IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH In this issue:

Highlight of events from

December.

January Birthdays,

Pajama Night and More

December Photos. Pg. 2

The Feast of the

Epiphany and Pope

tweets. pg. 3

New Altar Servers, See

More Photos, & Save the

Date! pg. 4

I. C. Angels December 2016 Newsletter

Highlights from December:

Visit From St. Nicholas

On December 7th we had a visit from St. Nicholas! Thank you to everyone

for remembering to send an extra shoe with your students so that St.

Nicholas had a safe place to leave their goodies. Thank you St. Nicholas!

Green Bay Youth Conference

On December 4th our High School students attended the Green Bay Youth

Conference at the KI Center in Green Bay. There were over 1,500 students

at the conference, what a great Diocese we have to put on such a wonderful

event for our teens. These events are where our youth have an opportunity

to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and grow deeper in their faith.

We had an amazing time! Fr. Peter Mitchel from St. Mary’s in Greenville

was our celebrant for Mass. He was wonderful. His homily talking about how

Mary gives us Jesus every time we take Communion at Mass, Wow, that

was priceless. The Music as always was wonderful. Our students enjoyed

playing in the bouncy house and riding the huge tricycles! When I heard

about the bouncy houses I was confused, thinking, what High School

student would want to do that? But they just loved it! They had races on the

huge tricycles and just enjoyed being together, having fun. We also enjoyed

Eucharistic Adoration, our celebrant was Bishop David Ricken. They offered

Reconciliation at the conference which had lines so long you waited for at

least 15-20 minutes! Wow, what a great way for Teens to go to confession

and see that we as Catholics have a gift of forgiveness no other religion

has. There were 6 priests and the lines were still long. A great time was had

by all. Thank you to Sheila Goffard for co-chaperoning the event again this

year! Thank you Bishop Ricken & Maria Scheutte!

Fest of the Immaculate Conception

On Thursday, December 8th we celebrated our

patron saint’s feast day, Feast of the Immaculate

Conception. What a great turnout we had it was

wonderful! What an honor it is to celebrate the

Feast of the Immaculate Conception at Immaculate

Conception Parish!

We enjoyed great Liturgy, homily (thank you Fr. John!), community

and a feast of cupcakes, cookies, candy canes, candy, apples,

coffee and juice all in honor of our patron saint! I believe Mary was

with us as we celebrated and is very proud of our parish for such a

great showing of dedication, community and faith! Thank you to all

the Faith Formation families that came and brought their students!!

What a great way to grow their faith and show them that Holy Days of

obligation are important!

Service Project & A Family in Need

A huge “Thank You” to all who contributed so

generously to these two great causes! We had

the entire back end of my van full of items for

the Fox Valley Warming Shelter & Homeless Connection. It took 3 of

us several trips to unload!! They were very appreciative of all that

you have given.

I also want to give you all a huge “Thank You” on behalf of the family

in need. I knew that even though it was last minute, you would all find

it in your hearts to give and give you did! It was truly amazing to see

the love that you all poured out for this single mother of two, working

three jobs and still not making ends meet. We ended up with about 6

boxes of food, clothes, gift cards and presents. What you gave was

such a blessing for her and her children. It is heart warming to be

part of such a wonderful Christmas Miracle! May God bless you all

immensely for your generosity.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH

I. C. Angels December — 2016 Newsletter pg. 2

God’s Blessings on Your Birthday

January Birthdays:

Kaelyn Saliger on January 17th

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Pajama Night at Faith Formation

Pajama Night was a huge success! It was held on December 14th and we had around 90%

participation. Thank you Alicen Gonnering for the wonder suggestion! We will be doing this again.

The students enjoyed it and I did as well. Who doesn’t want to come to work in their pajamas?

Some of our Catechists participated by wear their pajamas as well.

It was a great way to stay warm on a very cold night and fun was had by all!

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More Photos from December Events!

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH

I. C. Angels December — 2016 Newsletter pg. 3

The Feast of the Epiphany

The Solemn feast of the Epiphany of the Lord traditionally occurs on January 6 follow-ing the twelve days of Christmas. Epiphany commemorates three scriptural events: the visit of the Magi to the stable of Bethlehem following the nativity of Jesus, Christ’s Bap-tism in the Jordan, and his first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana. This article focus-es on the significance of the Magi or three wise men who follow the star in search of the King of kings. Up till now, all has been quite humble. A donkey-ride to a dusty town south of Jerusa-lem. Hotel rooms all booked up. Giving birth in a stable and laying the baby in an animal’s feed trough in-stead of a cozy cradle. Into this scene of obscure poverty suddenly bursts an exotic entourage from a far off land. Dignitaries in dress uniform lavish the newborn with expensive gifts that seem out of place in the humble surroundings. This event is so significant that it is accorded its own feast in the Roman liturgy, celebrated traditionally on January 6, following the the twelve days of Christmas. This solemn feast is called Epiphany, a word that means “manifestation” or “appearance.” What seems to be no more than another crying baby of an indigent family for a brief moment “appears” for who He really is–the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The gifts he is given, prophesied in Isaiah 60:6, tell the story: gold fit for a king, incense for the worship of God, and myrrh, bitter yet precious, for the hero who will lay down his life for his people. There are several important things to note about these prestigious visitors. They are Gentiles, not Jews. From the very beginning of his human existence, then, Jesus is clearly not just the Jewish messiah who has come to deliver the people of Israel from foreign oppression. No, he is the universal king, the ruler of all, who has come to tear down the hostile wall dividing Jew from Gentile, nation from nation. If you’ve ever wondered what the word “Catholic” means, here we have it. Derived from Greek words mean-ing “according to the whole,” it means that Christ did not come to establish some local religious sect for a select few, one “cult” among many. No, the Church he founded is “Catholic” or universal, spread over the whole world, welcoming the whole human race into one nation, one family, under one King. Something else about these illustrious visitors. As Gentiles, they are pagans. In fact the term “Magi” is clearly linked to the word “magic.” It was not in the Bible that they normally looked for wisdom (otherwise they would have known to go straight to Bethlehem). But in reward for their ardent though perhaps misguid-ed search for truth, God led them to Christ anyhow, in His great mercy. Ever since the days of Balaam, God has shown us that pagans can be mysteriously drawn to him and used by him, at times even through their own imperfect traditions of wisdom. If you go to the Sistine Chapel and study Michelangelo’s work, you can see evidence of this. Lining the top of one wall of the chapel are fa-mous paintings of many of the Old Testament prophets. Opposite them are not New Testament apostles as one may expect. But rather, a row of the Sybils, the prophetesses of the ancient world, in whose oracles there were discovered shadowy allusions to a future savior-king. One of Michelangelo’s Sybils has her mouth agape with astonishment, her eyes fixed on the fresco of the risen Christ at the back of the chap-el. Indeed, the deepest desires of all peoples, the elements of truth found in all their religions and philoso-phies, are fulfilled in Christ. Does this mean that all religions are equal and that we should not impose our ideas upon others? Not at all. St. Justin said that there are “seeds of the Word” scattered throughout the world. But seeds are meant to sprout, grow, and bear fruit. Hearing the full gospel and partaking in all the means of grace are ordinarily needed to make that happen. All peoples of the world have a right to this “Catholic” fullness. And it is our obligation to share it. Pope Paul VI said it well: “others may be able to be saved without hearing the gospel, but can we be saved if we neglect to preach it?” https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/feast-of-the-epiphany/

Yours in Christ, Sue Meyer

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“Like the Shepherds of Bethlehem, may we too, with eyes full of amazement and wonder gaze upon the Christ Jesus, the Son of God”

Pope Francis Tweets – 12/25/16 @pontifex

“Holy Family of Nazareth, help us all to recognize the sacred nature of the family and its beauty in God’s plan for humanity.”

Pope Francis Tweets – 12/30/16 @pontifex

“Let us entrust the new year to Mary, Mother of God, so that peace and mercy may grow throughout the world.”

Pope Francis Tweets – 1/1/17 @pontifex

Altar Servers

Parents, if your student is in the 3rd grade or above and they would like to be an

Altar Server at IC, please contact: Sue Meyer at joensue46@yahoo.com

Thank you, to all who serve our Parish!

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See more photos of program events

To see more photos from our events go to our website and look under Faith Formation then Pictures or Par-

ent Center then Pictures — http://imcffinformation.weebly.com/ or http://www.imconeida.org/ and

click on Faith Formation on the list on the left side of the page and follow same instructions. For more photos

of the blessing of our new addition go to www.imconeida.org and click on pictures (left hand side menu), then

on New Addition.

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Save the Date! (Dates to remember)

Jan. 18th - Grades 2nd—5th SPIRITUS Retreat from 6 pm to 7:30 pm — Note the extra 15

minutes.

Jan. 25th - No classes — Catechist In-service

Jan. 26th - First Eucharist Parent Meeting grade 2 - at St. Nicholas in Freedom - 6 pm

Jan. 29th (Sun) - Rite of Enrollment for 2nd and 11th grades during Mass

Feb. 19th (Sun) - Confirmation Retreat 10:15 am to 6 pm

Feb. 22nd - Grades 6th-11th SPIRITUS Retreat from 6 pm to 7:30 pm — Note the extra 15

minutes.

March 1st - Prayer Service - Ash Wednesday 6 pm with family and parish (all are welcome)

March 12th (Sun) — Bishop Ricken is coming to present our Accreditation during Mass

March 23rd — First Eucharist Retreat for grade 2 and parents 6 pm to 8 pm at St. Nicholas

March 24th-26th — Anchor TEC weekend for grades 10th & 11th (Friday to Sunday)

March 29th — K-11th grades — Stations of the Cross with family (all are welcome)

April 12th - Seder Meal - Confirmation candidate, Sponsor & Parents - 6 pm

April 12th - Service day for grades 9 & 10 - attend and help with Seder Meal — 5:30 pm

April 12th - Holy Week — No Classes for grades 1-8

April 20th - First Eucharist Practice for grade 2 and parents 6 pm (was 5:30 pm)

April 23rd - First Eucharist Mass for grade 2 and parents 8 am

April 26th - Closing ceremonies - All are Welcome!! Pizza party after prayer service.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH

I. C. Angels December 2016 Newsletter pg. 4