Roman Catholic Good News - The Immaculate Heart of Mary: Our Comfort and Our Strength - 6/15/2018

The Blessed Virgin with her Immaculate Heart shown

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P.S.  At the end of E-weekly is this week's readings with reflections and questions for self or family.
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“Helpful Hints of Life”

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Communication


Communication in today’s world is expected to be brief, quick, “close the deal” communication.  However, we as human beings need deep, heartfelt communication - the kind that causes us to take risks and let our guard down.  This type of communication is difficult.  We have all been wounded and have reasons to censor ourselves.  But God has created us to be in communion with each other, and therefore in communication with each other. 



Devotion of the Five First Saturdays
 
Given by Our Lady of Fatima and the Infant Jesus to Sister Lucia, a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin
in reparation for the 5 sins against her Heart.

​ The Virgin of Fatima speaks to the three children at Famita Portugal in 1918:
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.  If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace... I shall come to ask for... the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays..."
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Catholic Website of the Week

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All About the Immaculate Heart of Mary
 

This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia on the Immaculate Heart of Mary:​
All Things Connected with the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Diocesan News AND BEYOND
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​by Editor on May 29, 2018

By SUZANNE KOZIATEK
Staff Writer
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Many Catholic families make sacrifices to give their children a religious education. But a group of southern Illinois students go the extra mile – into a different state – to keep that education going through high school.
The students come from small communities across the region – places like Marion and Murphysboro, Herrin and Anna. The closest diocesan high schools are about 90 miles away. But Notre Dame Regional High School, which is in the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, is about 65 miles away from the furthest school.
“The distance of Notre Dame is almost too much – it’s just doable,” says Melissa Coello of Carterville, who already has sent four of her eight children to Notre Dame.
Coello and other parents take turns driving a 15-passenger bus they purchased to transport the kids.
The total commute takes about 90 minutes, meaning the first kids get picked up at 6:45 a.m. The driver usually stays in Cape Girardeau all day, to be ready to pick the kids up after school.
It can be a grueling routine, particularly on cold, dark winter mornings, Coello says. But she and other parents say the education offered at Notre Dame is worth all the sacrifices they and their children make.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” says Teresa Machicao-Hopkins, of Marion, whose daughter graduated from Notre Dame in 2016 and whose son just finished his sophomore year. “I think my kids would be different people had they not gotten the Catholic education they had.”
The parents began working together about seven years ago to explore the possibility of a new Belleville diocese high school in their area. Those efforts didn’t pan out, but in researching their options, the group learned more about Notre Dame.
Coello, who had been homeschooling two high school-aged children, was reluctant at first. She worried about the distance, and wondered whether the school would provide the truly Catholic education she and her husband were looking for.
“My daughters and I went down to visit and I was just blown away by this school,” she says.
A Defining Incident
She describes an incident that happened while they were there: The school’s principal turned on the intercom to ask everyone pray for someone who was undergoing a health crisis.
“They literally stopped in the middle of class time and prayed – the whole school,” Coello says. “By the end of that visit, I was thinking, whatever it takes, I need to get my kids into this school.”
Jeff Ripperda of Murphysboro has been with the group since its beginning, even before his children were old enough to attend Notre Dame. While he touts the school’s academics, its reputation for guiding students to become faithful Catholics is even more important to him. Notre Dame has been named a Catholic Education Honor Roll School by the Cardinal Newman Society.
“Notre Dame has a saying: ‘Give us your child and we will return to you an apostle.’ And they are really great at that,” Ripperda says.
A group of four students began daily treks to and from Cape Girardeau in the fall of 2012 in a used minivan their parents had bought. A fifth student would be added over the course of the school year.
The group has continued to grow, to the point where they needed to switch to the bus. This past school year, 16 students attended Notre Dame from southern Illinois, so older students took turns driving their own cars.
They’ve formed a non-profit group, Families for the Advancement of Catholic Education (FACE), which raises money for the vehicles and their upkeep. Fundraisers have ranged from chicken-and-dumpling dinners to trivia nights and golf scrambles. Between these events and the driving, it’s not a commitment taken lightly, the parents say.
“When people are interested in joining, we make it real clear, this is just a group of parents working together,” Coello says. “We’ve had people join who have backed out when they saw how hard it was. It’s hard. If you’re not doing it for the right reasons, you probably won’t last long.”
Productive Time
Parents who drive find ways to make their time in Cape Girardeau productive. Some who are teachers or lawyers bring paperwork with them to work on. Others teach or go to classes there.
The driver generally waits for students to complete afterschool clubs and organizations, so the kids can have a normal high school experience. Southern Illinois students also play sports for Notre Dame, despite heavy practice schedules that require extra carpools.
Louisa Coello graduated summa cum laude on May 20, along with two other southern Illinois students. She says that while the commuter experience might not be for everyone, she has loved her time at Notre Dame.
“The teachers, my friends there are irreplaceable to me,” she says. “My teachers have gone out of their way to help us, given us extensions when we couldn’t get things done because of riding the bus.”
Parents also credit support from their home parishes. Many of them – St. Mary Catholic Church in Anna, St. Joseph in Cobden, St. Andrew in Murphysboro, St. Joseph in Marion and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Herrin – pay some or all of the parish assessments to Notre Dame for their students who attend.
“They’re not required to do that – they’ve made the commitment to do that for these kids,” Machicao-Hopkins says.
Coello says the Diocese of Belleville also has given financial assistance to the group.
Monsignor Thomas Flach, the pastor at St. Joseph in Marion, has served as the unofficial pastor of the commuting high schoolers. He blesses the bus and the students each year, and has made trips to Notre Dame to celebrate Mass and hear confessions.
Msgr. Flach says he’s been impressed by the school and by the local families who work so hard to send their children there.
“It says something about the faith and commitment of the parents and the students,” he says. “It says something loud and clear about the value of a Catholic education.”
The coming school year marks another milestone in the growth of the FACE group. With an early estimate of 21 students attending Notre Dame, the group plans to add a second vehicle. That means twice the number of drivers will be needed.
It’s a daunting prospect, but Coello says their faith is up to the task.
“We keep believing God’s going to pave a way for us.”

His Mother Rejected an Abortion – Now, This Priest Helped Her Meet the Pope

By Elise Harris http://www.ewtnnewsonline.com/images/Pope_Francis_Figueridos.jpg

Rome, Italy (EWTN News/CNA) - It was during the thalidomide sleeping pill craze that Sarah Figueiredo became pregnant with her fourth and last child, Anthony.
Developed after the Second World War and found not only to help with sleeplessness but also to alleviate morning sickness for expectant mothers, thalidomide was widely prescribed by doctors across the world to their pregnant patients as a safe drug to use.


Sarah, who was raising her young family in Nairobi at the time, was one of the expectant mothers prescribed the drug.
It wasn’t until 1961 that thalidomide was discovered to cause severe birth defects in babies born to mothers using it. Many of the children were born with a condition called “phocomelia,” which results in shortened, absent or flipper-like limbs. It was taken off the market in 1962.


When the doctors found out that Sarah’s unborn son would be among the children with this disability, they advised her to have an abortion. However, Sarah and her husband,  both devout Catholics,  refused. Sarah believed her son had “a special mission.”


According to her son – now Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo – what his parents told the doctors was that “if God has allowed us to conceive a child, that child will not be wasted. On the contrary, God will have a mission for that child, which they believe very strongly is that I would be a priest.”


Despite his crippled arm, Msgr.  Figueiredo was ordained in 1994 and has vast experience in missionary work and a hefty academic background in theology. He currently  serves as a spiritual director to hundreds of seminarians studying at Rome’s Pontifical North American College, advises cardinals on their writing and speeches, and works closely with the Pope.


He has also met Mother Theresa and was able to work as a personal assistant to St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI for several years.


The priest largely credits his parents and their faith for encouraging his vocation, telling EWTN News that they “never discouraged me from being a priest.”
“With great sacrifice they sent all of us to Catholic schools and now with old age my mother is the happiest woman in the world, one would say, because she has a son who is a priest.”


Sarah, 84, told EWTN News that she and her husband had prayed that one of their three sons would become a priest, and that she knew this prayer would be answered in Tony, as she calls him, because “I dreamt that one day. I had a dream that one of my sons, the last one,” would be ordained. “I (knew) he had mission.”


While there are “a lot of blessings” in having a son who is a priest, one of the biggest came during a trip Sarah made to Rome to visit her son during the June 1-3 Jubilee for Priests.


Msgr. Figueiredo said he had been walking in the Vatican Gardens one day in April when he got a phone call from the Pope himself.


The Pope said that he knew the priest’s mother would be coming to Rome for the Jubilee of Priests, and wanted to meet her. Since he was busy throughout the three-day event, which concluded with a Mass June 3, Francis told Msgr.  Figueiredo that  “I would really like her to come to my home prior to that Mass.”


It was Pope Francis himself, then, who “completely organized everything,” and welcomed both the priest and his mother into his residence at the Vatican’s St. Martha Guesthouse the morning of June 3.


“It was very, very beautiful. He was just like an ordinary parish priest the way he made my mother welcome,” Msgr. Figueiredo said, recalling how Francis spoke about the number of children in their families and the biblical roots of some of their names.


One particularly touching moment for Msgr. Figueiredo was when the Pope told him that he recognized the priest’s mother from a photo he had given him.


“I gave him the photo three years ago,” Msgr. Figueiredo said,  saying it’s  “quite extraordinary that this Pope, who is probably the most photographed man in the world, remembers each person. It’s as if he has them in his heart.”


Pope Francis also administered the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to Sarah, who has suffered from two strokes in recent years and in 2010 was diagnosed with aggressive, stage 4 breast cancer, but today is cancer-free.


The Pope “took his time, there was no rush, and he was particularly compassionate,” the priest said, noting how when his mother attempted to stand up for the anointing, Francis told her sit down and himself got up.


“I think that’s amazing from a Pope. There’s really no sense of being in authority, he’s really a servant, a servant of the servants of God. We touched that that day in his residence.”


Sarah, who carried the chalice up to the altar during the Mass after their meeting, said to visit the Pope was “a gift from God…I felt very proud that God had chosen me to come to this special occasion.”


After bringing the chalice to the Pope, “he pressed my hand, and he recognized me and he held me tight,” she said, explaining that the experience is something “I will remember all my life and I thank God for that.”


She also thanked her son for helping give her the opportunity to meet the Pope and to receive his blessing. Giving advice to parents who are hoping for a religious vocation among their children, she counselled that “the more you pray the better it is.”


“We need more priests in this world,” she said, noting how she “always prayed” for her son’s vocation. Even at 84, Sarah continues to pray a daily rosary, keeping one under her pillow so that should she wake up during the night, she can pray a decade before going back to sleep.


Msgr. Figueiredo said that to celebrate the Jubilee of Priests alongside his mother “was an enormous sign to me that God is faithful,” especially when someone gives something of their life to him, whether it’s a parent, a child, a type of suffering, or a vocation.


In regards to the “special mission” his mother believed he had, the priest said for him, this mission has entailed showing a special compassion and solidarity with those who suffer.


“I truly believe what St. Paul said: that God’s power is made perfect in weakness,” he said,  voicing his belief that priests “who particularly have a cross can show a certain kind of compassion and mercy to those who are suffering.”


While as a priest “I can preach until the cows come home,” people really start paying attention when they see “that you yourself suffer in your flesh…one immediately connects.”


For Msgr. Figueiredo, this is what Christ did on the Cross: “he suffered on the cross for us, and so when I am going through suffering myself I see that he’s gone there before me and has faith, believing that the Father will bring good even from tragedy.”


“That’s really helped me to stay close to the smell of the sheep, as Pope Francis exhorts us as priests and as every Christian,” he said.



" The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."
"Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of Saint Joseph, the feast of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints."
Catechism of the Catholic Church #2177

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A bit of humor…
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Novena Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
 
O Most Blessed Mother, heart of love, heart of mercy, ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer. As your children, we implore your intercession with Jesus your Son. Receive with understanding and compassion the petitions we place before you today, especially ...(special intention).
We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open to those who ask for your prayer. We trust to your gentle care and intercession, those whom we love and who are sick or lonely or hurting. Help all of us, Holy Mother, to bear our burdens in this life until we may share eternal life and peace with God forever.
Amen. (said for 9 days in a row)
 
 SPECIAL PRAYER OF INTERCESSION
TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Heavenly beauty and splendor of the Father,
You are the most valued Heavenly treasure.
 
New Eve, immaculate in soul, spirit and body,
Created of the godly seed by the Spirit of God,
You are the spiritual Mother of mankind.
 
Pure Virgin, full of grace then and now,
Your whole being was raised Heavenly in full glory,
To be elevated above all the hosts within the Kingdom of God.
 
O Heavenly Mother, Queen of Heaven and earth,
I recognize the glory of your highest title,
The Immaculate Heart of Mary!
 
Loving Mother, dispenser of endless blessings,
You who continuously intercedes on our behalf,
Please present my need before your loving Son Jesus.(In your own words, make your special request here. Do not just mention a word. Speak to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as you would speak to another person, begging your Heavenly Mother to plea to Jesus on your behalf, that you be granted this special request.)
 
O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I know that you are now presenting my need before Jesus,
For you have never turned away those in dire need.
 
Mother dearest, I await your favorable answer,
Submitting myself to the Divine will of the Lord,
For all glories are His forever and ever.
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“The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus. Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from his divine sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?" Mary and Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in faith. Mary "kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus remained hidden in the silence of an ordinary life.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #534

+JMJ+
SUNDAY MASS READINGS AND QUESTIONS
for Self-Reflection, Couples or Family Discussion
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time - June 17th, 2018
The First Reading- Ezekiel 17: 22-24
Thus, says the Lord GOD: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.
Reflection 
In the first reading, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks for God saying that God will take a tree—a cedar, which is highly valued wood—and from it make a little shoot that will be placed high up on a mountain where it will flourish. High mountains symbolize closeness to God. God will plant his people (us)—who are highly valued by him—close to him, and when they respond by living in deliberate closeness to God, they will flourish and become a refuge for living things. We are called to do the same.
Adults -How has the Lord protected you this week?
Do you understand yourself to be a valued like the cedar in the first reading? How has God planted you where you can flourish and become a refuge for others?
Kids - Sit quietly and watch a tree. What animals come and go? How does the tree help them? Does it give them food? Shelter? A place to hide from danger? How is the tree similar to the way God takes care of us?
Responsorial- Psalm 92: 2-3, 13-14, 15-16
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
Reflection 
-Look at what parts of your life our currently flourishing and give thanks to God.
The Second Reading- 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10
Brothers and sisters: We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.
Reflection
Paul reminds us that we must walk by faith and not by sight. To the eye the Eucharist appears to be bread and wine. It is our faith that tells us that we are looking at the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. 
Take special care at Mass and Adoration to remember that you are standing on holy ground, eye to eye with the Creator of the universe.
The Holy Gospel according to Mark 4: 26-34
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
Reflection
In the Gospel Jesus tells his disciples about the Kingdom of God. First he talks about a farmer scattering seed and the yield that is produced by the grace of God. This is how we should be—planting seeds of faith, love and charity, and letting God’s Holy Spirit do the growing. The second parable is the familiar mustard seed story. It was the smallest known seed at the time, but grows into a huge plant. It, like the cedar in the first reading, gives refuge to nature, supplies seasoning and even medicine to those who harvest it. This is a reminder to us that even our smallest efforts at sharing the Gospel are multiplied by God. All the good that we do God takes, perfects, and makes more fruitful than we could ever have imagined.
Adults -Do you plant seeds for God? If so, how and where? How do you see God multiplying your efforts?
Teens - How does the mustard seed relate to the growth of the Church throughout history?
Kids - Even though you are small, you can do God’s work! How can you spread God’s love?