Saturday, 24 February
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - Health and God's Blessings on PHYLLIS C. KEVY and RONI J. KEVY
by Richard and Dorothy Brown

Sunday, 25 February
1st Sunday of Lent
7:45 a.m. - VINCENT and EVA (KRAMER) PASCUZZO by Albert and Martha Pascuzzo
10:45 a.m. - RONALD R. OWENS
by his sister, Katherine Owens DiCello

Monday, 26 February
Lenten Weekday
12:05 p.m. - Health and God's Blessings on ROSE MARIE FABIANI ZELLER
by the StJosPar Women's Guild
" Tuesday, 27 February
Lenten Weekday
12:05 p.m. - MILLIE MARANGELLO
by her cousin, Jeanette Ciorlanti Chalinsky
7:00 p.m. - ALBERT SALVATO
(1st anniversary)
by Phyllis C. Kevy, Roni J. Kevy and Bill and Myrna Everly

Wednesday, 28 February
Lenten Weekday
12:05 p.m. - ANDREW J. LUCAS
by Michael and Catherine Whitney

Thursday, 01 March
Lenten Weekday
12:05 p.m. - SPECIAL INTENTION
(through the intercession of St. Francis Xavier)
by the Weidner family
7:00 p.m. - ARTHUR B. WHITNEY
by Michael and Catherine Whitney

Friday, 02 March
Lenten Weekday
12:05 p.m. - Health and God's Blessings on JAMES J. VISALLI
by his aunt Kitty
6:00 p.m. - H. ROBERT PICCIONI Sr.
by Giuseppe and Catherine Pagnotta

Saturday, 03 March
St. Katherine Drexel, virgin (OptMem)
8:00 a.m. - INTENTIONS of THIRD ORDER CARMELITE COMMUNITY by the TOC
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - MARY DiCELLO LUPPINO
by her family

Sunday, 04 March
2nd Sunday of Lent
7:45 a.m. - STEPHEN and BERTHA MESSINA
by Frank and Cheryl
10:45 a.m. - LOUISE FORTE LaPLACA (37th anniversary)
by her daughters, Victoria and Louise

 

Saint Joseph Parish
$824.00 from the envelopes and $70.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $894.00 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $358.85 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $149.20, the sum of which is $508.05, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $987.21, the sum total of which is $1,495.26, one sees that ($601.26) of this collection is available for operating the parish.This is a deficit!

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$143.00 from the envelopes and $33.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $176.00 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $55.15 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $56.72, the sum of which is $253.25, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $197.44, the sum total of which is $309.31, one sees that ($133.31) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

THE LOURDES GROTTO CANDLE is offered, during the week of 25 February - 03 March, in loving memory of James R. Stephen and for his family, at the request of Brian M. Purcell.

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PLEASE NOTE that:
The First Friday (2 March) Mass at St. Joseph Church will be at 6:00 p.m. this month instead of 6:15 p.m., because Stations of the Cross will follow at 7:00 p.m.
The Stations of the Cross will serve as our First Friday Holy Hour this coming Friday.
The monthly Mass at the Simon Kramer Institute will be celebrated at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, 25 Feb. After Mass, there is veneration of the relic of St. Pauline Visintainer, patron saint of diabetics. If you want a ride, call the Rectory.

HONOR ROLLERS
Jennifer L. Cory / 10th grade / Minersville Area / 1st Honors
Brittany R. Cory / 4th grade / Minersville Elementary / 1st Honors

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED to lend support to terminally ill patients and their families, and /or to assist with clerical duties, community education or fund raising.
If you would like to know more, call Cheryl Moser of Covenant Home Care at 385-5522

PLEASE HELP
THE PASTOR'S DETERIORATING BRAIN!
It has happened a few times in Lents past that, due to inadvertence, I have gotten up into the pulpit to read the Gospel and launched into a melodic triple Alleluia, expecting the congregation to repeat same.
Please note that Alleluia is a NO-NO during Lent (except on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, 19 March).
So, if you hear me sing Alleluia before the Gospel during Lent, please attribute it to inadvertence. Whatever you do, don't let me lead you down the primrose path! Just stare at me in silence. If left hanging in the wind, I'll get the message.

To: Principals and Coordinators / Directors of Religious Education
From: James F. Gontis
Director, Department of Religious Education
Date: 23 January 2007
Re: Simulated child care projects and simulated pregnancy projects
Cc:          The Very Reverend Edward J. Quinlan; Sister Sue Ann Steves, IHM; Dr. Richard Smith; Mrs. Livia Riley

From time to time, one hears or reads about Simulated Child-Care Projects [SCCP] and Simulated Pregnancy Projects [SPP] that are carried out in high schools. These projects are usually initiated in the context of courses in Family Living and have even been known to occur in the context of courses in Religion!
A typical SCCP requires students to carry with them during the school day some object that is meant to represent a baby. The object could be a doll or a pumpkin or an egg or some other "symbolic baby" object designated by the teacher.
A typical SPP requires students - usually girls but, believe it or not, sometimes even boys! - to wear strapped-on contrivances known as "pregnancy bellies", intended to simulate the burden or discomfort a woman may feel during pregnancy.
The rationale offered to justify these projects is this: That it is helpful for teenagers to learn by simulated experience that childbearing and childcare are inconvenient and burdensome. The benefit of such simulated experience is expected to be that teenagers will be more thoughtful in regard to pre-marital intercourse, hence less likely to engage in it.
Sometimes, especially in schools that promote religious values, such projects are mistakenly used in order to promote chastity!
Of course, conceiving, bearing and raising children are major responsibilities and are not lightly or casually to be undertaken.

Having said that, let me state that SCCP and SPP:

do not promote chastity;
do not promote respect for the personhood of little human beings;
do not promote the culture of life.

On the contrary, these ill-advised projects:

do promote cynicism;
do promote contempt for the dignity of babies;
do play into the hands of the promoters of the culture of death.

The students who participate in such projects do, indeed, receive a message. The message they receive is that a baby is more a burden to be avoided than a person to be loved.
Their fellow students - those who are not involved in these projects - will be amused by the antics of those who are involved. They will clearly see that the activity is ludicrous, that an egg or a pumpkin (or whatever) is not a baby, and that it is inane to equate true pregnancy with a prosthetic "pregnancy belly", regardless of how many technological "bells and whistles" are incorporated into the prosthesis.
These projects are unrealistic and facile. They dramatize parenthood as burdensome, without in any way conveying the beauty of the child and the joy of parenthood.
Far from promoting chastity, these projects contribute to the anti-child, pro-contraception mentality that plagues our society. They promote a contraceptive mentality and make chastity less, not more, likely.
These projects are the very antithesis to the ideals of Catholic education. It is not without reason that Planned Parenthood, the nation's single largest abortion provider, promotes such programs!

For the reasons stated, please know that Simulated Child Care projects [SCCP] and Simulated Pregnancy projects [SPP] have no place in Catholic schools or religious education programs and are in no way to be used in any Catholic school or religious education program associated with the Diocese of Harrisburg!

Thank you.

LENT 2007
LETTER FROM BISHOP CULLEN

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST,

Welcome to the Lenten season.
We all know that these forty days are designated by the Church as a period of personal prayer and penance. This is the liturgical season for strengthening our spiritual lives, the time to fix our attention on God and the state of our souls. Through the centuries, the Church has emphasized three major means of helping this process of spiritual revitalization: Prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The wisdom of the Church in this matter should not be taken lightly.
In this letter, I shall reflect on just one of these means, namely, prayer. For our involvement in prayer is absolutely necessary if we are to have an awareness of God's presence in our lives.
In prayer I have often asked God to show me how I can help those entrusted to my care become closer to Him through their prayer life. Prayer has made me realize that our Triune God continuously calls us to participate in His divine life. For it is primarily through prayer that we enter more deeply into the life of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I came to appreciate that God, who has authored the life of each person, knows each of us perfectly. In fact, God is the only one who can fully understand and appreciate the uniqueness of each person. As our Creator, God knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He is eager to reveal personally how we, through the proper use of the gifts with which He has endowed us, can overcome our weaknesses. He enjoys enlightening us and affirming us by pointing out how we can build our future on these gifts. God is, in the best sense of the word, "jealous" to be the one who speaks to us. We are His creation and He is aware of how deeply our souls need to experience His love directly. God has placed this expectation in our souls and, therefore, desires that we experience its fulfillment. Of course there are persons in our lives who have fostered our interest in God and raised our consciousness of Him. Still, it is God alone who speaks to us most deeply and