Mass Schedule:

Sunday 9:30 a.m. Monday 7:00 a.m. Tuesday 12:10 p.m. (St. Anthony Novena) Wednesday 7:00 a.m. (Saint Jude Novena) Thursday No Mass Friday 7:00 a.m. Saturday 4:00 p.m. at Saint Anthony Church

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament:

Tuesday 9:00 a.m.—12:00 Noon

Sacrament of Reconciliation:

Saturday 3:00 p.m.-3:45 p.m. at St. Anthony Monday, Tuesday & Friday As requested after Mass

Parish Staff: Administrator: Reverend Walter A. Carreiro padre_walter@outlook.com

Sunday Assistant: Reverend Jim Darcy

Sunday & Daily Mass Assistants: Rev. Eric P. Siqueira & Rev. Luiz F. Lopes

Religious Education:

Betty Saccoccio

Cantor and Organist:

Linda Balliro & Anthony Crescenzi

Acolyte: Bulletin:

John Ciampi Higor Fontoura

bulletin@saintanthonyparish.com

SAINT FRANCIS of ASSISI CHURCH

325 Cambridge Street · Cambridge, Massachusetts 02141 Telephone: New 617-547-5593 · Fax 617-547-1505

E-mail: saintfranciscambridge@gmail.com

January 12, 2020 Solemnity of the Baptism

2

Saint Francis of Assisi Parish East Cambridge, MA

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Saint Francis of Assisi Church

All are welcome, invited and encouraged to pray at the chapel at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish each Tues-day morning from 9:00a.m.—12:00 Noon for Exposi-tion and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Follow-

ing benediction at Noon, daily Mass is celebrated. Each Wednesday night from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm there

is also Adoration with Praise and Worship.

Thursdays at Saint Anthony Church

All are encouraged to pray before the Blessed Sacra-ment in the chapel at Saint Anthony Parish for Expo-

sition and Adoration from 3:00 p.m.—6:30 p.m.

Immediately following Benediction daily Mass is cele-brated in Portuguese.

Our Weekly Offerings

Ofertory 01/05 $ 204.00

Utility Fund $ 151.00

Christmas Collection $ 622.00

Offertory 12/29 $ 255.00

The Second Collection is our Monthly Collection

On behalf of the priests of our Archdiocese,

thank you for your prayerful and generous

support on Christmas Collection.

Sacrament of Baptism:

The Sacrament of Baptism is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday of each month (except during Lent) at Saint Anthony Church. A prepara-tion class is required for parents and godparents, offered on the 2nd Sunday of each month prior to the baptism. Please call the par-ish office to arrange for the baptism at least a month in advance.

Pastoral Care of the Sick: Please contact the parish office at or one of the priests for a loved

one to receive a visit and the Sacrament of the Sick.

Sunday January 12

The Baptism of The Lord

9:30 a.m. John Gargano

Monday January 13

Weekday

7:00a.m. For All Souls commended to our prayers

Tuesday January 14

Weekday

9:00 —12:00 Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Wednesday January 15

Weekday

7:00a.m. For All Souls commended to our prayers

Thursday January 16

Weekday

12:10 p.m. (6:00 PM @ Sacred Heart)

Friday January 17 Weekday

7:00 a.m. Marie, Danny and Mark Thompson

Sunday January 19

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

9:30 a.m.

Happy New Year! I am recovering well and hope to be back with you soon. I understand that some of our pa-rishioners would like to learn some prayers in Italian. I

found a few different versions of the “Hail Mary” online. Here are a couple that seem most likely more

recent. I include these because of the similarity between the Portuguese and Spanish versions with which I am more familiar. Next time I’ll post the Lord’s Prayer.

Ave Maria / Hail Mary Ave o Maria, piena di grazia,

il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne

e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesú. Santa Maria, Madre di Dio,

prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen.

Another version: Ave Maria / Hail Mary

Ave Maria, Piena di grazia, Il Signore è tecco.

Tu sei benedetta fra la donne e benedetto è il frutto del ventre tuo, Gesú.

Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori,

adesso e nell'ora del morte nostra. Amen.

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Saint Francis of Assisi Parish East Cambridge, MA

By Dr. Scott Hahn

Third Sunday of Advent (Cycle A) John questions Jesus from prison in today's Gospel - for his disciples' sake and for ours. He knows that Jesus is doing "the works of the Messiah," foretold in today's First Reading and Psalm. But John wants his disciples - and us - to know that the Judge is at the gate, that in Jesus our God has come to save us. The Liturgy of Advent takes us out into the desert to see and hear the marvelous works and words of God - the lame leaping like a stag, the dead raised, the good news preached to the poor (see Isaiah 29:18-20; 61:1-2). The Liturgy does this to give us courage, to strengthen our feeble hands and make firm our weak knees. Our hearts can easily become fright-ened and weighed down by the hardships we face. We can lose patience in our sufferings as we await the coming of the Lord. As James advises in today's Epistle, we should take as our example the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Jesus also points us to a prophet - holding up John as a model. John knew that life was more than food, the body more than clothing. He sought the king-dom of God first, confident that God would provide (see Matthew 6:25-34). John did not complain. He did not lose faith. Even in chains in his prison cell, he was still sending his disciples - and us - to our Savior. We come to Him again now in the Eucharist. Al-ready He has caused the desert to bloom, the burn-ing sands to become springs of living water. He has opened our ears to hear the words of the sacred book, freed our tongue to fill the air with songs of thanksgiving (see Isaiah 30:18). Once bowed down, captives to sin and death, we have been ransomed and returned to His Kingdom, crowned with everlasting joy. Raised up we now stand before His altar to meet the One who is to come: "Here is your God."

By Dr. Scott Hahn

Third Sunday of Advent (Cycle C) The people in today's Gospel are "filled with expec-tation." They believe John the Baptist might be the Messiah they've been waiting for. Three times we hear their question: "What then should we do?" The Messiah's coming requires every man and woman to choose - to "repent" or not. That's John's message and it will be Jesus' too (see Luke 3:3; 5:32; 24:47). "Repentance" translates a Greek word, metanoia (literally, "change of mind"). In the Scriptures, re-pentance is presented as a two-fold "turning" - away from sin (see Ezekiel 3:19; 18:30) and toward God (see Sirach 17:20-21; Hosea 6:1). This "turning" is more than attitude adjustment. It means a radical life-change. It requires "good fruits as evidence of your repentance" (see Luke 3:8). That's why John tells the crowds, soldiers and tax collectors they must prove their faith through works of charity, honesty and social justice. In today's Liturgy, each of us is being called to stand in that crowd and hear the "good news" of John's call to repentance. We should examine our lives, ask from our hearts as they did: "What should we do?" Our repentance should spring, not from our fear of coming wrath (see Luke 3:7-9), but from a joyful sense of the nearness of our saving God. This theme resounds through today's readings: "Rejoice!...The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all," we hear in today's Epistle. In today's Respon-sorial, we hear again the call to be joyful, unafraid at the Lord's coming among us. In today's First Reading, we hear echoes of the an-gel's Annunciation to Mary. The prophet's words are very close to the angel's greeting (compare Luke 1:28-31). Mary is the Daughter Zion - the favored one of God, told not to fear but to rejoice that the Lord is with her, "a mighty Savior." She is the cause of our joy. For in her draws near the Messiah, as John had promised: "One mightier than I is coming."

By Dr. Scott Hahn

Feast of the Holy Family (Cycle A) Underlying the wisdom offered in today's Liturgy is the mystery of the family in God's divine plan. The Lord has set father in honor over his children and mother in authority over her sons, we hear in today's First Reading. As we sing in today's Psalm, the bless-ings of the family flow from Zion, the heavenly moth-er of the royal people of God (see Isaiah 66:7, 10-13; Galatians 4:26). And in the drama of today's Gospel, we see the nucle-us of the new people of God - the Holy Family - facing persecution from those who would seek to destroy the child and His Kingdom. Moses, called to save God's first born son, the people of Israel (see Exodus 4:22; Sirach 36:11), was also threatened at birth by a mad and jealous tyrant (see Exodus 1:15-16). And as Moses was saved by his mother and sister (see Exodus 2:1-10; 4:19), in God's plan Jesus too is rescued by His family. As once God took the family of Jacob down to Egypt to make them the great nation Israel (see Genesis 46:2-4), God leads the Holy Family to Egypt to prepare the coming of the new Israel of God - the Church (see Ga-latians 6:16). At the beginning of the world, God established the family in the "marriage" of Adam and Eve, the two becoming one body (see Genesis 2:22-24). Now in the new creation, Christ is made "one body" with His bride, the Church, as today's Epistle indicates (see Ephesians 5:21-32). By this union we are made God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. And our families are to radiate the perfect love that binds us to Christ in the Church. As we approach the altar on this feast, let us renew our commitment to our God-given duties as spouses, chil-dren and parents. Mindful of the promises of today's First Reading, let us offer our quiet performance of these duties for the atonement of our sins.

For Reflection Greetings! As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, knowing the effects of the sacrament, we should be wondering, “Why did Jesus submit himself to be baptized?” A very good question, even one that John himself asked. John recognized his need for baptism saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” One sugges-tion is that as priest (the “High Priest”) Jesus had to be called by God, and washed with water by an existing priest. John the Baptist was a priest, inheriting the office from his father. This explains why Jesus, who according to Christianity is sinless, submitted to a ritual that signified repentance for sin. However, Jesus was not ordained into the priesthood of Aaron, but into a superior priesthood - the Order of Melchizedek. Jesus says that his baptism is “fitting” and the “fulfillment of righteousness.” Since there is no scripture sug-gesting that the messiah should be baptized, what is being fulfilled is the will of God. God willed that Jesus should be completely im-mersed in the human experience so as to redeem us from sin. What-ever the reason, Jesus teaches us about the need for baptism. Since we are born with original sin and are prone to sin because of our hu-man nature we become baptized to die with Christ and rise with him, out of the waters of baptism, to a new life in Christ. As we are baptized we take on Christ and become Christian. We are named Christian. Just as we are taught not to do anything that would bring shame upon our family name, likewise we should do noth-ing that would bring shame upon the name Christian and all that entails. With the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord this weekend the Christmas season liturgically comes to a close and we now enter into the season of Ordinary time. Ordinary generally means common or mundane, yet any one of us would, or should admit that there is nothing common or mundane or “ordinary” about the life of Jesus Christ. Nor, for that matter, is our worship of God in the Eucharist. Rather than mean com-mon or mundane the term “ordinary” comes from the word ordinal as in the ordinal (as opposed to the car-dinal) numbers. As a review, the cardinal numbers are one, two, three, etc. Ordinal numbers are those we use to place things in order, first, second, third, etc. All the weeks of the year that do not fall into the named Sundays, because of the season in which they fall, are ordered. These seasons are Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, which ends with Pentecost. The first week of Ordinary time begins with the last Sunday of the Christmas season, this year the Baptism of the Lord. When we celebrate the Eucharist we celebrate the mys-tery of our salvation, the life, death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter allow us to enter more deeply into that aspect of our Lord’s life. Far from being Ordinary our celebration is always extraordinary, beyond the ordinary. Next week when you return to church it will seem more plain and the vestments will be green. There is no First Sunday of Ordinary time but there is a 1st week. Next Sunday continues the season with the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. Re-member though, that there is nothing plain or ordinary about what we do here each and every time we gather to celebrate Eucharist. Peace & Blessings, Fr. Walter

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SANCTITY OF LIFE SUNDAY JANUARY 19, 2020

Written in secret. EVERY hair Counted.Valued above rubies. a life known by GOD.

Made in His image...

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Saint Cecilia Parish, BostonAssociate Fire Chaplain

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