ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST 833 Main Street Agawam, MA 01001

www.stjohnagawam.com [email protected] Office Phone: 413-786-8105 | Fax: 413-455-3100

Welcome! No matter what your present status in the Catholic Church, No matter what your family or marital situation, No matter what your past or present religious affiliation, No matter what your personal history, background, race or other, No matter what your own self-image or esteem, You are invited, welcomed, accepted, loved and respected here at St. John’s.

EUCHARIST: Lord’s Day Mass: Saturday 4:00 pm, Sunday 8:00 am & 10:30 am (Ordinary Form) & 1:30 pm (Extraordinary Form) Weekday Mass: Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday at 8:00 am & Wednesday at 6:00 pm | Adoration: Wed. 12:00 - 6:00 pm

CONFESSION: Saturday 2:45 to 3:45 pm, Wednesday 4:30 to 5:30 pm, or by Appointment. BAPTISM: Please call Deacon Dave Picard through the parish office to schedule. MARRIAGE: To be arranged at least one year in advance. Please call the office. ANOINTING OF THE SICK: Is available in the Confessional every Saturday or see Father after Mass. If you or a loved one needs Father to come to you, please call the parish office. CONFIRMATION: Takes place in 11th Grade, please contact the Director of Religious Education to enroll in classes. If you are an adult and need to make your Confirmation, please contact the same office and ask about the RCIA program. HOLY ORDERS: Are you thinking about a vocation to the priesthood or religious life? Please call Fr. Pierz at the parish office, or call the Office of Vocations at (413) 452-0811. PARISH MISSION STATEMENT: We are a Roman Catholic community inspired by the Holy Spirit to follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by sharing, growing and spreading God the Father’s love through our parish ministries, and by coming together as a community in meaningful prayer and worship to celebrate that love.

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time — September 6, 2020 Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Thoughts from the Rectory …

May our hearts not be hardened, but may we turn Dear friends of St. John the Evangelist, from our sin. In our love for one another, we may be called to confront our brother or sister for the wrong After last week’s exciting announcement, I am they may be doing. grateful to the many of you who have stepped forward with prayer, support, and volunteered time for our Pre-School Ministry. Great work has

been done to make this project a reality and no PARISH OFFICE HOURS little thanks go out to all of you! Monday-Thursday - 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Friday - Closed While we continue to look forward to starting and completing structural work on the Pre-School Pastor: Fr. Michael Pierz classrooms in the lower level of the Pastoral [email protected] Center, great strides have been made to make us Curate: Fr. Barrent Pease ready to greet families and children as early as this [email protected] fall. Awaiting final permissions from town Deacon: Deacon Dave Picard officials as of this writing, we anticipate our Pre- [email protected] School program to be offered in the gym for these Priest in Residence: Fr. Sinh Trinh first months until we move into the designated

Priest in Retirement: Fr. John Lis space in the new year. We are grateful to all the professionals who are working with us to make Office Manager: Andreana Perkins this happen. [email protected]

Parish Secretary: Sandy Ross You too are invited! If you would be willing to [email protected] help us know you are most welcome. We are

Reception Volunteer: Mary Talarico building on four pillars including logistics/ operations, fundraising, finances, and Pastoral Ministry to Sick & Homebound: communications/marketing. There is also Francesca Brandt maintenance work that we’ve been undertaking to [email protected] get everything ready in the gym. Please contact Director of Religious Education: Claire Riberdy our Parish Offices and our Interim Pre-School [email protected] Director, Claire Riberdy, to find out more! Director of Music Ministry: Isabella Moser [email protected] Above all else, please share the good news. It’s the work of evangelization to let people know of Maintenance Supervisor: Anthony Fernandes Christ’s presence in our midst. [email protected]

Child Advocate: Mary Beth Swindell We heard this weekend Our Blessed Lord Private Line: (860) 386-6009 exclaim: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of Finance Council: them”. Let us begin, continue, and complete this Alfred Casella (Chair) Charles Calisti work, and all our works, always in the name of Ted Muszynski David Ross Jesus. May He be our guide and cause for unity. Joseph Searles Mary Socha May we be encouraged in whatever we do, to do so with Him and through Him. Then we shall Pastoral Council: know the victory is His and His grace is ours! Judy Cross-Donahue (Chair) Ben Auld Craig Bourque Dale Marie Breault St. John the Evangelist, pray for us! Mikie Cook Leo Marinak Fr. Pierz James Perkins Sarah Ross Jane Seaver Debbie Whitehead

Bulletin Submissions are due 9 days prior to print Email: [email protected]

MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK SANCTUARY LAMP September 6th —September 12th Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Will Be Lit in Honor of Saturday, September 5th 4:00 pm Marie Sibilia  Fr. Lis Requested by Her Husband & Family Requested by The Parishioners of St. John’s

Sunday, September 6th If you would like to request the Sanctuary 8:00 am For the People Candle to be lit in honor of or in memory of 10:30 am Jackson Bodurtha  someone, please contact the parish office. Requested by Family 1:30 pm (EF) Stephen Labun  Requested by Joan Labun Neun & Stephanie Please remember in your prayers: Please pray Gatto for the sick and dying of our parish. Monday, September 7th Remember all who are in hospitals, 8:00 am Good Health for Olga Porada nursing homes and homebound. Pray Requested by Her Sister & Family for the hungry, the unemployed and Tuesday, September 8th-The Nativity of the under-employed. Pray for an end to Blessed Virgin Mary abortion and a true respect for all life, 8:00 am Lorraine Maniscalchi-4th from conception to natural death. Anniversary  Pray for peace. In a concrete way we Requested by Her Daughter pray for all those who have died and all the Wednesday, September 9th-St. Peter Claver, deceased members of the parish including Priest Raymond Black, Jr. 6:00 pm Joseph Stempel  Requested by Virginia Stempel Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. Thursday, September 10th And let perpetual light shine upon them. 8:00 am Jennifer (Agnoli) Pelletier  Requested by Her Family May they rest in peace. Amen. Friday, September 11th May their souls and the souls of all the 8:00 am The Intentions of the Maliszewski faithful departed, through the mercy of Family God, rest in peace. Amen.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Note: If you would like to include someone who Saturday, September 12th has recently passed away, please call the parish 4:00 pm Josephine L. Ricco  office or email: [email protected].

Requested by Her Family IN MY MOTHER’S ARMS Sunday, September 13th PRAYER LINE: 8:00 am Anna Cecelia Sullivan  Requested by Her Niece Barbara If you have a serious intention that you need prayers for: 10:30 am Edna Lavoie-38th Anniversary  surgery, sufferings, medical, Requested by Her Daughter Annette illness, cancer treatment, a sick 1:30 pm (EF) For the People child, or anything like that,

please give Pat (786-3023) or Mary (786-9671) a

call and you will have countless rosaries and prayers. If anyone else is interested in being a prayer partner, please call Pat or Mary.

O, COME LET US ADORE HIM! FRAUD ALERT—BE VIGILANT We again have reports of an attempt to trick Every Wednesday parishioners into sending money via gift cards under 12:00pm — 5:45pm the guise of responding to a fake request from their parish priest. People will pose as the parish priest, with Confessions at 4:30- and they are able to trick folks into sending them 5:30pm, funds usually electronically. The scammers ask parishioners to buy and then send them the gift card and Holy Mass at 6:00pm number and pin, which is all that is needed to cash them in, leaving the unsuspected parishioner out of You are invited to sign up luck. In almost all cases the money is unrecoverable. for an hour of adoration We as a parish will NEVER solicit funds via text of the Blessed messages or emails that involve gift card numbers. If Sacrament! you receive any type of communication that seems suspicious, please report it to the local police and the We are in need of people to cover all hours, parish office. especially 3pm-4pm. Please bring or mail any donations directly to the Parish Office, or use our online giving page: For more information, please contact Trish at 413- 237-2662. Your time is so appreciated! https://stjohnagawam.churchgiving.com/

Bulletins during Pandemic Weekend of August 30th

In the weeks of the Pandemic when we could not “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may celebrate public Mass or hand out bulletins, we be acceptable to God, the almighty Father” continued to write our bulletins on different topics of the faith… these topics are: Weekly: $3,067.00 Maintenance: $899.00 - Coronavirus Pandemic Fuel: $797.00 - Prayer - The Eucharist Loose: $463.00 - Resurrection: What does it mean for us? Online Giving: $802.00 - Divine Mercy - The Sacraments Loan Repayment: $250.00 - The Good Shepherd/Dominus Iesus Total: $6,278.00 - Holy Mary, Mother of God - Pope Saint John Paul II “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your - The Ascension hands for the praise and glory of His name, for - Pentecost our good and the good of all His holy Church.” -The Most Holy Trinity - Corpus Christi St. John’s 75th Anniversary - The People of God: The Mystical Body You’re invited ! of Christ to an introductory meeting on - The People of God: A Portion of Monday, September 21, Christian Faithful 2020 at 6:00pm - The People of God: Hierarchical Constitution of the Church Here we will begin to make plans for the upcoming 75th Anniversary of our parish — next year, 2021! Paper copies of these are available in the Parish We have some plans in the works, but welcome any Office . Come learn more about these topics! and all ideas, help, and/or historic memorabilia you would be willing to share and celebrate our 75 years! Feel free to stop by and pick up a few, and share with friends! We hope to see you there in the Fr. Joyce Room! Ministry to Sick & Homebound 413-786-8105 ext. 105

PASTORAL MINISTRY HOURS: Monday-Thursday from 9am-1pm. Please leave your name and phone number, including area code, with a brief message if non-urgent. I will return your call as soon as I am able. ALL other calls requiring a priest, speak with our Parish Secretary, Sandy. Blessings and thank you for your patience. FOOD GIFT CARDS: Your generosity of free will giving is gratefully appreciated by these families in their time of need. Thank you all for who you are and what you do in the name of Jesus Our Lord. PRAYER SHAWLS: If you have a family member, friend, or know a person who is in need of extra comforting care, please feel free to contact our Prayer Shawl Ministry under Ministry to Sick & Homebound. Call Francesca at 413-786-8105 ext. 105. Leave a message and I will get back to you. Only requirement is that the Shawl must be picked up by the person requesting same, and delivered to the person in need of this comfort. There will be a Prayer Card placed with shawl of the knitter who crafted this shawl of prayerful love. BEREAVEMENT: If you have experienced any loss and are in need of Spiritual consoling, please call the Parish Office at 786-8105 ext. 105 for direct line to Pastoral Minister, Francesca. Please leave your name, The Catholic Life Conference phone number, including area code, with a message for a return call. All calls are confidential. Blessings. announces Oct 11-17 At Home Conference HERITAGE WOODS: No participation at this time.

This day is for YOU—and it is now online and HERITAGE HALLS: No participation at this time free! The Catholic Life Conference, originally at all campuses. scheduled for March 21, 2020, has been rescheduled and reshaped--and is ready to be HOMEBOUND MINISTRY: If someone is at home and unable to have their own hands on experience with delivered in a format just for you! Hear our Our Lord Jesus because of illness or decline in exciting speakers, participate in a live Q&A, movements because of restrictions, please, if you feel receive your Conference To Go Bag, and best of this will help, call me, so that I can reach out to the all, come together with other Catholics in our person and until I can once again visit in person. I will diocese, asking together, “Why Are YOU make a personal phone call where we can get to know Catholic?” each other, share our fears, hopes and spiritual likes, if any, and pray together. I will read the Gospel of the You can still register! It’s free! Go to day to the infirmed. catholiclifeconference.org to 1) register for the first time, 2) request a refund or use your already HOSPITAL VISITS: HIPAA Medical Law restrict paid fee for a Conference To Go Bag with great access to patient admittance information. Please call the Parish Office if you have a family member admitted to options for extras, and 3) join our Catholic family a local hospital in need of a visit by Father Pierz. from your home or parish— all the talks and Follow up in-house visits will be provided per extras will be a click away. The conference will Francesca. also be available on DVD, CD, and in Spanish. ENCYCLICAL LETTER DEUS CARITAS EST OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL ON CHRISTIAN LOVE

PART I (continued)

THE UNITY OF LOVE IN CREATION AND IN SALVATION HISTORY Love of God and love of neighbour

16. Having reflected on the nature of love and its meaning in biblical faith, we are left with two questions concerning our own attitude: can we love God without seeing him? And can love be commanded? Against the double commandment of love these questions raise a double objection. No one has ever seen God, so how could we love him? Moreover, love cannot be commanded; it is ultimately a feeling that is either there or not, nor can it be produced by the will. Scripture seems to reinforce the first objection when it states: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20). But this text hardly excludes the love of God as something impossible. On the contrary, the whole context of the passage quoted from the First Letter of John shows that such love is explicitly demanded. The unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbour is emphasized. One is so closely connected to the other that to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbour or hate him altogether. Saint John's words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God.

17. True, no one has ever seen God as he is. And yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely inaccessible. God loved us first, says the Letter of John quoted above (cf. 4:10), and this love of God has appeared in our midst. He has become visible in as much as he “has sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 Jn 4:9). God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the , to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist. In the Church's Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives. He has loved us first and he continues to do so; we too, then, can respond with love. God does not demand of us a feeling which we ourselves are incapable of producing. He loves us, he makes us see and experience his love, and since he has “loved us first”, love can also blossom as a response within us.

In the gradual unfolding of this encounter, it is clearly revealed that love is not merely a sentiment. Sentiments come and go. A sentiment can be a marvelous first spark, but it is not the fullness of love. Earlier we spoke of the process of purification and maturation by which eros comes fully into its own, becomes love in the full meaning of the word. It is characteristic of mature love that it calls into play all man's potentialities; it engages the whole man, so to speak. Contact with the visible manifestations of God's love can awaken within us a feeling of joy born of the experience of being loved. But this encounter also engages our will and our intellect. Acknowledgment of the living God is one path towards love, and the “yes” of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and sentiments in the all- embracing act of love. But this process is always open-ended; love is never “finished” and complete; throughout life, it changes and matures, and thus remains faithful to itself. Idem velle atque idem nolle [9]—to want the same thing, and to reject the same thing—was recognized by antiquity as the authentic content of love: the one becomes similar to the other, and this leads to a community of will and thought. The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God's will increasingly coincide: God's will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself.[10] Then self- abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy (cf. Ps 73 [72]:23-28).

(Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, vatican.va, December 25, 2005, 16-17) These items will be available after each Mass on Saturday, September 12th, and Sunday, September 13th. Thank you for supporting our parish and preschool by your evangelization! Newly Ordained Resident Priest Fr. Sinh Trinh Offers First Blessings after Mass

We are pleased to welcome Fr. Sinh Trinh as a newly ordained priest! He is stationed at St. Paul’s in Springfield, but is residing at St. John’s Rectory.

How blessed we are to host him!

He celebrated the 8am Mass with us on Sunday, August 27th, and blessed the people after the Mass.

“Thanks to the people here in this parish — because of their prayers I am here today.” - Fr. Sinh Trinh

Be sure to give him a warm welcome when you see him around campus!

With Matthew Kelly

We, the parishes of Our Lady of the Lake Parish and Sacred Heart Parish, were planning on a Dynamic Catholic event with Matthew Kelly for around October, 2021. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic all their events have been canceled which now pushes us to a late 2022. Please see below for a wonderful opportunity to hear Matthew Kelly virtually in your own home. I think we can all agree that our world needs some hope and encouragement right now and we know this event has the power to do just that!

Date & Time: Thursday, November 5 at 8PM

Ticket Price: $39 per ticket (which includes an 2021 Mass Book event packet shipped to your door containing & Sanctuary Lamp Intentions Matthew Kelly’s event exclusive book and additional items) The 2021 Mass Book & Sanctuary Lamp Intentions will open soon! Stay Unique Opportunities During Event: Matthew tuned for more details to follow in the Kelly will lead a live coaching Dream Session and coming few weeks. Q&A - plus fantastic talks as well! Visit DynamicCatholic.com/AMP for all of the details.