IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH

10670 SE Maricamp Road, Ocala, FL 3 472 P.O. Box 310, Candler FL 32 1

Parish Office 352-687-4031 352-687-8247 (a er hours) 352-687-1811 (fax) Email: office@ihmcatholicchurch.com Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 8:00am - 4:00pm Friday 8:00am– 12:00pm Website www.ihmcatholicchurch.com Weekend Mass Schedule Saturday 4:00pm Sunday 8:00 am & 10:30 am Daily Mass Monday– Friday 8:30am Confessions Saturday 3:15-3:45pm Call office for an appointment Anoin ng of the Sick Last Sunday of the month a er 10:30 am Mass

Administrator: Fr. Stephen Ogonwa (Fr. Seno)

Re red Priest: Fr. Ronald Oser Parish Deacon: Bob Duncan

Call the Parish Office for informa on regarding Sacraments of Bap sm and Marriage

Homily 2nd Sunday of Advent Year A. (Fr. Seno)

(Is11:1 – 10; Ps72:1 – 2, 7 – 8, 12 – 13, 17; Rom15:4 -9; Mt3:1 – 12.)

My dear friends, one of the images the prophet Isaiah uses to describe the Messianic age is that of a lamb lying down with a wolf and having nothing to fear. It is a picture of a time of universal peace – the strong would no longer prey on the weak, or the cunning on the innocent.

Advent, with its wonderful promises of a new world, takes us on a trip to a place called hope. If things and people were perfect, hope would not be needed. Hope is required precisely because we live in an imperfect world. We invest our hopes in flawed politicians. So why not in God?

Hope is very vital in life. We spend a great deal of our lives longing, waiting, and hoping for one thing or another. It is impossible to live when one is completely without hope. Hope is as important for our spirit as bread is for our body.

Hope does not mean sitting back waiting for things to happen. Hope spurs us into action. It is precisely because we have hope that we work so hard. We believe our efforts are worthwhile, and that they do make a difference. Our strength, our commitment, depends to a great extent on the degree and quality of our hope.

Hope is the trust that God will fulfill His promises in His way and in His time. The person of hope lives in the present moment, with the knowledge and trust that everything is in God’s hands. Hope springs from faith God will fulfill the promises He has made to us. He has given His word in Jesus. That word is the basis on which our hope rests. And that hope is an anchor of our lives.

All our great leaders were people of hope. They felt no need to know what the future would look like. They just tried to do what was right in the present and trusted that God would take care of the future. It was enough for them to know that God is a faithful God.

What the world needs is new people. Hence, the relevance for us of John’s call to repentance. To repent means to change our understanding of what is important in life, and to change our lives accordingly. Changed people will bring about a changed world. Be positive in your thinking and dealings with God and fellow human beings.

But what in practice can we do? St. Paul brings it down to everyday realities. He says, “Treat each other in the same friendly ways that Christ has treated you.” That would make a difference. It is easy to be critical, to be over – hasty in making judgements, to be intolerant of the faults of others. If we did as Paul suggests we would make the world, or at least the corner of it that we inhabit, a more hopeful place.

It is the task of all Christians to keep hope alive, and to set an example. However, we must not depend on results, but only on the rightness and truth of the work itself. We thank God for His blessings in the past and ask His help for what we must yet achieve.

Pastor’s Corner

My dear family of Immaculate Heart of Mary, before Jesus began his public ministry, John the Baptist went ahead of him to prepare the people of Israel for his coming. That is why John was referred to either as the “Precursor” or the “Herald.” John was the precursor and herald, but he was not the messiah or Christ, even though John was suspected of being the messiah before Jesus came on the public scene. As we prepare to commemorate that first coming of the Mes-siah at Christmas, the liturgy invites us to reflect anew on the message of John the Baptist.

The message of John was one word: Repent. That was what the people needed to do before the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah would inaugurate the kingdom of heaven right here on earth. Only those who had repented would be part of that kingdom. John had particularly strong words for the religious elite of his time, the Pharisees and Sadducees who thought they would gain automatic tickets to the kingdom simply because they were descended from Abra-ham. John called them a “brood of vipers”, and warned that, unless they too repented, they would be excluded from the kingdom.

My dear friends, repentance has two sides to it: one negative, the other positive. The negative side of repentance is that we must be committed to rooting sin out of our lives. That is to say, we should by no means feel comfortable living with sin.

The positive side of repentance is that we must turn our lives over completely to Jesus, so that our thinking must be His thoughts, our feelings should be His feelings, saying his words and doing His deeds. That is what some people have in mind when they say that we must accept Christ as our “personal Lord and Savior”. It is the state that St. Paul found himself in when he said, “…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

When we have successfully carried out the two sides of repentance – the negative and the pos-itive- that is when we are “born again,” “born from above,” as Jesus says we must be before we “can see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3) thus confirming the Baptist’s message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.”

CHRISTMAS & NEWYEAR MASS SCHEDULE December 24th : 4pm Children sings , Vigil mass 4:30pm

December 25th: 8am ,10:30am December 31st: 8:30am, Vigil Mass 4pm

January 1st: 8:30am

Mission Statement As a community of believers, we center our life and faith on the Eucharist, through which we are nurtured, nourished, sustained and transformed into faithful witnesses and disciples of Christ.

Saturday , December 7th

4:00 pm: Raymond &Keith Poplaski+ by Rose Paplaski Sunday December 8th 8:00 am: The Abale & Marano families by Jef-frey & Lucille Monday , December 9th 8:30 am Arella Trubin+, Caroline Hagger+ by The Shavers Tuesday, December 10th 8:30am: SI. Gaspar JR Rivera by Family Wednesday, December 11th 8:30 am: Thursday, December 12th 8:30 am: Friday, December 13th 8:30am: Parishioners L&D by friend Saturday , December 14th

4:00 pm: Mrs Comfort N. Ogonwa+ by Chris-tine Wessinger , Randall Buchanan+ by Angie Trevia Sunday December 15th 8:00 am: Fitzroy Scotland+ by Valda Scotland Aubrey 10:.30am: Special Intentions by Vuillemots, Fitzroy Scotland+ by Valda Scotland Aubrey

Monday: Gn 3:9-15,20 Eph 1:3-6 , 11-12 Lk 1:26-38(689) Tuesday: Is 40:25-35 Mt 18:12-14 (182) Wednesday: Is 40:25-35 Mt 11:28-30 (183) Thursday: Zec 2:14-17or Rv 11:19a;12:16a,10ab Lk 1:26-38 or Lk 1:39-17(690A) Friday: Is 48:17-19 Mt 11:16-19 (185) Saturday: Sir 48:1-4, 9-11 Mt 17: 9as, 10-13 (186) Sunday: Is 35:1-6a , 10 Jas 5:7-10 Mt 11:2-11 (7)

SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES

Monday: The immaculate Conception of the Blessed

Virgin Mary

Wednesday : Saint Damasus I, Pope Thursday : Our Lady of Guadalupe

Friday : Saint Lucy, Virgin and Marty Saturday : Saint John of the cross, Priest and doctor of

the Church

We are calling parishioners to assist us at the 4:00 pm Masses on Saturdays as Lectors and Altar Servers.

If you are having a Mass said for a loved one and would like to bring up the gifts, please notify the usher before Mass.

Advent Mission with Fr. Philip Scott. Dec. 9th – 12th 2019

At Immaculate Heart of Mary, Candler.

Fr. Philip Scott, FJ, is the Founder of Family of Jesus, a family of priests, brothers and sisters dedicated to Christ and His Church, bound by

private vows of obedience, chastity, poverty and martyrdom; praying to be healed and formed into a family by the Divine Family (Father, Son and Holy

Spirit) in order to live out in a prophetic manner their baptismal calling to follow Jesus Christ and to

be His instruments of healing for families, including not only the individual

domestic family, but also the broader family of the Church and of society.

They were founded by Father Philip Scott in 1998 under the auspices of Bishop Robert Lynch of the

Diocese of St. Petersburg. They have been missionaries in Chaclacayo, Peru, since January 10,

2003.

Advent Mission Program Topic: To Live the Glorious Freedom of the Sons of God and no Longer as orphans in the House of the FATHER! Topic: To Live the Glorious Freedom of the Sons of God and no Longer as orphans in the House of the FATHER! Monday – Wednesday: Morning Masses followed by a talk 2. Evenings: Confessions at 6pm. Followed by talk with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 3. Thursday evening: “Healing Mass of the Family”

Announcements

December 21,2019 The Social Hall @5pm

For fellowship , meet and greet Santa,

Magician ,Kids ac vi es and dance away with a live DJ.

Bring a dish and drink to share

Confessions: Saturday at 3:15pm and 1st Thursday of each month after Mass and by Appointment. Anointing of the Sick: The last Sunday of every month after 10:30am Mass or upon request. Baptism, Communion, Confirmation and Marriage: Call the Parish office. First Friday Devotion: First Friday of every month at 8:30 am Mass and Adoration until 10:00 am. First Saturday Devotion: First Saturday of every month, Mass at 8:30am. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena: Every Wednesday after 8:30am Mass.

Men and Women

Serving in the Armed Force Please offer a prayer for our loved ones serving in the armed forces and their families… John Benigno, Navy Shaisia Fredericks, Fort Bliss, El Paso, TX , Ryan Hudson, Navy Chicago, IL William Knorr III, Air Force, Afghanistan Allison Kirk, Air Force, San Antonio, TX Matthew Mills, Air Force, Grand Forks, ND ,Alex Rodgers, South Korea, Devon Smith, Navy Corpsman, Lemoore, CA,, Rebecca Uhlir, Coast Guard, Memphis, TN

Faith Formation Classes—Faith Formation Classes are held on Sundays from 9:15 am - 10:15 am in the Marian Center. Classes are for chil-dren, grades kindergarten to 8th grade. If you have not registered your child, you may do so prior to class. Please see Wendie in the Marian Center office.

FOOD PANTRY Thank you for your continued generosity and loving support. Food pantry is open the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month from 10:00am to 12:00pm. We need the following: canned vegetables, tuna & mayo, peanut butter & jelly, instant mashed potatoes, spaghetti sauce, macaroni & cheese, tomato products, canned pork & beans/beans, cereal, cookies, crackers and Jell-O.

Come and Spend Time with Our Lord

The Chapel is located in the parish office. Chapel is

open Monday-Thursday 8:00am-4:00pm and Friday 8:00am-12:00pm.

Respect Life invites everyone to their Special Christ-mas Pancake Breakfast. They will be serving breakfast from 8:00am to10:00am. on Sun-day, December 8, 2019 . Please come and support us.

The Parish Council is holding a 32” television raffle to help defray Fr. Seno’s travel expenses to Nigeria for his Moth-er’s Funeral in January. Tickets are $5 each and 6 for $25. They will be sold a er Mass. The drawing will be at the Parish Christmas Party on December 21st. Winner need not be present to win. Cash or check dona ons are also welcome. Make checks out to Fr. Stephen Ogonwa.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Staff Parish Office Manager….. Lyndy E. Garrett Maintenance Supervisor…Paul Londo Maintenance Assistant…...Doug Voorhies Faith Formation Director...Wendie Ricketts Music Director………… Robert Luft

Offertory Contributions November 10, 2019 Offering Env Census 4:00 pm 968.00 53 8:00 am 978.00 28 10:30 am 816.00 37 95 Loose cash & checks 817.00 Total: 2,762.00 118 350 Poor Box 132.94

The Thrift Store is opened on Mondays through Fridays from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm. Contact them at 352-687-1304 Tell families, friends and neighbors to donate to the IHM Thrift Store. We need furniture donations, pick up is available, just call the parish office at 352-687-4031.

We have BINGO every Monday from 12:00 pm -3:00 pm in the social hall. Packets are $12, $20 and $30. You can purchase hamburgers, hotdogs, egg salad & grilled cheese, snacks and soda at the snack bar. Coffee is free.

Religious Article

Store

Our religious article store is open as follows: Saturdays before and after the 4:00 pm Vigil Mass. Sundays before and after the 8:00 am and 10:30 am Masses. We need volunteers to assist with all the Masses. If you are interested, please contact the office at 352-687-4031.

EVERYTHING IS HALF PRICE.

Women Group Meeting December 19th @ 1pm All ladies of the parish welcome

Hospital Pa ents, Nursing Homes & Rehabilita on Pa ents

If you know you are going into the hospital, nursing home or a rehabilitation center for awhile, please call the office. If it is an emergency, ask a family member or friend to call. After office hours, please call Fr. Seno at 352-687-8247

CHURCH NAME AND ADDRESS Immaculate Heart of Mary Church 10670 SE Maricamp Road Ocala, FL 34472 #521635 TELEPHONE 352 687-4031 CONTACT PERSON Lyndy E. Garrett EMAIL: office@ihmcatholicchurch.com SOFTWARE MS Publisher 2010 Adobe Acrobat DC Windows 7 TRANSMISSION TIME Friday 11:00am SUNDAY DATE OF PUBLICATION December 08 2019 NUMBER OF PAGES SENT 1 through 8 SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS