Holy Sepulcher Parish

Consecrate Them in the Truth
Just as the early Christian community took charge after Jesus’ ascension, so do we take charge in our own time.  Jesus did not promise us an easy time; he did pray to “keep us from the evil one.”  We wish that committing ourselves to Christ would eliminate tension in our lives.  It doesn’t!  If anything, it heightens the tension and brings into sharp relief the choices we must make in order to be faithful.  Already by the time of the writing of John’s Gospel, the early Christian community had begun to experience conflict and persecution.  They knew the cost of Jesus consecrating them in truth.  Our own times are also filled with conflict and tension.  The second reading reminds us how we remain faithful: “God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.”  On our own we can do nothing; with Jesus’ prayer and fidelity to our consecration in truth, we can overcome tension and conflict.  The paschal mystery includes our own struggle with faithfulness to God’s will for salvation; at the same time it includes our own resurrection to new life.  This Easter Gospel presents a daunting challenge: take up the mission of Jesus.  The encouragement that we can be successful is that Christ consecrates us and remains with us.

Congratulations!
Congratulations to our second grade students who made their First Holy Communion last weekend!  I would also like to thank those who have given their time, talent and resources in preparing our students: Mrs. Eileen Harper, Mrs. Debbie Fritzley, Mrs. Brenda Hartzel, and Miss Rachel Fitz.  Special thanks to Mrs. Joanne Castello, Sr. Anna Marie Gaglia, CSJ, Ms. Madlyn DeRito and the Holy Sepulcher Choir.  May God bless our first communicants and their families.

COMMUNION TO THE HOMEBOUND
If you regularly take Holy Communion to the homebound or to those in hospitals and nursing homes, please note a change in procedure: The Eucharist will NOT be given to anyone with a pyx in the communion line at Mass.  Please see Fr. John or Deacon Paul before or after Mass in order to take the Eucharist to the sick.  It is not a proper liturgical practice to count consecrated hosts into a pyx in the communion line.  This also presents a high risk of dropping Our Lord on the ground as well as causing an unnecessary back-up in the line.  This change in procedure was presented at our Evenings of Recollection for Eucharistic Ministers in late April.

Questions to Ponder this Week:

1. When do you find tension in your life because you belong to Christ and to the world?
2. What does being consecrated to God mean to you?
3. When do you experience Jesus praying for you and protecting you?

A FEW REMINDERS

1.   Next Sunday, May 27, is the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. As we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, please remember to wear red!

2. The annual Collection for Catholic Relief Services will be taken at all Masses this weekend, May 19-20.  Funding from this collection provides the foundation of support for the work of six major Catholic agencies working on international relief and development,   immigration services and resettlement, advocacy for the poor, peace, reconciliation and justice.

3. Please mark your calendars – our 2012 Bazaar will be held on Sunday, August 12^th. Also, we would like to start accepting donations of 2-Liter Pop Bottles (any brand) for the Bazaar.  If you are able to donate a few bottles, please leave them in the coatroom across from the Priest Sacristy.  Thank you for the bottled water, we collected 42 cases!

4. As the weather becomes warmer, please remember to dress appropriately for Mass…we should not be dressed for the beach when we attend Mass!  I am always amazed at our Protestant brothers and sisters when they go to church in their Sunday best and us Catholics often look like slobs who just rolled out of bed. Also, please do not text during Mass…I think we can all take one hour to step away from our social media in order to be with the Lord on Sunday.  He deserves it.   Finally, please do not chew gum in church…I think we all need to remember the manners our mother taught us when we were young!

“Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.”
-St. John Chrysostom

In Christ Jesus, Our Risen Lord,
Fr. John Gizler
jgizler@hotmail.com

As the Father Loves Me,  so I Also Love You
This Sunday’s Gospel stresses the central theme of love.  God is love.  If we love God, we will do what He tells us to do.  If we do what He tells us to do, God will make His home in us; all three persons of the Trinity.  Love is what brings heaven down to earth.  Peace is what flows from love when our relationships are the way they ought to be.  Our faith is a response to God’s love.  Faith is love in action.  Since God is love, and each Person of the Trinity represents a particular expression of love, we must come to clearly see who and what they represent.  The Father’s love is creative, and it never becomes destructive.  The Son’s love is redemptive, and there is nothing in it that is beyond the scope of His redeeming love.  The Holy Spirit’s love is renewing, recreating, making complete in us what was begun by the Father, and reclaimed or redeemed by Jesus; and there is no human weakness where this love cannot be seen and experiences as power.  Love is the eternal gift Jesus promised to His disciples and the gift He continually gives to us.

A Prayer for All Mothers
I thank you, Father of us all, for my mother.
I thank you that she gave me life and
nurtured me all those years.  She gave me my
faith, helping me to know you and to know
Jesus and His ways.  She taught me how to
love and how to sacrifice for others.  She
taught me that it was okay to cry and that I
should always tell the truth.  Bless her with
the graces she needs and which you want to
give her today.  Help her to feel precious in
your eyes today and to know that I love her.
Give her strength, courage, compassion and
peace.  Most of all, bless her this day with
your love.  Amen.

A Prayer for a Mother Who Has Died
Dear Lord, relying on your promises to us,
I turn to you in trust that my mother is with
you and she is enjoying your loving
embrace. You alone know how she loved
the best she could and how she faithfully
endured the struggles that she faced.  You
know the graces you gave her and you
know the grace she was for me and for so
many.  For all the ways she truly loved the
way you loved her, please reward her,
Lord.  May she enjoy the communion of all
her family and friends who are with you.  I
ask you this with faith in the Resurrection,
trusting my mother’s love, and desiring
that she know my love for her.  Amen.

WHAT’S YOUR NAME?
Names for newborns were discussed in last week’s Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper by Fr. Charles Bober. In his article, he reminded us that, although it is no longer Church law, parents are to see that a name foreign to a Christian mentality is not given.  He noted that names given to children today are sometimes those of motor vehicles (Harley and Infinity), beverages (Brandy and Sherry), and places (London, Paris, Dallas and Cheyenne).  The names we give our children should express our memories and values as well as a heritage of holy men and women, not our secular culture.  We should not sell our children short because of passing fads.  Please give them a name by which they will be proud to be known.  Please give them a name that will inspire them to seek the kingdom of God!

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”
-William Thackeray

Questions to Ponder this Week:

1. How is Jesus asking me to deepen my love for my friends?
2. Where is Jesus asking me to expand the circle of those whom I love?
3. How does the command to love relate to the feast of Easter?

A FEW REMINDERS

1. The next Bazaar Chairpersons Meeting will be held on Monday, May 14 at 7:00pm in the School Media Room.

2. May 17^th is Ascension Thursday, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Church.  Masses will be celebrated at 7:00pm (Vigil) and 9:00am and 7:00pm. Please make time in your schedule to   attend Mass and praise the Lord!

3. The annual Collection for Catholic Relief Services will be next weekend, May 19-20.  Funding from this collection provides the foundation of support for the work of six major Catholic agencies working on international relief and development, immigration services and resettlement, advocacy for the poor, peace,          reconciliation and justice.

4. Please mark your calendars – our 2012 Bazaar will be held on Sunday, August 12th. Also, we would like to start accepting donations of 2-Liter Pop Bottles (any brand) for the Bazaar. If you are able to donate a few bottles, please leave them in the coatroom across from the Priest Sacristy. Thank you for the    bottled water, we collected 42 cases!

In Christ Jesus, Our Risen Lord,
Fr. John Gizler
jgizler@hotmail.com

Bearing Fruit
Few of us, even when we mediate on the image of the vine and branches, stop to really think about how God “prunes” us.  For some there is the danger of thinking that we are already producing fruit for the kingdom, in deed and truth as John says, perhaps raising a family, being active in our parish, and so on.  But even those branches, which are bearing fruit, the Gospel tells us, can be pruned to produce still more.  Today Saul, freshly “pruned” by his conversion, arrives in Jerusalem and meets resistance.  Since he had been persecuting Christians, this was only natural.  But even after he is accepted and begins to bear fruit, he meets further adversity, and his letters are filled with may accounts of how his trials “pruned” him to produce greater fruit for the kingdom.  Like St. Paul (formerly Saul), as long as we remain in Christ we will continue to bear fruit and, when the will of the Father determines it is time to prune us, the strength of the true vine must enable us to endure it.

Questions to Ponder this Week:

1. What does the image of Christ as the vine with many branches say to you about today’s church?
2. How do you understand Jesus’ words about the branches needing to be pruned so that they might bear more fruit?

Treasures From Our Tradition
The month of May has not only good weather, but also an interesting pedigree.  It is named after the Roman goddess Maia, said to be the mother of Hermes, or Mercury.  The Romans saw it as “love’s month,” while in England, more practical farmers called it “Three Milks,” since the cows grazing on springtime’s bounty could produce at a phenomenal rate.  Old customs die hard, and Christians have never made peace with Maytime frolics.  No wonder that popular tradition dedicated the month’s prayers and devotions to Mary, although we cannot lose sight of the fact that the liturgy always has Easter at the center of the celebration.  Recent developments have enriched Mary’s place in a cycle of feast days woven through the whole year, dedicated Saturday as a weekly day for devotion, and highlighted Mary’s role in the Advent Story.  In fact, every day of the year Evening Prayer centers on the singing of Mary’s Canticle of Praise.  The fifty days of Easter culminate on Pentecost with Mary, present of course for Christ’s birth, waiting in the upper room for the birth of the Church.

A Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Easter
I praise you, Lord, in the assembly of the Church.  Here
the lowly and the hungry gather to participate in generous charity.  Give me the confidence to bring my needs to the Church; give me the generosity to respond to the prayers and sorrows of my neighbor.  Let me always realize that as branches on the one vine, none of us can be happy if one of us is
still suffering.
Amen.

OUR NEW PARISH SIGN
I am very happy to announce plans for a new electronic sign for our parish located on Route 8.  This much-needed sign will replace the current one in front of the old church.  We are working with ISI, Inc., a premier sign company located in Pittsburgh on the design and construction of our new sign.  ISI, Inc. has designed numerous signs in the area:  Paracca Flooring, St. Mary Parish (Glenshaw), Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School (Coraopolis), and the Meadows Casino just to name a few.  This sign will allow us to better advertise our Masses, parish and school activities as well as make our presence known on the Route 8 corridor.  We are very blessed to have a generous benefactor who has offered to underwrite the cost of the sign.  We hope to have it up and running by mid-summer.  More info coming soon!

“Each small task of everyday life is part of
the total harmony of the universe.”
-St. Therese of Lisieux

A FEW REMINDERS

1. First Holy Communion Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, May 12 at 10:00am.  Rehearsal is Thursday, May 10 at 7:00pm.

2. The next Bazaar Chairpersons Meeting will be held on Monday, May 14 at 7:00pm in the School Media Room.

3. May 17^th is Ascension Thursday, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Church.  Masses will be celebrated at 7:00pm (Vigil) and 9:00am and 7:00pm.  Please make time in your schedule to attend Mass and praise the Lord!

4. Please mark your calendars – our 2012 Bazaar will be held on Sunday, August 12^th. Also, we would like to start accepting donations of bottled water and 2-Liter Pop Bottles (any brand) for the Bazaar.  If you are able to  donate a case or two or a few bottles, please leave them in the coatroom across from the Priest  Sacristy.  Thank you!

5. We continue to make progress in lowering our church building debt and I thank you for your generosity.  Please remember that every little bit helps!  Any donation to the building fund is a good donation!!

In Christ Jesus, Our Risen Lord,
Fr. John Gizler
jgizler@hotmail.com