Founded 1866 The Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents

“The Little Catholic Church Around the Corner” at the crossroads of the world

128 West 37th St. (Just West of Broadway) New York City 10018 The Return Crucifix

“Miracles on 37th Street”

Week of January 6, 2019

THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD Mass Intentions

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6 - The Epiphany of the Lord LATIN TRIDENTINE MASS CORNER

09:00 - Pro Populo 10:30 - Triantafillos Kassidis (d) Calendar 12:30 - In Thanksgiving to St. Jude January 6 - Epiphany of the Lord MONDAY, JANUARY 7 - St. Raymond of Peñafort, Priest 1st Class - Polyphonic Mass

07:00 - Jose Maria Morales Renteria (d) January 7 - Epiphany Feria (Mass of Epiphany) 07:30 - Kay Irudden (d) 4th Class - Low Mass 12:15 - Families in the Book of Life 01:15 - Ruza Zobko (d) January 8 - Epiphany Feria 06:00 - Family of David & Patty Haro (L) Conversion 4th Class - Low Mass

TUESDAY, JANUARY 8 - Christmas Weekday January 9 - Epiphany feria 07:00 - St. Anthony 4th Class - Low Mass

07:30 - Arnulfo Endaya, Francis & Alfred Austria (d) January 10 - Epiphany Feria 12:15 - William Hugh Moffitt (d) 4th Class - Low Mass 01:15 - Sandee Denove (d) 06:00 - Concepcion De Lara (d) January 11 - St. Hyginus, Pope & Martyr 4th Class - Low Mass WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9 - Christmas Weekday January 12 - Saturday of Our Lady 07:00 - Justin Imperatore (d) 4th Class - Low Mass 07:30 - Thomas Gargam (d)

12:15 - Kevin Timothy Back (d) Next Sunday 01:15 - Constance Jerome (d) January 13 - Feast of the Holy Family 06:00 - John Bishop (d) 2nd Class - Chant Mass THURSDAY, JANUARY 10 - Christmas Weekday

07:00 - In Honor of the Holy Innocents Eucharistic Holy Hour of Reparation 07:30 - Dorothy C. Moore (d) in honor of the 12:15 - Forgotten Souls in Purgatory Holy Face of Jesus 01:15 - In Thanksgiving to the Blessed Sacrament 06:00 - Orlando Galias (L) Birthday Blessings Every Third Tuesday of the month Following the 6:00 p.m. Mass FRIDAY, JANUARY 11 - Christmas Weekday Next Holy Hour: January 15 07:00 - In Thanksgiving 07:30 - John Janda (d) 12:15 - Erlinda Chen Bona (d) 2000 HAIL MARYS 01:15 - Orson Williams (L) 06:00 - Braun Family (L) Health Intentions The next 2000 Hail Marys devotion will take place next Saturday, January 12 beginning at 6:00 and SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 - St. Marguerite Bourgeoyus ending with the 4:00 p.m. Mass.

12:00 - Dorothy Doyle (d) 01:00 - Family of David & Patty Haro (L) Conversion 04:00 - Teresa Marcellin (L) Altar Offerings

Sanctuary Candle NEXT SUNDAY - The Baptism of the Lord Leith, Moore & Gerber Families 09:00 - Marlene Lopez Jacinto (L)

10:30 - Purgatorial Society Adoration Candles 12:30 - People of the Parish In Thanksgiving, In Reparation and for Conversion

Altar Candles Dedicated to Fr. James Miara in his Priestly & Pastoral Ministry

My dear parishioners,

I wish to thank all of you for your generosity to Holy Innocents during this Christmas season. I am grateful to all who have made a Christmas gift to our parish. Your generosity continues to inspire me. Next week we will re- port the total amount for 2018 Christmas Collection in the Bulletin.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all of those who have remembered me and the priests of the parish by send- ing cards, good wishes, food, and gifts. I am humbled by your generosity and thoughtfulness. I treasure all of the beau- tiful gifts I have received and each time I use them I remember the one who was kind enough to give it.

I would like to highlight one of the unique gifts I received and share the story behind it with you. One of our weekday Sacristans, Brian Hilley, presented me with a fairly heavy package on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, after our full schedule of Masses was over, I opened it and found a small picture framed. It was a lightly worn antique Holy Card (refer to other page of bulletin to see a copy of it) of our Return Crucifix so highly venerated here at Holy Innocents, in very good condition. On the back of the card is a Prayer for a Happy Death with the Imprima- tur by Patrick Joseph Cardinal Hayes, who served as Archbishop of our beloved Archdiocese from 1919 until his death in 1938. I assume this Holy Card is probably from the 1940s during the pastorate of Msgr. Aloysius Dineen who was Pastor of this beloved church from 1931-1951 and who popularized devotion to Our Lord of the Return Crucifix. Need- less to say, I was thrilled to have this piece of history of Holy Innocents!

I assumed that Brian, who has an interest in the history of Holy Innocents and is a great researcher, found it on e-bay, but that was not the case. On St. Stephen’s Day he told me how he came across this treasure.

As you know from the Renew and Rebuild Capital Campaign, our sinking vestibule is in the process of being fixed. As a part of that process, a sizable section of the ceiling in the lower Church Hall had to be removed to discover the root of the problem. Brian told me that one day he went down to the Hall after the demolition crew left to lock up and dis- covered this very Holy Card lying near the entrance. It must have fallen from the ceiling and somehow for many dec- ades was caught in the section of the church building between the floor of the vestibule and the ceiling of the Church Hall, perhaps falling through a crevice in the floor or through a radiator. Only God knows.

A second part of my gift from Brian was a package of about 500 of those Holy Cards reproduced exactly as the origi- nal card from the 1940s. I want to share these cards with you as an encouragement to venerate Jesus of the Return Cru- cifix and to pray before it for graces you are seeking in your lives. There is a weekly novena on Friday and many entrust their intentions to us to be prayed during this time of prayer. Perhaps you will join in this weekly novena if you are not already doing so. This particular crucifix (the story of which is located in another part of this bulletin) has been so high- ly venerated here at Holy Innocents for decades and should continue to be so. Please daily recite the Prayer for a Happy Death so that “we may meet merrily in Heaven” as St. Thomas More wrote in his letter of July 5, 1535 to his daughter Margaret Roper, and spread this devotion. Msgr. Dineen said on many occasions that the hand of God is felt here at Ho- ly Innocents and that prayers are answered here. Please take as many of these cards as you wish and spread this good news far and wide to your family, friends and loved ones. Be a recipient of the graces Our Lord of the return Crucifix wishes to bestow upon you!

In Jesus & Mary, Fr. Miara

Prayer to Jesus of the Return Crucifix

Jesus Christ crucified, Son of the Virgin Mary, incline Thy sacred Head and listen to my prayers and sighs, as Thou didst listen to Thy eternal Father from Mount Thabor. Hail Mary, etc…

Jesus Christ crucified, Son of the Virgin Mary, open Thy sacred eyes and look on me, as Thou didst look on Thy af- flicted Mother from the cross. Hail Mary, etc…

Jesus Christ crucified, Son of the Virgin Mary, open Thy sacred lips and speak to my sad heart, as Thou didst to St. John when recommending to him Thy Blessed Mother. Hail Mary, etc…

Jesus Christ crucified, Son of the Virgin Mary, open Thy sacred Heart, that seat of love and mercy; receive mine into It; make mine wholly Thine; hear my prayers and mercifully grant my petitions, especially those favors which I ask in this Novena. (Here privately mention your petition.) Hail Mary, etc…

Perpetual Novena in honor of Our Lord of the Return Crucifix every Friday. Envelopes for you to write your petitions to be included in this Novena are located by the Shrine of the Return Crucifix. Deposit the envelope in any of the boxes in the church or send to the Parish Office. THE RETURN CRUCIFIX C One of Mr. Chambers’ most fa- O mous pictures, “The Return,” has an interesting history. Hap- P pening in at Holy Innocents’ Y Church in 37th Street, New York, one evening at dusk, just at the beginning of the World War, his attention was arrested by a man O who knelt alone at the foot of a large crucifix. The contrition F expressed in the kneeling figure was inspiring, and by the light of a few candles on the simple votive stand, the artist made a hasty sketch on an envelope. A conversation later on led A to the man’s consenting to pose for the larger pic- N ture in Mr. Chambers’ studio, where comment on his unusual piety revealed a frank admission. That T very evening he had experienced true sorrow for a I dissolute life, and a return of the Faith he had not practiced since his boyhood in Brittany. He was Q leaving in a few days to join the French Army. U

The end of the story is contained in a letter re- E ceived after peace was declared, in which he wrote that he had resigned command of his regiment to serve in the army of God in a monastery. Incidentally the crucifix in this church is the same H before which Joyce Kilmer prayed and received the gift of Faith. O

--Reprinted from “Monograph on a Contemporary Spiritual L Painter.” Y 2019 MARCH FOR LIFE

The Regina Coeli Council of the Knights of Columbus will sponsor a bus to the Right to Life March in Washington, DC leaving from in front of Holy Innocents Church at 8am C on Friday, January 18th. Tickets are $45 and can be pur- chased for cash from Eddy Toribio or Patrick Sullivan and A by credit card from the parish office. Deadline to pur- R chase tickets is December 31. D EPIPHANY SACRAMENTALS

Epiphany Water and chalk will be blessed following the 1:00 pm Mass on SATURDAY, JANUARY 5. Please PRAYER BEFORE A CRUCIFIX bring the water you wish to be blessed marked with Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while your name and place it in the sacristy prior to Holy before Thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul Mass. The blessed chalk will be available all week- pray and beseech Thee to fix deep in my heart lively end for you to take to your homes so you may mark sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, true contrition the names of the three Magi (Caspar, Melchior, Bal- for my sins, and firm purpose of amendment: thasar) over your doors, as a witness of your faith while I contemplate with great love and tender pity and a protection against evil: (20 + C + M + B + 19) Thy five wounds, pondering over them within me, having in mind the words which David thy prophet EPIPHANY HOME BLESSINGS said of Thee, my Jesus: “they pierced my hands and

It is customary in the time after the Epiphany until the my feet; they numbered all my bones.” Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple on - Ps. xxi 17, 8. February 2 to have one’s home blessed with the Epiph- Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father, etc., any Water. If you would like this done, please contact for the intentions of the Holy Father. the Rectory Office and arrange for an appointment —Plenary Indulgence with Fr. Miara. SPIRITUAL ADOPTION PROGRAM Holy Innocents Bookshelf

Father Augustus Tolton This weekend concludes our Adopt-a-baby program. The Slaves Who Became the First Thank you to all who participated in these nine months African-American Priest of prayer for the unborn. Today we will have a “baby By Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers shower” for our local crisis pregnancy center. We will be collecting disposable diapers, formula, layette items, In these fascinating pages, popular au- and new baby clothes (up to 24 months size) for mothers thor and speaker Deacon Harold Burke- who cannot afford these items. Sivers tells the gripping story of Augus-

Please place your gift in the box in the back of church. tine Tolton, who valiantly overcame a All gifts will be sent to the Center after January 13. series of seemingly insurmountable challenges — birth into slavery, his father’s death, abject poverty, and even being denied acceptance by every Catholic seminary in America — to become the first black American priest.

Despite the hardships placed on Fr. Tolton by a culture rooted in racial hatred, he became a tireless messenger of the Gospel, plunging into the Deep South where segre- gation was decreed by harsh laws, penetrating even the hardest of hearts with the richness, beauty, and truth of the Catholic Faith. He was a beacon of hope to black Catholics in the 19th Century who were trying to find a home in the Amer- ican Church. He was a visionary who saw beyond race and politics, teaching that the Catholic Church wants to free us not just from slavery, but from slavery to sin.

Amidst great persecution, Fr. Tolton showed us that be- ing configured to Christ means emptying ourselves so that God can fill us, exposing the weakest parts of who we are so that God can make us strong, becoming blind to the ways of this world so Christ can lead us, and dying to ourselves so we can rise with Christ. All who seek to be formed more perfectly to Christ have a role model in Fr. Tolton, a persevering and holy man who sought above all the salvation of souls.

NEW KNEELERS Available in the Gift Shop in the Parish Office

All of the broken kneelers in the church have been replaced with new ones. Many were in disrepair and Holy Innocents custom-made some sections even missing kneelers. With such a 2019 Calendars highly visited church as Holy Innocents it was embar- rassing and inappropriate to have such a beautiful Now available in the Parish Office church not up to par with the dignity due to a House of the Lord by neglecting this situation. This was an $12.95 per calendar + tax unanticipated expense and therefore donors are need- ed to help cover the cost of this project. The total Contains the Feasts of the Saints in cost of the kneelers including installation is $27,000. both the Old and New Liturgical Any generous souls who would like to help are asked Calendars as well as Historic to place your donation in an envelope marked “New Feasts and beautiful pictures from Kneelers” and to return it to the Rectory or in one of the Liturgical life of the parish. the collection boxes. Thanks! COLLECTION REPORT SECOND COLLECTION Regular Collection - 12/23/18 $5,585.00 The second collection this weekend is for the Catholic Shrines and Candles $2,577.00 University of America in Washington which serves the academic training and religious formation of young peo- Regular Collection 12/24/17 $5,220.82 ple. And for the Catholic Communications Campaign Shrines and Candles $2,997.50 which produces television and radio programs to spread the Gospel to people around the country and Your generous contribution to your Parish is around the world. Half of your donation stays in your greatly appreciated! diocese to support local communications projects. May the Good Lord reward you abundantly!

Often children who have died before birth have no grave The Shrine to the Unborn or headstone, and sometimes not even a name. At The Blessed by Cardinal O’Connor on December 28, 1993 Church of The Holy Innocents, we invite you to name your child(ren) and to have the opportunity to have your baby's name inscribed in our "BOOK OF LIFE". Here, a candle is always lit in their memory. All day long people stop to pray. On the first Monday of every month, our 12:15pm Mass is celebrated in honor of these children and for the comfort of their families. We pray that you will find peace in knowing that your child(ren) will be remembered at the Shrine and honored by all who pray here.

We will inscribe the names of babies who have died before and at birth in our Book of Life, and as always, we invite you to visit the Shrine if you are in New York City.

SUBWAY ROSARY

The Shrine is dedicated in Memory of the Children Our Regina Mundi Praesidium of the Legion of Mary conducts a Subway Rosary on the second and fourth Who Have Died Unborn Saturdays of the month. All are invited to join in We invite you to name your child(ren) this evangelization effort to spread devotion to Our and provide the opportunity to have Lady. Anyone interested in joining is asked to gath- your babyʹs name inscribed in our “Book of Lifeʺ. er at Holy Innocents by 10:00 a.m. The group will then proceed to either Herald Square, Duffy Square, Majestic Queen of Heaven or a subway station for the recitation of the 20 dec- Majestic Queen of Heaven and Mistress ades of the Holy Rosary and return back to Holy In- of the Angels, Thou didst receive from God nocents around 12:30 p.m. Come for all or part of the Subway Rosary! the power and commission to crush the head of satan; wherefore we humbly beseech Thee, Upcoming Subway Rosaries send forth the legions of Heaven, that, under January 12 Thy command, they may seek out all evil spirits, January 26 engage them everywhere in battle, curb their insolence, and hurl them back into the pit of hell. “who is like unto God?” O good and tender Mother, Thou shalt ever be our hope and the object of our love. O Mother of God, send forth the holy Angels to defend me and drive far from me the cruel foe. Holy Angels and Archangels, defend us and keep us.

VOLUNTEER SINGERS NEEDED

"Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and mak- ing melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks..."

- Ephesians Ch 5. LEGION OF MARY

The Shrine & Parish Church of Holy Innocents Volunteer Weekly Meeting of the Legion of Mary choir needs your voice! All ages welcome. We meet on will be in the Parish Hall Sundays at 9:30am in the Church Hall. Please email Ra- at 7:00pm every Monday, chel Aldridge at [email protected] if you are inter- following the 6:00pm Latin Mass ested in joining. No prior experience necessary. Compliments of

LESLIE STUART, INC. 149 West 36th Street 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Tel : 212-629-4551 x 102 / Fax: 212-629-4625 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.donnadegnan.com