Church Name & Address

CHURCH NAME & ADDRESS

911026: Old St. Joseph’s Church

321 Willings Alley, Philadelphia, PA 19106

PHONE

215.923.1733

CONTACT PERSON

Jeff Chapman

SOFTWARE

Microsoft Publisher 2007

Adobe PDF

Windows 7 Professional

PRINTER

HP LaserJet P2035

NUMBER OF PAGES SENT

1 through 7

SUNDAY DATE OF PUBLICATION

July 12, 2015

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

TODAY’S READINGS

First Reading — They shall know that a prophet has been among them (Ezekiel 2:2-5).

Psalm — Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy (Psalm 123).

Second Reading — I am content with weaknesses and hardships for the sake of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Gospel — “Where did this man get all this? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:1-6a).

READINGS FOR THE WEEK

Monday:Gn 28:10-22a; Ps 91:1-4, 14-15ab; Mt 9:18-26

Tuesday:Gn 32:23-33; Ps 17:1b, 2-3, 6-7ab, 8b, 15;

Mt 9:32-38

Wednesday:Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a;

Ps 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19; Mt 10:1-7

Thursday:Gn 44:18-21, 23b-29; 45:1-5; Ps 105:16-21;

Mt 10:7-15

Friday:Gn 46:1-7, 28-30; Ps 37:3-4, 18-19, 27-28,

39-40; Mt 10:16-23

Saturday:Gn 49:29-32; 50:15-26a; Ps 105:1-4, 6-7;

Mt 10:24-33

Sunday:Am 7:12-15; Ps 85:9-14;

Eph 1:3-14 [1:3-10]; Mk 6:7-13

The complete text of the daily lectionary readings can be found at

MASSES FOR THE WEEK

Monday July 612:05pm

Patricia Alter (D)

Presider: Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J.

TuesdayJuly712:05pm

Old St. Joseph’s Memorial SocietyPresider: Fr. Ed Dougherty, S.J.

Weds. July 812:05pm

Edward & Mary Britt Family (D)

Presider: Fr. James McAndrews, S.J.

ThursdayJuly 912:05pm

Old St. Joseph’s Memorial Society

Presider: Fr. Ed O’Donnell, S.J.

Friday July 10 12:05pm

Old St. Joseph’s Memorial Society

Presider: Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J.

Saturday July 1112:05pm

Harry Parker (D)

Presider: Fr. Ed Dougherty, S.J.

5:30pmPresider: Fr. Ed O’Donnell, S.J.

Sunday July 12

7:30am Presider: Fr. James McAndrews, S.J.

9:30am Presider: Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J.

11:30am Presider: Fr. Ed O’Donnell, S.J.

6:30pm Presider: Fr. Dan Ruff, S.J.

THIS WEEK AT OSJ

Tue
7 / 12 noon:
6:30pm: / Al-Anon Meeting (Drexel)
Finance Council (2nd fl conf rm)
Sun
12 / 12:30pm:
1:00pm:
7:30pm: / Augustine Fellowship (Greaton)
Spirituality Comm. (2nd fl conf rm)
1st Sunday Cookout (courtyard)

Pleaseremember our sick and homebound sisters and brothers:Harry Gregory, Susan Strassberg, Vernon Harmon, Carole Breslin, Mary Arata, Dawn Minter, Mallory McBride, Mary Farmer, Tom & Donna Paul, Elihu & Dot Golden, Heidi Zippo, Margaret Glackin,Tom Hart, and Ed Tomezsko.Pray also for our ministry at Pennsylvania Hospital.

 FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP

Offertory for the week ending July , 2015

Collection / Regular / Online / Total
Noonday Mass / $203.00 / n/a / $203.00
Sunday Mass / $7,595.00 / $3,107.00 / $10,702.00
Peter’s Pence / $1,267.00 / $55.00 / $1,322.00

Online Giving contributed 29% of the Sunday offertory

NOTE: This week’s Sunday offertory total includes $1,500.00 in one-time gifts given by parishioners to the offertory campaign.

Online Givers – Funds have been set up for special collections:

Fund / Fund available online
Campaign for Human Development / Now through July 26
Peter’s Pence / Now through July 15

Old St. Joseph’s provides Online Giving – a convenient, flexible and safe way to make a one-time or recurring donation the fund of your choice (e.g., Sunday Offertory, FF&F, HPC, Ars Sacra). For Online Givers who are uneasy about not putting anything in the collection basket, “I gave online” cards are available at the back of the church. Simply put a card in the basket to represent your gift.

See the flyer at the back of the church for frequently asked questions about Online Giving and for instructions on how to sign up. To sign up for Online Giving, go to our website: and click on the Online Giving tab underneath the Important Links column.

PARISH LIFE

Welcome! We’re always happy to welcome new parishioners. David Dalesandro we’re glad you’ve joined our parish community!

The Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola is Friday, July 31, 2015. We will be celebrating the feast day of the founder of the Jesuits with a mass at 6:00pm followed by a dinner immediately after. Tickets for the dinner are $10.00 for adults and children are free. Tickets can be purchased from the front office of the rectory. Donations of wine and desserts would be greatly appreciated.
Many volunteers are needed for the food preparations, serving of the food, set up, clean up and resetting of the hall. Food preparations will take place on Thursday, July 30th. Contact Joe Casey at /215-843-3573 to volunteer. Thank you!

PASTOR’S FUND: It has been our custom to collect money for a gift for the outgoing pastor. Fr. Ruff has requested that this collection be used for scholarship aid for Ignatian spirituality programs. This money will be used to subsidize parish retreat and/or individual retreatants, and could also be used to fund training programs for parish Jesuits and lay parishioners. If you would like to donate to this fund, please make your check payable to OSJ Church and write “Pastor’s Fund” in the memo. Please put your donation in a separate envelope. All gifts are tax deductible.

We are in serious need of volunteers for the coffee hours after the 9:30and 11:30 Masses. Please consider assisting once a month at this very important parish social event. If interested, please contact Donna Soultoukis at

OSJ Ministry Volunteers: Updates for next schedule due by July 15th!The next ministry schedule will be from August 3rd to September 30th. Assumption is on Saturday, August 15th this year, so there won't be a special schedule that day. Also, there will be NO 6:30pm mass on Sunday, September 27th due to the Papal Mass on the Parkway.Please use the following link (or the Ministry Scheduler Pro app for iPhone/Android) to submit all updates by the deadline of July 15th:

The system assumes that you are available unless you specify otherwise, so please indicate any future dates you can't serve. Also, check your profile to make sure that your telephone number(s), email address, and service preferences are correct and up to date. If you have any problems logging into or using the system, please contact:

Thank you for your service and commitment to Old Saint Joseph's Church!

P.S. Important note about the weekend of 9/26-9/27: travel in and around Center City Philadelphia will be difficult at best and impossible at worst, with extensive road closures, transit detours, and heavy securityin the area. If you anticipate that you won't be able to get to OSJ that weekend, please indicate that you can't serve 9/26-9/27 now, not later. That said, we will need all available hands on deck that weekend to welcome and minister to the many visitors in the area. If you are nearby, please make every effort to serve at one or more masses that weekend.Thank you!

COURTESY, RESPECT, AND DECORUM: When we gather for Eucharist, we welcome the risen Christ into our assembly. Please show respect by turning off your cell phone; and please make every effort to arrive on-time for mass, participate fully and actively during mass, and remain in the pew until the final hymn has ended. Thank you.

Want to be a Tour Guide? As you may have read in this bulletin on Pentecost, our tour program has had a momentous beginning. We now have dedicated and well trained guides greeting visitors from all over the world. It is now summer and some of our guides have trips and tours to take themselves. Therefore, we need to expand our staff. If you love history, Old St. Joseph’s, and enjoy meeting new people, please join us. We especially need people on weekday afternoons. You don’t even have to be a member of OSJ. If interested, please contact Tom Farris at: .

Help tell the story of Catholic Philadelphia! Do you have any film, video or photos of masses and other ceremonies, images of lay and clergy leaders, community festivals, the 1979 Pope John Paul II visit? Your archival materials are needed for the film Urban Trinity and will be considered for use in the 3rd episode in the series which will traverse the 20th century story of Catholic Philadelphia. We are reaching out to a broad community asking that families share their photographs and home movies for use in this episode. If we find materials useful to the film, we will digitize and return both the original and the digital copies to you at no cost. or 267.324.5381 for more information.

OSJ Library - The Library has a number of wonderful homilies and retreats on cassette tapes and is looking for a parishioner who could assist in their conversion to CD's. Please contact the Library Committee at

. The Library is located on the 3rd floor of the rectory and is open to registered parishioners on Sundays from 9:30 until 1:30 and Monday thru Friday from 9:30until 4:00.

FROM THE PASTOR

Transition times make us thoughtful; so naturally, as our time together nears its end, I have been led to think back over the past seven years. Overall, I leave with fond memories and a great sense of gratitude. I have thoroughly enjoyed preparing and delivering my homilies, and writing this column for the bulletin. I obviously love words; but I especially love using them to touch people’s hearts. Your gracious feedback has suggested that frequently, by God’s grace, I have managed to do so…

I am proud, also, of my efforts to foster Ignatian spirituality at OSJ, ably assisted by the members of the Ignatian Spirituality and Formation Committee. It appears that the One Parish, One Book program has been a great success, as have our Advent and Lent At-Home Retreats. I am very strongly in agreement with Pope Francis about this – one’s relationship to faith and the Church changes in a major (positive!) way when one enters into a personal relationship with the risen Jesus. Fostering such a relationship is the core purpose of the Spiritual Exercises. I am also appreciative of the efforts of Adult Ed to “form intentional disciples” by encouraging the study of Vatican II documents, as well as through their other programs.

I am particularly proud and grateful about the Ignatian (sleep-at-home) overnight experience which we have been able to roll out at Irani House over the past couple of years with the help of trained lay directors Christine Szczepanowski and Donna Soultoukis, and with a lot of support from Parish Council. I think it has done what I hoped it would do – namely, given people a beginner-friendly experience of Ignatian prayer and a good taste of what the Exercises are about. I am leaving behind all the materials for this mini-retreat – film clips and all! – with every hope that it will continue…

I am proud of my efforts with Parish Council, which I believe to be much more hands-on and active than it was when I first arrived; it is also much more diverse and more intentionally representative of the major parish constituencies. I have been blessed throughout my pastorate with outstanding Council Chairs and Vice Chairs – you know who you are! Thanks again…

At the facilities level, it has been a busy and productive seven years. New boiler; new air conditioner; virtually complete rewiring of the rectory and the church.Upgrades to both the Hall and the Jesuit kitchens.Painting and re-carpeting of most of the public access spaces in the rectory.Historic restoration of the exterior church doors.Completion and dedication of our magnificent pipe organ.In all these, both Finance Council and the Historic Preservation Corporation Board provided essential help and advice, as well as funding. Thanks to all of you, of course, for your generosity...

Other high spots for me: celebrating St. Joseph’s Day and St. Ignatius Day with you – especially last year, when we blessed our new state historic marker on Walnut Street. Christmases and Holy Week Triduums. (Go Parish Life Committee and volunteers!) The parish retreat which I preached at Inisfada on Long Island (the facility since sold and demolished…). My monthly “spirituality” session with our “friends” at Food, Faith & Friends.Thanks to Mary Freedman for her leadership of that program this year, and to our amazing, faithful volunteers, for their loyalty, dedication, and hard work…

Unfinished agenda, which I will pray that the new pastor is able to move forward… We continue to struggle with communications, both internal and external. What are the most effective ways to let all interested parties know in a timely fashion what is going on at OSJ? We made a major step when we introduced online giving last year; but we have a long way to go in adopting and implementing the ongoing tech revolution. How can we keep the info on our website current? What about other social media like Twitter and Facebook? Even the Archdiocese has adopted Flocknote.com as a platform for mass electronic communications… The fact that your new pastor is 12 years younger than I may make a great deal of difference on this front…

We also struggle with engaging and involving a wider cross-section of our membership in committees, parish programs, and the like. In part, we are challenged by our far-flung demographics. Many of our parishioners travel 30 minutes or more to get here for Sunday Mass; it is understandably difficult for them to make additional trips to the parish on weeknights for meetings, classes, reading groups, panels, and other activities. The upshot: our appetite for and our interest in parish programming often outstrips our actual ability or willingness to do the legwork involved. (Rule of thumb: whatever “it” is, “it” always involves more work and takes longer than anyone imagines it will!)

I close with a gentle reminder that the mission of the contemporary Society of Jesus – and so, of our lay partners in Jesuit works – involves two inseparable and indispensable halves: “the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement” (decree 4, 32nd General Congregation). In the Old St. Joseph’s I dream about, and which I have tried to work toward over these seven years, every parishioner would have a regular prayer life rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus, as well as regular contact with and service to “the poor.” The latter would involve education and advocacy around unjust social structures, as well as the corporal works of mercy. (Social Justice Committee has great ideas, and they work hard to realize them – but they really need “footsoldiers” to participate…)

That our own internal structures and ways of proceeding would always be just, and would reflect Gospel and Ignatian values, goes without saying. The first generation of Christians changed the world because outsiders, observing them, were moved to say, “See how they love one another!”

If emphases on the service of faith and the promotion of justice remind you of the teaching and example of Pope Francis, that is, of course, no accident. He is, after all, a Jesuit – both by training and by conviction. I pray that his upcoming visit to our City of Brotherly Love will foster and spread both the service of faith and the promotion of justice throughout the Archdiocese – but most especially here at Old St. Joseph’s parish… Please join me in that prayer.

—Fr. Dan

PRAYER AND SPIRITUALITY

The Centering Prayer Group will meet on Wednesday, July 22 from 6:30 until 8:30pm in the 3rd fl library of the rectory. The meeting will include discussion of centering prayer followed by Mass with a period of centering. Anyone interested in contemplative prayer is welcome to join us. Contact Christine Szczepanowski at 267-250-3049 or for more information.

YOUNG ADULT COMMUNITY

JulyOSJYACHappy Hour: Friday, July 10, 5:30-8:00ish p.m.Spruce Street Harbor Park(121 N Columbus Blvd, Spruce at Columbus)Rain site: 2nd Story Brewing Company (117 Chestnut St at 2nd)Come hang out atSpruce Street Harbor Parkfor the JulyYACHappy Hour! Labeled as an "outdoor summer oasis at Penn's Landing," this pop-up park has lots of great food, craft beer, and free games to enjoy. Look for us at one of the picnic tables locateddirectlybehind the Spruce Street entrance to the park. (If it'sraining, we'll move to2nd Story Brewing Company, located at 117 Chestnut St at 2nd Street, so meet us there instead.) We'll plan to stay till at least 8, so comeearly or late -- we would love to see you.If you have any questions, please contact Jenn .

The OSJ Young Adult Community invites you to the next “First Sunday” Cookout in the courtyard after the 6:30pm Sunday Mass next Sunday, July 12, 2015. Enjoy some fellowship and good food! See you there!

YAC Movie Night: Viewing of "Léon Morin, Priest"

Irani House, July 14th, 7PM(promptly) - 9ish pm. Celebrate Bastille Day with the best in French film! YAC's resident filmmaker, Matt Waldron, will screen Jean-Pierre Melville's "Léon Morin, Priest," which chronicles the development of an unexpected friendship in Nazi-occupied France. Spirits at 7 -- and this time -- Spirituality at 7, too! Please note that we will begin promptly at7:00 PMto accommodate the length of the film.

Check out our Google Calendar & YAC Matters for our upcoming events! Find us on Facebook at Old St Joseph’s Young Adult Community. Questions? Want to join our email list? Please email us at .

FOOD, FAITH & FRIENDS

Are you a Notary Public?Faith, Food, and Friends occasionally has need of a Notary Public when helping guests apply for social services and government assistance. If you are a Notary and would like to volunteer please contact Mary Freedman or Jeanmarie Zippo at or 215-923-2381 ext. 125.

The Food Faith and Friends closet is in need of the toiletries frequently asked for by our guests. No matter what the season, the following items are always in high demand. All donations are greatly appreciated: bar soap (full size), razors, deodorant, lotion, and toothpaste & single pack toothbrushes. Items can be dropped off at the office during the week or at the back of the church on Sundays. Thank you for your generosity!