Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church

We have celebrated the great Solemnity of Christmas and today we gather in our Christmas decorated Church to continue the festival with the wonderful Feast of the Holy Family. Our focus remains on the family unit of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Son of God has become a member of the human family. In this act he has consecrated and blessed family life forever. Nothing will ever so exalt, so honor, and so centralize the role of the family in our world than the Lord Jesus Christ becoming a member of a family.
This is so important for us. It helps us to realize that there is no substitute for the family. There are no other forms of family life. The natural act of husband and wife becoming mother and father is the plan of God. Their mutual love creates the offspring. Their love is made flesh through their act of love, Children are born and just as they are nurtured in the womb of the mother by her body so in family life the children are nurtured and fed with the love and support which comes from family life. I hope our prayers this weekend for all families will be a source of strength and blessings for our entire parish.
THE 5:00 P.M. Christmas Vigil Mass (which is always the largest Mass of the year) is a source of great blessing for our parish. How we would like to have that crowd every weekend. How good a blessing it would be for our families to come together and worship. What strength they would derive from this and what new hope it would give to the world and to themselves if God were part of their weekly life.
I wish to thank Sister Michelle for preparing this Mass and for bringing it to fulfillment. There were training hours and hard work of preparation. It certainly shows.
I thank all those who gave generously to the Christmas collection for the support of God’s work here. It will help greatly.
Thank you to everyone who gave Flower offerings for our Christmas decorations. The altar is a memorial to your loved ones and to your love of God’s house. Thank you again, Sister Michelle, for the floral decorations again this year. (The memorial list is here.) Special gratitude again goes to those who gave gifts to the poor and indigent. What a grace this is for both.
I personally thank the hundreds who sent me greetings and gave me gifts. How good and kind and generous and supportive you are.
Finally, I wish you all a very Holy, Happy, and Blessed New Year. May God shine his graces on you, may he give you his strength and keep you safe. May he keep all of us safe, especially from the evil of terrorism and from the evil of sin. Happy New Year -

LIST OF PARISHIONERS WHO DIED IN 2006
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church
Andrew J. Sanislo
Russell A. Miller
James Muscarella
Rev. Leo S. Sutula
Mary-Ann Czapek
James E. Fitzgerald
John F. Wasniewski
Albina Struzinski
Dorothy Pompay
Peter Millaras
Bronislaw Niedojadlo
Elizabeth Samul
Louise Giza
Anthony J. Smith
Marie E. Ryan
Louise Murphy
John “Jack” Watson
Donald Callahan
Arthur “Bob”
Lucy Burke
Edward Littlefield
Staff Sergeant Joseph Phanueff
Christine Pollick

COLLECTIONS
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Offertory $3,577.99
Monthly (Dec) $1,684.70 Energy (Dec) $1,371.00
Next Sunday is Monthly collection for January.

SPECIAL BLESSING OF FAMILIES

Celebrant: My dear friends, from the sacrament of Matrimony the family has received newness of life and the grace of Christ. The family is especially important in the Church and to civil society for it is the primary life-giving community. In our celebration today we call down the Lord’s blessing upon you, so that you may continually be instruments of God’s grace to one another and witnesses to faith in all the circumstances of life. With God as your help, you will fulfill your mission by conforming your entire life to the Gospel and so witness to Christ before the world.

O God you have created us in love and saved us in mercy, and through the bond of matrimony you have established the family and willed that it should become a sign of Christ’s love for his Church.

Shower your blessings on this family gathered here in your name. Enable those who are joined by one love to support one another by their fervor of spirit and devotion to prayer. Make them responsive to the needs of each family member and witnesses to the faith in all they say and do. We ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN! (Sprinkle families)

DEDECORATE THE CHURCH
On Tuesday night, January 9, 2007, we shall deddecorate the Church. In December, we had only six men show up. We need additional hands because we must not only take down the decorations, but transfer them to the Rectory attic.
Please come and help It takes only about 30 minutes, if we have sufficient number of hands.

               Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph
December 31, 2006
5:00 P.M.     Salvatore Mazzotta
8:00 A.M.    Russell Kennedy   (Wife and family)
10:30 A.M.    For all those memorialized by Xmas Flowers
Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
January 1, 2007
(Not a Holy Day this Year)
Sunday Night, December 31, 2006
5:00 P.M. Intention of Parishioners
Monday Morning, January 1, 2007
8:00 A.M.    For all those memorialized by Xmas Flowers

Tuesday, January 2nd        Sts. Basil & Gregory
7:30 A.M. Thomas Reagan   (The Reagan Family)
Wednesday, January 3rd   Holy Name of Jesus
7:30 A.M. Isabel Rosa    (Friend)
Thursday, January 4th   St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
7:30 A.M. William Ruane    (Frank & Colleen Kaczmarek)
Friday, January 5th St. John Neumann
7:30 A.M. Intention of Celebrant

Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord                         January 7, 2006
5:00 P.M.    Theresa Sorce   (Marv & Marie Gawerecki)
Lucy Burke   (Lewis & Regina Mostowy)
  Donald Callahan   (Ann Miller)
Duane Perkins   (Gladys Longo & Family)
8:00 A.M.    Walter & Helen Sokol & John & Henrietta Renkar
                                             (Carol & Sr. Michelle)
10:30 A.M.    Peter Millaras    (Family)

From the desk of Monsignor Bride