The Pulse of Sacred Heart Parish, Moline, Illinois

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY TO OUR PARISH

SILENT, DIRECTED RETREAT TO START THE NEW YEAR

Issue 12November/December 2016

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITYDear Parishioners,

I picked up the Sunday paper today (six weeks before Christmas) and there were about ten pounds of Christmas ads. I thought to myself, “How strange this is?” There was a hollow feeling rather than a joyful feeling.

When Halloween ended, the Christmas shows began on the Hallmark Channel and Christmas music was being played in the super market. Bell ringers were also in front of the stores. I probably had some of the same feelings you did when you saw this. I was not ready to rush into another Christmas season. Am I getting old and grumpy or am I just reflecting the fact that I, like so many, feel overwhelmed by it all?

Studies show that the holiday season, for a lot of people, is the most difficult time of the year. Some recall hurtful Christmas memories. For others, there is the pressure of finding the money to meet all the expectations of friends and family.

What does the church offer us? It offers us an alternative message. The message is this, that the four weeks of Advent are meant to be a reflective time of waiting. Simplicity is the hallmark. Our church will have few decorations in it. The Advent wreath will be present. The gaudy lights that we see in the world will not be in our worship space. The priests will wear purple at our liturgies which prompts us toward 1

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JOIN US FOR CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR’S AT SACRED HEART Come home for Christmas! Sacred Heart’s Christmas and New Year’s liturgies are as follows:

Reconciliation ServiceMonday, December 19th: 7 pm

Christmas EveSaturday, December 24th: 4:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm

Christmas DaySunday, December 25th: 7:00 am and 10:00 am

New Year’s EveSaturday, December 31st: 4:00 p.m.

New Year’s DaySunday, January 1st: 7:00 am, 9:00 am, and 11:00 am

penance not endless partying. The penance we are asked to do is not the stringent fasting of Lent, but rather it is a penance that revolves around listening and praying and silence.

If we can keep the Advent spirit, to some small degree, then we can enjoy Christmas when it comes. We will not take the decorations down on the 26th because we are tired of them, but we will put them up for the twelve days of Christmas savoring them carrying the light of Christmas deep into the winter and dispelling the darkness.

I invite you to keep Advent with simplicity and joy so that you can be ready to sing “Glory to God in the Highest” when Christmas arrives.

Blessings,

Fr. Mark DeSutter Pastor 2

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Sacred Heart’s Middle School Youth Ministry has been hard at work preparing for their December 20th visits to the homebound. The Youth have planned a night of cookie baking and caroling to our parishioners who are unable to attend Christmas events. This event is a follow up to their November 29th visit to the Home Bound where they created cards and Advent Wreaths for them. We then delivered the handmade Advent Wreaths and blessed them inside their homes. We have been blessed at Sacred Heart to have such caring and loving youth who love to not only plan, but also implement these service opportunities.

If you are interested in helping out the Youth Group we would love to have extra Christmas treats, volunteers, and even just prayers! If you know a child that is in 6th through 8th grade please encourage them to come join us on Tuesdays at 6PM! For further information please contact Ivy Padula at ivygoes2church@gmail.com or at (309)762-2362,ext. 210.

Members of our youth group getting ready to deliver Advent Wreaths to the homebound.

Each one of us is on a spir-itual journey, consciously or not. We seek meaning in life, re5. Interview the Development Committee / Contact per-son: Jim Harl (you have Jim’s number) or Colleen Rafferty 797-0592

YOUTH GROUP NEWS

4. Cookie Walk - Connie Morris

6. Article on Catholic School's Week - Seton School

7. Youth Group - Ivy Padula

What is National Catholic Schools Week? Since 1974, National Catholic Schools Week is the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. It starts the last Sunday in January and runs all week, which in 2017 is January 29 - February 4. The theme for the National Catholic Schools Week 2017 is “Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service.” Schools typically observe the annual celebration week with Masses, Open Houses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members. Through these events, schools focus on the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to our church, our communities and our nation.

We will kick off Catholic Schools Week by having Seton students participate in a Sunday Mass at their home parish.

During the week itself middle school students will attend a Mass at Alleman High School with the high schoolers. We’ll dedicate one day to our faculty and staff at Seton who will be honored with a luncheon. Students will also receive special treats and participate in exciting activities to celebrate Catholic education.

On Tuesday of Catholic Schools Week there will be an Open House from 8:30 am to 11:30 am for families and friends to visit classrooms. Families also may take their student out to lunch from 11:30 am to 1 pm if they’d like.

To wrap up the week, on Friday, there will be an All School Mass at Sacred Heart Church in the afternoon. Then our annual Spaghetti Dinner and Basket Raffle will be held in Culemans Hall from 5 pm to 8 pm. All are invited!

CATHOLIC SCHOOL’S WEEK:JAN 29 - FEB 4

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The theme of a silent, directed retreat with Fr. Mark at the Benet House Retreat Center at St. Mary Monastery in Rock Island will be “Jesus Asked Them, Who Do You Say I Am?”

The retreat will be hosted Sunday, January 15 - Wednesday, January 18th. Check in is 4-6:30 p.m. on the 15th with the conference beginning at 7 p.m. The retreat concludes on the 18th at 4 p.m.

This is a popular retreat that fills quickly so parishioners are encouraged to register today at www.smmsisters.org or by calling (309) 283-2108. You will receive personal time with a spiritual director. In addition to daily Eucharist, there will be an

SILENT, DIRECTED RETREATWITH FR. MARK

opportunity to experience the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Centering Prayer, personal prayer, silence, rest, prayer with the Benedictines and walking the grounds. Spiritual Directors include: Sr. Margaret Murphy OSB, Sr. Mary Schmidt, OSB, Toni Petersen, and Fr. Mark DeSutter.

Cost to attend is $330. Registrations after Dec. 15 will be $345.

CATHOLIC SCHOOL’S WEEK:JAN 29 - FEB 4

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POPE FRANCIS CALLS FOR REVOLUTION OF MERCYIn an apostolic letter at the close of the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has called on the Catholic Church worldwide “to promote a culture of mercy in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters.”

In this 19-page text called “Misericordia et Misera,” (“Mercy and Misery”) the Argentine pope issues a clarion call to the whole church and to individual Catholics “to set in motion a real cultural revolution, beginning with simple gestures capable of reaching body and spirit, people’s very lives.” He sees the urgent need for this in today’s world, which, as he told the new cardinals on Nov. 19, is badly marked by polarization, violence, exclusion and the pathology of indifference.

He wants the church to be an instrument of mercy in this wounded world, to be a field hospital. In a particularly striking decision aimed at healing the grave wound caused by abortion, Francis has given priests worldwide the faculty to pardon the sin of abortion. He had given them that authority for the duration of the Jubilee Year, and now—while reaffirming his total condemnation of abortion—he extends this faculty indefinitely to every priest, making clear to the world that “there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart.”

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THERE’S STILL TIME TO JOIN US FOR OUR REMAINING ADVENT VESPER SERVICES Our ecumenical Advent Vespers hosted with Trinity Lutheran in Moline includes this remaining schedule:

Wednesday, December 14: The Gift of Hope6:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran, MolineLeaders: Bill Peiffer, Marcia Templeman and Judy Sokol; Reflection by: Janet Hunt

Wednesday, December 21: The Gift of Family6:30 p.m at Trinity Lutheran, MolineLeaders: Barb Lynch, Sister Kathleen and Judy Sokol; Reflection by Terry Lynch

He has also decided to extend the faculty to absolve sins to the priests of the Society of Saint Pius X, which he had given them during the Jubilee. He gave this exten-sion “until further provisions are made” trusting in their good will “to strive with God’s help for the recovery of full communion in the Catholic Church.”

Francis signed the 19-page letter in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 20, and the Vatican released it at a press conference.

He made clear that he has written it so as to ensure that the Catholic Church’s focus on mercy does not end with the closing of the Holy Door and the Jubilee Year. It cannot end there he insisted, because “mercy cannot become a mere parenthesis in the life of the Church; it constitutes her very existence, through which the profound truths of the Gospel are made manifest and tangible. Everything is revealed in mercy; everything is resolved in the merciful love of the Father.”

In the letter, Francis explains how the bible and the whole of the church’s liturgy and celebration of the sacraments—especially the sacrament of reconcilia-tion—highlight the fact of God’s mercy and, in various

ways, he encourages bishops and priests to make full use of these occasions to share God’s mercy with people.

He calls for the celebration throughout the Catholic world of “A World Day for the Poor” and also “A Day for the Bible” in each church every year.

Pope Francis in this long letter declares again and again that “this is the time for mercy for each and all of us.” It is the time of mercy, he said, because those who are weak and vulnerable, distant and alone, ought to feel the presence of brothers and sisters who can help them in their need.”

It is the time of mercy, he concluded, “because the poor should feel that they are regarded with respect and concern by others who have overcome indiffer-ence and discovered what is essential in life” and “because no sinner can ever tire of asking forgive-ness and all can feel the welcoming embrace of the Father.” Source: Catholic News Agency

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1608 13TH STREETMOLINE, IL 61265

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PAIDROCK ISLAND, ILPERMIT NO. 171

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Mass Times• Sundays: 7, 9, 11 a.m.• Saturday Vigil: 4 p.m.• Daily Masses (M-F): 6:30, 8:30 a.m. • Saturday Morning: 8:30 a.m.

ConfessionsSaturday: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. and by appointment, call 762-2362.

Eucharistic Adoration & Benediction(St. Francis Chapel)• Wednesday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.• First Friday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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