St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church October 25, 2020 Parish Mission Statement: St. John the Evangelist Parish is a welcoming and responsive faith community, nourished by the Word of God and the Eucharistic Table. We are open and trusting in the love of Jesus Christ to advance the power of the Holy Spirit, within the parish and beyond, by living the Gospel. Parish Information Schedule of Masses Back in Church!! 5751 Locust Avenue Sunday Mass: Carmichael CA 95608-1320 SATURDAY VIGIL: 5 pm Parish Office: (916) 483-8454 UNDAY Web: www.sjecarmichael.org S : 8 am, 11 am & 5 pm Daily Mass: Email: [email protected] 6:30 am & 8:30 am (MON-FRI) Parish Office is CLOSED 8:30 am (SATURDAY) **Please Contact Us by Phone or Email** Holy Days: Confession/Reconciliation 6:30 am & 8:30 am; 7:00 pm Healing Mass: SATURDAYS from 3:45 PM to 4:45 PM 1:30 pm--3rd Sunday of the Month SUNDAY MASS LIVE-STREAMED THROUGH FACEBOOK @ 11 AM Parish Clergy and Staff St. John the Evangelist Pastor Fr. Bernardin Mugabo School Pastor Emeritus Fr. Thomas Bland WWW.STJOHNEV.COM Mercy Hospital Chaplain Fr. Alban Uba Deacon Keith Johnson 5701 Locust Avenue Carmichael, CA 95608 Deacon Jack Wilson Phone: (916) 481-8845 Deacon Emeritus Larry Niekamp Fax: (916) 481-1319 SJE Business Manager Linda Gospodnetich Email: [email protected] Religious Education Coordinator Mrs. Joanne Giffard Principal: Christie Horton Director of Music & Liturgy Cara O’Shea Youth Minister Cara O’Shea SJE Pastoral Council Chairperson Tom Ennis SJE Finance Council Chairperson Mary Ellen Meier ST. VINCENT DE PAUL (916) 483-2161 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (916) 483-4628 Registration/Change of Address: Allow at least 3 months to receive envelopes or for any changes. I want to register in the parish. I have changed my address; my envelope # is ___________ Name: _________________________________________________________________________________________ Address: _________________________________________________ City: _____________________ ZIP ________ Phone: _______________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________ Pastor’s Page OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN: Dear Parishioners, this is the answer Saint Peter and other apostles gave to the authorities who obliged them not to speak in the name of the Lord. “You have filled Jerusalem with your teachings and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.” They were put into prison, beaten. (Acts 5: 29) but Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men.” Very soon Americans are going to elect a president for a four-year term. Believe me it is a very good thing to be a citizen of your country. Election gives everyone the opportunity to choose a president who will guide this great nation in the coming days. The media has been calling all of us to vote for their candidate, there is so much advertising around the roads, near houses and flags telling us to vote for this or that person. I am sure you have received mails calling you to vote for this per- son…as Christians Catholics, we, too have to get involved in the political arena for voting. Throughout the history of the Church, a leader has been a key factor for peace or persecution of the Church. Nero is one example of the Church’s perse- cution, while emperor Constantine was a king who brought peace and even helped build churches. In a communist country or a military rule country, there is no vote at all. Even if they might ask for votes, one’s vote doesn’t count anyway. They rely more on their military power than the votes from their citizens. These kinds of regimes are characterized by no respect for their citizens, no competitions to show who is able to run the country as do the future presidents and their vice presidents have to debate in public here in the US. They are also characterized by so much poverty. The leader and his family or friends have everything while the others have nothing. The so-called elections give the leader almost 100 % of votes, 95%,98%... Worse still, in this kind of regime, the so-called leader hangs onto power for a very long time. He or she is taken out only by death or war. Not voting is voting anyway. For the evil to triumph is for the good person to do nothing. In French they say: “Qui ne dis mot consent” meaning that if you don’t say anything, you agreed. Dear Parishioners, go to vote and make your voice heard. Fulfill your duties as a citizen of your country. Know that so many other people rely on you. but remember to vote for the right person and for the right cause. After all, you are Christian and we have to be guided in all things by Jesus, the light of the world. Citizen of earth and citizen of heaven: We all do love our country and we are very proud of it. We follow the rules and regulations so that our country may be a suitable place for all of us. But we should never forget that we were all con- ceived in God’s plan, who brought us into this world for a purpose, for a destiny. God’s laws, as we know it, will never change, while man’s law can change from one country to another. No man can expect to know better than God who created him. If conflicts ever arise between man’s law and God’s laws, our choice should be clear. We should obey God rather than man. Last week, the Gospel said: “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.” For example, it says, you shall not kill. But our country since Roe versus Wade has legalized abortion; that is the killing of inno- cent babies from their mother’s womb. No good Catholic should vote for this evil law. Once evil has started, it doesn’t end. As you know, they have decided recently that children who survive abortion should be left to die without care at all. If this doesn’t stop, who knows what will follow? Guess what, you might be on the menu yourself in the new future. You better stop it now when you still have a chance. Tomorrow it may be too late. We know also that we all need to know God, who is our Creator. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your understanding. But some of those laws in our country forbid our children to learn about God in our public schools. This is wrong. We should not allow such things to happen. There are so many other laws in our country that are anti-God’s laws. All these should be put into consideration when we are voting. Dear Parishioners, remember that we are all here on earth for a short time. The Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje said that our life here on earth is like a blink of an eye compared to eternity. Some of us might be very close to our departure from this world to the next. This is the choice of martyrs and this is the choice of Jesus who said: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8: 36) I know there is no earthly leader who can satisfy God 100%. Nobody is perfect here on earth, only Jesus was. But we can choose the less evil among those running for presidency. The Bible should be your light, the Catechism of the Catholic Church should be your light as well, the saints who made it to heaven should be your good example to follow, most of all, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gave their choices as leaders of the church what we should follow in cast- ing our vote. Their website is https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/faithful-citizenship/ God bless, Father Bernardin MUGABO C.C.D. News SJE Weekly Offertory Collection CATECHESIS OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE/CHILDRENS’S FAITH FORMATION Actual Budget Surplus/ 2020-2021 Week of: (Week): (Week) (Deficit): REGISTRATION October 03/04, 2020 $12,628 $10,365 $2,263 (K THROUGH 8TH GRADE) October 10/11, 2020 $8,939 $10,365 ($1,426) For Questions and Registration Information, please call MRS. JOANNE GIFFARD, SJE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COORDINATOR at (916) 483-4628 October 25, 2020 Readings Sunday Readings Reading 2 October 25, 2020 1 Thes 1:5c–10 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Brothers and sisters: You know what sort of people Reading 1 we were among you for your sake. And you became Ex 22:20–26 imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that Thus says the Lord: “You shall not molest or op- you became a model for all the believers in Macedo- press an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves nia and in Achaia. For from you the word of the in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any wid- Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and in ow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then For they themselves openly declare about us what your own wives will be widows, and your children sort of reception we had among you, and how you orphans.