Historic St. James at Sag Bridge Church 10600 S. Archer Avenue | Lemont, Illinois 60439-9344 | (Ph) 630.257.7000 | (Fx) 630.257.7912

Email: stjames1833@att.net | Website: www.historicstjames.org Facebook: https://Facebook.com/Saint James At Sag Bridge

Altar & Rosary Society All women of the parish are invited to join us at our MEETING on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER

8TH at 9:30am in Sag Hall. Our guest speaker will be Kathy O’Brien, RN, CLL (Laughter sessions). Our MEMBERSHIP DRIVE AND BAKE SALE will be on the weekend of

SEPTEMBER 15TH & 16TH.

Pres: Barbara (708.257.9129) V.P: Irene (773.366.2185) Sec: Judi (630.243.9414) Treas: Linda (630.257.8252)

September 2, 2018 | Twenty-Second Ordinary Sunday

St. James at Sag Bridge 185th Special Event IL License Plate

~ Jesus of Nazareth in The Gospel of Mark

7-21-23

Page Two September 2, 2018

FROM THE DESK OF, FR. THOMAS KOYS, M.A., S.T.L., PASTOR

This is the time of year to consider becoming involved not just in activities required of you or your children, but stretching even your own faith. There are many ways to do this. The SPRED program is one way. The SPRED ministry not only gives you an opportunity to grow in your own faith but also to reach out to those more vulnerable and guide them as a friend so all grow in faith, trusting in the Lord. SPRED is a two track pro-gram: for every session with our friends, there is a ses-sion the week prior for those who are adult helpers. We invite parents of people with developmental and intel-lectual challenges, autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and learning problems of various ages and abilities who live in this community and others to learn more about this faith development program. We need only four more adult volunteers to begin this pro-gram. Will you consider being one? No experience with those with special needs is required. Join Noreen, Lisa, Megan, and K.C. for a SPRED Informational Gathering on Monday, September 10, 2018 at 6:30pm in the St. Patrick Ministry Building. Our friends with developmental or intellectual disabilities are waiting to be welcomed.

(Peter Kreeft, Article, Part IV) WHO IS OUR ENEMY? Not Protestants. For almost half a millennium, many of us thought our enemies were Protestant heretics, and addressed that problem by consigning their bodies to battlefields and their souls to Hell. Gradually, the light dawned: Protestants are not our enemies, they are our “separated brethren.” They will fight with us. Neither are the Jews, nor Mus-lims, nor Mormons, Quakers, “liberals”, left wing media and Hollywood types. Our enemy is not even the few really bad priests and bishops, candidates for

Christ’s Millstone of the Month Award, the modern Pharisees. Who, then, is our enemy? There are two answers. All the saints and popes throughout the Church’s history have given the same two answers, for these answers come from the Word of God on paper in the New Testa-ment and the Word of God in flesh in Jesus Christ. Yet they are not well known. Our enemies are demons. Fall-en angels. Evil spirits. So says Jesus Christ: “Do not fear those who can kill the body and then has no more power over you. I will tell you whom to fear. Fear him who has power to destroy both body and soul in Hell.” So says St. Peter, the first pope: “The Devil, like a roaring lion, is going through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Resist him, steadfast in the faith.” So says St. Paul: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of wickedness in high places.” So said Pope Leo the XIII, who received a vi-sion of the 20th century that history has proved terrify-ingly true. He saw Satan, at the beginning of time, al-lowed one century in which to do his worst work, and he chose the 20th. This pope with the name and heart of a lion was so overcome by the terror of this vision that he fell into a trance. When he awoke, he composed a prayer for the whole Church to use to get it through the 20th century; the St. Michael prayer. I said there were two enemies. The second is even more terrifying than the first. There is one nightmare even more terrible than being chased and caught and tortured by the Devil. That is the nightmare of becoming a devil. The horror outside your soul is terrible enough; how can you bear to face the horror inside your soul? What is the horror inside your soul? Sin. That’s why the Church is weak and the world is dying: because we are not saints.

2018 ANNUAL CATHOLIC APPEAL - “COME, FOLLOW ME.” Today we wish to recognize those who not only support our parish, but also have made a gift or pledge to the 2018 Annual Catholic Appeal of the Archdiocese of Chicago. On behalf of those who will be served by your contributions, thank you to all who have already completed their pledge payments, as well as those who are still making payments.

For those of you who have not had an opportunity to make a pledge or a gift this year but wish to support the ministries and services funded by the Annual Catholic Appeal, please contact the Annual Catholic Appeal Of-fice at (312)-534-7959 or online at www.annualcatholicappeal.com. Remember that when our Parish ex-ceeds its goal, any additional funds received are returned for use in our Parish. When each of our individual gifts are combined with the gifts of thousands of other parishioners throughout the Archdiocese, each contrib-utor makes a very real difference in the ability of the Archdiocese to provide ministries and services. Thank you again for your support!

A great Catholic resource for the family. www.FORMED.org

PassCode for St. James: KFWMDB

Twenty-Second Ordinary Sunday Page Three

READ THE WHOLE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR

Deacon Bill Dunn

During 2018, I did something interesting. I read the entire Bible, from Genesis 1:1 all the way through to Revelation 22:21. Back on January 1st, 2018, I downloaded a smartphone app that laid out a very specific daily schedule. By reading 3 or 4 chapters each day, the Bible can be completed in exactly one year. To be honest, when I began this endeavor, I suspected the odds of finishing it were slim. You see, I’ve never been a very good New Year’s reso-lution kind of guy. For example, it is now February 2018, and five weeks ago I made a resolution to lose 10 pounds. Well, only 15 more pounds to go!

So, I’m rather surprised I completed the task of reading the whole Bible. And I’m very glad I did it. While reading the grand saga of God’s dealings with His beloved yet rebellious creatures (that would be us), I learned many things I never knew before. I also refreshed my memory on numerous aspects of salvation history that I hadn’t thought about in years. But I have to admit, my eyes glazed over on more than a few occasions, as I was more concerned about completing a particular day’s chapter assign-ment than comprehending the words I was reading.

All in all, it was a beneficial exercise to read through God’s Holy Word. In addition to discovering some new things about salvation history, I learned a few other important lessons. First, the Bible can be very difficult at times. It was written over the course of many centuries, by dozens of different writers, all of whom had a unique writing style. For every Luke (“This is exciting and fun to read!”) there was an Ezekiel (“What in the world is THIS supposed to mean?!”)

Also, I learned that many Bible instructors are cor-rect when they say, “Never read the Bible from cov-er to cover, as if it were a novel.” If I didn’t have the daily regimentation of the phone app schedule, and instead just tried to plow through the whole thing on my own, I probably would’ve given up around Groundhog Day.

Another thing I learned is that all parts of Scripture are not of equal importance. Now, don’t get me wrong. Every word in the Bible is divinely inspired and is part of the message that God wished to com-municate to us. But there’s no doubt the parts of the Bible that describe Jesus’ ministry, His passion, and His Resurrection are far more important than, for example, the details of how the ancient Israelites were to weave cloth used in the dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant. (If you’re curious, it was woven us-ing fine linen, with violet, purple, and scarlet colors, and images of cherubim embroidered on it.)

The most important lesson I learned from my year-long exercise is that the Bible is not a self-interpreting document. It can be exceedingly confus-ing at times. Therefore, we need the teaching Mag-isterium of the Church to explain what the Bible means and how it applies to our lives.

There is a popular notion nowadays called “Sola Scriptura,” which means the Bible alone. The idea is that the Scriptures are all we need to know God and live our lives according to His will. Besides the glar-ing Catch-22 contradiction that this concept does not appear anywhere in the Bible, it’s not a coinci-dence that the people who believe in Sola Scriptura have splintered into over 40,000 different denomina-tions and sects, with each group convinced its par-ticular interpretation of Scripture is correct.

For 2,000 years the Holy Spirit has guided the bish-ops of the Church to understand and teach the mes-sage of the Bible correctly. Which is why my project for 2019 is to read the entire Catechism of the Cath-olic Church. Maybe by December 31st I’ll finally learn what in the world Ezekiel was talking about.

St. James CCD begins on Monday, Sept. 10th

Please contact the rectory to register.

Our weekly Offertory collection from August 26th was $3,247.00. The number of envelopes received was 90.

OUR MANY THANKS TO OUR REGISTERED FAMILIES USING ENVELOPES & THE CASH-AND-CARRY FOLKS.

Our CHURCH CLEANERS FOR FRIDAY – 9/7/18 Are Diane, Kristine, Bronislawa & volunteer. If

you are interested in volunteering, please contact the rectory office at 630.257.7000.

VOTIVE OFFERINGS FOR THE WEEK OF 9/2/18 St. James Altar & Rosary Society

Health & Healing for James Gillmeister For the Soul of Sharon Stach

In Memory of Lillian Simanavicius

Our beautiful bouquets of flowers surrounding our

altar were made available in Loving Memory of

GUY & DOREEN PEARMAN

MASS SCHEDULE

WEEKENDS: Saturdays: 5:00pm Sundays: 8:30, 10:00 & 11:30am HOLY DAYS: 8:15am & 7:00pm

WEEKDAYS: Mon, Tue, Thu 8:15am & Fri 6:00pm WEDNESDAY: Adoration at 5:00 & Mass at 7:00pm CONFESSION SCHEDULE: Weds 6:00-7:00pm & Saturdays: 9:30-10:15am, otherwise by appointment BAPTISMS, WEDDINGS & FUNERALS: Contact the rectory office SICK & HOMEBOUND PASTORAL CARE: Please notify rectory RECTORY OFFICE HOURS: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri: 9:30am to 1:00pm

Labor Day & MONDAY SEPT 3RD – St. Gregory the Great & 9:00 AM James J. Sendziak (3rd Anniversary)

TUESDAY SEPT 4TH 8:15 AM All the Poor Souls in Purgatory

WEDNESDAY SEPT 5TH – St. Teresa of Calcutta 7:00 PM Birthday Blessings ~ Mary Noonan

THUSDAY SEPT 6TH 8:15 AM Birthday Blessings ~ Brittany McBrien Guy & Doreen Pearman

FRIDAY SEPT 7TH – First Friday 6:00 PM All the Poor Souls in Purgatory Twenty-Third Ordinary Sunday SATURDAY SEPT 8TH – Nativity of BVM 5:00 PM Paul & Patricia Pearson

SUNDAY SEPT 9TH 8:30 AM For All Couples Preparing for Marriage 10:00 AM Jozef Dziaba 11:30 AM Eleanor Harris & Kathleen Briggane

23RD ORDINARY SUNDAY

9/8 & 9/9/18

Celebrant

Altar

Servers

Lectors

5:00 PM Fr. Tom Koys

N. Akroush Lawler Lawler

C. Zarzycki

8:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

S. Carver Dillenburg Dillenburg

T. Gorski

10:00 AM Fr. Tom Koys

N. Akroush A. Bertucci A. Pawlikowski

R. Augustyn

11:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

A. Gallager J.P. Colarelli M. Colarelli

S. Kelley