Fourth Sunday of Advent December 20 2015

Mailing Address: P O Box 482 Van Alstyne TX, 75495 Parish Office: 903-482-6322 For a Priest: 972-542-4667 Website: www.holyfamily-vanalstyne.org

Fr. Salvador Guzman, Pastor

Fr. James Yamauchi, Parochial Vicar

Deacon Patrick A. Hayes

Mass Schedule/Misa Dominical Sunday: 9:00 am - English Mass 12:00 pm - Spanish Misa Thursday: 9:00 am - Daily Mass

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church Mailing Address: 411 Paula Road McKinney, Texas 75069

General Email: stmichael@stmichaelmckinney.org Fr. Father Sal: frguzman@stmichaelmckinney.org Main Phone: 972.542.4667 Fax: 972.542.4641

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church Weekend Masses Vigil Mass Saturday - 5pm (English) Sunday Masses / Misa Dominical Sunday 8:00am & 11:30am ) Domingo 9:30am & 1:30pm Weekday Masses Mon., Wed, & Fri 8:00am Tues. & Thurs. 5:30pm

Confessions Thursday 6:00pm - 7:00pm Saturday 3:00 - 4:00pm Blessed Sacrament Thursday’s at 6:00pm

ESTABLISHED IN 1980 * 919 SPENCE RD., VAN ALSTYNE, TX. 75495

Fourth Sunday of Advent December 20 2015

Baptisms/Bautizos

Baptisms: 2nd Sunday of each month Bautizos: 1er Domingo del mes

Pre Baptismal Class Registration: Registration required by the Sunday before class begins. Classes are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Parents: Bring copy of child’s birth certificate. Both parents must attend class. Godparents: Must be practicing Catholics. Copy of marriage certificate through the Catholic church. Both godparents must attend class. As a courtesy, please do not bring children to class. First Communion/ Confirmation/ Primera Comunion Confirmacion April 23, 2016 10:00 am March 12, 2016 10:00 am First Friday Adoration 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

Sacraments/Sacramentos

Anointing of the Sick/Uncion de los Enfermos

Please call the Parish.

Confessions/Confesions

Immediately following the 1st Mass-30 mins. Antes de la misa

Marriage/Matrimonio

Both must be free to marry in the Catholic Church. Arrangements should be made at least 6 months prior to planned Wedding date.

Holy Orders/Vocaciones

Talk to your Parish priest or call Father Edwin A Leonard, Vocations Director, at 214-379-2860.

Weekly Calendar

Sunday, December 20 8:30 am Rosary 9:00 am Mass 10:15-11:15am Faith Formation PreK-4th NO CLASSES 12:00 pm Spanish Mass 1:30-2:45 pm Faith Formation 5th-Confirmation NO CLASSES 1:00PM Decorate for Christmas

Monday, December 21 7:00 pm Sunday Choir Practice Tuesday, December 22 7:30 pm RCIA Class NO CLASS Wednesday December 23 7:30 pm Bible Class NO CLASS Thursday, December 24 No Morning Mass or Bible Class

4:00 pm Christmas Vigil Mass English Celebrate Christ Birthday Friday, December 25 12:00 pm Christmas Mass Spanish Merry Christmas to All Saturday, December 26

Believe in the Power of Prayer

Eddie Pryor Karen Conner Anonymous Arnie Clark Elaine Clark Karen Elliott Angie Hermosillo Jennifer Bryant Karen Connor Jose Garcia M. McGuire Molly Roberts Jean Westmoreland Reynaldo Chaviva

Offering

A endance: December 8, 2015 110 Offering: December 8, 2015 $ 351.28 A endance December 13 , 2015 486 Offerings: December 13 , 2015 $ 3,471.01 Building Fund December 13, 2015 $ 10,489.12 Re rement Fund December 13, 2015 $ 825.00 for Religious

FAITH FORMATION

NO Classes December 20th & 27th

Classes Resume Sunday

January 3, 2016

ROSARY

Please consider leading the Rosary before Sunday Mass next year. Just once every few weeks and the schedule covers all year. You can easily swap the duty with other leaders if you have a schedule conflict. Contact Rick at 214-213-7398 or see any of the Rosary leaders on Sundays.

Christmas Decorations

Following the 12:00 pm Mass Please stay or come back to decorate the church for

Christmas! All volunteers are welcome.

Pope Francis

“God sent his Son, God made himself man in order to save us, that is, in order to grant us his mercy.” Loyola

“As he has in the past, God leads us through our troubles

to abundant springs of mercy.” Loyola

Christmas Masses at Holy Family

Thursday Vigil Mass 4:00 pm English

Friday Christmas Day 12:00 pm Spanish

Invite Family and Friends to Christmas Mass

ADVENT/ Miscellaneous

AN ADVENT PRAYER: Fourth Sunday of Advent O LORD of hosts, look down from heaven and see; take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted. -- Psalm 80:15-16

TRADICIONES DE NUESTRA FE Esta semana recordamos a los niños judíos que fueron asesinados por orden del Rey Herodes en Belén. Esa tragedia que ocurrió cuando el viejo y celoso rey se enteró del naci-miento de un nuevo rey de los judíos. Él mandó a matar a todo niño que tuviera menos de dos años. El llanto de las familias que perdieron sus pobres inocentes se ha conver do en risas en varios países la noamericanos. El 28 de diciembre en muchas partes es conmemorado como el día de los ino-centes que viene siendo el April Fools Day de La noamérica. En ese día se hacen bromas para burlarse de los amigos. Si la broma funciona al pobre que fue engañado se le llama "inocente". La inocencia normalmente se atribuye a los niños o a los in-genuos, pero en si la inocencia es una virtud cris ana, de los que hemos sido perdonados por Cristo. Esta inocencia no es ingenuidad mas bien es la candidez, simplicidad y generosid-ad de una persona que conoce bien lo duro que es la vida y aún así man ene la esperanza. --Fray Gilberto Cavazos-Glz, OFM, Copyright (c) J. S. Paluch Co

LOVE NOW Let those love now who never lov'd before; let those who always lov'd now love the more. --Anonymous

The Official Prayer for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy

Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father, and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him. Show us your face and we will be saved. Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Ma hew from being en-slaved by money; the adulteress and Magdalene from seek-ing happiness only in created things; made Peter weep a er his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief. Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gi of God!” You are the visible face of the invisible Father, of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy: let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified. You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error: let everyone who approaches them feel sought a er, loved, and forgiven by God. Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anoin ng, so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord, and your Church, with renewed enthu-siasm, may bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to cap ves and the oppressed, and restore sight to the blind. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, You who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Made with � by Diocesan & Trinity Publica ons

AMAR AHORA Que amen ahora quienes nunca antes amaron; que los que siempre amaron amen aún más ahora. --Anónimo

Sensitive to Community, Beyond Ourselves by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Some years ago I was challenged by a Bishop regarding an ar cle I’d wri en. We were talking in his office and the tone eventually got a li le testy: “How can you write something like that?” he asked. “Because it’s true,” was my blunt reply. He already knew it was true, but now, realizing that, he became more aware of his real agenda: “Yes, I know it’s true, but that doesn’t mean it should be said in that way in a Catholic newspaper like ours. This isn’t a university classroom or the New York Times. It’s a diocesan newspaper and that’s not the best context within which to say something like that. It will confuse a lot of readers.”

I’m not immune to pride and arrogance and so my spontaneous reac on was defensive. Immediately there were certain voices in me saying: “I am only saying what’s true. The truth needs to be spoken. Why are you afraid to hear the truth? Are we really doing people a favor by shielding them from things they’d rather not hear?”

But I’m glad I swallowed my pride, bit my tongue, mu ered a half-sincere apology, and walked out of his office without saying any of those things out loud because, a er my ini al feelings had subsided and I’d had a more sober and prayerful reflec on on our conversa on, I realized he was right. Having the truth is one thing, speaking it in a place and a manner that’s helpful is quite another. It’s not for nothing that Jesus challenged us to speak our truth in parables because truth, as T.S. Eliot once quipped, cannot always be swallowed whole and the context and tone within which it is spoken generally dictate whether it’s helpful or not to speak it at a given me or to a given person. Simply put, it isn’t always helpful, or charitable, or mature, to throw a truth into someone’s face.

St. Paul says as much in his Epistle to the Romans in words to this effect: We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensi ve about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. (Romans 15, 1) That can come across as patronizing, as if Paul were telling a certain elite to tone down some of their enlightened views and ac ons for the sake of those who are less enlightened, but that’s not what’s at stake here. Undergirding this kind of admoni on is a fundamental dis nc on that’s cri cally important in our teaching, preaching, and pastoral prac ce, namely, the dis nc on between Catechesis and Theology, the dis nc on between nurturing and shoring-up someone’s faith as opposed to stretching someone’s faith so as to make it more universally compassionate.

Catechesis is meant to teach doctrine, teach prayers, teach creeds, clarify biblical and church teachings, and give people a solid, orthodox framework within which to understand their Chris an faith. Theology, on the other hand, presupposes that those studying it are already catechized, that they already know their creeds and prayers and have a solid, orthodox founda on. Theology’s func on, among other things, is then to stretch its students in func on of giving them the symbolic tools with which to understand their faith in a way that leaves no dark, hidden corners into which they are afraid to venture for fear of shaking their faith. Catechesis and Theology have different func ons and must respect each other since both are needed: Young seedling plants need to be protected and gently nurtured; just as older, mature plants have to be given the wherewithal to live and thrive inside all the environmental challenges in which they find themselves.

Thus the challenge coming to me from the bishop was, in effect, to be more careful with my audience so as to dis nguish theology classrooms and academic periodicals from cateche cal situa ons and church newspapers.

It carried too a special challenge to humility and charity, such as was, for example, shown by the scien st-philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Elderly, re red, and in declining health, he s ll found himself “silenced” by the Va can in that we has

forbidden to publish his theological thoughts. But, rather than reac ng with anger and arrogance, he reacted with charity and humility. Wri ng to his Jesuit Provincial, acknowledges needs beyond his own: “I fully recognize that Rome may have its own reasons for judging that, in its present form, my concept of Chris anity may be premature or incomplete and that at the present moment its wider diffusion may therefore be inopportune. … [This le er] is to assure you that, in spite of any apparent evidence to the contrary, I am resolved to remain a child of obedience. Obviously, I cannot abandon my own personal search – that would involve me in an interior catastrophe and in disloyalty to my most cherished voca on; but I have ceased to propagate my ideas and am confining myself to achieving a deeper personal insight into them.” Recognizing the importance of sensi vity as to where and how we speak the truth, Jesus advises: “Speak your truth in parables.”

San Bernardino, Colorado Springs, Paris, Beirut — our world is changing around us. We are experiencing a new reality. Pope Francis put it well in addressing the leadership of the Church in Italy: “It can be said that today we do not live in an age of change but in a change of age.”

Taking cover, circling the wagons and wai ng for things to get back to normal won’t cut it. There is, as the Holy Father said, a new normal emerging and we must deal with it. If we run away from it, if we cower with fear, it will overwhelm us. If we engage the new age, the new reality becomes manageable.

Recent violent events here and abroad and the piecemeal war that is oozing out of the Middle East and Africa to our very doorstep have stripped away our security blanket leaving us feeling naked and vulnerable. Panicked, we see only enemies and are blinded to the bewilderment and suspicions of others who stand equally naked and vulnerable.

Compassion and mercy are abandoned in the name of self-preserva on. We trust no one — even God, rever ng to the law of the jungle.

It does not have to be that way. Jesus teaches a different way — a way that calls us to share one another’s burdens, a way that replaces fear with faith, a way that tempers power with prudence. Peace and security are not found in withdrawal from the world, but through engagement, for “as the Lord’s disciples, we are called to live as a community which is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. (cf. Mt 5:13-16). Evangelii Gaudium 92

San Bernardino, Colorado Springs, París, Beirut — nuestro mundo está cambiando. Estamos viviendo una nueva realidad. El Papa Francisco lo expresó claramente al hablar del liderazgo de la Iglesia en Italia: “Se puede decir que hoy no vivimos en una época de cambio sino en un cambio de época”.

Protegerse, ponerse a la defensiva y esperar que las cosas vuelvan a la normalidad, no solucionará nada. Como dijo el Santo Padre, una nueva norma está emergiendo y debemos lidiar con ella. Si huimos de ella, si dejamos que nos paralice el miedo, terminará por aplastarnos. Si nos involucramos en esta nueva época, la nueva realidad se hace manejable.

Los recientes acontecimientos violentos aquí y en el extranjero y la guerra fragmentada saliendo del Medio Oriente y África y llegando hasta nuestras puertas ha despojado nuestra manta de seguridad dejándonos desnudos y vulnerables. Llenos de miedo, vemos sólo enemigos y estamos cegados a la perplejidad y sospechosos de otros que están igualmente desnudos y vulnerables.

La compasión y la misericordia son dejadas de lado en nombre del ins nto de conservación. No confiamos en nadie — ni si-quiera en Dios — estamos volviendo a la ley de la selva.

No ene que ser así. Jesús nos muestra una forma diferente, una manera que nos llama a compar r las cargas de los otros, una forma que reemplaza el miedo con la fe, una forma que templa el poder con la prudencia. La paz y seguridad no se encuentran al retraemos del mundo sino a través del compromiso, ya que “los discípulos del Señor son llamados a vivir como comunidad que sea sal de la erra y luz del mundo (Evangelii Gaudium 92; Mt 5,13-16).

Una Nueva Realidad By Bishop Kevin J. Farrell

A New Reality By Bishop Kevin J. Farrell

Informa on Page

Holy Family Quasi-Parish

020915

Date: Sept 18, 2011

Janis Hicks 903-744-7999

Transmission Date / Time Tuesday 12:00pm

Special Instruc ons