St. Lambert Parish

Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord

Website: www.StLambert.org To Register as a Parishioner: Go to stlambert.org under “About Us” or by phone. Bulletin Guidelines: Submissions should be received at the office 10 days preceding the date of bulletin publication. Submissions should be Sent in electronic format to debbie.stlambert.@aol.com.

Religious Education : Gina Roxas youthchurchred@gmail .com Baptisms: Third Sundays of the month at 1:30 pm. Baptismal Prep Class is the first Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. For guidelines and to register call the rectory. Weddings: Arrangements must be made 6 months in advance.

Rectory: 8148 N Karlov Avenue Skokie, IL 60076 Phone: (847) 673-5090 E-mail: saintlambert@aol.com St. Lambert Parish - Skokie, IL Sunday Masses: (5 pm Sat) 8am, 10am, 12pm Weekday Masses: 7:15 am (Mon-Fri) 8am on Sat. Confessions: Saturday at 8:30am

Pastor: Rev. Richard Simon Rev. Know-it-all: reverendknow-it-all.blogspot. com Deacon: Mr. Chick O’Leary Music Director: Mr. Steven Folkers Office Staff: Debbie Morales-Garcia debbie.stlambert.@aol.com Mr. George Mohrlein

Masses for the Week Saturday, December 21

5:00 † Dentzer & Poglitsch Families

Sunday, December 22

8:00 People of St Lambert

10:00 † Rogelio Gapasin & Sixta Macagba

12:00

Monday, December 23

7:15 † Victoria & Pedro Alvarado

Tuesday, Christmas Eve, December 24

7:15

5:00

10:00 Cheryl & Aimee Arojado/Emma & Izzy Wakefield

Wednesday, Christmas Day, December 25

8:00 Dscd. Members of Styczynski/Dionne Fa. &

Michael J. Polakowski

10:00

12:00

Thursday, December 26

7:15 † Frank Niewiadomski

Friday, December 27

7:15

Saturday, December 28

8:00

5:00

Sunday, December 29

8:00

10:00 † Basilio Poyatos Jr.

12:00 People of St Lambert

Page 2 St. Lambert Parish 4th Sunday of Advent

Dear Friends, I want to share one of my favorite Christmas carols with you: I heard the bells on Christmas day/Their old familiar carols play/And mild and sweet their songs repeat/Of peace on earth good will to men. And in despair I bowed my head/There is no peace on earth I said/For hate is strong and mocks the song/Of peace on earth, good will to men Then rang the bells more loud and deep/God is not dead, nor doth He sleep/The wrong shall fail, the right prevail/With peace on earth, good will to men The world seems like a scary place sometimes. For most of us, Christmas was wonderful when we were little because we had people who protected us and took care of us. We still do. If you know the baby born at Bethlehem, you have His Mother, Mary and God, His all-powerful father, to take care of you. Be not afraid. Merry Christmas,

Fr. Simon

Our Christmas Mass Schedule: Tues., Dec 24th: 7:15 am, 5 pm, with Christmas Carols at 9:30 pm followed by Mass at 10 pm

Wed., Christmas Day: 8am, 10 am and 12 noon

Prayer St. Lambert Intercessors’ prayer hour follows

after the noon mass every Sunday in the chapel. Our prayer teams and members

intercede for the needs of St. Lambert parish and individual parishioners. Join us in prayer; drop your written petitions into our prayer box; or request of us immediate soaking prayer in private with you. You may also email us your petition(s) at kevinpatterson1@comcast.net

Blessings with affections in Christ, Intercessors of

St. Lambert.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: Mal 3:1-4, 23-34; Ps 25:4-5ab, 8-10, 14; Lk 1:57-66 Tuesday: 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-5, 27-29; Lk 1:67-79 Wed.: Vigil: Is 62:1-5; Ps 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29; Acts 13:16-17, 22-25; Mt 1:1-25 [18- 25] Night: Is 9:1-6; Ps 96:1-3, 11-13; Ti 2:11-14; Lk 2:1-14 Dawn: Is 62:11-12; Ps 97:1, 6, 11- 12; Ti 3:4-7; Lk 2:15-20 Day: Is 52:7-10; Ps 98:1-6; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18 [1-5, 9-14] Thursday: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Ps 31:3cd-4, 6, 8ab, 16bc, 17; Mt 10:17-22 Friday: 1 Jn 1:1-4; Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12; Jn 20: 1a, 2-8 Saturday: 1 Jn 1:5 — 2:2; Ps 124:2-5, 7cd-8; Mt 2:13-18 Sunday: Sir 3:2-6, 12-14; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12- 21 [1217]; Mt 2:13-15, 19-23

December 22, 2019 Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord Page 3

The Coffee Hour will be hosted next week by our Religious Education Group, YouthChurch. The contact is Gina Roxas and she can be reached at 312-560-6799.

Your participation donations and assistance are always appreciated!

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Across this liturgical year, we hear Saint Matthew’s Gospel. And in this holy season that celebrates the birth of Jesus, we hear a story unique to Matthew—the journey of the Magi. He writes: “The Magi were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother.” We can imagine their joy. They discovered the one for whom they longed and searched. He is the newborn Jesus. His mother Mary holds him in her arms and, at the same time, presents him to the world. In this simple gesture, she evangelizes, gives us the living good news of her son. Then and now, it is a moment wrapped in joy. On our journey of renewal in the Archdiocese of Chicago, may this image of Mary, mother of the Lord, inspire and encourage us to carry and present Jesus to a world that is so much in need of him. In our marriages, families, workplaces, and communities, may we joyfully carry and present him who is the great light shining in darkness. God bless you and all your loved ones in this holy season. Sincerely yours in Christ, Archbishop of Chicago

Fourth Sunday of Advent

They shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”

— Matthew 1:23

Page 4 St. Lambert Parish 4th Sunday of Advent

The Reverend Know-it-all “What I don’t know… I can always make up!”

Thomas Jefferson said that the country with little wine has much drunkenness. He knew what he was talking about. The founding fathers were huge consumers of booze, much to the chagrin of the founding mothers one suspects. George Washington was the largest producer of whiskey in the United States, producing 11,000 gallons in just the year 1799. When the fifty-five founding fathers finished writing the U.S. Constitution, they celebrated by drinking, putting away 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, eight bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and seven bowls of alcoholic punch so large that, “ducks could swim in them.” Said one participant, Americans drank hooch, not wine, and this was true until recently. Watered wine with dinner is a lot different than three or four Long Island Iced Teas. “What has this to do with religion?” well you may ask. Plenty. We Christians are all about freedom, because we are all about love. If one is forced to love one cannot Love and we believe that God is love, stone sober freely given sacrificial Love. Not the fake kind of “luv” that one encounters on a moonless night in a dimly lit bar. True Love happens in the cold clear light of morning. The devil knows this so he is going to want to get you into a lot of dimly lit places. I have never been an exorcist, but I know people. There really is such a thing as demonic possession. It’s rare though not as rare as it used to be. We give the devil a lot more openings in the modern world than we used to. I’ve heard that a possession is rather like when a thug has invaded a home and has the owner tied up and gagged in the basement. A huge element of exorcism is the attempt to get the possessed person to exercise his own free will. The creed is very important as a tool against the devil. In effect the sufferer is encouraged to make an act of the will say, “I trust in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The work of the exorcist is to help the person possessed to get free. The devil accomplishes the same thing with sin and addiction. He feasts on the will of another, as already mentioned above.

ADVICE TO A YOUNG SEMINARIAN - PART 7 Letter to Robinson K. Russo a young seminarian, continued… Alcohol and the devil. An unfortunate, yet common combination. “How can you say that, father? Wine is mentioned frequently mentioned in the Bible. Jesus made wine at Cana. Wine was used at the last supper and is used at Mass.” On the contrary, I am very fond of a nice glass of wine, like a 1982 Chateau la Vieux Canard Gras 1982 or a Gewürztraminer. (I just threw that in because it’s so much fun to say.) Alcohol consumption has changed since our Savior was making the stuff out of water. In a word, distillation! The ancients always watered their wine, unless they were out to have a good time and subsequent headache. This is reflected by the custom of pouring a little wine into the chalice, symbolizing the joining of humanity and divinity in the person of Jesus. At the time of Christ anyone who drank wine un-watered was out to get drunk. Even so, it takes a lot more work to get hammered on wine than on distilled beverages. The earliest evidence of true distillation of alcohol comes from the School of Salerno in southern Italy during the 12th century. The formula for making the stuff was written in secret code. In 1437, brandy or “burned wine” is mentioned in the archives of Katzelnbogen, Germany. The distillation process evaporates all the intoxicating essence of wine and squeezes out anything that even resembles fruit. As the saying goes, “Wine is fine, but liquor is quicker.” With distilled liquor one can kill as many brain cells in a few minutes as it takes wine to obliterate in perhaps an hour or so. One can go from sane to stupid in minutes with distilled liquor, hence its popularity.

Sunday Offertory Collection

Dec. 7/8, 2019 Envelopes: $5,315.00 Loose: 2,121.85 GiveCentral: 220.00 Total: $7,656.85

Youth Church: $95.00

Retirement Fund: $2,986.41

Immaculate Conception : $1,035.00

Thank you for your continued support! For Online Giving go to: www.givecentral.org

December 22, 2019 Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord Page 5

Addictions (be they to alcohol, jealousy, hatreds we cherish, gossip, sex, pornography, drugs, television shopping, pick your poison) are all useful to the devil in snaring his dinner – you. Any sin, but particularly addiction, is part of his hunting arsenal and you, father, are one of his favorite foods (though not as tasty as a bishop, cardinal or pope). He also enjoys snaring a nun or a monk, but he has already overfished those waters, so they are relatively a rare treat for him. So, father, or father-yet-to-be, learn your limits. And by the way, never drive under the influence. Even if you’ve just had a little – if it’s a little more than the police like, the devil has you. A few years back, a truly holy man, a bishop was arrested for drunken driving. He had been to dinner with his aged mother. It seems he was set up by a waiter with whose political and social agenda this bishop did not agree. The waiter called a policeman, a friend of like preferences who ambushed the bishop and his mother. The breathalyzer said a little too much wine, the bishop was hauled in, and the press made it seem like he had run over a litter of kittens on the way back from a night of debauchery in Vegas. His ministry was trashed. The devil couldn’t get his soul, but he could still cause plenty of harm. If you, father, drink and drive, you are driving for a lot of people. You carry the diocesan lawyers in the back seat because it’s the diocese that your victims if any will sue. You carry your parishioners, who will be scandalized and grieved for you, and more than that you carry Christ and his bride. Scandal is a dreadful thing and the people who hate the Lord and his beloved bride, the Church are always looking for one. I don’t know if it’s still true, but when I was young, if you were arrested – arrested, mind you, not convicted – of a DUI, you were shipped off to that place I mentioned a while ago, the place where they send priests who need to think about things for a bit. It meant good-bye to friends for a while and probably to your parish permanently. “ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the

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devil, as a roaring lion, prowls about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1Pt 5:8) Note, the first pope, Peter advises us to be SOBER. Why? Because the devil is peckish and we make a tasty snack when served with sauce. More about the priest and the devil next week

December 22, 2019 Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord Page 7

Circle the words in red. Luke 1:26-28 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Luke 2:7 Mary "brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger;" Luke 2:15 "the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass," Luke 2:36-38 Anna was a prophetess who recognized that the infant Jesus was the Messiah. Matt 2:1,2 ...there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

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