Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church & School

Downloadable Weekly Bulletin

Sunday,  February 7, 2010 – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the Pastor

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK: During this time each year we acknowledge the gift of our parish school during national Catholic Schools Week. The contribution of Catholic schools to the Church in the United States gives us much to celebrate and be thankful for. The long term spiritual effect of Catholic schools education on children has been validated again and again in a number of sociological studies during the past forty years. A school in a parish is a challenging blessing, more so in some parishes than in others. Maintaining our very quality school at Our Mother of Sorrows is a blessed challenge from one year to the next. 

      Catholic School Dividends: The dividends to the Church and a parish through its school are numerous. Participation of young families and new families through the school program are a welcome blessing and constant source of freshness and vitality. Parents who place their children in the school are witnessing, in a special way, to their faith and their values by their very act of doing so. Sometimes their testimonial is very sacrificial, as it stretches their family budget to a maximum. Our Mother of Sorrows parish has been in a consistent partnership with the school since the parish and the school were built concurrently more than fifty years ago. School families and the parish are in a relationship of mutual love and support. They are in a shared partnership of formation and education together. 

      Fr. Greeley and Catholic Schools: The following are some quotes from a paper delivered by Fr. Andrew Greeley on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National Catholic Education Association some years ago. He makes the strongest possible case of the value and positive impact of Catholic schools.  Incidentally, Fr. Greeley continues to recover very slowly from his accident and the gift of your prayers for his ongoing recovery will continue to be a special blessing upon him.

On the basis of four decades of research, Catholic schools are among the very best things American Catholicism has done.

Catholic schools do things that American culture values. Tony Byrek’s work shows that the explanations for Catholic schools’ success with the disadvantaged is based on stronger educational demands and more communal and personal support. One can legitimately raise the question of whether higher levels of communal support might be linked to a more communal imagination.

Catholic schools, the late James Coleman once argued, are rich in social capital because of overlapping networks. He also suggests that communal imagination is at the root of different educational policies.

Another accomplishment of Catholic schools is that they have the greatest education impact on the multiple disadvantaged.

The schools began as a harbor of refuge for the children of immigrants who might have a hard time in the so-called common school. I suggest that this now largely unselfconscious style of education continues to work with the more recent urban immigrants.

Catholic schools do what American culture wants - assemble social capital and enable the immigrant dream to come true.

The 2010 School Survey Analysis is available in the vestibule of the church.  Feel free to take a copy of this blue handout.

THE SUPER BOWL - A PASTORAL AND TEACHING PERSPECTIVE: The Super Bowl event each year is the game of games in American Football. The Colts and the Saints are in this Sunday’s big game. In a certain sense it is football’s liturgy of liturgies. The super gladiators of the sport, if you will, enter into mortal combat with each other. All the superlatives in the language will get used up to describe the supermen of both teams as well as the hype and hoopla around the event.

      The word super is used to describe what is above the ordinary. In theology we speak of supernatural life or life that is above the ordinary natural life. God’s life is super life - we call it grace. Jesus tells us, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” In the Mass the priest prays the following prayer when he puts a few drops of water (representing our ordinary life) into the wine (representing God’s life) - By the mingling of this water and wine, may we come to share in His divinity (the God life) who humbled Himself to share in our humanity (our ordinary life).

      All of us are Super Bowl players because God, in Jesus, has given us a super life and is calling us to a super destiny beyond our ordinary life and its limited life span. As we watch the Super Bowl this Sunday, let’s remind ourselves that we are Super Bowl players because of God’s super life in us. The Super Bowl today, with all its hype and hoopla, is merely a shadow of the real thing. However, it can be and should be a real reminder to us as a people gifted with the super-life of the real Super Bowl contest. The contest between good and evil in our lives and in our world today is very pronounced. As Super Bowl players on God’s team may we continue to move on to victory against the other team - the powers and principalities of darkness. May our favorite state team win today and let’s continue to play with the winning team.

ANNUAL CATHOLIC APPEAL 2010:  Next weekend is Commitment Weekend for the Annual Catholic Appeal.  Your pledge is needed to help educate our future priests, provide meals to the needy, and prepare men and women to become ministers of our faith.  Please consider the ideal of pledging a percent of your annual income to our Annual Catholic Appeal. Will you give to God what is right, “the first fruits” or just what is leftover? Now, more than ever, our diocese needs your prayers and support.  Please prayerfully consider what you can do next weekend to help those in need throughout our Diocese.

      Our parish goal for this year’s appeal is $124,500, almost $9,000 less than last year’s goal.

PARISH EDOWMENT ESTATE PLANNING SEMINAR:  The OMOS Endowment Board is sponsoring an important program for the parish.  This program is intended for all to learn about current estate and tax laws.  Planning for the future is a challenge for many of us.  As we consider the challenge to provide for our parish, our parish Endowment Trust Board members feel it is important to offer our parishioners an opportunity to learn how to plan for their future.  For this reason, we are sponsoring a free ”Estate Planning Seminar.”  This seminar will be held Monday February 22nd at 7:00 PM in the PAC Room #1.  Refreshments will be served and childcare is available.  Topics will include wills, annuities and potential tax benefits.  In this seminar, participants will learn the fundamental choices they have as they consider their long-term financial needs.  Please call the parish office at 747-1321 to RSVP for the helpful presentation and if you will be needing childcare (please provide number and age of children).  We look forward to seeing you there.