Ramblings of a Parish Priest line.com

[Pages:12]Ramblings of a Parish Priest:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

As we get into this "spooky" season and entertain ourselves with horror movies, haunted houses, ghost stories, and the like, I thought it would also be a good time to discuss these spiritual realities and what the Church teaches on the spiritual world. Just as our bodies are a combination of a physical being (the body itself) and spiritual (our soul), so is the universe that God created out of nothing. We have the physical world that we see and interact with, and we have the spiritual world that we don't necessarily see, but we still interact with, whether we're aware of it or not. Let's look at the positive truth of our guardian angels. We all have a guardian angel assigned to us, meant to protect us, and help us live virtuous lives. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of nor speaks with their guardian angel, but that doesn't change the fact that we have one and they're trying to help us. Every time we pray, we're interacting with the spiritual world. We're also interacting with the spiritual world when we engage in occult activities (more on that next week). This begs the questions, which spirits are we interacting with throughout our day? Good spirits (angels) or bad spirits (demons)?

First, let's make some important distinctions. Angels and Demons are words use to tell the difference between good and bad spirits. Both Angels and Demons are the exact same creature: angel. The distinction between an angel and a demon are like jerseys on athletes. Cubs and Soxs players are all baseball athletes, just with difference jerseys. Angels and Demons are all angels, they just play on different teams. Demons do not have any more or less "powers" than an angel who works for God. So, just as your guardian angel can't force you to go to Mass on Sunday, stop gossiping about your neighbor, or to pray every day; demons can't force you to look at pornography, violently act out against people, or any other sinful behavior. Angels can't force us to do anything unless we give them permission.

Let's start by discussing what an angel is, no matter the "team" they play for. Angels are pure spiritual beings. They have no physical properties whatsoever. When an angel appears to someone in the scriptures, among the first words the angel speaks is "do not be afraid," which tells the reader that seeing an apparition of an angel is something literally "out of this world" and naturally causes fear. Also, because angels have no physical properties and are pure spirit, they can assume physical properties, like animals or humans, and take them over if given permission. Two final properties of angels are that because they are pure spirit, they are perfect beings with

perfect intellect. When God created the angels, he made them perfect in every way, unlike humans where we were made to grow in perfection. This means the angels have full knowledge of who God is. This is difficult to explain, but basically when the angels were created, they knew exactly who God is: "God is love." (1 John 4:8). Because God created the angels, He gave them free will at the very moment of their creation to choose if they would love God in return or not. This is where several of the angels (we do not know how many, but we traditionally hear 1/3 in Revelation 12:4) chose to not love God and they fell from heaven. These angels are the "demons" who work against God's plan.

Earlier I mentioned that angels cannot take over a human body, or force a human body to do things, unless it is given permission. This is how someone becomes possessed by a demon. Granting a demon permission can be as bold as "making a deal with the devil" or taking part in rituals that are not Catholic where we allow a spiritual being to have control over us (we will discuss these occult activities in next week's bulletin); however, granting permission can also be subtle in how we live our life and allow spiritual beings to slowly take over. Think of the old cartoons of the angel and demon on a shoulder whispering in our ear, that is a great image of the everyday spiritual life. The more we listen to the lies of the demon (all they do is lie), the more we are giving that demon permission to "run" our life. We become enslaved to the demon(s) rather than free to live in the light of the risen Lord.

Listen to your guardian angel and continue receiving the Sacraments. One good confession is always more powerful than any number of exorcisms. If we live our lives with virtue and centered on Christ, relying on the Sacraments, we never need to fear the devil nor his demons. A famous exorcist once said that the devil is the equivalent of a yapping ankle bitter dog chained to a pole. The dog can't do any real harm to you and with one swift kick the dog is silenced and destroyed. Jesus kicked the annoying dog (the devil) when he died on the Cross and rose from dead. My sisters and brothers, we have nothing to fear!

In Christ,

Fr. Dom

FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP

SUNDAY CONTRIBUTIONS: October 3, 2021

$4,322.75

$35,000.00

SEPTEMBER - OFFERTORY vs BUDGET

$30,000.00

$25,000.00

$20,000.00

$15,000.00

$10,000.00

$5,000.00

$5-Sep

Series1 $3,153.69

12-Sep $4,872.0 0

19-Sep $3,263.3 8

26-Sep $3,918.0 0

Electronic Giving

$14,734. 33

Misc/Holy Days

$20.00

TOTAL $29,961. 40

Budget $33,000. 00

$120,000.00

MONTHLY & YTD TOTALS

$100,000.00

$80,000.00

$60,000.00

$40,000.00

$20,000.00

$-

ACTUALS BUDGET

July

$30,252. 98 $32,000. 00

August

September

$39,802. 54 $39,300. 00

$29,861. 40 $33,000. 00

ACTUALS BUDGET

1st Qtr - YTD TOTAL

$99,916. 92

$104,300 .00

NEXT WEEK'S MASS SCHEDULE

MASS

PRESIDER

LECTOR

EUCHARISTIC MINISTER

Saturday October 23

4:30 PM

Fr. McIlhone Dn. Mike

Marty Lane Laura Quigley

Daniella Fuller

Sunday October 24

8:00 AM Fr. Dominic Clemente

Vince Meno

Richard Wedgbury

Sunday October 24

9:30 AM

Fr. McIlhone

Linda M. Paras

Linda M. Paras

Sunday October 24

11:00 AM

Fr. Kalas Dn. Seth

John C. Elakkatt

John C. Elakkatt

SERVERS No Servers No Servers No Servers K. Velgara G. Velgara

40 DAYS FOR LIFE

What difference can one hour of prayer make? For a baby whose life hangs in the balance, it can mean everything!

Youth Ministry Schedule

This Friday, October 22nd is St. Ed's day to pray outside the All Women's Medical Center at 3140 W. Irving Park Road from 1:00 P.M to 7:00 P.M. Please see the sign up chart in the vestibule today. We just need your name and phone number opposite the time you want to come. We would like to have two people per hour for a total of 12 parishioners who believe in the sanctity of life. If you can't come, please pray at home.

There has been 259 babies saved this Fall, since the 40 Days for Life Campaign began!

HELP NEEDED IN LIVE-STREAM MINISTRY

The pandemic, for all its terribleness, brought about a new ministry at St. Ed's where we livestream all our liturgies on YouTube and Facebook. We have a small, but very dedicated, team of parishioners who run our system daily so people at home can pray and worship God with our community of faith. It is not difficult to learn the system and you will receive plenty of training and shadowing, but we need help! If you have any knowledge of working with a desktop, you are perfect! Please contact Fr. Dom via e-mail at frclemente@ to get more information or to sign up and join this important ministry.

October 17- Mass & CHOSEN episode 7 (No Mass - Attend with your Family)

October 24- Mass & CHOSEN episode 8 October 31- No Youth Group ? Halloween November 7- Mass & CHOSEN episode 9 November 14- Prayer & CHOSEN episode 10 November 21- Mass & CHOSEN episode 11

November 28- No Youth Group ? Thanksgiving Weekend

Youth Group meets in the Church and Unity Hall. Any teen in 8th through 12th grade are welcome. Masks are

to be worn inside at all gatherings.

Please consider joining this ministry and helping our parishioners at home worship God with our community of faith!

St. Isidor, patron saint of technology, pray for us!

Sunday, October 17 Youth Ministry, 7:00-8:30pm Oratory of the Blessed Trinity & Unity Hall Monday, October 18 Scouts BSA Meeting, 7:00pm Unity Hall Harvest Bash Committee Meeting, 6:30pm Rectory Conference Room Tuesday, October 19 Wednesday, October 20 Facilities Committee Meeting, 10:00am Rectory Conference Room Legion of Mary Meeting, 9:00am Rectory Hall Finance Council Meeting, 6:30pm Unity Hall Thursday, October 21 Knights of Columbus Social Meeting, 7:30pm Unity Hall Friday, October 22 Cub Scout Pack Night, 7:00pm Unity Hall Saturday, October 23 Big Red Football, 10:30am Gompers Park Sunday, October 24 Family Faith Formation Community Meeting, 10:30am Unity Hall Youth Ministry, 7:00-8:30pm Oratory of the Blessed Trinity & Unity Hall

Congratulations to this week's $50 winner, Chris Geraghty, with Card #18, the 2 of Clubs! Get tickets for next week's drawing at the rectory, after the weekend Masses, at O'Donnell's, or online at

Congratulations

on being baptized into Christ

Leonardo Irving,

son of Stephanie and Irving

Congratulations

on being baptized into Christ

Lucas Kent,

son of Katie and Thomas

Congratulations

on being baptized into Christ

Oliver James,

son of Grace and Emilio

SPARE CHANGE SAVES BABIES

The Womens Center started in 1984 with a meeting that Fr. Kehoe arranged at our Church where Conrad Wojnar volunteered to start a Problem Pregnancy Center in our neighborhood. The first office was right across the street from the Albany Clinic on Elston Ave. This office soon became to small and they moved to the Irish American Center with the counseling iffice moving onto the 5116 N. Cicero building. When that building came up for sale, Conrad took a leap of faith and bought it. They now own the building. There they have counseling offices, ultrasound room, family room with clothing for the clients children, a baby furniture room and a beautiful Chapel.

There are two other Women's Centers. One in Des Plaines and one in Everhreen Park, which is the busiest office, seeing the most clients in the need of help. The Albany Clinic has been closed for awhile but the Women's Center is still going strong seeing clients, doing ultrasounds and giving material help to Mothers in need. Since they are a non-profit they always need donations.

The baby bottle campaign is their biggest fundraiser. So please take a bottle, fill it with your spare change and return it on the weekend of October 30th and 31st. Thank you for helping them continue their life saving work.

RESPECT LIFE

Only with prayer - prayer that storms the heaven for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and souls - will the culture of death, that surrounds us today, be replaced with a culture of life. USCCB

PRAYER FOR RESPECT FOR LIFE

St. Gerard Majella, women the world over have adopted you as their patron in the joys and fears of childbearing. Today, we invoke your intercession for the Pro-Life movement. Pray that all will look upon human life as a great gift from God to be accepted and loved, not as an unwanted burden to be destroyed. Assist from heaven, the efforts of those on earth, who are enlisted in the Christlike crusade of promoting the dignity and value of all human life, particularly the unborn. This we ask through Christ, Our Lord. Amen

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