ST. BRIDE
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO
Parish Office: 773-731-8822
Church Hall: 773-734-9125
Fax: 773-721-0673
Email:
MASSES THIS WEEK
Daily Mass is celebrated at 8 AM
In the Parish House Chapel as scheduled
The Body and Blood of Christ – Corpus Christi
For the Intention of Carolyn Anzalone
For the Intention of Isabelle Rice
For the Intention of Joseph Dion
For the Intention of Richard Hrody
For the Intention of Shirley Hamilton
Monday: Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Tuesday: St. Ephrem
Wednesday: Weekday
Thursday: St. Barnabas
For a Special Intention
Friday: The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saturday: Immaculate Heart of the
Blessed Virgin Mary;
St. Anthony of Padua
The Eleventh Sunday of the Church Year:
For the Intention of Churck Heavlin
For the Intention of
Fritz and Laverne Baumgartner
For the Intention of Jackie Jackson
For the Intention of
June Matushek – Birthday Rememberance
For the Intention of Sister Kinga
For the Intention of Therese Jagielski
For the Intention of Monsignor Richard Saudis
On the 60th Anniversary of his Ordination
For the Intention of Sister Patricia Stark, OP, on Her 50th Anniversary
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READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday:2 Cor 1:1-7; Ps 34:2-9; Mt 5:1-12
Tuesday:2 Cor 1:18-22; Ps 119:129-133, 135;
Mt 5:13-16
Wednesday:2 Cor 3:4-11; Ps 99:5-9;
Mt 5:17-19
Thursday:Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3; Ps 85:9ab, 10-14; Mt 5:20-26
Friday:Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9; Is 12:2-6;
Eph 3:8-12, 14-19; Jn 19:31-37
Saturday:2 Cor 5:14-21; Ps 103:1-4, 9-12;
Mt 5:33-37
Sunday:Ez 17:22-24; Ps 92:2-3, 13-16;
2 Cor 5:6-10; Mk 4:26-34
OUR SACRIFICE
Let us offer Christ the great universal sacrifice of our love. For he offered his cross to God as sacrifice in order to make us all rich.
—St. Ephrem
Electronic Giving for Weekly Offerings, Mass Intentions, Memorial Candles and more…
Since we have started Give Central, more than $6000.00 has been contributed through this electronic means of giving! It is an excellent way of scheduling your offerings to St. Bride, as well as a way of marking special events. Click on the “Donate Now” button on our web site.
SupportOur Food Pantry
The St. Bride Food Pantry continues its work and our shelves are literally BARE! We will welcome your donations of NON-PERISHABLE food items to stock our shelves and prepare bags for those who utilize our outreach program each week, September to June! We serve over 150 families a month. We have more than 400 families now registered for the program. We also accept clothing for our clothes pantry, household goods; dishes, silverware, glasses, linens, etc.
Mass Intentions Available
If you have a special anniversary or celebration that you want to remember at Mass, now is the time to arrange to reserve that date. Please be sure to include your intention as well as your phone number when submitting the request. The traditional stipend per Mass is ten dollars. You can schedule Masses by email or on Give Central; see left column of our web page at
THANKSGIVING
The word “thanksgiving” most often calls to our mind the holiday in November. But as early as the middle of the second century Justin Martyr referred to the blessed bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper as “food we call ‘thanksgiving’ ” (in Greek eucharistia). The Thanksgiving we celebrate in the autumn is at times marked by a sort of proud societal selfcongratulation and the consumption of food until we sink into an inert stupor. The “thanksgiving” that we call our Eucharist is just the opposite: we are led to it by an acknowledgment of our own failings; we remember our humble place in the scheme of things by giving praise to God alone.
While the food of Christ’s body and blood fills our spiritual hungers, it also creates in us a greater hunger. We are not sent to our spiritual sofas to let the Lord’s Supper settle; we are sent to be living signs of that thanksgiving for the world by looking out for the poor and powerless, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, speaking out against the selfrighteous. In short, the hunger created by our doing in remembrance of Christ must lead us to living in remembrance of him.
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
It has been said that the Church breathes with two lungs, East and West. Some of our family treasures are in the East, and it is interesting to consider how liturgical families developed around differing customs. Centuries before Christ, after the young girl was given to her husband by her father, the spouses were crowned. Christians retained that custom, keeping the wedding in the home, and sometimes inviting a visiting priest or bishop to put the crowns on their heads. By the fourth century, the crowns were seen not as royal crowns, but as the crowns of victory worn by martyrs. The crowns have nothing to do with being “king and queen for a day,” but rather speak of the sacrifice of love poured out fully. There are no vows exchanged at all, but the crowning is followed by a joyful dance by the priest and couple around the Gospel book. Unlike Roman law, which saw the wedding rites as optional, Eastern practice did not recognize a marriage that had not been blessed.
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - What’s New?
I never noticed it before, but our reading from Mark’s gospel is similar to the story in John’s gospel of the wedding feast at Cana. They begin with a problem presented to Jesus: Lack of wine (John) and a place for Passover meal (Mark.) They both involve jars of water. Jesus responds to both by giving orders: to the waiters (Jn) and to the apostles (Mk.) And both have miraculous changes: water into wine (Jn) and bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood (Mk.)
Now the wedding feast showed Jesus using the water meant for purification and changing it to wine for a wedding. The Jews needed to purify any dishes in order to keep the kosher laws. But Jesus replaced those laws with a new one, the law of love, symbolized by the wedding. In our gospel today, Jesus replaces ordinary food with spiritual food. He is doing something new, beyond the requirements of the Old Testament.
What does that mean for us? Jesus is showing God’s love for us in a new way. You might say he is replacing the way he comes to us. The bread and wine at the last Supper were signs of Jesus’ body being broken and his blood poured out for us on the cross. When he gave his life for us, he rose from the dead to give us hope. And now we have the Eucharist, in which he becomes our new food and drink. Just as the Passover meal became a sign of Jesus’ real death on the cross, our Eucharist is the sacrament of his real presence among us today.
Do we really believe that the Eucharist is Jesus, the Son of God? The way to measure that is to ask, how has Jesus changed your life? Do you love others more because you know God loves you? Do you have less fear of the future, because the Holy Spirit gives you courage? Do your children know Jesus, because you share your faith with them? In the Eucharist, God gives us a new way to be with him. Let us look forward to being renewed in spirit whenever we receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
A Farewell Mass and Reception in honor of *Fr. Kenneth Fischer*, who is
retiring after 44 years of service as a priest of the Archdiocese of
Chicago, will take place at St. Luke Parish, 7600 W. Lake St, in River
Forest on *Sunday, June 28*. The 10:30 Mass will be followed by a reception
in the school gymnasium. Father Fisher was an Associate Pastor at St. Bride in the 80’s. Parishioners from all the parishes where Fr. Ken has served are cordially
invited to attend. Please R.S.V.P. to Sue Gamache, the Parish Office Manager, at 708-435-8912.
St. Bride Church – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago – June 7, 2015