Worship

Weekly Bulletin April 27, 2008

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you." - Jn 14:15-17

Readings for the Week of April 27, 2008

Today’s Readings are on Page 1055

Sunday: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17/1 Pt 3:15-18/Jn 14:15-21

Monday: Acts 16:11-15/Jn 15:26-16:4a

Tuesday: Acts 16:22-34/Jn 16:5-11

Wednesday: Acts 17:15, 22-18:1/Jn 16:12-15

Thursday: Ascension of the Lord: Acts 1:1-11/

Eph 1:17-23/Mt 28:16-20

Friday: Acts 18:9-18/Jn 16:20-23

Saturday: 1 Cor 15:1-8/Jn 14:6-14

Next Sunday: Acts 1:12-14 1 Pt 4:13-16/Jn 17:1-11a

The Feast of the Ascension is Thursday, May 1. It is a Holy Day of Obligation. Masses are at 9:00am and 7:30pm.

Mass Intentions

Monday 9:00 Josephine Cabral

Saturday 9:00 Maria & Alessandro Mazzaferro

Prayers

For the deceased

Kitty Urann, Wayne Peck, Peter Bruno, Victor Minichilli, Henry Gotovich, Roisin Geoghegan

For the sick

Carolyn Cleveland, Elsie Barnor, Jody Thomas, Millie MacDougall, Gloria Marshall, Erin O’Handley, Chic Labrie, Aidan Loftus, Michelle Beausoleil, Jeanne Bouley, Mary Peltier, Bill Cronin, Helen McNabb, Mary Mason, Maura O’Toole, Sam DiLoreto, Lucille Salhany, Mary Lou Frates, Florence Aulogia

Bridge of Loving Service: Boston - Gulfport

Eight members of the parish will be traveling to Lizana, Gulfport, MS, June 29 - July 5 to participate in the Bridge of Loving Service project. We will be joining young people and adults from other parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston. This effort is coordinated through Project Hope and Compassion which is a ministry of Saint Ann Catholic Church, where we will be staying at "Camp Hope". For more information about this group, please visit their web site: www.projecthopeandcompassion.org. Participants from Our Lady of Sorrows Parish include Nick Cittadino, Elisabeth Guenette, Kevin Rodecker, Sarah Graveline, David Roberto, Lucie Graveline, Oscar Escartin and Fr. Scott.

Today’s Music

Gathering Song: Spirit & Song #126 Behold the Glory of God

Sprinkling Rite: Spirit & Song #1 Come to the River

Responsorial Psalm: Spirit & Song #81 Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad

Preparation of the Gifts: #907 O Breathe on Me, O Breath of God

Communion Hymn: #612 Send Us Your Spirit

Sending Forth Song: #663 How Great Thou Art

Saints of the Week - Philip & James - May 3

St. Philip and St. James were two of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus. After St. Philip was called to be an apostle, he persuaded Nathaniel (St. Bartholomew) to also follow Jesus. At the feeding of the 5,000, St. Philip passed the remark that "200 denari would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little". St. James was the brother of St. Jude, and is often referred to as "James the Lesser" to distinguish him from James, the son of Zebeddee. Some traditions believe St. James was a cousin of Jesus, and other traditions name him as the author of the Epistle of St. James. Traditionally, St. Philip and St. James share the same feast day because their remains were both brought to the Church of the Apostles in Rome in early May, 561.

Gospel Focus – Paraclete

The Greek word, parakletos, is translated into a number of different terms in English translations of the gospel. Its technical use was for a lawyer or attorney. However, its use in scripture is like the broader meaning of advocate that we use today: someone who stands up for another; someone who speaks up for another; someone who intercedes on behalf of another. An advocate is one who lends strength and support to someone who is disempowered. That is exactly what Jesus did for many people during his ministry and it is also what the Holy Spirit is sent to do. This is also what we are called to do: lend strength and support to those who are disempowered.

Reflection Questions:

How might this passage have contributed to the teaching of God as Trinity?
In what ways did Jesus fulfill the role of a paraclete or advocate?
What are the commandments that Jesus refers to as “his commandments”?
What does this passage tells us about Jesus’ vision of what it is to be a disciple?

Religious Education and Youth Ministry

Monday, April 28

4:00-8:00pm Service trip to Nazareth House, Roxbury.

Nazareth House is a homeless shelter serving women and children living with AIDS.

Tuesday, April 29

6:30- 9:00pm Confirmation II Rehearsal & Pasta Dinner

O’Connell Hall – Rehearsal begins at 7:30

Friday, May 2

7:00pm Confirmation Immediately following Confirmation, there will be a social in O’Connell Hall. All are welcome.

Sunday, May 4

8:00am Youth Ministry Service trip to participate in the Walk for Hunger. Students plan to meet in church parking lot at 8:00am to travel together to Boston

10:30-11:30am Rel. Ed. pre-K – 5^th grade and adults

6:00-8:00pm Rel. Ed. 6,7, & 8 grade in classrooms; Parent Meeting – Students meet in classrooms; parents meet in Cottage Street School Cafeteria.

Monday, May 5

7:30-9:00pm Confirmation I Rel Ed in O’Connell Hall

Friday, May 9

8:00-10:30pm Youth Center open for students in grades 6, 7 & 8 - Special thanks to all our parent chaperones and to Pizzagando for supplying us with free pizza.

Friday & Saturday, May 16-17

High School Retreat at the Espousal Center in Waltham, MA sponsored by OLOS Youth Commission. Please call the Youth Ministry Office at 781-784-2206 for more information.

Sunday, May 18

8:00am Youth Ministry Service trip to Milton Academy in Milton, MA to help with the Track & Field Competition of the Special Olympics. Students can plan to meet at the church parking lot at 8:00am. to travel together to the event.

10:30-11:30am Rel. Ed. for pre-K – 5^th grade & adults

5:00pm Teen Mass - All are welcome.

6:30-7:00pm Rel. Ed. 6, 7 & 8 grade in O’Connell Hall

Friday, June 20

Youth Ministry Annual trip to Six Flags in Agawam, MA for students in 7^th – 12^th grade. Parent chaperones will be

needed. To register for the trip, please call the Youth Ministry Office at 781-784-2206.

Confirmation

The ways of celebrating Confirmation vary as much as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some people celebrate Confirmation in their adolescence after many months of catechesis and service. Some are confirmed when they are baptized. Members of other churches may be confirmed when they come to communion in the Catholic church.

The flexibility causes confusion. The many occasions for Confirmation obscure its meaning. Surely Confirmation seals a candidate with the gift of the Holy Spirit. But the disparity of age, preparation and celebration of this sacrament remains widespread.

In the early church, all the baptisms happened at the cathedral on Easter. After baptism, the bishop anointed with chrism, imposed his hands and prayed for the Holy Spirit.

When Christianity spread to rural communities, bishops could no longer gather all those to be baptized. Consequently, by the fifth century, they permitted the presbyters and deacons of the smaller communities to baptize. But the bishops “confirmed” the baptisms in the community.

At the same time, our church was welcoming back into the fold those who had strayed to heresies. To ritualize their return, we borrowed two gestures from the baptismal rite: the imposition of hands and the anointing with chrism. From these beginnings, Confirmation has come down to us as three families of rituals: 1) Initiation. The Eastern rites confirm (or chrismate) everyone as soon as they are baptized, even infants. In the West, we confirm at the baptism of adults and children of catechetical age. 2) Maturity. We delay Confirmation for Catholics baptized

as infants. The age of the typical candidate may range anywhere from seven to eighteen. Dioceses in the United States may set their age within that range. That’s why children in your diocese may be confirmed at one age and children in the next diocese are confirmed at another. 3) Transference. When baptized candidates transfer from another church into the Catholic church, we confirm them after they make their profession of faith.

Although the meaning of Confirmation changes slightly within each family, its overall purpose celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit in the baptized, which helps us to bear faithful witness to Christ.

Religious Education – New Student Registration – May 18

On Sunday, May 18, from 10:30 - 11:30 am in the Cottage Street School and O’Connell Hall, Our Lady of Sorrows Parish will hold open registration for students who will be new to our Religious Education Program for the 2008-2009 school year. To support parents as they raise their children in our faith tradition, Our Lady of Sorrows Parish offers a comprehensive Religious Education and Youth Ministry Program for children and young people, Pre-K through grade 10. First Reconciliation and Communion preparation is typically offered in the second grade. Confirmation preparation is a two-year process, typically for grades 9 and 10. We look forward to welcoming new students to our programs.

Online Learning Opportunity: The Gospel of Luke

Boston College’s C21 Online is offering The Gospel of Luke, May 12-23. This 2-week workshop has all the features of our longer courses, including video with Fr. Michael Himes, downloadable and printable text by Dr. Philip A. Cunningham, and an online discussion community guided by an experienced religious educator. There is no need to be online at the same time to participate. Learn about the Gospel’s setting, the Evangelist who wrote it, and the community for which it was written. Then explore practices to encounter the Gospel in prayer and reflection. As a member of the C21 Online Network, you can enroll for the discounted rate of $15. Contact Fr. Scott for our group number. For full description, a demo course, and registration visit www.bc.edu/c21online. Workshops on the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew will be offered during the 2008-09 course year.

Knights of Columbus

"By their deeds shall you know them."

On Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27, members of the Knights of Columbus will be available after each Mass to enlist new members and to provide information about the Knights of Columbus.

The purpose of increasing membership is for the Knights to strengthen our support and assistance to OLOS parish and to better serve our community.

Charity is the first principle of the Order. It is through our charitable acts that we provide assistance to handicapped children and to ease the plight of those less fortunate.

I urge you to join me and the Foxboro/Sharon Knights of Columbus in our quest to accomplish our charitable and humanitarian goals, and to strengthen our support of OLOS parish and the Sharon community.

For additional information, please contact Joe Fontes at 781-784-5316 or joseph.fontes@verizon.net.

Our Lady of Sorrows Community Yard Sale

Help us build funds to help others.

When: Saturday, May 10; 8:00 – 3:00

Where: Church Parking Lot

Donations of gently used toys, games, baby equipment, books, videos, DVDS, household items, small tools, furniture, small appliances & dishes may be dropped off at the Bullock Center beginning May 1. Please no clothes, shoes, stuffed animals, computers, monitors & bedding. To help, please call Rosemary Thomas @ 784-3790 or drmsthomas@hotmail.com.

Third Annual Bullock Lecture Makes the Case for Pluralism

The 3^rd Annual Rev. Robert W. Bullock Memorial Lecture is this Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30 pm in Our Lady of Sorrows Church. Our featured speaker is Diana L. Eck, a Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Frederic Wertham, Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society at Harvard University.

Professor Eck will discuss: The Case for Pluralism: Difficult Dialogues in Multireligious America. Pluralism is not diversity alone, but energetic engagement with diversity. It is not just tolerance, but active seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Pluralism means holding our deepest differences not in isolation, but in relationship to one another through active dialogue. We hope you can join this stimulating discussion. Refreshments will follow.

If you wish to make a donation to support this and future lectures in memory of Fr. Bullock, please contact Fr. Scott (OLOSParish@aol.com or 781-784-

Hogar Miguel Magone

A church is being built at Hogar Miguel Magone, a home for orphaned, abused, and abandoned boys and girls in Guatemala. Every Sunday, the children of the orphanage are joined by dozens of other children from the surrounding village and their families to celebrate Mass and participate in religious education activities in a small, crowded room. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution: 1) on-line through the Orphan’s Hope Project (www.orphanshopeproject.com); or 2) a check made out to Orphan’s Hope Project and mailed to: Roger Bourassa, 475 South Main Street, Sharon. Please do not hesitate to contact Roger with any questions at: 784-8710 or roger.bourassa@verizon.net.

Text Box: The Spirituality of Stewardship Text Box: Receiving God's Gifts gratefully; Nurturing God's Gifts responsibly;
Sharing God's Gifts in love and justice;
Returning God's Gifts generously. Red Cross Blood Drive

Our annual Red Cross Blood Drive will be held on June 13, 2008. Because there has to be 8 weeks between donations, we are hoping you can save this date for our Parish Blood Drive. For more information, please call Ginny Devlin at 781-784-3516. Thank you.

Church Unity & Cultural Diversity Celebration

On Saturday, May 3, 5:30 - 7:30 pm in O'Connell Hall, we will have a "Church Unity and Cultural Diversity Celebration." This is an opportunity to celebrate both our unity in faith and the cultural diversity which exists among our members. Please plan to bring a food to share (enough for 6-8 people) that represents your cultural and ethnic heritage. You are also welcome to share something else (music, dance, clothing, art) that represents your cultural and ethnic heritage. Please RSVP to olosparish@aol.com indicating how many people are coming and the food and anything else (music, dance, clothing, art) you plan to share.

Bible Boot Camp-One Day Workshop- May 10

This one-day workshop format will provide an overview of the Bible and Bible study. It will address the following questions:

The Bible: Where Did We Get It and How Do We use it?
Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament): What Is It and Who Needs It?
Christian Scriptures (New Testament): When Was It Written and Why?
Studying Scripture: What’s the Catholic Approach?

This one-day workshop will take place on Saturday, May 10, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, in the Bullock Center Please contact Fr. Scott (781-784-2265; olosparish@aol.com) for additional information or to register. Cost for materials and lunch: $20.

Collection – Sunday, April 20

On April 20, 2008, the parishioners contributed $7,127 which is 88% of our weekly budget of $8,100. On average, the weekly offertory this fiscal year is $6,973 which is 86% of our weekly budget. As a result of our cumulative collection shortfalls, our year-to-date deficit is $48,354

2008 Catholic Appeal - Handing on the Light of Christ

Thank you to all supporters of the 2008 Catholic Appeal. Our parish has raised $8,218 from 60 households, reaching 27.9% of our parish goal amount of $29,500 and 47.6% of our participation goal of 126 households. If you have not yet pledged, please consider a gift today and help us meet both of our goals. Each gift helps to meet our shared responsibility and support our shared ministries within the Archdiocese of Boston. The Appeal is to the Archdiocese what the weekly offertory is to our parish. You can pick up information packets with pledge forms in the back of the church. For more information, please visit www.BostonCatholicAppeal.org or call 617-779-3700. Every gift matters. Thank you!

Eucharistic Adoration and Rosary at OLOS

Eucharistic Adoration is on Monday afternoons from 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. Adoration on the first Monday of the month ends with Night Prayer and Benediction. Adoration on the other Mondays ends with a simple reposition. Each hour contains a significant amount of silent individual prayer, but begins with spoken public prayer. For more information, call Connie Malloy @ 781-784-2279.

Please join us for the rosary every Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. in the church. As we pray for the Holy Spirit to give strength to the weak and heal the sick, may we remember to protect the elderly and the unborn from euthanasia and abortion.

"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. We encourage all our parishioners who worship with us to register. Our registry is a vital source of connection that we use to communicate and build community. Please call the rectory, 781 784 2265, or return this form to the rectory by the collection basket, mail, or in person. Thank you.

Name: __________________________________________ email: ____________________________________________
Street Address: _______________________________________ Town: ______________________ Zip: ______________
Tel. #: ________________ Names and ages of any children: ______________________________________________