Saint Joseph Parish:
Parish receipts: $1, 688.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $98.00 from the second collection (plate); $363.00 from the Dues envelopes; $123.00 from the Summer Banks envelopes; $71.00 from the loose. Total: $2,451.00
Non-parish receipts: -0-
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($2,451.00) 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 $1,358.26 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish:
Parish receipts: $971.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $46.00 from the second collection (plate); $246.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $82.00 from the loose. Total: $1,423.00.
Non-parish receipts: -0-
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($1,423.00) 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 $720.29 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

JOHN PAUL GONTIS received his First Holy Communion in St. Vincent dePaul Church on Thursday, 6 August 2009, the Feast of the Transfiguration, during the 6:30 pm Mass.
John Paul is the fourth of the seven children of James and Eva (Zemanek) Gontis. This reception of FHC took place here in Girardville with the permission of the pastor of the family's home parish, viz. Holy Name, Harrisburg.
Question: Can you name the Pope in whose honor John Paul Gontis is named?
Hint #1: He was Pope from 1978 to 2005.
Hint #2: He came from Poland.
Hint #3: He made his First Holy Communion in 1929. See photo on this page.
We are happy to be the instrument and agent whereby John Paul Gontis received for the first time the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.
May this excellent boy, by God's grace, grow up to be an excellent man.
Together with his parents and siblings, may John Paul Gontis be numbered among the saints who sing God's praises morning, noon and night.

       John Paul
First Holy Communion

Pope Benedict to Catholics: Kneel For Communion

Pope Benedict XVI does not want the faithful receiving Communion in their hand nor does he want them to stand when receiving Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. According to Vatican liturgist, Monsignor Guido Marini, the Pope is trying to set the stage for the whole Church as to the proper norm for receiving Holy Communion, for which reason communicants at his papal Masses are now asked to kneel and receive on the tongue.
The Holy Father's reasoning is simple: "We Christians kneel before the Blessed Sacrament because, therein, we know and believe to be the presence of the One True God." (22 May 2008)
According to the Pope, the entire Church should kneel in adoration before God in the Eucharist. "Kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday and today" (22 May 2008)
Various trends and innovations of our time in regard to the handling of the Blessed Sacrament have worked together to destroy our regard for the Eucharist, thus prompting a spiritual sickness in the Church. The Eucharist is the very life and heart of the Mystical Body, around which the entire Church must revolve.
Receiving on the tongue coincides with the Church's centuries-old ordinance that only the consecrated hands of a priest touch the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. "To priests alone has been given power to consecrate and administer to the faithful, the Holy Eucharist." (Council of Trent).
Long before the Council of Trent, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "Because out of reverence towards this sacrament, nothing touches it but what is consecrated, hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this sacrament."
Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Church's teaching on the reception of Communion, stating that: "This method of receiving on the tongue must be retained." (Memoriale Domini). This came in response to the bishops of Holland who started Communion in the hand in defiance of the centuries-old decree from the Council of Rouen (AD 650) which condemned this practice as sacrilegious. "Do not put the Eucharist in the hands of any layperson, but only in their mouths."
St. Basil referred to Communion in the hand as "a grave fault."
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is doing his part to try to purge the Church of abuse and we as members of Christ are called upon to assist him.
Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera, the newly appointed prefect for the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, said on 22 July 2009: "It is the mission of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments to work to promote Pope Benedict's emphasis on the traditional practices of liturgy, such as reception of Communion on the tongue while kneeling."
Also worth considering is the recent decree from Carlo Cardinal Caffarra, the Archbishop of Bologna Italy, forbidding the practice of Communion in the hand: "Many cases of profanation of the Eucharist have occurred, profiting by the possibility of receiving the consecrated Bread on the palm of one's hand. Considering the frequency with which cases of irreverent behavior in the act of receiving the Eucharist have been reported, we decree that, starting from today in the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, in the Basilica of St. Petronius and in the Shrine of the Holy Virgin of St. Luke in Bologna, the faithful are to receive the consecrated Bread only from the hands of the Sacred Minister directly on the tongue."

(from his decree on the reception of the Eucharist, issued 27 April 2009)

Because of the "Saturday / Monday rule" promulgated by the Bishops of the United States, this coming Saturday, 15 August, will not be a Holyday of Obligation.
This means that, strictly speaking, there is no obligation to attend Mass on Saturday, 15 August 2009 (or on the vigil).
On the other hand, there is no obligation not to attend Mass this coming Saturday morning. In fact, I have an idea that the Holy Mother will be rather more interested than usual in taking note of those persons who will be present at Mass on Assumption Day 2009.

By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority,we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.

taken from the decree
Munificentissimus Deus
Pope Pius XII
1 November 1950

Note: Notice the remarkable final sentence of the decree. An important theological principle is being enunciated here. It is this: One cannot accept parts of the Christian Faith while denying other parts. The Christian Faith is an integral whole. It is indivisible. This is why Protestantism - and every form of non-Catholic Christianity - is inherently unstable and lacking in integrity. To deny one revealed truth of the Faith is, implicitly, to deny all revealed truths of the Faith.
When Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists and other heretical groups separated themselves from the central authority of Rome, they began the process of separating themselves completely from the divine and Catholic Faith. Think of the analogy of the single thread being pulled from the knitted garment. For a while, the garment seems (for all practical purposes) to be whole and entire, but time will prove otherwise. We are witnessing in our own day the almost embarrassing unraveling of Protestantism. We ask all of our Protestant brothers and sisters to come back home to the Catholic Church. Any Protestant in Schuylkill County who would like to know how to go about entering into full communion with the Catholic Church is invited to give Father Connolly a call.

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE POTTSVILLE REPUBLICAN about the granting of parole, after 34 years in prison, to Lynette Alice ("Squeaky") Fromme, who was convicted of attempting to assassinate President Ford:

She said it never occurred to her that she could wind up in prison. Asked whether she had any regrets, Fromme said, "No, no, I don't. I feel it was fate." However, she said she thought that her incarceration was "unnecessary" and that she couldn't see herself repeating her offense.

My observation is this: Watch out for persons who talk about "Fate". "Fate" is a pagan concept. The ancient Roman pagans even made a goddess out of "Fate". They called her "Fata". Fata was supposed to be "the gal upstairs" who determined what was going to happen to you and to me and to everyone else. No true Christians believe in "Fate".
Belief in Fate is a cop-out. It is a way people have of sidestepping personal responsibility. Believe in (a) God; (b) the freedom of your will; (c) the freedom of the wills of other human beings; (d) the laws of nature. Put them all together and they are "why things happen". Everything else is tall tales for the terminally confused.

THESE FOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN - brothers and sisters to one another - will be baptized today (Sunday) in St. Joseph Church.
With joy, we welcome them into membership in the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Catholic Church.
This event will radically affect the lives of these children. They will be changed inside - in their inner reality. They will no longer be mere creatures of God, dwelling outside of Him. Instead, they will be adopted children of God the Father, brothers and sisters of God the Son, temples of God the Holy Spirit.
These children, like all the rest of us - the only exceptions being Adam, Eve, Mary and Jesus - were conceived in original sin. Baptism will remove the original sin from their souls.
These children, like all the rest of us - the only exceptions being Jesus and Mary - are prone to committing actual (personal) sin.
Just in case any of them have committed any personal (actual) sins, Baptism will remove these sins from their souls. There is no need for a person to go to Confession in regard to sins committed prior to Baptism.
Not only does Baptism remove personal sins, it also establishes a future possibility: It makes it possible for personal sins, both mortal and venial, committed after Baptism, to be removed.
By Baptism, God will confer upon these four children a RIGHT - a right to something astonishing! He will confer upon them the right to go to Heaven!
It is our prayer that Kaley, Amanda, William and Kolton will come to know, love and serve God in this life and be happy with Him forever in the next.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT
I saw the blurb about the above-mentioned film. It said something about it being a true story about a woman contacting a priest to do an exorcism in a house where strange things were happening. That was enough to snag me. So, I downloaded the film. It cost me five dollars and ninety-nine cents. I watched it late at night. It wasn't really worth it, except that it gave me grist for this little article in the bulletin.
First of all, it's not the least bit clear to me that the person identified as a priest was really a priest. He identified himself as some sort of "reverend", but whatever he did, he didn't do any kind of Catholic (or even God-centered) rite of exorcism. He seemed to be more of an alchemist than a priest. So, discount that aspect of the film!
Second of all, forget about this being "a true story". The film is based on a book entitled, In A Dark Place, written by Ray Garton. Garton was hired by a man named Ed Warren. Warren was known as a demonologist and ghostbuster and, more or less, as an expert in the paranormal.
Take a look at this informative statement by Ray Garton:

"The only source of controversy was the Snedeckers (the family named "Campbell" in the film, who allegedly experienced the haunting), because they just couldn't keep their stories straight. I went to Ed Warren and told him the problem. He laughed. 'They're crazy!' he said. 'Everybody who comes to us is crazy, otherwise why would they come to us? Just do the best you can. You write scary books, right? That's why we hired you. Use whatever you can of their story, make the rest up, and make it scary.' And that's what I did. The book 'In A Dark Place' is a combination of elements of the family's story and stuff I made up - because it was a for-hire writing job, and that's what I was told to do. If this family is saying they had 'little involvement' in the book, then they are bald-faced liars."

Here is the main point I would like to make for the sake of this bulletin article: Stories about dead people haunting houses are nonsense. I don't care if your sweet old Irish or Lithuanian or Italian great-grandmother swore to you that, once upon a time, when she was a little girl, while lying in bed, she felt something brush her cheek and heard a voice whispering that a young boy who used to sleep in that room had been murdered by his wicked uncle and could not rest in peace until his story would be told, etc., etc.
Your great-grandmother had a lively imagination and it is quite possible that, by the time she told you the story, she had come to believe it herself. Such stories are nonsense.
The capacity of people for self delusion is enormous. We do well to remember that.
Here is THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL DEAD HUMAN BEINGS:
Their BODIES are in various states of decomposition. These corpses (or what is left of them) are no threat to anyone. They are not to be feared in any way.
Their SOULS are completely and totally under God's control. The souls of some dead persons are in the state we call "heaven" or else in the state we call "purgatory" (which is the vestibule to heaven). The souls of other dead persons are in the state we call "hell".
The souls of those in heaven or purgatory are immensely well-disposed and loving towards us. They would never do us any harm. On the contrary, they wish to do us only good.
The souls of those in hell are not well disposed towards us, but there is no way in hell that they can do any harm to any human being. They are utterly powerless.
The important thing to know and to convey to children and to others who might be fearful of the dead is this: GOD HAS EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. We Catholic believers do not allow vain or stupid imaginations to disturb the fundamental serenity that comes from our conviction that God has everything - absolutely everything - under control. We do not live in a haphazard or chaotic universe - even if, at times, our emotions tell us otherwise.