The Epiphany of the Lord 3 January 2016 Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church F R E D E R I C K S B U R G, V I R G I N I A what’s coming january 3 SUNDAY, THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD Coffee Shop after morning Masses, Parish Life Center. SCRIP on sale after all Masses except 2pm Mass. After the 10:30am Mass, Conversation and Coffee, Parish Life Center. No CYM Dinner or HS Youth Group. SAINT 4 Monday, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious Religious Education Family Week—Parents should attend class with their children. MARY 8:15pm, RCIA/RICA class, Parish Life Center (following 7:30pm Mass, Church). of the IMMACULATE 5 Tuesday, Saint John Neumann, Bishop CONCEPTION 10am, CCW Board Meeting, Parish Life Center, Room 100. Roman Catholic Church 7:30pm, Class 1 of 6: Robert Barron's Atheism Series with Fr. Rooney, Church. 6 Wednesday, Christmas Weekday (Saint Andre Bessette, Religious) HOLY CROSS ACADEMY 6:30pm, YOUCAT, John Paul II House. 7 Thursday, Christmas Weekday (Saint Raymond of Penafort, Priest) 9:30am, CCW Craft Group, Parish Life Center, Room 100. 7pm, Baptism Prep Class, Parish Life Center, Room 202. 7pm, Spanish Prayer Group, John Paul II House. 8 Friday, Christmas Weekday 9am, St. Anne Sisters in Faith, John Paul II House. 9 Saturday, Christmas Weekday SCRIP on sale after the 5pm Mass. 1:30pm, Young Adults Epiphany Party, John Paul II House. 10 SUNDAY, THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD Coffee Shop after morning Masses, Parish Life Center. (CYM) SCRIP on sale after all Masses except 2pm Mass. CYM Dinner and Youth Group meeting following the 5pm Mass. 11 Monday, Weekday 8:15pm, RCIA/RICA class, Parish Life Center (following 7:30pm Mass, Church). 8:15pm, Taize Prayer Gathering, Church. 12 Tuesday, Weekday 10am, Saint Mary Book Club, John Paul II House. 7:30pm, Class 2 of 6: Robert Barron's Atheism Series with Fr. Rooney, Church. 7:30pm, Life in the Spirit Prayer Gathering, Courtyard Meeting Room. 13 Wednesday, Weekday (Saint Hilary, Bishop, Doctor of the Church) 6:30pm, YOUCAT, John Paul II House. 14 Thursday, Weekday 9:30am, CCW Craft Group, Parish Life Center, Room 100. 7pm, First Penance and First Communion Meeting, Church. 7pm, Spanish Prayer Group, John Paul II House. 15 Friday, Weekday 9am, St. Anne Sisters in Faith, John Paul II House. 7pm, Bunco, Parish Life Center. 16 Saturday, Weekday SCRIP on sale after the 5pm Mass. _____ W E W E L C O M E Y O U H O M E. 540-373-6491 2 express announcements contact us www.stmaryfred.org nota bene (note well, please): 1009 Stafford Ave., Fredericksburg, VA 22401 this week’s SUNDAY Saturday Vigil 5 & 7pm bulletin: c MASS Sunday 7, 8:30, 10:30am, 12:30, Conversation and Coffee: Today, 2pm (Spanish), 5pm, 7:01pm volunteers from our Music, Usher, 10:30am at Holy Cross Academy 4 Manna and Cold Night Shelter DAILY Mon.-Fri.: 6:30 & 9am; Sat., 9am from our ministries will be available in the Parish MASS First Friday 8pm pastor Life Center after the 10:30am Mass Holy Days of Obligation, as announced offering information about their good DEVOTIONS Adoration & Benediction, Wed., 7-9pm works and how they serve or parish and Novena with Exposition, Mon., 7-7:30pm 5 community. Please join us. All Night Adoration, First Friday holy cross Miraculous Medal Novena, Mon., after 9am Mass Divine Mercy, Wed., 3pm academy c Religious Education Family Week: Family Week is the first week of classes CONFESSION Wed., 7-9pm; Sat., 8am & 3:30pm, or by appt. in 2016, January 4-7. Parents join your PARISH 540-373-6491, fax 371-0251 6 children for class and make the occasion OFFICE [email protected] education Mon.-Fri., 8:30am - 4:30pm; a memorable family activity! It will be students staff office weekdays until 9pm, based on our parish theme for this year: Saturdays 9-5pm, Sundays 9:30-1:30pm 7 “People of Thankfulness Sowing Seeds Pastor, Fr. Don Rooney parish life of Mercy.” Fr. Keith Cummings Fr. Stephen Holmes Fr. Lino Rico Rostro c On January 5, we begin Bishop Barron's Deacon Alberto Bernaola 8 6-week series with Fr. Don on The Deacon Dick Delio from pope Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why Executive Assistant, Rick Caporali francis He Matters. The Study Guide for the Business Manager, Elaine Stanislawski program costs $20. Please contact the Director of Sacred Music, David Mathers parish office with your RSVP. Secretary, Mary Fitch 10 HOLY CROSS 540-286-1600 catholic ACADEMY 250 Stafford Lakes Parkway advocacy c Religious Freedom Day: On January Fredericksburg, Virginia 22406-7234 10 the Knights of Columbus Principal, Sr. Susan Louise Eder, O.S.F.S. Rappahannock Assembly will proudly ST. MARY 373-7553 11 sponsor the 240th Anniversary of PRESCHOOL Director, Nanci Scharf liturgy Thomas Jefferson’s drafting of the Act RELIGIOUS 373-6491 of Religious Freedom for Virginia. A EDUCATION Director, Aristides Lucas parade will begin at 1:30pm at the VRE OFFICE Associate Director, Karen Sturtevant 12 operations Station in Fredericksburg, followed YOUTH 373-6491 by a ceremony at 2pm at the religious MINISTRY Director, Leo Chavarria Freedom Monument on Washington HEALTH 845-3031 13 Avenue. All are Welcome! MINISTRY Lois Sullivan, RN, FCN outreach BAPTISMS Parish registration (90 days) and class required. c March For Life: This year’s March Please contact the parish office to schedule will be held on Friday, January 22, to the date at least four weeks in advance. commemorate the 43rd Anniversary MARRIAGE Parish registration required; contact parish of Roe v. Wade. Please see page 13 for six months in advance to begin preparation. transportation details. Please plan to JOIN US New Family Registration meetings held in the join your parish family in this peaceful church on fourth Sundays, following the 10:30 protest against abortion. Mass. Please notify us of any contact changes. Articles must be submitted two weeks prior to publication. c The second collection next weekend is Send articles to [email protected]. Thanks! for the Parish Building fund. _____ S A I N T M A R Y of the I M M A C U L A T E C O N C E P T I O N www.stmaryfred.org 3 from our pastor Dear Good People of Saint Mary, dence, or what I would call common sense (which isn't common). Prudence, a kind of natural or Having witnessed the miracle of the birth of the primal wisdom, is the glue that brings the other Son of God at Christmas, at least through the wit- three into harmony in life situations and allows ness of Sacred Scripture and the lens of liturgy, us to make choices and live our lives according to and having reflected on Jesus as a member of the our human dignity. All according to our nature. Holy Family, a model for all of what we might hope to be, today is the day we consider that Yet, God had to give us a free will in order to SAINT Jesus, in his kingship, his priesthood and foretold make these choices, and so he allowed sin to death is the fullness of God's revelation: the vis- enter the world. The Cardinal Virtues, though MARY ible form of the invisible God. present in every human person (they are argu- of the ably the attributes that actually make us human), IMMACULATE CONCEPTION To look at Jesus today is to look again. And every through sin became disordered, so order had to Roman Catholic Church time we look again, we will find more. After all, be reestablished. Not a kind of enforced order, the definition of Mystery isn't something that we but a chance for each and every one of us in HOLY CROSS ACADEMY can't understand. Mystery is something about perfect freedom to make the right decision from which we can always understand something more, moment to moment. Humanity had to be trans- but can never exhaust the infinite reality of what formed from within. God chose to send his Son we behold. So many people throughout history to make this happen, by the "putting on" of a new have spent their lives explaining, solving and mind and a new heart that has divine, not human expressing the Mystery of God, and finally arrive origin, so that our intellect and will might be at the realization that, no matter how much we informed, guided, by divine love. His divine Pres- can discover and know, we have only scratched ence, because we are so interconnected, touched the surface of the depths of God. each of us, in all times and in all places. The Epiphany of Jesus is the ageless manifesta- What happened in Jesus (and Mary, by God's tion of God himself in time and space. We can mercy) happens for us in Baptism, as we become spend our entire lives unpacking the Mystery. adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus, he, the "first fruits." Mary was created before the order What we can celebrate immediately is that we are of Baptism to be able to say "yes" freely to God, changed. His presence in our humanity, because as we are now able to do, free from the slavery we are so intimately connected with one another, of sin through Baptism by water and Spirit. We is something that touches each and every one of are given to put on the mind and heart of Jesus us, regardless of time and space, because for God with a new set of good habits, called Supernatu- there is no time and space.