3601 Altamesa Fort Worth, Texas 76133 St. Bartholomew Parish office is located in the building CATHOLIC CHURCH on east side of church. “Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.” February 22, 2015 First Sunday in Lent (B) Parish Mission: Mass Schedule Daily Schedule for February 23-27: Monday : Mass at 8:30a.m. Tuesday: Liturgy of the Word at 8:30a.m. Wednesday : Liturgy of the Word, 8:30a.m. ; Mass at 6:30p.m. Thursday: Mass at 12: 10p..m. Friday: Mass at 8:30a.m., Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after 8:30a.m. Mass until 2:00p.m. , Stations of the Cross 6p.m (English), 7p.m.(Spanish) Weekend Masses: Saturday: 4:30 p.m.– English Sunday: 9 a.m. - English; 11 a.m. - English; 1 p.m. - Spanish A nursery is provided at the following Masses: 4:30p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m., 11 a.m. & 1p.m. Sunday. Weekly Calendar/Calendario Semanal Sunday: 22nd First Sunday in Lent~10Domingo de Cuaresma Special Collection for Black and Indian Missions Coffee and Donuts Youth RCIA at 10:30a.m. in the Youth Room. No RCIA this week. This class resumes next week at 10:30a.m. in the Office Library. The topic will be :” Prayer, Discernment, and Forming Conscience” taught by Diane Etzel Spanish Choir Practice CCD classes (K-4th grade) . Session 1 –10:30a.m., Session 2 -11:45a.m. in the parish life center Adult Scripture Study, 10:30a.m. in the church building, room 23 Spanish Scripture Study, 11:30 a.m. in the church building , room 21 Redescubre el Catholismo Class, 2:15 p.m. in the church building, room 23 ACTS English Men’s Team, 2p.m. in the Parish Life Center, rooms 1-4 Spanish Altar Servers, 2:15 p.m. in the church Marriage Enrichment . 6p.m. in the church building, room 14 YSN at 7p.m. in the Youth Room Sunday Night Bible Study at 7p.m. in the church. Joe Winterling is leading this Bible study on the Book of Mark. All are welcome, Monday: 23rd Folklore Dance Class, 5:45 p.m. in the Great Hall Hispanic Prayer Choir Practice, , 6p.m. in the Parish Life Center, room 15&17 Safe Environment Initial class in English , 6:30p.m. in the Parish Life Center , room 13 Talleres de Oracion y Vida, 7p.m. in the parish life center , room 4 Spanish Ultreya Meeting, 7p.m. in the church building, room 14 Catechism-Bible Study, 7p.m. in the parish life center , room 1. This study is led by John Tharp. All are welcome. Tuesday: 24th ESL Daytime Classes , 9-12a.m.in the parish life center. Nursery provided. ESL Night time Classes , 6-9p.m. in the parish life center Sew Blessed, 11a.m. in the church building, room 14 Spanish RCIA, 7p.m. in the church building, room 23 Marriage Enrichment, 6:45 p.m in the Parish Life Center, room 1&3 Estudio Biblica en Espanol , 7p.m. in the church building, room 14. This Bible study is led by John Contreras. Wednesday: 25th Men’s Morning Prayer Group. All men are welcome to join us at 6:00 a.m. in the church. Doors open at 5:30 a.m. ESL Daytime Classes, 9a.m.-12p.m. in the parish life center. Nursery provided. Wednesday Women’s Bible Study, 9:30a.m. in the church building, room 14 Prayer Group, 9:30a.m. in the chapel Redescubre el Catholismo , 10 a.m. in the Parish Life Center, room 2 CCD Classes (Grades5&6) 7p.m. in the parish life center Discovery Class (Gr.7 & 8), 7p.m. in the Youth room, Doors open at 6:30p.m. Spanish Scripture Study, 7pm. In the church building, room 14 Music Rehearsal, 7p.m. in the church Hispanic Prayer Choir Practice, 7p.m. in the church building, room 23 Thursday: 26th ESL Daytime Classes, 9a.m.-12p.m. in the parish life center. Nursery provided. ESL Nighttime Classes, 6p.m. in the parish life center Spanish Choir rehearsal, 6:00p.m. in the church Spanish Lectors, 7p.m. in the church building, room 14 Young Adult Ministry , 7p.m. in the Parish Life Center, room 11 Joy of the Gospel Class, 7p.m. in the Great Hall, led by Fr. John Robert. This is a 6 week series that repeat s on Friday mornings. Friday: 27th Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 9:15a.m-2:00p.m. in the church chapel Joy of the Gospel Class , 9:30a.m. in the Great Hall, led by Fr. John Robert. This is a 6 week series and a repeat of Thursday night. Hispanic Prayer Group, 6p.m. in the church building , room 14 Lenten Fish Fry , 5-7p.m. in the Great Hall Stations of the Cross , 6p.m. in English, 7p.m. in Spanish in the church Children’s RCIA, 7p.m. in the parish life center Saturday: 28th Saturday Morning Bible Study, 9:30a.m. in the church building, room 14 Safe Environment Retraining Class in English , 10 a.m. in the Parish Life Center , room 2. Confessions/ Confesiones, 3p.m. in the chapel Healing Mass (Bilingual), 7p.m. in the church Next Sunday: March 1st Second Sunday in Lent~20Domingo de Cuaresma Pantry Sunday CCD classes (K-4th grade) Lenten Vespers RCIA this week Adult Scripture Study Sunday Night Bible Study Coffee and Donuts Spanish Scripture Study Marriage Enrichment Youth RCIA Redescubre el Catholismo Class Paradox Café and YSN Spanish Choir Practice ACTS English Men’s Team Magnanimous Musings of Fr. John Robert Skeldon For the musings this 1st Sunday of Lent, I simply want to share with you Pope Francis’ homily from last Sunday (the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time) which he celebrated with all the Cardinals of the Church. It is masterful, magisterial and profound. It is one of the finest reflections I have ever read on the mission of the church. I think Pope Francis is tipping his hand as to the course of the church towards those who are estranged, marginalized, on the “peripheries” of the church itself. I also think it is a perfect reflection with which to enter into the holy time of Lent. I’ll let Our Holy Father Pope Francis speak: “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean”… Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said: “I do choose. Be made clean!” (Mk 1:40-41). The compassion of Jesus! That com-passion which made him draw near to every person in pain! Jesus does not hold back; instead, he gets involved in people’s pain and their need… for the simple reason that he knows and wants to show com-passion, because he has a heart unashamed to have “compassion”. “Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed in the country; and people came to him from every quarter” (Mk 1:45). This means that Jesus not only healed the leper but also took upon himself the marginalization enjoined by the law of Moses (cf. Lev 13:1- 2, 45-46). Jesus is unafraid to risk sharing in the suffering of others; he pays the price of it in full (cf. Is 53:4). Compassion leads Jesus to concrete action: he reinstates the marginalized! These are the three key concepts that the Church proposes in today’s liturgy of the word: the compassion of Jesus in the face of marginalization and his desire to reinstate. Marginalization: Moses, in his legislation regarding lepers, says that they are to be kept alone and apart from the community for the duration of their illness. He declares them: “unclean!” (cf. Lev 13:1-2, 45-46). Imagine how much suffering and shame lepers must have felt: physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually! They are not only victims of disease, but they feel guilty about it, punished for their sins! Theirs is a living death; they are like someone whose father has spit in his face (cf. Num 12:14). In addition, lepers inspire fear, contempt and loathing, and so they are abandoned by their families, shunned by other persons, cast out by society. Indeed, society rejects them and forces them to live apart from the healthy. It excludes them. So much so that if a healthy person approached a leper, he would be punished severely, and often be treated as a leper himself. True, the purpose of this rule was “to safeguard the healthy”, “to protect the righteous”, and, in order to guard them from any risk, to eliminate “the peril” by treating the diseased person harshly. As the high priest Caiaphas exclaimed: “It is better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” (Jn 11:50). Reinstatement: Jesus revolutionizes and upsets that fearful, narrow and prejudiced mentality. He does not abolish the law of Moses, but rather brings it to fulfillment (cf. Mt 5:17). He does so by stating, for example, that the law of retaliation is counterproductive, that God is not pleased by a Sabbath observance which demeans or condemns a man. He does so by refusing to condemn the sinful woman, but saves her from the blind zeal of those prepared to stone her ruthlessly in the belief that they were applying the law of Moses. Jesus also revolutionizes consciences in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5), opening new horizons for humanity and fully revealing God’s “logic”.