ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, OTTSVILLE PA – NOVEMBER 10, 2013

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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;

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and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Luke 20: 27-38

Masses for the week of Nov. 11 – 17, 2013

Morning Prayer in St. Joseph Chapel 8:15am, Mon to Fri. Monday, Nov.11 8:35am (chapel) John & Frances Alex (Rosemarie Alex) 6:45pm PREP class Mass Tuesday, Nov.12 8:35am (chapel) Eliza Petretsch (Loving Family) 6:45pm PREP class Mass Wednesday, Nov.13 Rosary for the end of abortion after Wednesday morning Mass 8:35am (chapel) Knights of Columbus Memorial Mass Thursday, Nov.14 8:35am (chapel) Special Intentions of Dolly Kovacs (Bernadette Strzelecki) Friday, Nov.15 9:00am (church) Kathrine Kostos (The Giarratana Family) Saturday, Nov.16 5:00pm (church) Bill McHale Sr. (Elsie McHale) Sunday, Nov.17 Rosary for parishioners’ intentions (7:30am in Chapel) 8:00am (church) Parishioners’ Intentions 10:30am (church) William Reinbold (Loving wife, Alice)

Meetings for the week of Nov. 11 - 16, 2013

Mon. Nov.11: Prayer Shawl – 7pm, Marian Room Bible Study – 7:30pm, Chapel

Tuesday, Nov. 5: Bible Study – 9:30am, Marian Room K of C Practice – 7pm, Marian Room

Wed. Nov. 6: RCIA – Parish Office – 7:30pm Thurs. Nov. 7: Garden Club – 7pm, Chapel

K of C Planning – 7:30, Marian Room Sat. Nov.9: Men of Faith – 8am, Marian Room

The Church Cleaning Team for the week of November 11

th is: Marion Wolf, Anita Colahan,

Janet Reidler, Susan Mddleton, Susan Watts, Fred Furmaniak, Beth Baird, Michelle Byers

Your parish thanks you!!

Sunday Collection – November 3, 2013

$6,378.00 Thank you for your generosity!!

Please remember in your prayers our the hospital, under hospice and residential care. Susan Ackerman, Rose Marie Alex, Lillian Appleman, Mary Balbirer, Elizabeth Bartolillo, Inez & John Becker, Stephen Blanchard, John & Loretta Bodisch, Emmalee Bryan, Ann Burns, Carole, Anne Colyer, Charlene Cornell, Matthew Crance, Jim Crawford, Regina Cullen, Chrissy Davis, Bill Dayton, Larry & Joanne Diehl, Terry Dunn, Lorraine Echevarria, Arlene Eichlin, Josephine Fasano, Bernice & Charles Fees, Charles Fees, Jr., Kathryn Ferris, Nancy Fratrik, Mary Gallo, Dylan Geroni, Kathy Geroni, Marie & Rosalyn Giardullo, Jack & Peg Glancey, Judy Green, Mary Halwski, Florence Hancharik, Steve Hancharik, Joyceann Heley, Eli Hinkie, Charles Houston, Doris Johnson, Martha Juchnowicz, Kathleen Kershaw, Jack Kocsis, Grace Korcheck, Deanna Kovner, Barbara Kuehnle, Beverly Lacey, Ryan Leven, Kathy Donahue Lewis, Kathy Lightkep, George & Frances Lovett, Charles McCarty, Adelaide McElderry, Bridget Julia McHugh, Anne McNichol, Florence Middleton, Joseph Moore, Zachary Vincent Morelli, Wanda Muth, Frances Nowicki, Dorothy Odor, Sasha Orbino, Helen Patzek-Charlton, Ryan Phillips, Nicholas Powell, Gladys Proca, Lena Quartuccio, Mike Ramos, Rachael Rice, Gregory Rickert, Valerie Roberts, Richard Rolle, Sandy Romaszewski, Sim Rothman, Frederick R. Rude, Dolly Rutherford, Anita St. Laurent, Zina Sauerwine, Anna Scheuermann, Michael Schmerbeck, Jr., Julian Shine, Joe Shuman, Gail Silveira, Carolyn Stahley, Sandy Stauffer, Shane Stroup, Michael Suder, Sean Thatcher, Maddie Tomaszewski, Douglas & Frank Toner, Paul Troiano, Gene Vogan, Tamara Widmer.

Edward Armstrong, Jr., Fionna M. Boyle, Christopher Brune, Casey de Lauretis, Steehly de Lauretis, Michael Froeder, A.J. Giovino, Amy Giovino, Aaron Given, Bob Hankinson, Victor Hormilla, James Kidd, Bill Kirner, Stephen Lindmeier, Jason Litschauer,

Cory Litzenberger, Dan O’Connor, Gregory Orbino, Matthew Orbino, Jonathan Pucci, Dusty Rhodes, Craig Russell, Nicholas Spangler-Loch, Jenna Stanzione, Don Valdez, Justin Walsh.

May the Lord grant eternal rest to Ellen McHugh, Dr. Jim McHugh’s mother, and grant comfort and

consolation to Jim and his family. May her soul rest in God’s eternal

peace.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, OTTSVILLE PA – NOVEMBER 10, 2013

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Dear Parishioners,

“He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." ~ Luke 20:38

I was sharing with someone how I recently lost a very dear friend last Saturday when he died of an illness. The reply to me was, “Life goes on.” When I heard these words, I felt rather sad at first because these words sounded so cliché’ and seemed to have abruptly dismissed the gravity of death and its effect on us. As I came and read the readings for this Sunday’s liturgy, I regained the depth of the meaning of these words: life goes on. They do indeed go on. Even for the deceased! Our departed brothers and sisters go on living! Their mode of living does not end but changes. It changes so dramatically, it’s very difficult to even imagine it. In fact so difficult is this new mode of existence to imagine, that for us who are still existing in a mode that seems to be imprisoned in time and space and in a mode that is experienced mainly through our five senses, the renewed mode of existence after death is so completely beyond our grasp, we tend to give up on it. We settle for just the here and now and we say with a sense of resignation, and even maybe with a hint of despair, “Life goes on.” We mean only our life who are still living, for now. How we view death has a very huge impact on how we live our life now. In fact, death is what seems to be driving our life. All we are ever doing is trying to stay alive. Without our realizing it, death, or the avoidance of death, becomes the main purpose of living. Our fear of death then becomes the dominant color with which we paint our life. What a sad picture! In the readings of today’s Mass, we see how those who are possessed by God in this life and who are continually growing in their intimacy with Him, already possess in this life a greater sense of freedom and joy, In their life here on earth, they are not afraid to sacrifice their whole being for God and for others because they are possessed by a God in whom there is no end to life. The Maccabee brothers and their mother who are mentioned in the first reading were already possessed by God’s eternal life here on earth. This is why they were unafraid to sacrifice it for God and His laws. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob possessed it already in their life here on earth. This is why they gladly sacrificed their lives for God and His promises. Our Lord Jesus Christ possessed in His life here on earth eternal life which His Father had always shared with Him from all eternity. This is why He was able to sacrifice His life for the

Father and His will to save all who are bound by their fear of death. Even married people are today asked to look forward to the bliss of eternal life that is beyond compare to any marital bliss experienced here on earth. In short, we all become willing martyrs because we know that in God our life goes on even after death. What we shall be after death, the resurrected life we shall inherit from our Lord in full measure, we can never begin to fathom now! We will have to eagerly wait with expectant hope till we passover to God. What a life it shall be! What a life it already is! What a life! God bless you all!! Fr. Simi.

“One day a young lady was driving along with her father. They came upon a storm, and the young lady asked her father, what should I do? He said keep driving. Cars began to pull over to the side, the storm was getting worse. What should I do? The young lady asked? Keep driving, her father replied. On up a few feet, she noticed that eighteen wheelers were also pulling over. She told her dad, I must pull over, I can barely see ahead. It is terrible, and everyone is pulling over! Her father told her, Don’t give up, just keep driving! Now the storm was terrible, but she never stopped driving, and soon she could see a little more clearly. After a couple of miles she was again on dry land, and the sun came out. Her father said, Now you can pull over and get out. She said, But why now? He said “When you get out, look back at all the people that gave up and are still in the storm. Because you never gave up your storm is now over.” Fr Eugene Lobo

Please join us in praying the Holy Rosary for world peace after the daily Mass (M-F) and before the 5pm & 8am weekend Masses. Let us heed the request of our Blessed Mother Mary to pray the Rosary daily for peace in our hearts, minds, homes, families & throughout the world!

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, OTTSVILLE PA – NOVEMBER 10, 2013

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►► Calling all Veterans! Please join us at 1:30pm on 11/11 in our church as we celebrate your service to our country. Our school children have prepared a special Mass and reception afterwards. Please join us as we celebrate your service, and offer prayers for you and your families. On November 11th at 1:30pm in St. John the Baptist Church.

►► Our Preschool offers flexible hours. We have Full and Part-time 3 and 4 year old programs. You can set your own hours. We can offer service from 7am until 6pm. call: 610-847-5523 or visit: http://www.sjbottsville.org.

The S.J.B. Eighth Grade Class will be

hosting a VERA BRADLEY BINGO

Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 2:00pm St. John the Baptist Parish Hall

Bingo, Door Prizes, Refreshments, Raffles and MORE!!

Additional vendors will be present. Tickets are $25.00 Contact Claire ph# 215-778-5310 or Donna 610-847-5523

JB Bible Study - There will be a Bible Study "The Eucharist" by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, offered for 6 weeks on Monday nights 7:30pm- 8:30pm and Tuesday mornings 9:30am- 10:30am, beginning Monday November 11th and ending Tuesday December 17th. Sign-up sheets and more information will be

available in the narthex through the month of October. Study books are $10.00 each and may be picked up at

the church office during the first week of November. Please make checks payable to St. John the Baptist. Contact Anita Colahan at sjboasis@epix.net with questions.

† RELIGIOUS EDUCATION †

Christian belief in immortality is unique and special. For us death is a door that opens up full of surprises and not a wall which blinds us from every possible vision. Our resurrection gives us the hope that we will be with God fully alive and active fulfilling the call that God has given us. The Sadducee, a Jewish group, all very wealthy, nearly all were priests who were the governing class. They accepted only the written law of the Old Testament, particularly the Law of Moses. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that for better or for worse man lived with an unrestricted free will. They did not believe in the coming of a Messiah. The Sadducees wanted a very simple life. They wanted things neat and orderly. They wanted the future to be predictable leaving nothing to imagination. Their question to Jesus in today’s Gospel was mockery, a near impossible example, purposely meant to sound silly in order to ridicule our belief in the resurrection. Jesus does not address the Sadducees’ question directly. Instead he makes the point that the resurrected life is totally different from any kind of life experienced on earth. Jesus tells them that all those who have proved themselves worthy while in this life will rise to a new and eternal life, in a form and an existence very different from that of our present life.

Confirmation Candidate Prayer Cards Starting next week the names of our 2014 Confirmation Class will be displayed in the Narthex. Each student’s name will appear with the Saint’s name they have selected for Confirmation. Please select a student for whom you will pray. On January 16, 2014 during a final meeting of preparation for the Confirmandi, you will be asked to personally present to this student a letter expressing your thoughts about receiving the gift of the Sacrament of Confirmation.

The Season of Advent Children’s Liturgy of the Word We will be resuming this ministry during the season of Advent. The class is open to all children ages Kindergarten through 2

nd grade. A student

enrollment sheet will be in the Narthex on the back table during the month of November. The children will hear scripture, and learn our faith traditions and customs of the Advent season. Consider volunteering your time one Sunday during the 10:30am Mass. It is up to us to pass along our faith to these children by sharing the beauty of the season of Advent! To volunteer, please contact Donna Sciacca, CRE at the parish office or by email to prep@stjohnsottsville.

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The meaning of sainthood: To be fully alive in Jesus Christ Some years ago a friend told me that she secretly thought of the saints as boring. They smile at us sweetly from holy cards. Their lives can seem implausible compared to people more famous for their vices. And who would really want to be a saint, anyway? As Billy Joel once said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more

fun.” But when we come to understand holiness rightly, we see that it’s anything but boring. Sanctity isn’t a matter of sentimental posturing or being nice. Sanctity is about being passionately in love with Jesus Christ. The saints are men and women who glowed white-hot with the Holy Spirit. They lived fully what Father Richard John Neuhaus once called “the high adventure of Christian discipleship.” And that’s truly what the heart of sainthood is: not a life of legalistic drudgery, but a high adventure. Think about the women and men we venerate as saintly: Mother Teresa, Francis Xavier, King Louis IX of France, Gianna Beretta Molla, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Catherine of Siena. They lived some of the most compelling lives in history. Their roads were hard. They endured great sacrifices and self-denial. But those sacrifices led to greater love and joy than many in the world have ever known. If we think about sainthood like that, it can seem like the saints are a special class of people. Sainthood is for people like them, we think, not everyday people like us. And how do you live like a saint if you’re just an ordinary worker, a father or a mother? The good news is that the saints were ordinary people like us. Their “secret” was not something they possessed, but Someone who possessed them. The saints were men and women whom Jesus Christ made his own. As baptized Catholics, we too have been made Christ’s own. We receive Jesus Christ’s healing mercy and forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation. We eat his body and drink his blood in the Eucharist. We speak with him in moments of quiet prayer. This love that we receive from Jesus should break out into the rest of our lives. St. Josemaria Escriva put it this way: “When a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God.” This means that even when we fix another family’s plumbing, or fill out their legal paperwork, or drive our kids to soccer practice, we can act with the love of Jesus Christ in the same way that the saints did. The great second century bishop, Irenaeus of Lyons, once said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” First and foremost,

this refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus shows us what it looks like for a human being to live life abundantly. This means that the closer we are to Jesus, the more intensely alive we become. And the saints are examples of men and women who have lived their lives to the fullest. Because of the love of Jesus, they glow with the glory of God. Because of the love of Jesus, they’re fully alive. The saints aren’t just our models, though. They form what Paul called “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1). The saints in heaven pray for us on earth, urging us on as we run the race of faith. They offer us hope in two ways. First, they show us that, by God’s grace, heroic Christian lives are possible. Second, they remind us of the destiny God has in store for those he loves. This life is a preparation for eternal union with God in heaven. That doesn’t mean sitting around forever with a pious halo, strumming a harp. Heaven is an eternity of the greatest love we have ever tasted in this life – growing deeper and stronger without end. This All Saints’ Day, November 1, let’s reflect on what the saints really mean for us. Let’s remember the holy men and women whom we can emulate and to whom we can pray for help and guidance. Jesus said that he came so that we would have life, and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10). Let’s pray that we find the courage to seek out that abundant life with the saints. Let’s be women and men of love, witnesses of the glory of the God who makes us fully alive in Jesus Christ. There is no greater joy, no greater vocation. By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

“We are given the two great commandments. He challenges us

to love completely and unconditionally. Start now by loving your spouse as Christ calls us to. The next Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekends are Nov 15-17, 2013 in Elverson, PA and

Jan 31-Feb 2, 2014 in Doylestown, PA. Early registration is highly recommended. For more information visit our website

at: www.wwme-philly.org or contact Al & Mary Liz Heumann at Applications@wwme-philly.org or 610-449-1859.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, OTTSVILLE PA – NOVEMBER 10, 2013

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The Cancer Support Group will meet at Vera's for the

November meeting

(11-16-2013) @ 9am

Market Day is running a Pie Promotion allowing the school to increase its earnings through pie orders.

You can place your order online at www.marketday.com (order by Tues. 11/12/13)

JOURNEYSONGS

Third Edition with Lectionary Readings (hard cover)

You don't have to be a great singer or musician to contribute to our worship program. We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to "sponsor" one of our new hardcover hymnals for just $20. These hardcover books have many songs and also include all the readings for the 3 cycles so they will serve our parish family for many years to come. For each $20 donation, one hymnal will get a bookplate that denotes who gave the gift and the name the person or family in whose name the gift was given. If every parishioner sponsors just one hardcover hymnal, it will cover the entire cost of purchasing these new books for our parish. Special donation envelopes are available at the parish office. A sample book is in the back of the church so you can preview the new hymnal with readings. You may pay in cash or by check made out to “St. John the Baptist Church”. For your convenience, you may place the envelope (with the completed sponsorship form and the donation) in the collection basket or return it to the parish office. Please return your sponsorship information and payment by Sunday, November 24

th! Thank you for your support!

November 16 – November 17: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Communion Minister

Lector Altar Server Music

Saturday, 5:00pm Darlene Bittenmaster

Joanne DaCunha Dennis Litzenberger

Anne Slifer

Marie Louzon Aiden Blaikie Anna Schmidt Gus Yocum

Ordinary Time

Sunday, 8:00am Kevin Murphy Harry Reckner

Bea Romaszewski Ron Watson

John Zdanowicz TJ Froman Samantha Froman

Maria Middleton

Susan Middleton Elaine Jocelyn

Sunday, 10:30am Dan Hauber Maryann Hauber

Jean Krauss Wendy Wildman

Melissa Johnson Nicole DeCicco Austin Krauss

Jenna Wildman

Teen Worship Jim Roney