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The Piarist Fathers Pastor Rev. David Powers Sch.P. Parochial Vicars Rev. Nelson Henao Sch.P. Rev. Richard Wyzykiewicz Sch.P. Parish Staff Parish Secretary Mrs. Rosemarie Ortiz Business Manager Anne Kathy Rice Facilities Manager Lillian Nazario Music Director saint Mr. Daniel Ambe Musicians Mr. Jim Donaldson Helena Mr. Alex Henriquez parish November-December Bronx, NY 2018 Mass Schedule (Horario de Misas) St. Helena’s School (718) 892-3234 http://www.sthelenaelementary.org Early Childhood (3Yr Olds & Pre-K for All) Elementary School (Grades K-8) Principal: Mr. Richard Meller 2050 Benedict Avenue Bronx, New York 10462 High School: Monsignor Scanlan H.S. (718) 430-0100 http://www.scanlanhs.edu/ Arrangements must be Principal: Mr. Peter Doran made at the Rectory for Baptismal 915 Hutchinson River Parkway Class. Bring a copy of the child’s Birth Bronx, New York 10465 Certificate and Godparent documents. Arrangements for St. Helena Rectory: weddings should be made as soon as 1315 Olmstead Avenue possible at the Rectory. Bronx, N.Y. 10462 All Catholics Phone: (718) 892-3232 who live within the parish boundaries Fax: (718) 892-7713 should fill out a registration card at the Rectory. www.churchofsthelena.com Email: [email protected] Alumni: [email protected] ST. L BRONX, The Solemnity of Christ the King Those Baptized into Jesus Christ continue His redemptive mission The Liturgical Year Comes to an End until He returns to establish His Reign. We do this by living in His This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of Body, the Church, and drawing the whole world into the New Christ the King. It is one of the many World beginning now. The Church is, in one of the early father's opportunities the Catholic Liturgical Church favorite descriptions, that "New World". year offers to each of us to consider really This new family of the Church was then sent on a mission. In our living differently. celebration of a Church Year, we not only remember the great The feast is a relatively recent one. It was events of the life, ministry and mission of the Lord, we also instituted in 1925, by Pope Pius XI. During celebrate the life and death of our family members, the Saints, its celebration, many Catholics sing who have gone on before us, in the words of the Liturgy, "marked praises and pray for peace. The Catholic with the sign of redemption" as we pray in the Liturgy. They are teaching of receiving time as a gift from models and companions for the journey of life and are our great God is one of the many things which make intercessors; that "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) whom us counter-cultural. the author of the letter to the Hebrews extols. This is the heart of Our actually choosing to live the Christian understanding the "communion of saints". As St. Paul reminded year, in a compelling way, can become a the Roman Christians, not even death separates us any longer. profoundly important form of missionary activity in an age which (Romans 8:38, 39) They will welcome us into eternity and help us has become deluded by the barrenness of secularism. A robust, along our daily path through both their example and their prayer. evangelically alive and symbolically rich practice of living As we progress through liturgical time we are invited to enter into liturgically can invite our neighbors to examine their lives and be the great events of faith. So, on this last week of the year, through drawn to the One who is its source - Jesus Christ, the Alpha and our readings and liturgical prayer, we are invited to reflect on the the Omega, the Beginning and the End - as the emptiness of a life "last things"- death, judgment, heaven, and hell. We do so in order without God fails to fulfill the longing in their own hearts. In a to change, to be converted; to enter more fully into the Divine plan. particular way, Catholics are invited to mark time by the great Today, as the Western Church year ends, we celebrate the full events of the Christian faith in a Liturgical calendar. However, like and final triumph and return of the One through whom the entire so much that is contained within the treasury of the Catholic universe was created - and in whom it is being "recreated" - and Church; the practice must be understood in order to be fully by whom it will be completely reconstituted and handed back to received as a gift. the Father at the "end" of all time. That end will mark the beginning Jesus Christ is King, and we are the seeds of His Kingdom of a timeless new heaven and a new earth when "He will wipe scattered in the garden of a world which is waiting to be born every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death.” anew. The Church, as a mother and a teacher, invites us to live Revelations 21:4). the rhythm of the liturgical year in order to help us walk into a The Church Fathers were fond of a Latin phrase "Carpe Diem", deeper encounter with the Lord and bring the whole world with us which literally means "Seize the day." For we who are living in into the new world of the Church. The Church really IS the communion in Christ Jesus, that phrase can take on a whole new Mystical Body of the Risen Christ. That Body is inseparably joined meaning. We always journey toward the "Day of the Lord", when to the Head. Jesus Christ is alive; he has been raised; and he He will return as King. We should seize that day as the reference continues His redemptive mission now through the Church, of point for all things on this last week of the year, and we can live which we are members. our lives as though His day is the milestone for all that we do, The early Catholics, before they were even called Christians, were revealing the path along which we become new - beginning now. referred to as the Way. (Acts 9:2, Acts 11:26) That was because they lived a very different way of life. A Way of Life which drew The Miracle of the Miraculous Medal men and women to the One whose name they were soon The Medal of the Immaculate Conception, popularly known as the privileged to bear, Jesus the Christ. We do not really go to Church; Miraculous Medal, is unique among all medals. The Miraculous we live in the Church and go into the world, to bring the world, Medal was created in response to a request from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who entrusted us with a mission. It was given by the through the waters of new birth, into the Church as a new home, a Blessed Virgin Mary herself, and many people have testified that it new family. There, people will find the grace needed to begin a gives extraordinary graces to those who wear it and pray for whole new way of living. Christians believe in a linear timeline in Mary’s intercession and help. Our Lady manifested the Medal to history. There is a beginning and an end, a fulfillment, which is, in St. Catherine Labouré on November 27, 1830, in the motherhouse fact, a new beginning. of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac, in Paris. The final Sunday of the Church Year, the Feast of Christ the King, is the day when we are invited to commemorate His sovereignty Here at St. Helena, we have a plaque of the Miraculous Medal over all men, women, and children. Jesus Christ has come. Jesus above our Mary Altar that came from the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Paris, and we pray the Miraculous Medal Novena every Christ is coming. Jesus Christ will come again. Jesus Christ is Monday, following the 12:15PM Mass. Lord of All. Catherine saw Our Lady standing on a globe, with dazzling rays of Next week, we will celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, and light streaming from her outstretched hands. Framing the figure begin the time of preparation for the great Feast of the Nativity of was an inscription: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us Our Savior. We are moving forward and toward His loving return. who have recourse to thee.” Then Mary spoke to Catherine: “Have The Church, to use the beautiful imagery of the early Christian a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive fathers, was birthed from the wounded side of the Savior on the great graces, especially if they wear it around Cross at Calvary's hill. Our Catholic liturgical year follows a the neck.” The vision then seemed to turn to rhythmic cycle which points us toward beginnings and ends. In show the reverse of the Medal: the letter M surmounted by a cross with a bar at its base; doing so, it emphasizes important truths that can only be grasped below this monogram, the Sacred Heart of through faith. Our Catholic faith and its Liturgical practices Jesus crowned with thorns, and the proclaim to a world hungry for meaning that Jesus Christ is the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a "Alpha", (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) and the sword. "Omega" (the last letter), the beginning and the end. He is the With the approval of the Catholic Church, the Giver, the Governor, and the fulfillment of all time. In Him, the first medals were made in 1832 and were whole world is being made new and every end becomes a distributed in Paris.