Saturday, 15 December
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - MIM and BETTY
by Phyllis C. Kevy and Roni J. Kevy (+)

Sunday, 16 December
Third Sunday of Advent
7:45 a.m. - JOHN KLEMA
by Andy and Clare Alfonsi
10:45 a.m. - AGNES OWENS (anniversary of birth) by her daughter, Kitty Owens DiCello

Monday, 17 December
Late Advent Weekday
12:05 p.m. - FLORENCE RODRIGUEZ
by her daughter, Joanne

Tuesday, 18 December
Late Advent Weekday
12:05 p.m. - SPECIAL INTENTION
by Carmella Evolo Palko
7:00 p.m. - ANTHONY J. LUPPINO
by William Sophy and family

Wednesday, 19 December
Late Advent Weekday
12:05 p.m. - DECEASED: DOMENIC and ELIZABETH EVOLO FAMILY
by Carmella Evolo Palko

Thursday, 20 December
Late Advent Weekday
12:05 p.m. - LEO M. PLUSWICK (anniversary of birth) by his wife, Rose Marie
7:00 p.m. - RONI J. KEVY
by Barbara Sciarrone Kasper and family

Friday, 21 December
St. Peter Canisius, priest, doctor (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - ANTONIO and ROSE CHIODO
by Mary and John

Saturday, 22 December
Late Advent Weekday
8:00 a.m. - God's Blessings on the WHITNEY FAMILY
by Richard and Providenza Masi
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - LENA TRANQUILLO PICCIONI
by Sophie Dobrosielski D'Alfonso

Sunday, 23 December
Fourth Sunday of Advent
7:45 a.m. - CHARLES F. KUTCH
by his family
10:45 a.m. - ALBERT J. LAPLACA
by his wife, Julia, and family

Saint Joseph Parish
$1,843.00 from the envelopes and $151.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,994.00 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $410.08 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $160.01, the sum of which is $570.09, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $941.06 the sum total of which is $1,511.15, one sees that $482.85 of this collection is available for operating the parish.

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$110.00 from the envelopes and $64.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $174.00 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $46.15 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $60.67, the sum of which is $106.82, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $188.21, the sum total of which is $295.03, one sees that ($121.03) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a defecit!

We shall re-print this schedule (in larger font) in next weekend's bulletin. However, if you want a preview of the Christmas Mass schedule, here it is:

TROUBLES IN MOUNT CARBON
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Whence comest thou?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through Mount Carbon and going back and forth in it." Then the LORD said unto Satan, "Hast thou considered my servant Edward, the priest of Mount Carbon? Of all the priests currently stationed in Mount Carbon, there is none finer than he!"
"Hah!" said Satan unto the Lord. "Impressed am I not! Thou gavest him a piece of cake when thou gavest him the care of Mount Carbon! But stretch out thy hand and strike what he hath, and he will surely curse thee to thy face." The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, the plumbing system and the heating system of St. Francis deSales Church I place in thy wretched hands, but on the priest Edward himself see that thou layest not a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Well, I'll tell you the rest of the story in the first person: On Saturday, 8 December, as I arrived for the 6:00 p.m. vigil Mass, Mr. Boncore told me that there was the odor of gas in the church. Entering the church with my nose leading the way, I said to Mr. Boncore, "By jingo, Mr. Boncore, I think you are correct! I do smell gas!" So, we called the PP&L man and he came, and Mr. B. and he went down into the basement and determined that the gas furnace had sprung a leak and that the gas had to be turned off at the source.
Meanwhile, I needed to make an executive decision as to whether or not to celebrate Mass under the current conditions - i.e. gas turned off but gas smell still in church, plus furnace turned off and no new heat coming up but still some residual heat in church. I opted to trust in God and offer the Mass. I figured that the 6:00 p.m. Mass congregation is made up of good pious Catholics who live in habitual grace and could take the risk of being blown to kingdom come, because they would - I'm almost certain - go right to heaven, and I along with them, I hope. So, that's what we did.

However, I decided that we ought not have Mass the next day (Sunday) in St. Francis deSales Church, not because of danger of being blown up but because of danger of being frozen in place.
So, the talented Mr. Boncore made up a sign and attached it to the front door of the church, informing our Sunday Mass people that all Masses would be held the next day in St. Joseph Church.
Meanwhile, I called the plumbing / heating man and he went to the basement to check out the gas furnace. He said it could be fixed but not right away. He also told me that - by the way - there was water in the basement from a pipe that had broken. I asked him if the broken pipe was a consequence of the broken furnace. He said that there was no connection between the two events, that it was just a coincidence of timing, that they were discrete events! He said that I should call the Municipal Authority and have them shut off the water. So, I did. And so they did! So that meant we now had neither heat nor water in St. Francis deSales Church. So, I called the plumber and said that we need to get the pipe fixed and he said "okay" but we're going to have to dig up your pavement and I said, "Do what you have to do" and he said, "okay". And that's how I spent last Saturday night after the 6:00 p.m. Mass.
I am happy to tell you that, by Tuesday, 11 December, we had heat and by Friday, 14 December, we had water. All's well that ends well.

Now there are two things I want to say:
#1 - To Satan's disappointment, I have not lost faith in God, much less, God forbid, done any cursing either at God or at anyone else, and I hope God is proud of me.
#2 - On the other hand, I am looking for money to pay the bills - the bills for getting heat and water back to St. Francis deSales Church. I haven't gotten them yet, but I expect that this is going to cost us somewhere around half a million dollars, give or take some change.

KING & KING

Recently I read in the Allentown Morning Call about a controversy over a book in the children's section of the Lower Macungie Library. (Lower Macungie is in Lehigh County, near Allentown.) A woman found out that there was a "gay-friendly" book entitled "King & King" in the children's stacks. She tried to have it removed, but did not succeed. This prompted a spate of "letters to the editor" in the Morning Call, all of which, except for one, supported the decision to keep the book available for the kiddies of Lower Macungie. The letters were full of self-righteous indignation that anyone would want to deprive the public of this literary work. We need to respect diversity, after all!
Wanting to keep abreast of what's happening in the literary world, I acquired a copy of the book. I figured it would make a good conversation starter and an excellent awareness raiser. I left the book in the parish office. Any adult who wants to take a look at it is welcome to do so. Just ask the secretary. It will take you about three minutes to read it - five, if you are a slow reader.
A synopsis of the book is easy to give: Once upon a time there was a Queen who had a son who was, of course, a Prince, and the Heir Apparent to the throne. The Queen wanted to retire and hand things over to her son, but not until he would get married. The Prince had resisted getting married. He said that he didn't care for any princesses. But his mother, who was not the kind of queen to take "no" for an answer, convened a collection of princesses from the far corners of the world, to see which of them the Prince would choose for a wife. Well, it so happened that none of them caught the Prince's attention. However, it did so happen that one of the princesses was accompanied by her brother, also a prince. Guess what? As soon as the two princes laid eyes on one another, there was fireworks, love at first sight! So, the two princes got married, the old queen retired, and the two princes became King & King and lived happily ever after! Now, isn't that special? Wouldn't that bring a tear to your eye?
But, seriously: Can you imagine someone reading that to your five or six or seven year old son? Talk about child molestation!
Dear people of St. Joseph Parish and St. Francis deSales Parish: Please be aware of the fact that the Kingdom of Darkness, which used to wait until your kids moved into adolescence before it started massaging their brains with twisted sex, has now opened up a pre-school program.
Be on guard. Your adversary goes about seeking whom he may devour. He can even be found in the children's reading rooms of some public libraries.
By the way, we checked with the Pottsville Public Library. They told us that they do not have "King & King" and they said that ours was the third call they got about this.
Thank you, Pottsville Public Library!

35th ANNUAL MARCH FOR LIFE
TUESDAY, 22 JANUARY 2008
WASHINGTON DC
As we have been doing for many years, St. Joseph Parish and St. Francis deSales Parish will be sponsoring a bus to DC for the March for Life.
Sign up NOW for the bus. Call the Rectory.
We will let you know in a little while exactly what we will be charging. We charge only enough to cover the cost, which includes a METRO pass for each passenger.
We will do our best to give a special price to children, so as to encourage as many of them as possible to take part.
The purpose of the MARCH (as you almost certainly know) is simply this: To let the nation know and especially to let the politicians know that we will not rest until we have secured legal protection for unborn babies.

HERE IS THE STORY BEHIND THIS PHOTOGRAPH.
The little girl (note the scar in her scalp) is an Iraqi child who had been shot in the head by insurgents who had murdered her parents and several of her siblings.
The man holding her is Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt, superintendent of the 22nd Wing Medical Group, who, for a while, was deployed to Balad Air Base in Iraq.
The little girl will survive, thanks be to God and the doctors! However, during her post-operative time, she would cry and moan. Nurses said that, for a while, it seemed that John was the only one who succeeded in comforting her. For four successive nights, John slept in a chair, holding the little girl, so that she would sleep.
I'm putting this picture into the bulletin because I think it is good for us to see it.
Life is precious. Children are precious. Human beings are precious.