mercy, but not impossible. Theologians rightly teach us that forgiveness is an act of the will. It is a decision to let go of the desire for revenge and release the of-fender into the hands of God. In other words, it is possible to truly forgive someone and at the same time still have feelings of anger or resentment towards them. When that happens, we have to counteract the feelings by pray-er and by turning our attention to more productive things. Eventually, though it may take a long time, God's grace will overflow from our will, where we have already forgiven the offender, and heal our emotions.
Confirmation and First Communion Preperation will be beginning in October with Parent Child Retreats. This preperation is for students in grade 3 and higher who have com-pleated their first reconciliation. To register your child please go to https://www.stjohnthebaptistparish.ca/sacraments/sacramental-preparation/ for online registration and information regard-ing dates. For more information please con-tact Rebecca at 780-743-3980.
Enrich your spiritual life. CWL (The Catholic Women’s League) is hosting a retreat with Fr. Andrew as the retreat master. Topic is “Dignity and Voca-tion of Women”. Mark on your calen-dar Saturday, Sept 30 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm at St. John the Baptist Church Hall. It’s wheelchair accessible, bring a friend or two. All women are wel-come. It’s $15 per person which in-cludes breakfast, lunch and snack. Tickets are sold after every mass by CWL members. For more information, please contact Pat @780-743-0862, Nancy @780-791-6629 or Philomena @780-790-1405 Sunday School Catechism classes for Grades One
to Twelve will be starting on Sunday 17th September 2017. The classes will be held at the Basement hall at St. John the Baptist Church, downtown on Sundays after the 11:30 AM Mass from 12:45 PM too 1:45 PM. Reg-istration forms are available at both the Parish offices and at the Church after Sunday Mass. Contact parish offices or Peter Tel 780-742-8180.
Collection for the Needs of the Church in Canada: Why is there such a collection? Every year, the Bishops of Canada make an appeal for fi-nancial assistance to support their work and the work of each diocese/eparchy by means of the Collection for the Needs of the Church in Canada. The President of the Cana-dian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), the Most Rev-erend Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton, has de-scribed this Collection as an invitation to “all the faithful to participate in the life and mission of the Church through their active involvement in the life of their parish community, their prayers, their diverse charisms, their moral support, and the contributions of their time and talents. The Collection for the Needs of the Church is an opportunity for Catholics to truly help their diocese/eparchy participate in the regional episco-
pal assemblies and the CCCB. Any additional revenue which is raised is used by the diocese/eparchy for its own pastoral programs and other activities.”
The Collection for the Needs of the Church in Canada
Are you or someone you know unbaptized or baptized in another Christian faith and interested in becoming part of the Catholic church? Are your children preparing for sac-raments that you have not received yet yourself such as reconciliation, first com-munion or confirmation?
RCIA is for you! Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the process in which interested adults and older children are gradually in-troduced to the Roman Catholic faith and way of life. RCIA is a communal process and involves a number of stages. The entire pro-cess takes several months, but those inter-ested are invited to join at any time and proceed at a pace which suits them.
RCIA is a period of reflection, prayer, in-struction, discernment and formation. Can-didates are expected to begin attending Holy Mass on a Sunday, attend weekly RCIA sessions and become increasingly involved in the activities of their local parish.
contact Greg Brodner at 780-880-8671