Thomas Sunday
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
2nd Sunday of Pascha: Thomas Sunday
April 27, 2025
Sat 4/26/25 4:00pm Divine Liturgy +Paul and Helen Macko Michalco by Rebecca Michalco
Sun 4/27/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Jessica Stack by Matt and Darlene Callihan
Wed 4/30/25 7:00pm Liturgy for Healing Mary Cupps by Cindy Hills
Fri 5/2/25 7:00pm Resurrection matins
Sat 5/3/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy Souls in Purgatory by Marian Luther
Sun 5/4/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Frank Pickier by The Fizer Family
Variable Parts Thomas Sunday - Festal Tone Pages 175 - 177
Epistle Acts 5:12-20
Gospel John 20:19-31
Memorial Candle Request - +Helen Hallahan by Dave Hallahan
Epistle Readers 26-Apr John Baycura/Mary Motko 27-Apr Hans Bergh 3-May Mary Troyan 4-May Mike Dandsin
Please Pray for: Ole J. Bergh, Erik Bergh, Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Schyvers, Nick Russin, Ken Konchan
Attendance: 4/19 -70 4/20 -115 Collection: 4/19 & 4/20 $6,279.00
Conclave Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, by entrusting to St. Peter and his successors the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, Thou didst establish the office of the papacy. Grant to Thy Church, we beseech Thee, a pope who, in his dedication to the Sacred Tradition of the Church, will seek to govern the Church according to the Deposit of Faith and the salvation of souls. Immaculate Mary, Mother of the Church and Queen of Confessors, we consecrate to thee the conclave and the election of the Holy Father. Blessed Mother, look not upon our sinfulness or upon the infidelity of many Catholics who do not accept the teaching of thy Son, but upon the Church which is the spotless Bride of thy Son, so that we do not get the leader we deserve, but a Holy Father who will guide the Church for the glory and honor of thy Son. Amen.
Ladies Guild: The Ladies Guild Spring Installation Banquet will be on Thursday May 15th at Rachel's Roadhouse. The slate of officers for the 2025-2027 Guild Year are: President — Stephanie Dano, Vice President — Shari Allen, Secretary — Elizabeth Pocchiari and Treasurer — Tina Pounds.
Thank you to everyone who helped with the Salad Bingo and to the generous people who donated salads, prizes and gift baskets. May God reward you! Please let Tina know if you are coming to the banquet by May 4th. She may be reached at 571-243-7370. Ladies Guild members pay $15.00 each.
As all in the Catholic Church pray for the eternal repose of the soul of Pope Francis and begin the assessment o his life and papal legacy, it's essential to begin with how he himself viewed his life and divine calling. He summed it up at the very moment his pontificate began. After a pope exceeds the requisite number of votes in conclave, he is formally asked, "Acceptasne?" —Latin for "Do you accept (your canonical election as Supremi Pontiff)?" The normal straightforward response is "Accepto" or "Non accepto."
On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis began his convention-breaking papacy by extemporizing in Latin, "Peccator sum, sed super misericordia et infinita patientia Domini nostri Jesu Christi confisus et in spiritu penitentiae acceptd —"I am a sinner, but having relied upon the mercy and infinite patience of our Lord Jesus Christ and in a spirit of penance, I accept." So the very first words of his pontificate were a striking public confession of his sinfulness, his desire for penance, and his deep trust in Divine Mercy. When Antonio Spadaro asked him in a 2013 interview, "Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?" the Holy Father elaborated: "I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon" with mercy, adding, "I always felt my motto, Miserando atque Eligendo, was very true for me," meaning that the Lord, having looked upon him with merciful love [miserando], chose him [eligendo] first to be a priest and religious, then a bishop, and finally the successor of St. Peter.
His motto takes us back to the recognition of his priestly vocation, which happened on Sept. 21, 1953, the feast of St. Matthew, when he was 16. He stopped into his parish church to say a quick prayer and saw a priest he didn't know, Father Carlos Duarte Ibarra. Somewhat on the spur of the moment, young Jorge Bergoglio asked him to hear his confession. Five minutes later, he exited, with his heart no longer set on becoming a chemist, but convinced God was calling him to be a priest. As he shared multiple times throughout his papacy, he recognized in the confessional that, even though his request seemed spontaneous, God had been waiting for him there to fill him with his mercy and to make him a oessenger and minister of that mercy to others. Reflecting years later on his vocation in light of St. Matthew's call, he was moved by the commentary of St. Bede the Venerable: Jesus "saw the tax collector and, because he UM him through the eyes of mercy and chose him [miserando atque eligendo], he said to him: 'Follow the." He saw the three words of his motto as the summary of his life, priesthood, episcopacy and papacy. Pope Francis stated that authentically Christian discipleship begins with our recognition that we're sinners in need of salvation and is meant to flourish in the concomitant experience that that Savior looks on us with merciful love. "For me," he said, "feeling oneself a sinner is one of the most beautiful things that can happen, If it leads to its ultimate consequences. ... When a person becomes conscious that he is a sinner and is saved by Jesus ... he discovers the greatest thing in life, that there is someone who loves him profoundly, who gave his lire for him." He lamented that many Catholics have sadly not had this fundamental Christian experience: "There are people who believe the right things, who have received catechesis and accepted the Christian faith in some way, but who do not have the experience of having been saved ... and who therefore lack the experience of who they are. I believe that only we great sinners have this grace. Only the one who has been touched and caressed by the tenderness of his mercy really knows the Lord."
On the first Sunday of his papacy, He said "The Lord never tires of forgiving. Never! It is we who tire of asking (or his forgiveness. Let us ask for the grace never to tire of asking for what God never tires to give." Later in his luoitcy, he said that the "whole Gospel, all of Christianity," is contained in the joy God has in forgiving us. The most profound mission of Jesus," he stated, "is the redemption of all of us sinners." Mercy is God's "most Powerful message," God's "name" and "identity card." Mercy, he added, is "the very foundation of the 'hutch's life" and her "primary task." It is the "force that can save man and the world."
Because of these convictions, he announced a Jubilee of Mercy in 2015-2016 to help the Church "rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted to her by the Lord on the day of Easter: to be a sign and an instrument of the Father's mercy." He instituted the "Missionaries of Mercy," originally about 1,100 of the 410,000 priests in the world, to be "persuasive preachers of mercy" and "living signs of the Father's readiness to welcome those is search of his forgiveness" through their dedication to hearing confessions. He gave them special faculties in the confessional to remit the censures and heal the sins that are normally reserved only to the Holy See. They became a permanent part of the structure of the Church. Throughout his papacy, he sought to give greater attention to those he deemed in special need of God's mercy, to those on the "existential peripheries," to the lost sheep, rather than those still in the fold. That preference for the one over the 99 (Luke 15:3-7) was often a source of frustration and confusion, as the Pope prioritized meeting with atheists, fallen-away Catholics, critics of the Church, activists, pro-abortion politicians, rather than with some devout members of the Curia, episcopate and flock. He seemed sometimes to have the "smell" of the lost and black sheep better than he did washed in the Blood of the Lamb who were trying to follow the Good Shepherd's voice.
