First Sunday of Lent, Year B/ February 18, 2018 Primer Domingo de Cuaresma, Ano B/ 18 de febrero del 2018 Church of the Nativity of Our Blessed Lady 1510 East 233rd Street Bronx, New York 10466

Parish MASS SCHEDULE Rev. Onyeihe, Administrator Sunday: English 10:00 am Rev. George Kuhn, Sunday Mass Associate Spanish 11:30 am Pastoral Staff Igbo 1:00pm Jhasoa Agosto, Music Director Weekdays: 7:00am Edna Augusta, Religious Education Coordinator

Saturday: 9:00 am (followed by Eucharistic Sacrament of Matrimony Adoration and The Holy Rosary) A minimum of 6 months is required to begin the process of the Sacrament of Matrimony. Please call the rectory to set up Rectory (Rectoria) Office Hours/ Horario de Oficina: a meeting with the to discuss the process. Dates are not Monday-Fridays: 10am-3pm reserved by phone contact. Lunes-Viernes: 10am-3pm Sacrament of Baptism (for Infants): Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confessions) Parents must be active members of our Parish and are Saturdays: After the 9:00am Mass required to attend one session of baptismal instruction held on Sundays: After the 10:00am and 11:30am Masses Tuesdays from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. Please call the rectory to Call the rectory outside the scheduled time. make the necessary arrangements.

Weekly Prayer Groups SACRAMENT OF THE SICK Wednesdays/Miercoles: 7:00 – 9:00 pm (Spanish/Espanol) Please notify the rectory when a family member is sick to set Thursdays: 7:00 – 9:00 pm (English) up regular communion visits.

Nativity of Our Blessed Lady Rectory Nativity of Our Blessed Lady Convent Nativity of Our Blessed Lady School 1531 East 233rd St. Bronx, N.Y. 10466 1534 East 233rd St Bronx, N.Y. 10466 3893 Dyre Ave, Bx., N.Y. 10466 Office: (718) 324-3531 Office: (718) 324-2188 Fax: (718) 798-0628 School Website: Parish Email Address: Parish Website: www.nativityofourblessedlady.org [email protected] www.nativityofourblessedladychurch.org

1st Sunday of Lent/ Primer Domingo de Cuaresma  2018 (Year B/ Ano B)  Weekly Readings and Memorials

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Readings: (GN 9:8-15; 1 PT 3:18-22; MK 1:12-15) 10:00AM- Mary Armstrong (+) Please Pray for the sick: Req: Thursday Prayer Group 11:30AM- Miguel Lopez (+) Ángel Alejandro, Elvin Alvarado, Juana Alvarado, Carmen Ávila, Angela Battle, Brian Bernard, Req: Maria Gomez-Cardenas Sgt. Tonia Chestnut, Alberta Chestnut, Lila Castro, 1:00PM- Leon Daniels, Katy DeProspo Juan Pablo Espinoza, Lori Figueroa, Monday, February 19, 2018 Rosalina Flores, Rafael Flores, Timothy Georges, Maritza Readings: (LV 19:1-2, 11-18; MT 25:31-46) Gonzalez, Christina Graham; Edith & Harvey Harris, 7:00AM- Intentions of Benedicta & Jude Izuka Ghislaine Jacobs, Drosula Katsibra, Jan Korszun, Benjamin Req: Izuka Family López, Martínez, Nancy Mazzella, Digna Meléndez, Herminia Meléndez, Analiza Miranda, Leonora Moorehead, Avelino Moreno, Eulalio Moreno, Juana Moreira, Herminia Tuesday, February 20, 2018 Narvaez, Nicole Niles, Gerri Orfei , Juana Becerra Maldonado Readings: (IS 55:10-11; MT 6:7-15) and Family, Justin Quirke, Sattee Ramkissoon, Albert 7:00AM- Marcelle Davis (+) Rivera, Antonia Rodríguez, Eric Roman, Guillermina Req: Maureen Webb Rosario, Ashley Steadman, Theresa Sylvan, Adrienne Thomas, Victoria Torres, Andrew “Morris” Vavrica, Marina Wednesday, February 21, 2018 Vázquez, Aníbal Vázquez, Iris Velásquez, Lucille Williams Please call the rectory to submit the name of an ill family St. member or friend. Readings: (JON 3:1-10; LK 11:29-32) 7:00AM: Intentions of Benedicta & Jude Izuka Req: Izuka Family The Sanctuary Lamp Thursday, February 22, 2018 was donated for the Intentions of Chair of St. Peter the Apostle Mary, Wendy, and Keneth White, Readings: (1 PT 5:1-4; MT 16:13-19) for the recovery of 7:00AM- Intentions of Benedicta & Jude Izuka Ashley Steadman & Elvin Alvarado Req: Izuka Family Jennifer Martin In memory of Friday, February 23, 2018 Neville Nelson, Joan Revan & Pearl Blake St. / San Policarpo Marcella Bullock, Leon Bullock, Readings: (EZ 18:21-28; MT 5:20-26) John Bullock, Jr., 7:00AM- Intentions of Benedicta & Jude Izuka Req: Izuka Family Parishioners’ Weekly Contributions

Saturday, February 24, 2018 Memorial of the Blessed Mary on Saturdays Mass Times Collection Total Readings: (DT 26:16-19; MT 5:43-48) 9:00AM- Gloria Milk (+) 10:00am $1,903.67 Req: Chiara Genna 11:30am $575.68

1:00pm $188.00

Total $2,667.35

Ash Wednesday/ TBA Miercoles de Cenizas

1st Sunday of Lent/ Primer Domingo de Cuaresma  2018 (Year B/ Ano B) 

Actividades Actuales

- Adoración Eucarística durante toda la noche cada primer viernes del mes, 7pm (viernes) hasta 6am Message from the (sábado).

-Misa de Sanación, cada primer sábado del mes, 12pm Music Ministry

(Mediodía) Weekly Choir Practice/ -Acompáñenos para Adoración Eucarística y a rezar el Santo Rosario los sábados, inmediatamente después de la Práctica Semanal con el Coro Misa de las 9:00 am. Tuesdays- 6:45pm-9:00pm (English) Jueves- 6:45pm-9:00pm (Espanol) -La Sociedad del Rosario del Altar da la bienvenida a nuevos miembros. Para todas las damas interesadas por favor Children’s Choir/ Coro de Niños venga al rezo del santo rosario los sábados después de la Misa Saturdays- 12:15pm-1:30pm de 9:00am. (Excluding the 1st Saturday of the month) -El Grupo de Niños, cada dos semanas, los sábados de 12pm- All are welcome to join us! 2pm en la iglesia. Todas edades están bienvenidos. Por favor Todos están bienvenidos a acompañarnos! contacte a Edna por más información, 917-346-5378. -Todos están invitados a asistir a las reuniones de El Grupo Learn to sing the Liturgy/ de Oración (en español) los miércoles de 7:00 a 9:00pm en la Aprenda Cantar la Liturgia Iglesia. Para más información por favor contacte a la Rectoría. Schola Cantorum (Music Academy) nd Every 2 Saturday of the month -Grupo de Oración (en inglés) cada jueves a las 7:00pm en la iglesia. Cada 2ndo sábado del mes 11:00am-12 :00pm

On–Going Activity Reminders Nativity Parish Harvest 2017 -Monthly all-night Eucharistic Adoration every Cosecha Parroquial 2017 1st Friday of the month, 7pm (Friday) to 6am Pledged/Promesas: $45,499.02 (Saturday). Collected/Colectado: $41,419.02 st -Monthly Healing Mass, every 1 Saturday if the Outstanding/ Pendiente: $4,080.00 Month- 12pm (noon) Number of Pledges/Numero de Promesas:

115 -Join us for Weekly Eucharistic Adoration and to Thank you for your generosity and support of your parish! pray the Holy Rosary on Saturdays, immediately after ! Gracias por su generosidad y apoyo a su parroquia! the 9:00am Mass.

- The Altar Rosary Society welcomes new members. Any ladies interested in joining this group, please come Parish International Celebration to Saturday prayer of the Rosary after the 9am Mass. Sunday, March 11th

-Nativity Kids Group every 2 weeks, Saturdays 12pm- Mass– 10am 2pm in the church. All ages welcome! Please call Edna for more information, 917-346-5378 (only 1 Mass this Sunday) -Spanish Charismatic Prayer Group - Wednesdays, 7:00PM-9:00PM. (For more information please contact the Rectory.

-Weekly Prayer Group (in English) Thursdays from 7:00pm to 9:00pm in the church.

-Weekly Movie Night, Mondays - 7pm-9pm in the church.

1st Sunday of Lent/ Primer Domingo de Cuaresma  2018 (Year B/ Ano B)  Lent/ Cuaresma 2018 Celebrating Black History Month:

Lenten Offering (for Adults and Children) The St. Cyprian of Carthage/ San Cipriano de Cartago What will be your Lenten Sacrifice and Offering this th year? Children can pick up their Lenten Offering ( ) In the middle of the third century, the Church was still being Booklet in the entrance of the Church starting Ash persecuted. The fierce persecution of Emperor claimed the Wednesday. life of St. Fabian. The Church was without a pope for nearly a ¿Cuál será su Sacrificio Cuaresmal y Ofreciendo este year. A holy priest of , Cornelius, was elected in 251. He año? Los niños pueden recoger su Folleto de accepted because he loved Christ. He would serve the Church as Ofrecimiento Cuaresmal en la entrada de la iglesia pope even if his ministry would cost him his life. That is why Pope Cornelius was so greatly admired throughout the world. The empezado el Miércoles de Cenizas. of Africa were especially outspoken in their love and loyalty to the pope. Cyprian of Carthage sent him letters of The Sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent encouragement and support. Cyprian had been a convert at the age of twenty-five. He had astonished the Christians of Carthage by pledging a vow of perpetual chastity right before his baptism. He • Saturdays following the 9am Mass had eventually become a priest and in 249 a bishop. • Sundays after all Masses Bishop Cyprian greatly encouraged Pope Cornelius by reminding • “Reconciliation Monday”, him that during the present persecution in Rome not a single March 26th (schedule TBA) Christian had given up the faith. St. Cyprian's writings explain the love that Christians should have for the whole Church. This love • Will be available upon should be for the pope as well as for the local request and parish. Cyprian wrote a scholarly work on the unity of the Church. This remains an important topic for all times, including our own. El Sacramento de Pope St. Cornelius died in exile at the port of Rome Reconciliación durante in September, 253. Because he suffered so much as pope, he is considered a . St. Cyprian died five Cuaresma years later during the persecution of Valerian. He was • Sábados después de la beheaded at Carthage on September 14, 258. Together they share a feast day to remind us of the Misa de 9:00am unity that the Church should always enjoy. This unity • Domingos después de cada Misa is a mark of the presence of Jesus who is the Center. Reflection: Let us pray for unity among people of • “Lunes de reconciliación” different cultures, races, nations, and religions. 26 de Marzo (horario pronto) Biography: http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/dailysaint/septembe r/0916.asp (English) • Estará disponible a la solicitud Biografia:http://mercaba.org/TESORO/san_cipriano.htm (español)

Prayer of St. Cyrian of Carthage Stations of the Cross/ Via Crucis For Prisoners and Correction Officers Most gracious Father, Every Friday during Lent at 7pm bless with your special care Cada Viernes Durante Cuaresma a las all penitentiaries and homes of refuge. Look with pity on those who are housed there. 7pm Guide and protect those who have returned to the world. Grant all of them true contrition for past sins, and strengthen them in their good resolutions. Lead them along from grace to grace so that by the help of the Holy Spirit they may persevere in the ways of obedience and humility, and in the struggle against evil thoughts and desires. Grant the Holy Spirit to those engaged in teaching and training them, that they might have a right judgment with respect to those entrusted to them. May they labour for love of your with deep humility and singleness of purpose, 1st Sunday of Lent/ Primer Domingo de Cuaresma  2018 (Year B/ Ano B)  purity of heart and life, and true zeal for your glory Save the Date: Parish Trips and the salvation of souls. Give them faith and love to sustain them in disappointment, “Afternoon at the Movies” love and patience toward those under them, (AMC Theaters-Bay Plaza) and in your own good time th crown their work with an eternal recompense. Saturday, March 24 Amen. Source: http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/english/p00372.htm Oracion de San Cipriano “Paul, Apostle of Christ” San Cipriano, suplico que aquellos que estén ligados con hechizos, More Information Coming soon! embrujos, y poseídos del maligno, les desatéis, les desembrujéis, Mas informacion pronto! para que el lobo rabioso no tenga dominio sobre ______(nombre). San Cipriano, ruego preservarme de todos los maleficios, arterías, perfidias de Lucifer; cuidad la vista y el pensamiento mío; sean llenos de confusión los que atentan contra mi vida, que mis enemigos sean confundidos y alejados, mantenedme triunfante sobre ellos eternamente. Amen.

Saints of the Week/Santos de la Semana Chair of St. Peter ------St. Peter was the prince of the apostles and the first pope. Jesus said to him, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). After Jesus went back to heaven, St. Peter preached the Gospel. He guided the small but growing Christian community. At first, Peter labored in Jerusalem and in , two big cities of the east. Later, he went to preach the Gospel in Rome, the capital of the world. What chance did Peter have to perform his great task for the Lord? His Master had been crucified but then had risen. Who would believe that? The evils of pagan Rome would drown his voice no matter how dedicated he may be. But the Holy Spirit was alive in Peter. He courageously took up the ministry Jesus had left him. Never again would Peter deny his Lord. Never Lancaster, PA again would Peter put his own personal well-being before the good th of the Church. Saturday, September 29 “Jesus” The feast of St. Peter's Chair at Rome reminds us that St. Peter started the Christian community in that city. The special chair is a symbol of the authority that was given to him by Jesus. Kings of old sat on thrones and ruled. Peter's chair is a symbol of his authority from Jesus to rule the Church.

St. Peter was martyred for the faith, but down through the ages there has always been a bishop of Rome. He is the pope. The pope rules the whole Church, as St. Peter did, in Jesus' name. We call the successor of St. Peter the Holy Father.

Reflection: Take a moment today to offer thanks to God for all the good that is done through the leadership of the Church. Please see flyers for more information. Por favor consulta los volantes por más información. http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/dailysaint/february/0222.asp

1st Sunday of Lent/ Primer Domingo de Cuaresma  2018 (Year B/ Ano B)  ought not to disdain him by slandering or committing detraction against him. Christ goes even further than justice properly speaking (i.e., our outward actions) and addresses what can be called justice analogously. That is, He describes how to “be right” with oneself, and this is by overcoming one’s passions, such as anger.

If this Gospel passage talks about establishing a just relation with our brother, what about our relationship “HOW LENT REMINDS US WE with God? We might be tempted to think that Lent is about merely establishing a just relationship between CAN NEVER REPAY GOD” ourselves and Him. Perhaps, for example, we think of the we undertake simply as a way of “repaying” God for dying on the Cross for us. It does indeed fall within the scope of justice to offer prayers and sacrifices to God, since we owe all we have and even our very existence to Him. We can never really repay God fully, though, either for that existence or for the redemption He worked for us. So we can never have a truly just relationship with Him in that sense.

Lent is not about evening things out with God. Since our prayers and sacrifices add nothing to God’s greatness or In one of the most shocking passages of the happiness, they are not primarily for His benefit, but Gospels, Matthew 5:20-26, Jesus describes the rather for our own. Lent helps us recognize what we owe righteousness one needs in order to reach the kingdom of God, but even beyond that it is about preparing for the heaven, noting that it must surpass that of the scribes and celebration of Christ’s supreme act of charity in Pharisees. He discusses the relationship one should have suffering His Passion and death for our salvation. The with one’s brother, saying that there is much more to it prayer and penances are a means to our growth in than simply observing the Old Testament commandment charity, which is achieved when obstacles between not to kill. It is wrong even to be angry with one’s ourselves and God are removed. As Jesus notes in the brother or to call him a fool. Furthermore, Jesus advises Gospel, one of those obstacles often is a lack of peace us that if we are not at peace with our brother we should with our brother. For, “he who does not love his brother make peace with him before offering gifts to God. whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). This Lent, may the charity of the Just In this teaching, Christ describes both justice and the Man fill us with longing for the kingdom of heaven and interior dispositions that go even further in making one inspire us to imitate Him. righteous. The cardinal virtue of justice, as St. Thomas This post was written by Br. Joachim Kenney, O.P., who entered the Aquinas defines it, is the “habit whereby a man renders Order of Preachers in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of to each one his due by a constant and perpetual Louisville. will.” From this, we can draw out two of the chief characteristics of justice. The first is that it is concerned https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/how-lent-reminds- with other persons. It’s about giving to one distinct from us-we-can-never-repay-god/4694/ oneself what he or she deserves. Secondly, justice is objective. It is primarily about the thing that is owed. It is not about what the other wants to receive or what you want to give. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” regards justice, then, in its most proper form. It is a matter of showing due respect for the life God has given to the other man. Jesus gives other examples of unjust behavior to avoid. One owes respect not just to the life of the other but to his dignity as man as well, and so one