FOR MEN 14-25 – NO COST TO ATTEND
There will be separate tracks for ages 14-18 & 19-25.
Saturday, July 17, 2021 ® 9:00am – 2:30pm
St Bridget Church – Loves Park, IL
Come encounter Jesus Christ and fall more in love with Him!
Mass, Adoration, talks, fun activities, and lunch
Visit this link to sign up for the retreat – http://www.tinyurl.com/3PPAXMRU
If you have any questions, please call Dorothea Barger at the Office of Vocations, 815-399-4300 .
As we make a full return to Mass, we are asking for volunteers to usher in St Joseph Church.
If you are interested in ushering at either the Saturday 4:00pm or Sunday 10:30am Mass, please contact Pat Weigel at 815-990-1884, or the church secretary at 815-232-8271, ext 3.
Thank you!
There are other positions open as well. Find out more in our weekly bulletin.
As we become more and more open, we will need to renew our commitments for the liturgies. There
are many places a person may help.
Ushers. We need ushers at all the Mass times on the weekends: the 4:00pm on Saturdays in St Joseph,
8:00am on Sundays in St Mary, and 10:30am in St Joseph. The usher generally welcomes those who
come in. They help people to be seated in the pew or find their family in the pew. They take the
collection during the offertory song and direct the people at communion time. They also hand out the
bulletins after Mass is done.
Altar Servers. These are kids from 4th grade through high school. They help Father up by the altar. They
hold the book for him, and help him get everything he needs on the altar. They come in and go out with
the priest. They carry the lighted candles or the cross. They can also assist at Holy Hour, weddings,
funerals or baptisms.
Readers/Lectors. These are people who read out loud for the community to hear. They read the
announcements right before Mass begins, parts of the Bible during Mass, and the prayers of the faithful
after the homily.
Sacristan. This person helps behind the scenes with setting things up for Mass. It requires them to come
about half an hour before Mass. They set out all the things needed for Mass. They also may have to
open up the church before anyone gets there and makes sure everything is locked up when leaving.
Live Streaming. This person would help us stream the Mass live for those who are homebound. We
currently live stream on each Parish’s Facebook, and we are looking into other options to add. This
involves operating video cameras, sound, and the live streaming hardware, as well as all the software
involved. This requires some computer knowledge.
These are the needs we have immediately. It will take some training and a little practice to understand
all the ins and outs, but I would greatly appreciate all the help we can get. Do not worry if you cannot
volunteer for every week. We are looking for people to do this simply once a month and be put on a
rotation. One person can make a big difference in helping out. Our biggest need is ushers for the 4:00pm
Mass right now.
The 10:30 coffee and doughnuts. We are looking for some extra people to help set up before and clean
up after. They would set up the coffee pots and set out the cream, sugar and doughnuts. Another
person could help in picking up the doughnuts. Some people even help us with making some baked
goods or a little more substantive food. I would like to start up the coffee and doughnuts again on July
18.
Coming soon, we will need some more people in the choir loft as Mary Ann returns. Please think about
it. It is nice to finally be able to hear music again. It is great to hear your voices. We will have the carts
out soon and put previous missals from last year out. The readings will be wrong, but we can use them
for the music till the beginning of advent, when we get the 2022 missals. But in the meantime, it will
save us some money by not purchasing full missals ourselves for less than half the year of use.
I hope you consider volunteering for the Mass and other liturgies this year. It is great to have everyone
back and I hope to see more of you soon. God bless you!
Please find a limited supply of Magnificat Mass Books for the month of July in the breezeway at St Joseph (English) and in St Mary (Spanish). These books provide all the scriptural readings for Sunday and daily Mass, meditations, as well as the Order of the Mass, and much, much more.
While supplies last, Magnificat is offering to send a limited supply of the Magnificat to people who reach out to them requesting it for free, so it can be shared with others. Anyone interested in doing this, please contact Magnificat and see if you can provide this service for August and on to your friends and parishioners.
Since we do not have current missalettes, the Magnificat can be a big help. But the request needs to come from you, and it’s only while supplies last. It doesn’t cost you anything but your time and a telephone call to place the order. The contact information is: www.magnificat.com or call (866) 273-5215.
– Cynthia Saar
God, source of all freedom,
this day is bright with the memory of those who declared
that life and liberty are your gift to every human being.
Help us to continue a good work begun long ago.
Make our vision clear and our will strong:
that only in human solidarity will we find liberty,
and justice only in the honor that belongs to every life on earth.
Turn our hearts toward the family of nations:
to understand the ways of others,
to offer friendship,
and to find safety only in the common good of all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen.
Copyright © 2021, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
Washington, DC. All rights reserved.
The Northern Illinois Mobile Food Truck will be at St Joseph Church on Wednesday, July 14, from 10:00 to 11:30am. The June truck provided food for 159 persons. Many volunteers are needed to organize and distribute the groceries. If you are able to give a few hours of your time to assist our neighbors in need, please contact Mary Koppi (815-232-4687) to volunteer.
Don’t miss it this Wednesday!
Paul’s last chapter to the Galatians has some advice. Many people feel they have the need to and obligation to correct the church or others in the Church, be it priests, bishops or laity. It is good to remind the faithful and its priests to correct “Gently” (1). When people are correcting another, it is very easy for pride to rear its head.
The person could be in a mode of “I know better, listen to me.” The one receiving the correction will naturally challenge, at least in their mind. It is easy to judge motives in these situations. Correcting should always be done in prayer. Correction is more about the virtue that is needed than the vice. We must all practice the virtues and be attentive to them. That is why Paul is proposing for the faithful to regularly do an examination of conscience (4). Everything starts with ourselves and making sure we ourselves have nothing the devil can turn around on us with. Our enemy is the devil, not merely other humans. Good people do bad things. Always presume the best of intentions. Do not assume ulterior motives, you do not have the ability to read minds or souls. Just because somebody does something does not mean that the results were their intentions.
Some people may pretend to have good intentions. What do you do then? Paul reminds us that though they may deceive humans, God can never be deceived (7). Justice is God’s in the end and they will be repaid for their misconduct. Moreover, the fruit of their actions will come about. Evildoing will always be revealed by its fruit and ends in eternal shame. It will be known for all to see for all eternity.
That is why it is more important for those who believe to persevere in their efforts to always do good (9-10). Our good works will be our crown of glory, but only if it comes from our faith in Jesus Christ as our expression of love for Him. Empty works will be a shameful reminder how we tried to do things by ourselves and made a mess of things in this life. As the old adage says, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
Paul concludes by warning them of the hypocrites who wanted the Galatians to circumcise, yet they themselves would not live by the law, whereas Paul gives a simpler path while himself boasting of the cross of Christ (14). But it is not a pointing out to Christ as other, but Paul himself assumes the suffering he endures as associated with Jesus’ suffering by stating, “Through it the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” Paul in fact mentions what many believe to be the stigmata in verse 17, “…for I bear the marks of Jesus in my body.” All Christians are called to suffer in this life. As long as there is sin in this world, we are guaranteed to suffer.
But Paul as an Apostle and leader of the Church that Jesus Himself founded is called to suffer in a particular way. It is a particular gift to those closest to Jesus. It is a sharing of the inner dynamics of the heart of God while He suffered for the world (14).
Father Barr
Bishop David Malloy advised priests of the Diocese of Rockford in a June 11 letter, that the dispensation from the obligation of attending Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation (per canons 85 and 87 in the Code of Canon Law of 1983) will be lifted July 1, 2021.
Bishop Malloy granted the dispensation on March 17, 2020 at the beginning of the COVID outbreak. The unprecedented action was taken in view of the guidance of health authorities to stem the spread of the virus and was to be a short-term, provisional measure.
“Little did we know of the course and toll the virus would take on the health and well-being of our society, thus requiring a longer time of dispensation for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters in Christ,” Bishop Malloy said.
In his announcement, Bishop Malloy asked priests of the diocese to help make this full return to the Mass, “a joyful moment and one to thank God for His blessings in seeing us through the pandemic and in lessening its impact among us. It will also be a time during the Mass to pray for those who have suffered so much and even lost loved ones.”
“We must never lose the essence of our Eucharistic faith which is to meet Christ personally in the Blessed Sacrament, especially in the worthy reception of Holy Communion as part of Mass,” Bishop Malloy said.
As the dispensation is lifted, Catholics are reminded in the days and months ahead to use their consciences for any decision about not attending Mass or continuing to follow it virtually and to ask for pastoral guidance from their parish priests if needed.
(Presented by Stephenson Co. Right To Life)
We have treated the loss of our unborn babies as a theoretical loss, a sad-but-necessary loss, as of civilians in wartime. We have not yet realized that the offspring lost are not the enemy’s, nor our neighbor’s, but our own. And it is not a loss of inert, amorphous tissue, but of a growing being unique in history.
