6th Sunday of Easter / May 17, 2020 SAINT AGATHA 202 W Washington Avenue ● Howard, SD 57349 Bookkeeper - Nancy Feldhaus Phone: (605) 772-4543 Fax: (605) 772-5179 Email: [email protected] P.O. Box 100 Howard, SD 57349-0100 CHURCH of the EPIPHANY 106 Jackson Street ● Epiphany, SD LIVE THE LITURGY - INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK P.O. Box 100 Howard, SD 57349-0100 Do you understand the true spiritual meaning of hope? Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness. It is found when we place our trust in Christ’s promises and rely not on our own strength, but on the help of the Holy Spirit. Hope, when seen in this way, doesn’t set its sights purely on the things of this world but on the promises of God to come. Hope always is linked with faith and love. Often our hope can become too self-focused and some- thing that is only about me and things that matter to me. Christ’s SAINT WILLIAM resurrection reminds us that it is not ultimately for this purpose. What is the reason for your hope? Our Easter season pro- vides the opportunity for us to again assess whether it is 120 W 3rd Street ● Ramona, SD the kingdom of heaven and life eternal or something else. ©LPi P.O. Box 100 Howard, SD 57349-0100 SACRAMENTS MASS TIMES CONFESSIONS Engaged? Call at least six months before the wedding date regarding Saturday: 5:00pm Ramona Saturday marriage instructions. Sunday: 8:30am Epiphany 2:00-3:00pm Howard 10:30am Howard Before Mass in Epiphany. New parents or expecting? Daily Mass: See Inside Before Mass in Ramona. Call for pre-baptism class and to schedule a baptism. Holy Day Mass times: TBA Also, by appointment. Going in for surgery or for a procedure? Call so I can give you the Sacrament of the Sick. Fr. Chester Murtha Office – (605) 772-5564 Cell - (605) 940-1034 Cemetery Questions? Send bulletin information to Nancy Erickson In Howard, contact Tim or Karla Neises at 772 - 4832. [email protected] or 605-770-5944 In Epiphany contact Joe Zens at 523-2644. Bulletin Deadline: Monday at 3pm In Ramona contact Tammy Lembcke at 482-8652. Various claims have been made as to what actually happened Fr. Murtha’s Musings: during the event. The three children reported seeing a panora- May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, has ma of visions during the event, including those of Jesus, Our come and gone. I suppose you know the story of Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and of Saint Our Lady of Fatima but it is a story worth repeat- Joseph blessing the people. Father John De Marchi, an Italian ing. Wikipedia on the internet has a pretty good Catholic priest and researcher wrote several books on the sub- account of the Marian apparitions to three chil- ject, including The True Story of Fatima, which included de- dren which took place at Fatima, Portugal. scriptions by witnesses who believed they had seen a miracle The first Marian apparition took place on May 13, 1917. created by Mary, Mother of God. According to accounts, after Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as reported seeing a woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be signifi- of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the cantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. sun." The woman wore a white mantle edged with gold and The Sun was then reported to have “danced,” careening to- held a rosary in her hand. She asked them to devote them- wards the Earth before zig-zagging back to its normal posi- selves to the Holy Trinity and to pray "the Rosary every day, tion. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes be- to bring peace to the world and an end to the war". The chil- came "suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and dren said the woman told them to return to the Cova da Iria on muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the June 13. The Cova da Iria is a site near the children’s home rain that had been falling". village of Aljustrel in the parish of Fátima, Portugal. It is Not all witnesses, however, reported seeing the Sun where the children would herd sheep and where they had been "dance". Some people only saw the radiant colors, and others, previously visited three times by an angel in the spring and including some believers, saw nothing at all. The only known summer of 2016. The angel had taught them prayers, to make picture of the Sun taken during the event does not show any- sacrifices, and to spend time in adoration of the Lord thing unusual. No unusual phenomenon of the Sun was ob- The second Marian appearance occurred on 13 June. On served by scientists at the time. A number of theologians, sci- this occasion the lady revealed that Francisco and Jacinta entists, and skeptics have offered alternative explanations that would be taken to Heaven soon, but Lúcia would live longer in include psychological suggestibility of the witnesses, tempo- order to spread her message and devotion to the Immaculate rary retinal distortion caused by staring at the intense light of Heart of Mary. During the June visit, the children said the the Sun, and optical effects caused by natural meteorological lady told them to say the Holy Rosary daily in honor of Our phenomena. Lady of the Rosary to obtain peace and the end of the Great War (World War I). The lady also purportedly revealed to the Francisco and Jacinta Marto died in the international flu children a vision of hell, and entrusted a secret to them, de- pandemic that began in 1918 and swept the world. Fran- scribed as "good for some and bad for others". cisco Marto died at home on 4 April 1919, at the age of ten. In the following months, thousands of people flocked to Jacinta died at the age of nine in Queen Stephanie's Children's Fátima and nearby Aljustrel, drawn by reports of visions and Hospital in Lisbon on 20 February 1920. They are buried at miracles. The children continued to return to the Cova on the the Sanctuary of Fátima. They were beatified by Pope John thirteenth of the month into October, except that on 13 August Paul II on 13 May 2000 and canonized by Pope Francis on 13 1917, the provincial administrator Artur Santos intervened. May 2017. Believing that these events were politically disruptive in the Lucia went on to enter the religious life. In 1928 she be- conservative country, he took the children into custody, jailing came a postulant at the convent of the Sisters of St. Dorothy in them before they could reach the Cova da Iria. Santos interro- Tui, Spain, near the border with Portugal. Lúcia continued to gated and threatened the children. Lúcia's own mother hoped report private visions periodically throughout her life. For the officials could persuade the children to end the affair and instance, Sister Lucia reported that on December 10, 1925, the admit that they had lied. That month, instead of the usual ap- Virgin Mary appeared to her at the convent in Pontevedra, parition in the Cova da Iria on 13 August, the children reported Spain, and by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the that they saw the Virgin Mary on 19 August, a Sunday, at Child Jesus. According to Lucia, Mary requested the institu- nearby Valinhos. She asked them again to pray the rosary dai- tion of the Devotion of the Five First Saturdays in reparation ly, spoke about the miracle coming in October, and asked them to her Immaculate Heart. Mary is quoted as saying, "Look, "to pray a lot, a lot for the sinners and sacrifice a lot, as many my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which souls perish in hell because nobody is praying or making sacri- men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and in- fices for them." gratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I an- The three children claimed to have seen the Blessed Virgin nounce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace Mary in a total of six apparitions between 13 May and 13 Oc- necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of tober 1917. Lúcia also reported a seventh Marian apparition at making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five Cova da Iria. It was during the apparition on October 13 an consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Commun- event took place which has come to be known as “The Miracle ion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for of the Sun.” fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary." In 1947, Sister Lúcia left the Dorothean order. The Miracle of the Sun She joined the Discalced Carmelite Order in a monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. Lúcia died on 13 February 2005, at the age On October 13, 1917, a huge crowd, possibly between of 97. 30,000 and 100,000, including reporters and photographers, gathered at Cova da Iria.