Tax-Free Giving
 
Every time you give to your parish, a ministry or worthy cause, you are giving a gift to God.  If you can live without using withdrawals from your IRA< giving from an IRA account is one of the smartest ways to make a real impact for your parish.  IRA QCD’s (qualified charitable distributions) are  excluded from taxable income. 
 
Several of our parishioners have already given to their parishes through this method and have saved taxes in the process.  if you have any questions about how to get your gift to your parish contact the diocese’s Stewardship and Development’s Planned Giving office at (816) 714-2346. Or ask Peggy for assistance. She has access to the forms you will need.
 


EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
As Catholics, we receive the Eucharist during Mass. However, there is another opportunity for us to experience the Blessed Sacrament through Eucharistic adoration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the importance of incorporating adoration into our prayers to God:
 
“Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the ‘King of Glory,’ respectful silence in the presence of the ‘ever greater’ God. Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications” (CCC 2628).
 
Per Martin Sheen “The holy hour in our modern rat race is necessary for authentic prayer. Our world is one of speed in which intensity of movement is a substitute for lack of purpose; where noise is invoked to drown out the whisperings of conscience; where talk, talk, talk gives the impression that we are doing something when really we are not; where activity kills self-knowledge won by contemplation…There seems to be so little in common between our involvement with the news of the world and the Stranger in whose Presence we find ourselves. The hour means giving up a golf game or a cocktail party, or a nap…Sometimes it is hard, especially during vacation when we have nothing to do…”
 
Why is it that when something is not offered, we want it?  Eucharistic Adoration is offered every Tuesday evening at St. Joseph’s at 5:15 pm followed by Mass.  What a wonderful combination to encounter in the same evening.  Can you make a commitment at least once a month to attend this wonderful duo?
 
Let’s consider what Saint Teresa of Calcutta thought about the incredible gift of adoration:
“The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven, and will help bring about an everlasting peace on earth.”
 


 The 15 Promises of Our Lady to Those Who Pray the Rosary
  1. To all those who shall recite my rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and very great graces.
  2. Those who shall persevere in the recitation of my rosary shall receive signal graces.
  3. The rosary shall be a very powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, deliver from sin, and dispel heresy.
  4. The rosary will make virtue and good works flourish, and will obtain for souls the most abundant divine mercies; it will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world to the love of God, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. How many souls shall sanctify themselves by this means!
  5. Those who trust themselves to me through the rosary shall not perish.
  6. Those who shall recite my rosary devoutly, meditating on its mysteries, shall not be overwhelmed by misfortune. The sinner shall be converted; the just shall grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life.
  7. Those truly devoted to my rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
  8. Those who faithfully recite my rosary shall find during their life and at the hour of their death the light of God, the fullness of his graces, and shall share in the merits of the blessed.
  9. I shall deliver very promptly from purgatory the souls devoted to my rosary.
  10. The true children of my rosary shall enjoy great glory in heaven.
  11. What you ask through my rosary, you shall obtain.
  12. Those who propagate my rosary will be aided by me in all their necessities.
  13. I have obtained from my Son that all the members of the Rosary Confraternity shall have as their intercessors, in life and in death, the entire celestial court.
  14. Those who recite my rosary faithfully are all my beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
  15. Devotion to my rosary is a great sign of predestination.

* The above list is taken from a book by the Venerable Patrick Peyton: Ven. Patrick Peyton, The Ear of God (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951), 114-115.

 
 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
 
 I am sure you have seen the beautiful images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the vestibule at St Joseph’s.  Bishop Johnston has asked that every parish in the diocese and our homes be enthroned to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  So we will do that in a few weeks at our respective parishes. 
 
What is the Feast of the Sacred Heart?
 
On December 27, 1673, a French nun, Mary Margaret Alacoque was kneeling before the exposed Blessed Sacrament when she experienced a vision in which Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart surrounded by a crown of thorns.  He told Mary Margaret:
    
“My divine Heart is so inflamed with love for mankind ... that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its burning charity and must spread them abroad by your means." 
 
The Lord told her that the flames represented His love for humanity, and the thorns represented man's sinfulness and ingratitude. Jesus informed her that her mission was to establish the devotion to His Most Sacred Heart, and He revealed twelve promises that He would bestow upon all those who practice the devotion.  (We will discuss those in the next bulletin.)

The feast of the Sacred Heart is always on the Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) which in modern times we celebrate on Sunday.  This year Corpus Christi is May 29.  Recall last year we had a Corpus Christi procession around the neighborhood at the end of the 8:30 Mass.  We will do that again this year. 
 
Friday, June 3 is the feast of the Sacred Heart.  We will have a special Mass that evening at 7:00 P.M. for the feast.  So mark your calendar and assist at this most important Mass where reparation is made in a special way for the world’s offenses against Christ’s Sacred Heart.  We will bless the sacred images at the Mass and consecrate ourselves to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts after Holy Communion.
 
Bishop Johnston has also requested that we all have our homes enthroned to the Sacred Heart.  That entails displaying an image of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place in your home and consecrating Christ the King of your home and family.  Ideally a priest should conduct the enthronement, so I will come do that at anyone’s home who so wishes.  In lieu of a priest the head of the household should lead it.
 
In the vestibule are order forms for those who would like to purchase the images.  You have a choice of two sizes.  The larger ones are on the wall in the vestibule.  Let us know which size image(s) and how many you would like and we will get them ordered as soon as possible.

History of the Sacred Heart
 
Last week we explained the history of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, which began in the 17th century in France.  Sr. Margaret Mary was given a vision of Christ’s heart that was on fire with love and was crowned with thorns due to our sins.
 
Margaret Mary had three more visions over the next year and a half in which Jesus instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays.  Christ also inspired Margaret Mary to establish the Holy Hour and to receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. In the final revelation, the Lord asked that a feast of reparation be instituted for the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi. 
In 1765, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was officially recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII.  In 1794, Pope Pius VI issued a decree approving the devotion and granting indulgences to those who practice it.  On June 11, 1899, Pope Leo XIII solemnly consecrated all mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Here are the twelve promises given to St Margaret Mary Alocoque by Christ for those who honor his Sacred Heart:

  1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
  2. I will give peace in their families.
  3. I will console them in all their troubles.
  4. I  will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
  5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
  6. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
  7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
  8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
  9. I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed 
      and venerated.
10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my 
      Heart.
12. In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will     grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.
Friday, June 3 is the feast of the Sacred Heart.  We will have a special Mass that evening at 7:00 P.M. for the feast.  So mark your calendar and assist at this most important Mass where reparation is made in a special way for the world’s offenses against Christ’s Sacred Heart.  We will bless the sacred images at the Mass and consecrate ourselves to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts after Holy Communion.
 
Bishop Johnston has also requested that we all have our homes enthroned to the Sacred Heart.  That entails displaying an image of the Sacred Heart in a prominent place in your home and consecrating Christ the King of your home and family.  Ideally a priest should conduct the enthronement, so I will come do that at anyone’s home who so wishes.  In lieu of a priest the head of the household should lead it.
 
In the vestibule are order forms for those who would like to purchase the images.  You have a choice of two sizes.  The larger ones are on the wall in the vestibule.  Let us know which size image(s) and how many you would like and we will get them ordered as soon as possible.







Fr. Timothy Leerte