Parish Bulletin 

February 5, 2012

Pray For Our Serving Forces
PFC Scott Scutari– Army
Gregory Azzara - Navy
Gunnery Sgt. John Scott Dowdell - USMC
SSgt Matthew Pica - Army
Capt. Michael Quinn - Navy
John Paul Redmond - Army
PFC Robert Temple—Army
SSgt. Shawn Weismiller - Air Force
Sgt. Jason Ramos-Army
Pvt Jonathan Salvestrini– Army
PFC Shane Gibney– USMC
Cpl Mark Anthony Barone-USMC
Lt. Philip J. Granati– U.S. Coast Guard
Cpl Daniel Kusa- USMC
WO1 Nalita Sellers-Army
LC Amanda Knepper-USMC
LC Amanda Litcher– USMC
PFC Evan Kusa-USMC
LTC Murph Kinney-Army
SSgt. Wayne Rodier-Army
Please pray for the safe return of our troops.
The families wish to thank you for your prayers,
and ask that you please continue to pray.
God Bless you all.
~~~~~~~~~~
Parish Finance Committee
Felix J. Grucci Jr
Dr. Joseph Graskemper
Parish Trustee
Charles Meinhold
Johanna DiGiovanni
~~~~~~~~~~
Our Parish Mission Statement:
As the family of Mary Immaculate Parish,
we are nourished by the Word and the
Eucharist, that we might strive to
become ministers of JOY by loving Jesus,
loving Others and by loving Yourself.
~~~~~~~~~~
Faith Direct
Do often find yourself without your checkbook or envelope on
Sunday morning? Join the many parishioners who have already enrolled
in Faith Direct for automated giving to Mary
Immaculate Church. Faith Direct is secure and convenient, and
will provide you with an offertory card to place in the basket during
collections. There is no cost to you, and the program
provides a great benefit to our parish. Sign up today by visiting
www.faithdirect.net. Our parish code is NY289. You can also pick up
an enrollment form at the Rectory or call Faith Direct’s toll-free
number, 866-507-8757, for more information.
As we begin a new year, I hope you will consider taking
advantage of this new way of giving. Your generosity means a great
deal to our Parish family.
Please consider using Faith Direct today!
Blessings Galore, Fr. Jerry
~~~~~~~~~~
Our Mass Servers for Next Week:
February 11:
5:00 pm
Servers: A. Hamilton, D. DeMartino, M. Moran
Lector: D. Kerr
Host Usher: J. Garcia, P. Grucci, T. Derby
Eucharistic Minister: P. Longo, D. Kerr, C. Strickland
February 12:
9:00 am
Servers: C. Scharpf, E. Rauch, J. Comisky
Lector: N. Cassone
Host Usher: C. Miller, D. Roberts
Eucharistic Minister: L. Pergola, S. Barry, A. Messina
11:00 am
Servers: J. Rose, C. Rose, M. Hartnett
Lector: Family Mass
Host Usher: G. Moriarty, L. Mele, B. Mele
Eucharistic Minister: A. Dietzel, K. Stehling, L. Budiarjo
~~~~~~~~~~
Stewardship in Action
In the Gospel today, we find that Jesus would rise very
early before dawn and go to a deserted place to pray and
then went out to preach and to heal.
Praying for the poor can bring the love and peace of
Jesus to those who live in fear and doubt, loneliness
and dread.
~~~~~~~~~~
Our Pantry is in need of the following:
Pasta
Pasta Sauce
Canned Fruit
Macaroni & Cheese
Thank You!!
~~~~~~~~~~
Mary Immaculate Blood Drive
Sunday, February 12, 2012
9:00 am - 2:30 pm
Bellport Community Civic Center
~~~~~~~~~~
Please join us for a delicious Pasta Dinner
at Café del Castillo on Main St. in Bellport on
Tuesday, February 21st at 6:00 pm.
The cost: $16.
Please RSVP: Lynn 286-3104 or
Kathie 286-0302
We will be happy to provide transportation if needed.
~~~~~~~~~~
A special thanks
for making our Birthright Baby Shower a success!!
Your kindness and generosity is appreciated.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, March 21st
6:30 -8:00 pm
Auditorium
Please join us on the eve of Lent for some fun!!
~~~~~~~~~~
St. Philip of Jesus (1572-1597)
St. Philip of Jesus was born in Mexico City in 1572 as Philip de Las Casas. He was born into a pious family. Two of his brothers entered the Augustinian order and one of them was martyred. He joined the Reformed Franciscans of the Province of St. Didacus. After several months in the order, Philip grew tired of religious life and left the order in 1589. He began a career as a
merchant and trader traveling to the Philippines. After seeking to satisfy his heart with pleasure, Philip realized that God was calling him to a religious life. St. Philip repented and was again admitted to the Franciscan order, Our Lady of the Angels in Manila in 1590.
After several months Philip was ready for ordination and was sent to Mexico for the ceremony because there was no Bishop in Manila to perform the ordination. On July 12, 1596, he sailed for Mexico, but a storm drove the ship onto the coast of Japan. During the storm, Philip saw a vision of a white cross over Japan in the shape used in that country. In the vision the cross
becomes blood-red . The governor of the province confiscated the ship and imprisoned the entire crew and passengers. Among the passengers was another Franciscan friar, Juan de Zamorra, as well as three additional friars, two Augustine and a Dominican.
Unfortunately, the discovery of soldiers, cannon and ammunition on the ship gave the Japanese governor the suspicion that this ship was intended for conquest of Japan. The governor also believed that the missionaries on board were there to prepare the way for
the soldiers. The missionaries were placed under house arrest. On December 8, 1596, the governor commanded the arrest of the Franciscans in the friary at Miako (now Kyoto) where St. Philip had gone.
The friars were all kept prisoner in the friary until December 30th when they were transferred to the city prison. There were six Franciscan friars, seventeen Japanese Franciscan tertiaries and the Japanese Jesuit Paul Miki. The ears of all the prisoners
were cropped and they were paraded through the streets of Kyoto. On January 21st, they were taken to Osaka and the on to Nagasaki. On February 5, 1597, on a mountain near Nagasaki, “Mount of Martyrs,” all missionaries, including St. Philip, were bound on crosses and then pierced with spears. Before St. Philip died he exclaimed, “O happy ship! O happy galleon for Philip, lost for my gain! Loss - no loss for me , but the greatest of all gain!” St. Philip of Jesus was beatified on September 14, 1627 by Pope Urban VIII. He was canonized a saint on June 8, 1862 by Pope Pius IX. His feast day is celebrated on February 5th. St. Philip is the patron saint of Mexico City.
~~~~~~~~~~
Ronald Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of
Mary Immaculate, is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.
He is a community-builder, lecturer and writer. His books are popular throughout the Englishspeaking world and his weekly column is carried by more than ninety newspapers worldwide.

Ron Rolheiser Column Week of January 29 2012
Other Sheep Not Of Our Flock

I grew up with strong, conservative, Roman Catholic roots: the Baltimore Catechism, the Latin mass, daily rosary, daily mass if possible, and a rich stream of devotional practices. And that's a gift for which I'm deeply grateful.
But that wonderful grounding also brought with it a distrust of all religious things not Roman Catholic. I was taught that the Roman Catholic Church was the only true church and the only road to heaven; so much so that we were strongly discouraged and tacitly forbidden to participate in any Protestant church services. In fairness to that catechesis, we didn't believe that Protestants and other religious communities were doomed to eternal perdition,
but we struggled mightily to articulate how this might take place. Among other things, we postulated a place we called Limbo, where sincere,non-Roman Catholics with good souls might spend eternity, happy but without God.
But as T.S. Eliot once wrote, "home is where we start from". And home is a good place to start from in terms of how we as faith communities, divided from each other, might better understand each other and each church's own particular relationship to Christ.
And often times the impetus for that comes not as much from biblical and theological insights as it does from an ecumenism of life. As we interact with each other we begin to sense that the question of who has access to God and Christ is infinitely more complex than can be captured in any theological formula. In John's Gospel (10, 16), Jesus says: I have other sheep too, that are not of this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. I've learned the truth of that statement through personal experience. Within my nearly forty years in ministry I have met, befriended, and become a
faith-companion to men and women from every type of denomination and religion: Protestants, Episcopalians, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Unitarians, small free Churches of all kinds, Jehovah Witnesses, Hindus, Moslems, and Buddhists. In all of these denominations and religious communities, I have met men and women of deep faith and outstanding charity.
And this has caused me to ask myself the question that Jesus once asked those who approached him and told him that his mother and family were outside the circle he was talking to, asking for him: "Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever does the will of my Father which is in heaven, is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Matthew 12:46-50)
We tend to believe that "blood is thicker than water" and so we sometimes defend our own families, ethnic groups, countries, and churches, even
when they do wrong things. What Jesus affirms is that "faith is thicker than blood" and, even more deeply, that faith is also thicker than denominational or religious affiliation.
St. Paul agrees: In his Epistle to the Galatians, he asks the question: Who is living inside the Holy Spirit? Who really has genuine faith? His answer: Those whose lives manifest charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and chastity. The presence of these virtues manifests faith and Christ. Conversely, he warns that we shouldn't delude ourselves when our lives manifest, among other things, adultery, hatred, factionalism, strife, and envy. Our real brothers and sisters in faith are those whose lives manifest charity rather than selfishness, love rather than hatred, large hearts rather than selective sympathies, gentleness rather than hardness, and kindness rather than mean-spiritedness. Virtue trumps denominational
identity.
I will always be a Roman Catholic, just as I will always be a member of my biological family, the Rolheisers, and my religious community, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. I've been baptized into these families and baptism, as the old catechisms rightly teach, leaves an indelible mark on our souls. These will always be my families; but they may not be my only loyalty. I have other families too, not of these sheepfolds: non-Roman Catholics, non-Rolheisers, non-Oblates. And I don't love the Roman Catholic Church, my biological family, or the Oblates of Mary Immaculate any less because of this. Paradoxically, I love them more.
When Jesus asks the question: "Who is mother and brother and sister to me?" he answers that whoever does the will of God is his true mother, true brother, and true sister. But, as the Gospels writers have at that point already strongly emphasized, his biological mother, Mary, was the first person who fit that description. Hence, he is not denigrating his mother, but re-establishing her worth and importance at a higher place.
The same should be true for us in our relationship to the faith families into which we have been baptized, even as we open up our hearts more and
more to embrace those others who are not of our fold. Faith is thicker than blood - and thicker even than religious affiliation.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher, and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.

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