Parish Happenings – Prince of Peace

Gaudete Sunday/Bambinelli Sunday

Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent, a mid-season pause from solemn reflection to rejoice in the nearing arrival of Jesus, as “Gaudete” means “rejoice” in Latin signaled by the Priest wearing a rose colored vestment instead of purple and lighting a pink candle on the Advent wreath. It’s a reminder to find joy and hope in Christ’s coming both at Christmas and His Second coming encouraging gratitude and anticipation for the Lord who is near.

Bambinelli Sunday is a Catholic tradition where families bring the Baby Jesus figurines from their home Nativity scenes to church on the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) for a special blessing.

This blessing connects your home creche with the Church encouraging families to place the figure in the manger on Christmas Day symbolizing Jesus’ arrival.

Rorate Caeli Mass

Prince of Peace Parish-Assumption of the BVM Church will celebrate a Rorate Mass on Saturday, December 13th at 6:30 am in our Parish Church.

A Rorate Mass is a special candlelit Catholic Mass for Advent honoring the Virgin Mary, celebrated before sunrise in near darkness symbolizing humanity’s wait for Christ, the Light of the World, to break through the darkness.

The Mass comes from the Latin Introit, “Rorate, caeli desuper”, meaning “Drop down dew from above,” a plea for the heavens to send the Messiah. Participants hold candles and the Mass ends as the sun rises bringing full light to the Church.

Join us as we celebrate this Mass on Saturday, December 13th at 6:30am.

Sunday, December 7

Second Sunday of Advent

Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. (Matthew 3:8)

The Christian is called to an ongoing conversion of life. As a believer undergoes conversion in their life, other people might meet their change as something radical, or they may even be dismissive. Sometimes, a person cannot see beyond the person they used to know. They cannot accept the change in that person’s life.

There are any number of people from Gospel accounts that we could cite: the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well or St. Paul; Think of St. Paul, a persecutor of Christians, who then claims to have seen the Risen Christ. You could understand why some were skeptical! But he was able to produce fruit that was convincing of his repentance.

If you are a Christian, I hope you are a devoted follower of Christ, read his word and reflecting on it. How has God’s word changed how you life? Would you be able to provide evidence of how God has changed your life? Would people believe you?

Fr. Edward Looney

Living Faith Daily Catholic Devotions

OUR GIVING TREE

Our Giving Tree will be available on Sunday, November 30th. This year we are purchasing gifts for Lourdes House, Interfaith Shelter and Evergreen House.

Please take an ornament off the tree, purchase the gift, wrap it and then place it under the or beside the Giving Tree in our Church. Be sure to place your ornament on the package so we can identify where it should be delivered.

Gifts will be delivered to the charities on Friday, December 19th. Thank you for your generosity to the mothers at Lourdes House and families at Interfaith Shelter and those at Evergreen House.

Diocesan Annual Campaign

Our Diocesan Annual campaign is well underway and the donation pamphlets are in each pew for your convenience. Please take them home and prayerfully decide on your donation and/or pledge for the 2025 campaign. As you are aware we have not met our goal as of October 29th for the campaign.

The Diocesan Annual Campaign supports the formation and continued education for priests, deacons and seminarians. Community outreach through Catholic Charities.

Youth engagement including sacramental preparation, CYO programs and Catholic Campus Ministry efforts.

Catholic education including resources, training and guidance for our 33 Diocesan schools.

Catechetical certification for religion teachers and training for Marriage Mentor couples.

Our own Mary’s Helpers Food Pantry is benefited yearly with a grant to purchase food to be given to their clients who are most in need and not able to afford feeding their families.

Your gift, no matter the size, impacts those throughout our Diocese who benefit from the many ministries and programs that are funded through the Diocesan Annual Campaign. Please be generous, your donation is very much appreciated.

What Does It Mean to Be Catholic?

What Does It Mean To Be Catholic?

The Catholic Church was founded by Christ and his Apostles. There are four marks or characteristics of the Church, and we are reminded of them each time we pray the Nicene Creed at Mass.

One: Means all members are united as the Body of Christ, given life by the one Spirit. We acknowledge one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

Holy: Means the Church is centered on God. It is Christ who, by his sacrifice, makes the Church holy.

Catholic: Means universal. The Church is for all times and all people. The Church is “the fullness” of the means of salvation”. (CCC830)

Apostolic: Means the Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles. We teach the doctrine of Jesus as it has been handed down through the apostles and their successors, the pope and bishops.

Each Catholic is called to full and active participation in the life of the Church and has the right and responsibility to:

1.) Attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation.

2. Confess your sins, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a least once a year.

3. Receive the Eucharist.

4. Observe the days of fasting Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstinence on Ash Wednesday in Lent established by the Church.

5. Help to provide for the needs of the Church

Encountering Christ and being a witness to his love means we are called to live like Jesus and work for justice and peace in this world by living the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

We are called to stand for the: Life and dignity of the Human Person, Call to Family, Community and Participation, Rights and Responsibilities of the Human Person, Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, Dignity of Work and Rights of workers, Solidarity of the Human Family, Care for God’s Creatures.

Infant of Prague

It was a little painted statue and stood a foot and a half high, was dressed in exquisite court dress, and cherished as an heirloom wedding gift. It came from Spain during an early spread of devotion to the Christ Child.

In the 17th century, a Spanish noblewoman named Isabel Manrique gave this little statue to her daughter Marie when Marie married a Czech noble. Marie gave it, in turn, to her own daughter Polyxena when the later married.

Polyxena treasured it for many years, but at last gifted it to the Carmelite monastery of Our Lady of Victory.

Shortly afterward the Czech kingdom was invaded by the Saxons, forcing the Carmelites to flee their monastery. The statue of the Christ Child, damaged and tattered was left behind in the ruins of the church.

Ten years later in 1638, a Carmelite priest found it. He took it to his church in Prague and displayed it by the altar.

Suddenly, as he knelt in prayer before it, the statue spoke, saying: “Have mercy on me and I will have mercy on you. Give Me My hands and I will give you peace. The more you honor Me the more I will bless you.”

After this, many miracles were reported to have been wrought through the statue and devotion to the Christ Child increased all the more.

Many saints, such as Therese of Lisieux and Francis of Assisi, were greatly devoted to the Infant Jesus. Nurture love for the Child Jesus in your own home.

The Catholic Company: Bite-Sized Faith

SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

Spiritual Communion:

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.

Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

Blessed Virgin Mary Grotto

Dear Friends

Visit our Grotto at Prince of Peace Parish-Assumption of the BVM Church. Pray to our Blessed Mother for peace in our country and the world and ask her assistance to bring friends and families who are not practicing their faith to return to her Son, Our Lord Jesus.

Our Blessed Virgin Mary Grotto is the Queen of Peace.

Sacrifice of the Mass

The Sign of the Cross and the Greeting tells us who we are as we gather to enter into the Mystery of Our Lord’s Death and Resurrection.

The Penitential Rite gives us the opportunity to acknowledge our sinfulness as we approach the Sacrifice of Christ that destroys sin and bring us back into a relationship with God.

The Gloria is a hymn that leads us to praise glorify, adore, thank and ask our Triune God for all we, His sons and daughter, need as we beg His mercy.

The Opening Prayer or “Collect” collects the intentions of the people assembled and presents them to God by the priest who stands in persona Christi (in the person of Christ).

In the Reading of the Old Testament we hear the story of God’s covenant with His chosen people Israel and the revelation of Himself that speaks of His mercy and desire for their salvation.

The Responsorial Psalm is the faithful’s response of praise and thanksgiving to God’s Word in the First Reading . It reminds us that we are not passive listeners to the Word; we are in a relationship of love with the Word of God.

The Second Reading from the New Testament tells us of God’s New and Eternal Covenant forged in the Blood of His Son who is the Word Made Flesh.

The Gospel is a proclamation of an event from the life of Our Savior. In the readings from Holy Scripture that are not taken from the Gospel, it is God who speaks to His people. But when the Gospel is proclaimed, it is specifically Christ Jesus, true God and true man, who speaks to us.

The Homily is a vital part of the liturgy of the Mass that explains the Holy Scriptures and instructs us in the Faith.

The Profession of Faith (the Nicene Creed) is the ancient formula of beliefs that unites the people assembled with the Universal Church of all ages in their expression of their Faith in Christ.

General Intercessions or Prayer of the Faithful offers prayers to God for the Church the world, and the need of people both living and dead.

The Preparation Rite is the offering of the bread and wine brought to His altar by the priest on behalf of the people of God assembled. The people participate in the offering by virtue of their baptism into the priestly people of God.

The Eucharistic Prayer makes present the Mystery of Our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. Christ’s Sacrifice of the Cross, His offering to the Faith of Himself for the salvation of the world is represented on the altar. At the words of consecration the bread and wine brought to the altar become the Body Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The baptized are called to participate in the sacrifice of Christ that is made present through the ministry of the ordained priest.

The Our Father begins the Rite of Communion. We are faithful to Jesus’ command to pray in the words He taught us. The priest prays for deliverance from evil, peace, and freedom from anxiety as we wait for the coming of Christ Our Savior in glory. The priest extends a greeting of Christ’s peace to all present in the assembly. The faithful share a sign of peace with one another. The priest comingles a portion of the Sacred Host that he has broken in the chalice of the Precious Blood. The faithful sing the Agnus Dei. “Lamb of God You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, grant us peace.”

Communion has arrived. The faithful go forward to receive His Sacred Body. This reception of the Holy Eucharist effects communion between the individual and God and among the individual members of the Body of Christ.

The priest then blesses the people in the name of the Holy Trinity and dismisses all to go forth to witness to Christ in the world.

No One is a mere spectator at Mass. All of the baptized are invited to participate in the sacred Mysteries by full, conscious and active participation. This participation is not limited to eternal expression. It must also be an external expression of faith and devotion. The mass is an awesome treasure! It is Christ’s work of salvation active in our midst!