St. Anthony's and St. Patrick's Catholic Church

Christmas - A Parish Celebration We are deep into the Advent season - a time to prepare for the celebration of our salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, it is a time to reflect on the second coming of Christ and specifically the second coming of Christ into our own lives - our death. Celebration of Reconciliation - Penance Service... Our city-wide celebration of Penance is Sunday, December 10 at 1 pm at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish. City Wide Individual Reconciliation Monday - December 18 Holy Family 7 pm Our Lady of the Sacred Heart 7 pm St. Patrick 7 pm Wednesday - December 20 St. Patrick 5 pm Thursday - December 21 St. Anthony - 6 pm Daily before the 7 am Mass at St. Anthony and before the noon Mass at St Patrick, there is a priest available for confessions. GETTING DECORATED for CHRISTMAS On December 17, St. Patrick's Church will be decorated after the 9:30 am Mass. St. Anthony’s Church will be decorated at 5:00 pm on Monday December 18, with Pizza and salad to follow. Volunteers needed, men & women. The Confirmation candidates from both parishes can earn community service credit for coming on December 18 @ 5:00 pm to decorate. CHRISTMAS EVE MASSES Special Note: Please remember that both Christmas Eve Masses at 4:00 pm are quite crowded. So, if you plan on attending the 4:00 pm Mass on Christmas Eve, you should plan on arriving early. Also, we ask that you not reserve seats for others. A person needs to be physically present in order to claim a seat. DECEMBER 24 Sunday, December 24 is also Christmas Eve. As Catholics, we have an obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and on Christmas. We can celebrate those two occasions on the same day, but at separate Masses. However, since there is only one of me and since, if we followed our normal Christmas Eve schedule, there would be a total of seven Masses that I would have to celebrate on one day. Fr. Murray at Holy Family is in a similar situation. So, we are combining our efforts for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 24). 4th Sunday of Advent Masses will be as follows: Saturday, December 23, 4:00 pm at St. Patrick Saturday, December 23, 5:15 pm at Holy Family Sunday, December 24, 9:00 am at Holy Family Sunday, December 24, 11:00 am at St. Patrick. (St. Anthony parishioners, please do not feel left out. Given the size of the buildings and given the complexity of trying to provide enough celebrations for Christmas eve at all three parishes, this is the best arrangement that we could make.) Christmas Celebrations Sunday, December 24, 4:00 pm at St. Patrick (Fr. Vincent Freeh will celebrate) Sunday, December 24, 4:00 pm at St. Anthony Sunday, December 24, 6:00 pm at St. Anthony Sunday, December 24, 8:00 pm at St. Patrick Monday, December 25, 10:00 am at St. Anthony

God Is Not Nice - An Invitation to Study More I know that this does not sound like a good title, but it is an excellent title. Richard Niebuhr stated eighty years ago about a religion which Americans have seemed to embrace: "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross." Speaking about the author, Ulrich Lehner, Scott Hahn states: "Ilrich Lehner is not the first to observe that the preachin...g of this nice gospel corresponds rather exactly to the collapse of Christianity in the global North and West. We may instinctively like a nice God -- and even go so far as to "like" him on social media. But will we make sacrifices for him and to him? Will we be willing to die for him? Will we make the effort to get out of bed early to praise his name?" Both Lehner and Hahn are accurate and describe well what has happened to the practice of our faith both in the church building as well as on Main Street. I would like to invite parishioners to read this book and give it some serious thought. The book is worthy of discussion among the interested. So, I will offer discussion sessions on the book on the following dates: February 5, 12, 19, 26 March 12, 26 April 2 All sessions will begin at 6:30 pm. All sessions will be in St. Patrick's chapel. Participants will have to purchase their own copy of the book. Currently the price is $12.34 on Amazon. Even though I have read it on my Kindle, you may want to consider a printed version because it is the type of book that you will want to underline and write comments in the columns. Don't forget to go through the parish website to purchase the book. We will divine up the book into sections for our weekly discussions If you were annoyed by the opening comments in this notice, then you are a good candidate to participate in this group. See more

Pope meets Sisters of Congregation founded by Mother Cabrini