Bulletin Nov 13, 2022

Week of November 13, 2022

Weekly Collection 11/1 – $221 11/6 – $640

 Twenty Third Sunday After Pentecost

                                                                                                                                                                                            Weekly Liturgical Calendar and Mass Intentions

Monday	Nov 14	St. Josaphat (d) Donor’s Intention
Tuesday	Nov 15	St. Albert the Great (d) Donor’s Intention
Wednesday	Nov 16	St. Gertude the Great (d) Donor’s Intention
Thursday	Nov 17	St. Gregory the Wonderworker (sd) Donor’s Intention
Friday	Nov 18	Dedication of Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul (dm) Donor’s Intention
Saturday	Nov 19	St. Elizabeth of Hungary (d) St. Pontianus Donor’s Intention
Sunday	Nov 20	Twenty Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost (sd) St. Felix of Valois For the People of St. Raphael’s (Pro Populo)

Advent Customs

Blessed Wheat

Place a small amount of soil into a small pot or shallow dish.  Every time a kind act or sacrifice is performed, plant a grain of wheat into the soil.  Make certain to keep the soil watered.  On Christmas Day, place the pot of wheat before the Christmas crèche as an offering to the Christ Child.

Blessed Bread

The mother of the family should bake a loaf of bread which is brought to the priest to be blessed. 

On Christmas Eve, the father of the family breaks off a piece of the bread and gives it to his wife, saying what he is thankful for, wishing his wife good health, or asking her forgiveness.  The mother then offers a piece in the same way to the father.  After this, the mother gives a piece of bread to the oldest child in the family, and in turn this process is repeated (breaking the bread and making a statement of thanksgiving, etc) until every member of the family has been given a piece of the bread.  The one receiving the piece eats the piece after saying what he is thankful for, sorry for, etc.

St. Lucia Cakes (Lussekatter)

Baked on December 13^th, the feast of St. Lucia –  Search the internet for recipes for St. Lucia cakes or Lussekatter

St. Andrews Christmas Novena

Begins on November 30^th and continues through Christmas Eve:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold.  In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayers and grant my desires (state your intention).  Through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.  

Everything Passes Away

“Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing affright you;

Everything passes away,

God never changes;

Patience

Conquers all things.

He who possesses God

Lacks nothing.

God alone is enough.” 

-St. Teresa of Avila

It is autumn:  the fallen leaves, the bare fields, the fading colours, the clouded skies, all speak of death and decay.  But St. Teresa, in her prayer, is not pinning for the bright and warm days that are gone:  she is thinking of sufferings and trials; these also pass quickly.  To comfort and to encourage us she says, “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing affright you.”  We say that suffering passes quickly; but “to have suffered” -provided we have suffered as a Christian should- thatdoes not pass away.  “For which cause we faint not:  but though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:16, 17).

When the young, cheerful Teresa, after entering the convent, heard the key of the enclosure turn in the lock, she felt, as she later confessed, as if every bone in her body was being broken.  “I do not think that during my agony I shall suffer more than when I left my father’s house; but God gave me the courage to conquer myself.”  She had “the courage which God gives to a tiny ant.”  Teresa had a right to tell us, “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing affright you; everything passes away.”

(From Alone With God, Rev. J Heyman, SJ – Meditation on Wednesday, 22^nd Sunday After Pentecost)

Announcements

Advent is fast approaching!  Please read over the Advent customs included in the bulletin and try to incorporate some of these into your Advent this year. 

Please continue to pray for a permanent building.