Saint Joseph Parish:
Receipts for parish purposes: $1,178.75 from the Sunday envelopes; $89.00 from the second collection (plate); $297.00 from the Dues envelopes; $98.00 from the Christmas flowers envelopes; $85.00 from the loose. Total: $1,747.75
Receipts for non-parish purposes: — 0 —
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($1,747.75) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($290.08), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($444.49), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($358.17), the sum total of which is $1,092.74, one sees that $655.01 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish:
Receipts for parish purposes: $883.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $440.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $5.00 from the Christmas flowers envelopes; $153.00 from the loose. Total: $1,481.00.
Receipts for non-parish purposes: — 0 —
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($1,481.00) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($183.92), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($267.81), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($250.98), the sum total of which is $702.71, one sees that $778.29 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

The public is cordially invited by the Trinity Academy administration, faculty, staff and student body to join us for a blessed and happy celebration at our 2009 Christmas Show program of “O Holy Night”.

Date: Tuesday, 22 December
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Cardinal Brennan Fieldhouse
Price: Admission is free, but a good will offering will be accepted at the door.

The show will include holiday music from the Trinity Academy Band and our School Chorus, as well as a variety of readings, actions and songs performed by our Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 8 students.

HOUSE APPROVES OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL
THAT FUNDS ABORTIONS IN NATION'S CAPITAL!

Please note that the following does NOT have to do with the Health Care Reform Bill (mentioned in last weekend’s bulletin). This is a separate matter, also having to do with abortion.
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved an omnibus spending bill that would overturn a decades-long policy preventing taxpayer funding of abortions in the nation's capital. One pro-life group suggests overturning the policy could increase abortions by as much as 1,000 a year.
Until now, the Dornan Amendment has prevented the federal government from paying for abortions in the District of Columbia, whose budget is overseen by Congress.
The omnibus bill HR3288 now heads to the Senate, where 35 pro-life lawmakers have already said they plan to filibuster the bill because of the abortion funding. However, whether they will be able to get six more votes to help them stop abortion advocates from getting the 60 votes they need is another question.
PLEASE EMAIL OUR TWO UNITED STATES SENATORS FROM PENNSYLVANIA!!!
Senator Arlen Specter
http://specter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
Senator Robert Casey Jr.
http://casey.senate.gov/contact/

SUGGESTED EMAIL
As a constituent, I urge you to vote AGAINST passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (H.R. 3288), because the bill would lift a longstanding prohibition on the use of funds appropriated by Congress to pay for elective abortions in the District of Columbia.

TIGER, TIGER, BURNING BRIGHT!
(Well, if the truth be told, not really burning all that bright at the present time!)

I would like to give some advice (belated, unfortunately) to a man who, until recently, seemed to be a rather admirable and congenial human being — not to mention a superb athlete and a benefactor of various good causes.
We all know about Tiger Woods’s precipitous fall from public esteem.
Sad! But — in God’s gracious design — it is fortunate for Tiger that “it all came out”.
He has been leading a double life.
When a person is leading a double life and doing so successfully, it is unlikely that he will confront his sins.
But when a man’s sins are exposed to public view, it can actually be a moment of grace for him because he is forced to face up to the truth.
There is something positive in being exposed to public shame.
God writes straight with crooked lines.
I don’t rejoice in anyone’s sin.
I hope Tiger will be able to emerge once again from the dark woods, put a lid on his id, be reconciled with his wife, stay out of sand traps and regain some of his former luster.
To that purpose: It occurs to me that he might do well to meditate on the following excerpt from the Book of Proverbs.
I recommend to him also that he come out of the darkness of his professed Buddhism and enter into the light of Christ.
I recommend that he be converted to the Lord Jesus, be baptized in the Catholic Church, and begin a lifelong friendship with Jesus Christ.
May I suggest that everyone say at least one Hail Mary for the salvation of Tiger Woods and for the good of his wife and children?
And may God save all the married men of our community from the disastrous sin of adultery.

I suggest that every married man in our two parishes — in fact every man, whether married or single — familiarize himself with the passage from Proverbs (on page 5) and take it to heart.

My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear, that discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.

The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain; lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.

So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,
lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;
lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house; and you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed; and you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof! Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear! I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers; and have joy of the wife of your youth, your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually. When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.

Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?

For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys; by his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast; he will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.

Proverbs 5, 1-23

THE FOLLOWING APPEARED IN THUNDER / ENLIGHTNING, the popular and anonymous “tell us what’s on your mind” feature in the Pottsville Republican. See page 10 of the Thursday, 10 December edition.

I heard that Father Connolly in Girardville put a stop to the Web site about Cardinal Brennan. I think it’s a shame that the guy stopped doing it. I think I’ll put up a site and I hope Father Connolly comes to me. I’ll just set him straight.

Girardville

My comments
#1 — I have never in my life put a stop to any Web site nor have I ever tried to put a stop to any Web site, nor have I even thought about putting a stop to any Web site, nor am I even sure how I would go about putting a stop to any Web site. As a matter of fact, I have great admiration for the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and I believe that freedom of speech includes such venues as the Internet.

#2 — On second thought: I did put a stop to a website once since coming to Girardville. It was a web that had been constructed by a spider, although the spider was not at home when I knocked down her web. The site of this particular web was the cellar of St. Joseph Rectory. The only reason I knocked it down was that it hit me in the face when I went down to check the furnace. Sorry about that, Ms. Spider!

#3 — The anonymous caller says “I think I’ll put up a site”. Talk is cheap. It is my experience that there are two kinds of persons: (a) persons who say that they think they will do such and such; (b) persons who don’t tell us what they are thinking of doing, but just do it. Frankly, I think there will be ice-skating in hell before the anonymous caller actually puts up a site. Then again, I might be mistaken. Maybe he will, but I doubt it. I’ll depend on the anonymous caller letting me know about his website, once he gets around to setting one up. I’ll be sure to visit it and I promise I won’t try to shut it down, even if I disagree with its content.

#4 — There is no need for the anonymous caller to “set me straight”. He may be quite certain that I am straight. Come to think of it, I hope that he is too.

Place: St. Matthew the Evangelist Church, 139 Spruce Street, Minersville
Date:         Sunday, 27 December
Time: 06:00 pm
Join us in celebrating the joyous birth of our Savior at our special Christmas presentation.

This weekend, Saturday, 12 December and Sunday, 13 December, we welcome Father Larry Bower, begging for spiritual and financial assistance on behalf of Food for the Poor.
Father Larry served in the U S Navy for several years before being ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Baker, Oregon ~~ the second largest {area-wise}, and one of the poorest, dioceses within the United States.
While with the Baker Diocese, Father Larry spent several years working on an Indian reservation, and then with Hispanic migrant workers. He is now living in a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, in a home he bought while serving as a Supply Corps officer on board a nuclear submarine, back in the late 1970s.
God has gifted Father Larry with a real appreciation of what the generosity of people can do to help the very poorest of God’s poor. This has led him to full-time ministry with Food for the Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation.
With more than 97% of all donations going directly to programs that help those in need, Food for the Poor provides nourishing food, safe shelter, necessary medical care, educational materials, support for orphans and the aged, and much more to the poorest of the poor in 17 countries in the Caribbean and Central America.
Father has come to beg from them their spiritual and material support for the poor of Central America and the Caribbean Basin.
We need to be aware of the extreme poverty of Central America. We are speaking of people who are in anguish: they have no clothing; hurricanes have repeatedly smashed what meager homes they had; they are truly, literally starving to death. They urgently need help, financial and spiritual. The need is incredible.
We urge all of our parishioners to respond with utmost generosity to Fr. Larry’s appeal.