WELCOME to the Faith Communities of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish and St. Michael the Archangel Parish. We serve the Lord through our love and support to the Johnstown Community. Please come and join us in the celebration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
EASTER – THE FIFTY DAYS
As Easter Sunday is celebrated, so are the seven Sundays that follow, concluding with Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012. The Sprinkling Rite (in place of the usual Penitential Rite with its increased emphasis during Lent) is strongly encouraged for the entire Easter Season. Every Sunday until and including Pentecost, the Easter community is to recall and to celebrate their Baptismal gift of new life in the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Easter Candle has a prominent place in the sanctuary near the altar or ambo.
Liturgically, the fifty days of Easter are one continuous feast. The practical application of this liturgical principle means that the decorations of Easter Sunday (flowers, banners, and candles) should remain for the complete fifty days of the season. Also, the Easter hymns of Easter Sunday should continue for all the Sundays of the Easter Season. The acclamations (Sunday and daily Mass) should be musically upbeat and the hymnody should reflect our faith and joy in the Resurrection of the Crucified Christ. The Easter Season invites and appropriate response for the General Intercessions during the fifty-day celebration. Two examples would be: “Risen Savior, Hear our Prayer” and “Lord, Hear our Easter Prayer.” Ideally, the General Intercessions are sung, especially during the Sundays of the Easter Season.
The fifty days of the Easter Season celebrate the mystery of the Christian Passover, the new life of God’s Spirit, introduced in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. The Easter Season is intrinsically related to the celebration of the Paschal Triduum. For fifty days, Christians liturgically celebrate the saving mysteries of Christ’s Redemption. The new life of Baptism is reflected in Scriptures and celebrated in Sacrament. Our own baptisms introduce us to the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ.
The Sundays of the Easter Season invite the celebration of additional infant Baptisms along with the reception of First Communion on Sunday, May 20, 2012. The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated throughout the Diocese during the Fifty Days of Easter. Candidates of St. Francis and St. Michael will be confirmed on Wednesday, May 9, 2012.
Prayer has always been a binding force in the church, uniting all its people, no matter what their background, their roles, or their points of view. This poem by Karen Vincent, published in St. Anthony Messenger magazine, beautifully captures the timelessness and universality of prayer.
“Prayers do not fall on deaf ears.
They glide up cathedral spires
With larks and trumpet blasts.
They rise with spiky delphiniums in May
And spangle the night clouds like fireworks in July.
In late fall, prayers drift skyward
On the ruby sparks and incense smoke
From burning leaves.
Come winter, prayers hitch rides on blue comets
And become supersonic.
Traveling faster and faster
Until, reaching the speed of light,
They burst into shooting lasers
Which pierce the heavens
Mile after celestial mile,
Never losing their impetus,
Finally reaching the kindly
Cosmic Listener
Who nods thoughtfully
As He considers every word.”
Reprinted with permission from:
Generations, Chicago, Il.
WHY DO CATHOLICS PRAY THE ROSARY?
- To obtain peace for the world (Our Lady of Fatima)
- To grow in one’s prayer life
- To grow in holiness
- It has been favored by so many miracles
- There is no surer means of bringing God’s blessings down on the family
- One cannot continue to live in sin when he is devoted to the Rosary
- It is a compendium of the entire Bible
- Meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary can be an excellent preparation for the celebration of the Mass
- Great confidence in the Rosary for healing the evils of our world
- The Saints prayed the Rosary
- The Rosary is a magnificent universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nation, and the entire world
- Popes consistently encourage praying the Rosary
- “How beautiful is the family who recites the Rosary every evening.” Blessed John Paul the Great
A MIRACLE OF THE ROSARY
Our Lady not only rewards those who preach her Rosary, but also those who get others to say it by their example. Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to pray the Rosary. So he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt; but unfortunately, he never said it himself. One day he fell seriously ill and was given up for dead. Our Lady appeared to intercede for him. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances and she put the Rosary he wore on the other side, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Through a great grace, he recovered his health and he spent the rest of his life in spreading devotion to the Most Holy Virgin and praying the Rosary himself everyday.
From – The Secret of the Rosary
THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY By St. Louis De Montfort
“If families will but listen to my message and give Our Lady ten minutes of their twenty-four hours by reciting the daily Family Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God’s grace, peaceful, prayerful places – little heavens, which God the Author of home life has intended they should be.” Father Peyton
“. . . a powerful means of renewing our courage will undoubtedly be found in the Holy Rosary . . .” Pope Leo XIII
“The Secret of the Rosary” was written by St. Louis de Montfort. For this Saint, the Rosary was not simply a method of prayer. He felt it was his most effective tool and weapon in his apostolic work. The Church has called him an “extraordinary preacher of the Rosary.” He established it in every parish where he gave a mission and judged the fruits of the mission by the subsequent perseverance in its recitation. There was no limit to the power of the Rosary and to it he attributed much of his success with sinners. St. Louis calls the Rosary “the mystical rose tree of Jesus and Mary in life, death, and eternity.” He says the roses of your Rosary will never wilt or die, and they will be just as exquisite thousands of years from now. The Rosary is a priceless treasure which is inspired by God.
In this wonderful book, de Montfort addresses Priests, saying, “Almighty God has given you the Rosary because He wants you to use it as a means to convert the most hardened sinners and the most obstinate heretics.”
This book was written three centuries ago, but it has lost none of its freshness and timeliness.
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Oh most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You,
I love You and with lively sorrow for my sins, I offer You this poor heart of mine.
Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Your will.
Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You.
Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions.
Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs,
Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death.
Amen
Christian stewards temper their attraction to material goods and share their belongings so others may live “according to each one’s need.” Added to the number of those being saved are both the one who gives and the one who receives.
The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith ; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
Song Lyrics
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ORDINARY TIME
Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, there remains in the yearly cycle those weeks (33 or 34) that do not celebrate a specific mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on Sundays, they are devoted to the Mystery of Christ in all its fullness. This period is known as Ordinary Time.
Ordinary Time begins Monday, January 10 and continues through Tuesday March 8, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season. It will resume when the Easter season ends, that is, on Monday, June 13, the day following Pentecost.
What happens in our churches every Sunday is the fruit of our week. What happens as the fruit of the week past is the beginning of the week to come. Sunday, like all sacraments, is simultaneously a point of arrival and departure for Christians on their way to the fullness of the Kingdom. This is not ordinary at all. This is the fabric of Christian living.
A THOUGHT FOR THOSE WHO GRIEVE – From an article in The Catholic Digest,
“I Lost My Grandmother to Alzheimer’s” by Nina-Marie Carvalho as told to Julie L. Rattey
“Are you done grieving yet?” There is no time limit on grief. When you lose someone who’s been with you nearly every day of your life, and when you’ve spent the last few years helping to care for them, a part of you wonders what the point of living is — What am I supposed to be here for now? And a part of you is in so much pain you just can’t imagine feeling anything else. It gets better over time, but I don’t feel grief ever goes away: You just learn to live with a big hold inside you.
You learn that the memories you make while you’re here are really the only things that matter.
Nina-Marie Carvalho
CELEBRATING CHILDREN
To the parents of our young children, may we suggest . . .
- Relax. God put the wiggle in children. Don’t feel you have to suppress it in God’s house. All are welcome.
- Sit where it is easier to see and hear and where it is convenient to leave to go to the Comfort Area.
- Quietly explain the parts of the Mass or bring a “holy” book for the child to look at or read.
- Sing the hymns, pray, and voice the responses. Children learn liturgical behavior by copying.
- As Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” Please recognize when it is better to go to the Comfort Area than to stay in the church.
- Remember that the way we welcome children in Church directly affects the way they respond to the Church, to God, to Christ and to one another.
- Let them know that they are at home in this House of Worship.
To the members of the parish . . .
A smile of encouragement is always welcome to parents with small active children. The presence of children is a gift to the Church.
They give us a future full of hope.