St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Catherine of Alexandria Established 1859 Established 1911 Hilltop, Maryland Port Tobacco, Maryland

Home , Catherine of Alexandria

September 20, 2020 ~ 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

During COVID-19, the Mass schedule is as follows:

SUNDAY MASS DAILY MASS St. Catherine Sat 5:00pm Field St. Catherine Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri 6:30pm St. Catherine Sun 10:30am St. Ignatius Sun 8:30am

CONFESSIONS ADORATION St. Catherine Sat 4:00-4:45pm Field St. Catherine Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri 5:30-6:30pm St. Ignatius Sun 7:45-8:15am St. Catherine Thu 5:30-6:15pm OFFICE & STAFF

St. Catherine / St. Ignatius 7640 Port Tobacco Rd. Port Tobacco, MD 20677 Alicia Brady Avery Sandiford Brenda Greer

Sam Gray Bobby Vermillion Raymond Website: www.stcsti.org Sandy Taylor Marcus Elam DiGiovanni Phone: 301-934-9630 Leon Higgs Robert Ansell Hailey Sellers Flocknote: Text “ROUTE6” to 84576 Bill Higgs Robin Proctor Linda D. Welch

Pastor Lionel Gray Sarah Smith Vincent Jamieson Rev. Aaron Qureshi Mike Hancock Daniel Jameson Clarke Hettel [email protected] Joe Cooper Sissy Cooper Jean Ambrose Marie Boteler Craig Doshen DeAngelo Ball Administrative Assistant Marcella Palmer Irene Proctor Carina Gibbs Linda Harrigan Hank Galotta Aubrey Proctor Kayla Kiley [email protected] Ramona Dobry Jennifer Hancock Xenia Hernandez Ignatius Cooper Jean Carter Steve Pavlot Bookkeeper Kelly Welch Michael DeLane Joe Raub Theresa Wegand John Shifflett Dawn Walters Logan Willey accounting.stcatherine- [email protected] Please keep in your prayers those with long term illnesses and their caregivers. To have names added to or removed St. John Paul II from the prayer list or if you need a priest at the hospital, Faith Formation Program nursing home or assisted living facility, call (301) 934-9630. Director, Bill Wannall Please leave your name, phone number, person's name, 301-934-2261 ext. 107 facility and room number. [email protected] Sacrificial Giving Youth Ministry Weekend of September 13, 2020 Anna Albrittain 301-934-2261 ext. 105 St. Catherine St. Ignatius [email protected] Offertory: $1,760 Offertory: $1,010

Archbishop Neale School Thank you for you generous support of our church & Principal, Linda Bourne ministries. 301-934-9595 www.archbishopnealeschool.org Lectors Needed

Catholic Counselor We would like to expand St. Catherine’s roster of Lectors Caitlin Langreich for both St. Catherine's Masses (Saturday vigil and Sunday 301-541-3740 morning). If you are regularly attending one of these [email protected] Masses during COVID-19 and can serve as a reader one or two times a month, please contact Fr. Q. Training will be provided. Mass Intentions and Readings Adult Faith Formation Saturday, September 19 – Vigil 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 26—8:30am 5:00pm Enemies of the Church St. Catherine Hall No sign up, no cost 1 Cor 15:35-37, 42-29 Lk 8:4-15 Books and coffee provided!

Sunday, September 20 —25th Sunday This week’s topics: Ordinary Time ·Intro: Why we Believe Anything · 8:30am Deceased Parishioners and Benefactors Chapter 1: Why We Believe in Truth 10:30am People of the Community Is 55:6-9 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a Mt 20:1-16a Sacred Heart Parish Men's & Women's Bible Study Invitation & Open House Monday September 21 – Saint Matthew featuring special guest speaker, Sonja Eph 4:1-7, 11-13 Mt 9:9-13 Corbitt

Tuesday September 22 - Weekday Join us Saturday, 6:30pm Robert Dobry Sr. September 26th, 10 am in the Friend- Prfv21:1-6, 10-13 Lk 8:19-21 ship Room follow- Wednesday September 23 — Saint Pius Of ing the 9 am Mass. Pietrelcina Sonja Corbitt is a No Mass at St. Catherine’s vital Catholic voice - a best-selling au- Prv 30:5-9 Lk 9:1-6 thor, speaker, and broadcaster - who produces high-impact, uplifting multimedia Bible stud- Thursday September 24 – Weekday ies. Sonja will be speaking live via Zoom to Eccl 1:2-11 Lk 9:7-9 introduce, FULFILLED—Uncovering the Bib- lical Foundation of Catholicism. All are Wel- Friday September 25 – Weekday come! — Please RSVP by September 24th. If 6:30pm Catherine Jones you are unable to join us in person, we invite you to attend virtually. To get your Zoom ac- Eccl 3:1-11 Lk 9:18-22 cess be sure to RSVP. To RSVP and learn more, visit www.sacredheartlaplata.org/ fulfilled-bible-study. Mass offered for the repose of the soul of Juanita Yates on the First Communion one-year anniversary of her passing Natalia Rodriguez (St. Ignatius) Saturday October 3, 2020 at 10:30am will receive her First Communion St. Catherine of Alexandria Church on Friday, September 25, at the 6:30pm Mass at St. Catherine's. All family and friends are warmly invited to attend. Her parents Francis and Lucy warmly wel- come all who would like to attend the Mass. From Fr. Q’s Desk The hard part, of course, is trying to find time amidst our busy schedules for dedicated per-

sonal study of our life of faith. I struggle with With the start of the new academic year, our this too! But as always, we make time for what various parish faith formation programs are is important. starting up as well: CCD, Confirmation prep, Reading and learning change our lives—they RCIA. I wanted to share some thoughts this really do. We just finished our “Bible Time- week about one other: Adult Faith Formation. line” series on Saturday morning, in which we My dad worked as an anesthesiologist for walked through the whole Bible, both Old and many years. He spent many years in medical New Testaments. And I kept hearing over and school, but his education over from our participants: didn’t stop when he got “I grew up Catholic my his medical degree. I still whole life but never knew remember seeing him at this stuff!” Or, “Reading home regularly reading up the Old Testament has re- on the newest develop- ally opened my eyes!” ments in his field. He What an amazing experi- would attend annual con- ence to grow in faith by ferences to confer with his our reading. colleagues on best practic- Our fall Adult Faith For- es. He wanted to be “on mation class starts next his game”. weekend at 8:30am in St. I think a lot of profession- Catherine’s Hall. Our book als do the same in their will be “Why We’re Cath- chosen field of specialty. olic”, and we’ll go through But of course, you and I two chapters a week for a want to be professionals in couple months. Please join our faith—which at the us, and discover your faith end of the day is far more anew! important even than one’s career. That’s the role of our ongoing faith formation in the life of every believer, whether through personal Theological Reflection reading, group classes or even conferences. St. Alphonsus Liguori (18th century) The Im- My sense, unfortunately, is that a lot of times portance of Spiritual Reading continuing faith formation gets short shrift in How many saints have, by reading a spiritual the lives of a lot of Catholics. As kids, we gen- book, been induced to forsake the world and to erally attend CCD, but then those classes drop give themselves to God! The reading of spiritu- off in high school and we never get into al books has also given them during their “learning mode” again. And so a lot of Catho- whole life great aid to persevere and to ad- lics are walking around with an 8th grade edu- vance continually in perfection. To draw great cation about their faith. If you were choosing fruit from spiritual reading, recommend your- an anesthesiologist for surgery, would you self beforehand to God, that he may enlighten want one who stopped learning in the 8th the mind while you read. Speak, Lord, for thy grade? Yikes! servant heareth.

Parish Renovations

Our parishes’ renovation projects are underway! We are working on enhancing the beauty and modernize the efficiency of our parishes. The plans are moving forward, but we need your support! We do not have funds to use from our normal operations, so these renovations depend entirely on your contributions. Can you make a special gift? 100% of your renovation donations go to supporting this project. • Cash: with a note for “Renovations”

• Check: write “Renovations” on memo line • Credit Card / ACH: choose the category Thank you for your generosity!

Saturday Vigil Mass

Effective Saturday, September 26, the outside Vigil Mass will return to 4:00pm. Same pandemic mandates remain:

• Bring your Missalette

• Bring your chair and sit with your household

• Remain in place for communion

Catechism of the Catholic Church EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP Recognize God in your Everyday Moments I. Dying in Christ Jesus Be Sure to Look the Part 1009 Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that I used to coach my oldest son in soccer when he is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his was younger. As he got older, he would go to anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an tryouts for select and high school teams. I was act of complete and free submission to his Fa- no longer the coach, but I always shared with ther's will. The obedience of Jesus has trans- him one piece of advice before any tryout: Be formed the curse of death into a blessing. sure to look the part. I told him that if he showed up looking like a soccer player, there The meaning of Christian death was an increased chance of him being seen as a soccer player. If he showed up looking like a kid 1010 Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, that plays soccer in video games as opposed to the real thing, he might not be taken seriously. and to die is gain." "The saying is sure: if we As he grew older, that same advice was then ap- have died with him, we will also live with plied to getting a job. It’s advice I have heeded him. What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has myself all my life. You can even say it is like another common phrase: “Fake it till you make it.” already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's As disciples of Jesus Christ, we certainly do not grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into want to fake it, but we do need to look the part. The world looks at those of us who proclaim to him in his redeeming act: be Christians to see if there is anything to this It is better for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus than way of life. If they see us looking and acting like to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I people transformed by Jesus Christ, they will be seek - who died for us. Him it is I desire - who more likely to take Christianity seriously. If they rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth .... look at us and see nothing different, then they Let me receive pure light; when I shall have ar- can easily conclude that there is nothing differ- rived there, then shall I be a man. ent about Jesus Christ. He just becomes simply another religious figure of history. Can the 1011 In death, God calls man to himself. There- world see the power of Christ in you? How will fore the Christian can experience a desire for do you look the part? death like St. Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ. " He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Fa- ther, after the example of Christ: — Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS My earthly desire has been crucified; . . . there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father. I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.

I am not dying; I am entering life.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time September 20, 2020 Visit FORMED.org with a web browser • Click on Register (lower right of page) • Enter Parish Access Code: 84PVM3 • Enter your email and create a password

LISTEN: Holiness is Always in Season by Pope SAINTS THIS Benedict XVI WEEK

For a Christian, the way to reach perfection is to Padre Pio, also known strive for holiness. What is true perfection? as Saint Pio of Pietrelci- Christ's words are clear, sublime, and disconcert- na, was a friar, priest, ing, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is per- stigmatist and mystic, fect." To have God as our model is a dizzying now venerated as a thought! Yet the Church reminds us that, "All the saint in the Catholic faithful, whatever their condition or state in life, C h u r c h . are called by the Lord to that perfect holiness." Born Francesco Forgio- The Church teaches us that holiness is not the ne, he was given the name of Pius ( Italian: Pio) concern of a privileged few, nor does it only per- when he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capu- tain to Christians of the past. Holiness is always a chin. Padre Pio became famous for exhibiting call to every Christian of every age. stigmata for most of his life, thereby generating Pope Benedict XVI says, "Holiness never goes out much interest and controversy. He was both be- of fashion; on the contrary, with the passage of atified (1999) and canonized (2002) by Pope John time it shines out ever more brightly, expressing Paul II. The Sanctuary of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina man's perennial effort to reach God." Mother Te- is located Province of Foggia, Italy. resa of Calcutta wrote, "Holiness is not something for the extraordinary; it is not a luxury of Saint Matthew, also the few. Holiness is the simple duty for each one known as Matthew the of us." Apostle, and as Levi, was, according to the New Testament, one The saints show us that holiness is possible for of the twelve apostles of us, since they experienced the same difficulties Jesus. According to and weaknesses we do, yet persevered in achiev- Christian tradition, he ing sanctity. This inspiring audiobook presents was also one of the four the Pope's numerous reflections on many saints Evangelists and thus is arranged according to the calendar year. He also known as Matthew shows how the life of each saint has something the Evangelist. The New Testament records that unique to teach us about virtue, faith, courage, as a disciple, he followed Jesus, and was one of and love of Christ. Dozens of saints are covered the witnesses of the Ascension of Jesus. Later in this wonderful spiritual book. The Pope ex- Church fathers claim that Matthew preached horts us through their lives, "Be holy! Be saints!" . the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea, before going to other countries. KIDS CORNER