Saint Joseph Parish:
Receipts for parish purposes: $1,554.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $112.00 from the second collection (plate); $26.00 from the Dues envelopes; $100.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $25.00 from the Easter envelopes; $119.00 from the loose.
Total: $1,936.00
Receipts for non-parish purposes: $ — 0 —
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the receipts for parish purposes ($1,936.00) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($329.54), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($464.00), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($358.17), the sum total of which is $1,151.17, one sees that $784.83 is available from this collection for operating the parish.



Saint Vincent DePaul Parish:
Receipts for parish purposes: $930.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $111.00 from the second collection (plate); $10.00 from the Dues envelopes; $6.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $45.00 from the loose.
Total: $1,102.00.
Receipts for non-parish purposes: — 0 —
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the receipts for parish purposes ($1,102.00) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($229.38), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($282.46), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($250.98), the sum total of which is $762.82, one sees that $339.18 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

Keep in mind that Confession is available outside the scheduled times to anyone who asks. If you want to go to Confession, simply tap the priest on the shoulder or (preferably) call the pastor and agree with him on a time. Fr. Connolly does not consider such requests to be “an imposition” on his time. He is happy to make the sacrament available.

DEPARTURES FROM THE CUSTOMARY SCHEDULES for Confessions and Exposition this week are due (in part) to the Holyday, but mostly to the fact that Fr. Connolly needs to be away from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. He has a wedding in New Jersey. Fr. Brennan has kindly agreed to fill in for him on Saturday, 04 June.

The question before the House is this: Should we or should we not change from Upper Church to Chapel for the two weekend Masses at St. Joseph’s during the Summer?
Reason for changing (if we change): The chapel is air-conditioned. The upper church is not.
As pastor, I cannot be democratic when it comes to doctrine or liturgy but I can be democratic when it comes to matters such as these.
Therefore: Vox populi, vox Dei! (The voice of the people [is] the voice of God!).
One member of the parish has already written me a note telling me that she does not care for having Mass in the chapel and prefers to stay upstairs.
I await your notes and emails and will decide according to your stated preferences.
Majority rules!
No anonymous notes or emails will be accepted in this matter.

A voice coming from the throne cried out: “Praise our God, all you His servants, the small and the great, who revere Him”. Then I heard what sounded like the shouts of a great crowd, or the roaring of the deep, or mighty peals of thunder, as they cried, “Alleluia! The Lord is King, our God, the Almighty! Let us rejoice and be glad, and give Him glory! For this is the wedding day of the Lamb; His bride has prepared herself for the wedding. She has been given a dress to wear made of finest linen, brilliant white.” (The linen dress is the virtuous deeds of God’s saints.) The angel then said to me, “Write this down: Happy are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Rev 19, 5-9

“I venture to state that no man more orthodox, more devoted to the Holy See, ever ruled an American diocese.”

Words of Bishop Hugh Lamb, the
eulogist at the Cardinal’s funeral.

His Eminence, Dennis Joseph Cardinal Dougherty
Born: 16 August 1865
Ordained as Priest: 31 May 1890
Ordained as Bishop: 14 June 1903
Archbishop of Philadelphia: 01 May 1918 — usque ad mortem
Installed as Cardinal: 07 March 1921
Died: 31 May 1951

It seemed to me that we could not let 31 May 2011 pass without tipping our collective biretta (so to speak) to His Eminence, Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, the Pride of Girardville, a local boy who made good.
This coming Tuesday is the 121st anniversary of his ordination to the sacred priesthood and, by interesting coincidence, the 60th anniversary of his death.
His Eminence suffered a stroke shortly after celebrating a Mass at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, marking the 61st anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. He died a few hours later.
Cardinal Dougherty was the eighth Ordinary (i.e. “Bishop in charge”) of Philadelphia and the fourth to carry the title “Archbishop”. He was the first to be named to the College of Cardinals.
The list of his accomplishments far exceeds the space we can afford on this bulletin page. Suffice it to say that his reign as Archbishop of Philadelphia was awesome.
This came as no great surprise, inasmuch as the man himself was awesome.
“Dinny” did not suffer fools gladly. Understanding that God had sent him to Philadelphia in order to make omelets, he did not hesitate to crack a few eggs.
When His Eminence died, children were selected from all of the Catholic schools to represent their schoolmates at the funeral. A 13-year-old eighth-grade boy named Edward was selected to represent the children of Most Precious Blood School. Edward passed by the open casket of Cardinal Dougherty with feelings of utmost awe. He touched the hands of the Cardinal. As he did so, the Cardinal awoke briefly from his slumber and said, “Edward, you will be a priest. You will spend your final years shepherding the people of my beloved hometown, Girardville! God have mercy on your soul if you foul it up!” Edward said, “Yes, Your Eminence! Thank you, Your Eminence! Pray for me, Your Eminence!” His Eminence said, “I shall, Edward!” and went back to sleep.
Eternal rest grant unto Dennis Dougherty, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or after life for broken down computers. That is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”

Stephen Hawking

I was sitting in an audiologist’s waiting room this past week, waiting my turn. (One of my hearing aids had conked out and needed to be sent back to the shop.)
I picked up a copy of TIME magazine, a left-wing publication, if ever there was one!
I came across this quote (cf supra) from Stephen Hawking, the much celebrated physicist and cosmologist.
Professor Hawking is a person who engenders much respect and admiration, partially due to the fact that he has managed to cope superbly with a terrible affliction: something akin to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He is almost totally paralyzed and communicates with (as I understand it) some sort of device that he manipulates by blinking his eyes.
I don’t wish to be disrespectful to Dr. Hawking. I certainly admire his intellectual attainments and his demonstrated capacity for excellence in his field despite his severe physical limitations. He is, to some extent, a profile in courage.
Having said that, I would like to caution everyone that Dr. Hawking has no qualifications whatsoever in the area of philosophy or theology.
I find some of the things he has said to be utter nonsense.
I do not say this because it just so happens that I am a “man of faith” and he is manifestly not.
Although my knowledge of physics and astronomy shrinks into insignificance compared to his and I have no doubt that his IQ far eclipses my own, I would maintain (I hope modestly) that my capacity for logic and for reason is greater than his — if not my capacity, at least my utilization of said capacity. At least, that is how it seems to me.
Dr. Hawking takes a mere analogy (computer / human brain) and turns it into an absolute identity.
Granted that a computer is similar in some respects to a human brain, the human brain FAR exceeds the capacity of any computer.
No computer has EVER had self-awareness, nor (and you may take this as an absolute) will any computer EVER have self-awareness.
I am keenly aware that I am more than my brain and that you are more than your brain and that all of us human beings are more than our brains.
If my value and your value and the value of any one of us are no more and no less than our intellectual quotients, we are much to be pitied.
Everything in me — together with the intuitions and wisdom of the great sages of history — tells me that I am something more than the configuration of atoms that composes my physical being. The human capacity for self-sacrificial love is, perhaps, the strongest (but not the only) evidence for this bold assertion. No computer ever sacrificed its “life” for me!
If my ultimate destiny is decomposition in the dust, then nothing makes sense and everything is stupid and up for grabs. I refuse to believe that. I believe that I shall survive the dissolution of my brain! And I am not “afraid of the dark”. I must remember to pray for Stephen.

HOLYDAYS OF OBLIGATION
Let’s have a Catechism lesson!
Okay, boys and girls! Everybody sit up straight and pay attention!
No talking! No wiggling around! All eyes up front!
Now, there are six Holydays of Obligation in the United States.
All good Catholics know the names and the dates of the six Holydays of Obligation and I want you to know them.
And, yes, you can be sure that there will be a pop quiz.
Let’s start at the beginning of the year.
Billy! Am I boring you?? Am I going to have to come back there and smack you up the side of your head? You turn around right now and stop bothering Susan!
Okay! Where were we?
We were talking about the Holydays of Obligation.
• The first Holyday of Obligation is: The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It falls on 01 January.
• The second Holyday of Obligation is: Ascension Thursday. It falls on the fortieth day after Easter         Sunday. It is the only Holyday that does not have a fixed date, because it depends on the date of         Easter.
• The third Holyday of Obligation is: The Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven. It falls on 15         August.
• The fourth Holyday of Obligation is: All Saints Day. It falls on 01 November.
• The fifth Holyday of Obligation is: The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It falls         on 08 December.
Billy! I have told you once and I’m not going to tell you twice! You are playing with fire when you play around with me! This is you last warning! If I hear another peep out of you, I am going to pick you up bodily and throw you out the window, do you hear me?
Now, where were we?
Oh, yes!
• The sixth Holyday of Obligation is: Christmas Day, the Birth of Our Lord. It falls on 25 December.
Okay, boys and girls! Does everyone know the six Holydays of Obligation?
Now, this next part is very important: ALL CATHOLICS ARE OBLIGED IN CONSCIENCE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS ON HOLYDAYS OF OBLIGATION. It is the same obligation that we have on Sundays.
So, pay attention, boys and girls, while our dearly beloved pastor, Father Connolly, comes in to tell us the Mass schedule in Girardville for the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven, which will be celebrated this year on Thursday, 02 June. Won’t you please come in, Father? Boys and girls stand up and say, “Good afternoon, Father!”
Good afternoon, boys and girls! You are all looking very well today. Please pay special attention now while I tell you the Mass schedule for the upcoming Holyday of Obligation, which is the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven:

On Wednesday, 01 June, we celebrate the Vigil of the Ascension.
• There will be a Mass at St. Vincent dePaul Church at 04:00 pm.
• There will be a Mass at St. Joseph Church at 07:00 pm. On Thursday, 02 June,    which is Ascension Thursday itself, the Mass schedule will be as follows:
• There will be a Mass at St. Joseph Church at 12:00 noon.
• There will be a Mass at St. Vincent dePaul Church at 06:30 pm.