St. Michael’s Cemetery:
Fr. Juettner will be celebrating our annual Memorial Day Mass at St. Michael’s Cemetery on Monday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m., following the civic ceremony at the Bayport City Cemetery. If it rains, the Mass will be held at St. Charles Church. A collection will be taken for maintaining of the cemetery.
(Seating will not be provided, but please feel free to bring your own chair.)

St. Mary’s Church:
Mass at 8:00 a.m.

Church of St. Michael:
No 5:30 p.m. Mass on Memorial Day

 For The Kids
Inflatables, games, crafts, cake walk, climbing wall, a petting zoo and pony rides ($8 buys an all-day wristband/$25 family cap).
  

For the Adults
Silent Auction running from 10:15 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., a Bake Sale, Book Sale, Bingo and a Live Auction.

For All the Family
New this year – MINIATURE GOLF as well as, Family Feud, the Catholic Edition, Meat Raffles, music from DJ Sean Slaikeu, Are You Smarter than a St. Michael’s Fifth Grader and the Live Auction (see bulletin insert).

For Your Stomachs
The Men’s Clubs will have the grill going and beer on tap and they will be tacos, burritos and nachos from Acapulco, pizza from Mama Divas Pizza, donuts from the Donut Guy, and ice cream treats from Schwan’s.

Schwan’s at Fun Fest
Schwan’s will be at Fun Fest with a truck full of ice cream treats as well as other items. They will donate a portion of the proceeds from the Fun Fest sales to St. Michael’s. If you regularly order Schwan’s or have yet to try their delicious food, consider placing an order to be picked up at Fun Fest.  Place an Order.  In addition, there will be items available to purchase from the Schwan’s truck at Fun Fest.

Super Raffle Tickets
Super Raffle tickets are almost gone. Get in on the action before they’re all sold. You might be the lucky winner of one of the prizes: $5,000, $2,500, $1,000, or three $500 prizes. Contact Marty Rossini, 439-7123, or Rick Hill, 439-2867, to purchase a ticket.

Pray for good weather, good attendance and a great day!

 The month of May is traditionally dedicated to our Blessed Mother, Mary.  Join us at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings during the month of May at St. Mary’s Church for a special Marian devotion.  There will be the Rosary, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin and Benediction.  Everyone is invited to attend.

The Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
That never was it known that anyone
who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help,
or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee,
O Virgin of virgins, my mother;
to thee do I come, before thee I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
despise not my petitions,
but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.

This wonderful bi-parish cookbook includes over 1,000 recipes from family, friends, community members and special guests. Some of our special guest recipes come from Archbishop Nienstedt, Archbishop Flynn, Bishop LeVoir, Fr. Skluzacek, Fr. Creagan, Fr. Miller, Fr. Lynch, Fr. Donohue, Fr. Joseph Williams, Fr. Peter Williams, and Fr. Leo Patalinghug.

This  keepsake cookbook makes a great gift for yourself, your children, for Mother’s Day, or for brides and it’s only $20 per copy. The cookbook includes church photos, a short history of St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s, as well as many parishioner and local advertisers.

For further information:

Divine Mercy of the Mid-West

Marians

Fridays until March 30.
St. Michael’s Social Hall
Serving from 4:30 – 7:00  p.m.  Take-out available
Adults: $9.00, Seniors: $8.00, Children 6-12 yrs: $5.00 Children 5 and under: Free. Special Family Household rate: $35.00 max.

All you can eat Beer Battered Cod, parsley buttered potatoes, coleslaw, and green beans. There will also be PB&J sandwiches and chips for the little ones.

Stations of the Cross

Senior Stations and Pie
Join us on Tuesday, March 20, at 1:30 p.m.  Deacon Roger Carlson will lead us in a beautiful form of the Stations of the Cross especially for seniors, with pie and coffee to follow in the Great Hall.  All seniors are welcome. 
Please call St. Mary’s office, 439-1270, if you plan on attending.

Freedom to Love

A Lenten Day of Recollection with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia will be held for all women ages 18-30 at St. Mary’s on  Saturday, March 17, from 3:00 – 7:30 p.m.  A donation of $10 is requested.  Tea is served at 3:00 p.m. followed by a presentation, “Freedom to Love”, by Fr. Peter Williams at 3:30 p.m.  Following the talk there will be a Holy Hour, Vespers, Rosary  and Benediction.  A St. Patrick’s Day dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. and there will be a Q&A session at 6:30 p.m. to conclude the day.  Please RSVP to the Domincan Sisters by Wednesday, March 14.

 We see especially the bishops today in the United States are really quite courageous. They are facing something right now that just happened last month, and I want you to take the bulletin and read it. In place of my column, I have a letter from Archbishop Nienstedt that he wants to be read or printed in the bulletin in all of our parishes*, and it is about the decision of the Health and Human Services Department and the approval of the Obama Administration to force the Catholic Church to provide health care coverage that would cover things that we preach against, namely, sterilization, contraception, abortion, and things of that sort, and that we get one year to comply but if we don’t then we are going to be penalized. I have never seen in my entire priesthood the bishops of the United States come out as strongly as they have against this. It is something that happens – I mean, we are all busy with our own particular lives and none of us can make these decisions by ourselves, so when something like this happens we kind of acknowledge it but we may not recognize how serious a threat this is, and that’s what they’re pointing out. It is so serious that the Holy Father himself is addressing this to the bishops themselves last month. His words are very strong. That means this is a really, really serious matter. As our Holy Father said to the bishops, “The Church’s witness is, of its nature, public. She seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and state cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the state may choose not to engage or be engaged by the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of a nation.”

 What they are calling, and especially all of these bishops and Cardinal-Elect Dolan, who is the president of the United States Conference of Bishops, is very, very strong. He is saying this is going against, and it is a full attack on, our First Amendment rights as Catholics to object to providing for things that we don’t believe in. Now, this is where it becomes a little difficult again, because we know there are these particular issues that are issues that the Church is not preaching to the choir, that we have many Catholics who disagree even with abortion but they do disagree with contraception, and that has been for the last forty-some years that has been one of these things that has been difficult, and yet we see something. We see that the Church’s message on these issues has been consistent, that it hasn’t changed, that even where other religious denominations have changed their teachings on these things, the Catholic Church has remained firm, and actually what that can do to us is it brings in a reverse kind of reassurance that maybe there is an authority behind this teaching that is beyond this world. And that’s one of those things where the authority of the Church to say things has been not believed so much, yet we have to look at where that comes from. That goes back to Jesus Himself, and even if those charged with that message – bishops or priests or whomever – even if they haven’t articulated it well or if they failed morally themselves, that truth of those things still remains and that’s what we’re seeking. That’s what we want to have.

And so, we have to keep looking at these things, keep proposing them and not be afraid to do so. The voice of the Church should not be silenced, and this is what we can find can happen so very easily today. There is a real darkness in our dialogue today in the world, like certain things can’t be brought up and if somebody takes a stand there is a fire storm, there is intimidation, there are all of these things in an attempt to silence those voices, and that’s not freedom. Freedom is to speak these things, the things we believe – and that goes for those on the other side, too. They can speak what they believe. They can go ahead and try to provide rationales for it. Why do they believe that? That is a free and an intelligent dialogue. We see that even with those particular issues that we’re talking about in this past week when the Susan Komen Foundation decided not to continue funding Planned Parenthood, we saw a tremendous fire storm, so much so that they backpedaled within a day, and that just isn’t right. This is a free organization. They should be able to give their money to whomever they want, but it should be going for the very purpose for which they were founded and why they exist. It is a gruesome irony, in fact, that the sole reason for that foundation is to defeat and to find a cure for breast cancer, yet Planned Parenthood’s most common methods for planning families involves contraception and abortion and there have been scientific links that these things, particularly oral contraceptives and hormonal things, actually increase the risk of breast cancer in certain instances, and these are things that we really should know. That should be the thing that is being talked about. Is that true? There are lots of studies out there, yet it was never mentioned. And if we are seeking the good, why aren’t we doing that? Why isn’t everybody looking for this truth? And that truth is just about what makes us happy and what makes us healthy and good.

 This is where we all have a part to play. It is not, you see, only the pope’s and the bishops’ obligation to preach the Gospel, but it is every Catholic. We all share in this. That was the call of the Second Vatican Council, that universal call to holiness which has always been there ever since Jesus Himself. Each one of us takes that Gospel then and we go out into the world, and it is especially the laity that is the most important part. You are the ones who go out. You are the ones who work. You are on the front lines. You are the ones who really need to know the most about it, to be able to articulate, to argue, to try and persuade, all with respect and love, of course. Again, this is what our Holy Father says about that. He says, “We see the need for an engaged, articulate, and well-formed Catholic laity, endowed with a strong critical sense face-to-face to the dominant culture and with the courage to encounter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders in the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country. As essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level.”

 So, then, we see the very great need and the very great urgency that we have. We can think, “Oh, we’ll always be fine in this country. Religious liberty will always be respected”. But it only takes a little study of history, and in particular the last one hundred years, to see just how far off a nation can go. We need to be alarmed. We need to act. There is not one of us that can do this by ourselves. Not all of us in this Church can do it, but it takes everyone. And that’s why we must pray, be engaged, and learn. Never before has so much been available right at our fingertips to learn about our faith, to learn what these things really mean, and to discover in them the way to freedom, the way to happiness. For that is what the Gospel really is. It is a light that will shine out no matter how dark this world may be.