Saint Marianne Cope Parish

Rev. Stuart H. Pinette, Pastor

St. Catherine of Siena 6 Windsorville Road

Broad Brook, CT 06016

Masses:

Sunday, 8:30 a.m.

Weekdays: Mon. - Thurs., 8:00 a.m.

Holy Hour: Tuesday, 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Parish Office: 6 Windsorville Road

Broad Brook, CT 06016

St. Philip the Apostle 150 South Main Street

East Windsor, CT 06088

Masses: Saturday Vigil, 4:00 p.m.

Sunday, 10:30 a.m.

Parish Rectory: 150 South Main Street

East Windsor, CT 06088

Parish Office Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Phone: (860) 623-4636 (ext. 101) Fax: (860) 292-8550

Website: smceastwindsor.org

Parish Office email: office@smceastwindsor.org

Fr. Stu’s email: frstu@smceastwindsor.org

Pastoral Assistant - Patty Woodward

Director of Music - Wendy Quinn

Pastoral Minister - Jan Albetski

email: JanA@smceastwindsor.org

Faith Formation Office: (860) 623-4636 (ext. 106)

Prayer Shawl Ministry: Tuesdays - 1:30 p.m. at St. Catherine Church

Altar Rosary Society Women’s Group:

First Monday of the Month - 7:00 p.m. at St. Catherine Church

Reconciliation Saturday, 3:00 - 3:30 p.m. • St. Philip Church

Baptism Second and Fourth Sunday of the month - Please call the parish office to make arrangements.

Pre-Baptism Class for parents and Godparents - 1st Monday of the month - 5:30 pm. at St. Catherine Church.

Matrimony Please call the parish office at least six months in advance before making any other arrangements.

New Parishioners Please call the parish office to register. Registration forms are also available in the church foyers.

Church Envelopes These are a regular way to practice Christian stewardship. Please call the parish office for more details.

SAINT MARIANNE COPE PARISH EAST WINDSOR

NEW PARISHIONERS – Welcome! There are registration forms on the resource tables in the foyers of our two churches. Just fill one out and drop it in the collection basket or return it to the parish office. You may also register by calling the parish office during weekday business hours.

YOUNG FAMILIES – At St. Philip Church, the quiet room is available for families with young children attending Mass, and at St. Catherine Church the foyer is available if your child needs a break.

PARISHIONERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS - The first pew in both of our churches is available for parishioners that have any type of physical limitations, and you may also receive communion while staying in your seat if you’d like. At St. Philip, those in the quiet room may proceed in front of the first pew for communion as well.

ANOINTING OF THE SICK - can be celebrated at any time for those who are ill or infirmed. When someone’s condition worsens, please call the parish office to arrange for Fr. Stu to visit and celebrate the sacrament rather then waiting until the final moments of their life.

PLEASE PRAY FOR – Leona Bard, Joyce Benoit, Jeannie Bernier, Emery Berube, Maria Brenza, Carrie Brezza, Brianna, Linda Brown, Inez Cabral, Helen Calsetta, James Conlin, Donald Daigle, Gabriel Desrocher, Eileen, Donald Fitzgerald, Laurie Gallipo, David Gieseke, Joanne Gird, Ciera Green, Mae Grigely, Regina Jackmauh, Concetta Kopp, Kristina, Auralie LaChance, Martha Leonard, Bill Mager, Ethel Morin, Rosemary Murak, Francine & Rita Nadeau, Mabel Ouellette, Laura Palmer, Donald Quist, Florence Reed, Rob & Lilly, Bob & Gen Roy, Maxine Schortman, Meghan Tully, Mike Urano, Mary Winn, Heidi Wormstedt, Deborah & James Wrann, Susan Dixon Wrann, Ellie Ziegler. Also, remember those serving in the armed forces.

The Pastor’s Desk This week is "Lay Witness Weekend” in our parish stewardship renewal, as Ed & MaryAnn share their stories about how they live as Christian stewards grateful to God. It also gives us a chance to re-flect on our third stewardship gift: the gift of treasure. As treasure stewards we’re called to make faith-filled giving a way of life. This can be challenging but it so changes the way we look at our lives and the choices we make that God becomes even more central to who we are. We can grow in living this way by keeping three things in mind. First, we need to prayerfully decide to give the "first fruits" of the material resources we have earned or acquired. Stewardship of time in prayer helps remind us of our blessings and how we can respond gratefully to these gifts. Then, treasure stewardship is a prayer-filled part of our sharing, reflecting a different vision of how we use our resources to build up the kingdom of Christ. The second element of good treasure stewardship is being re-sponsible to budget a certain amount to give back to the Lord each week, month or year, taking care to account for our needs and con-sidering our resources. In the same way that we plan for our regular expenses, sharing our treasure with God needs to be deliberate and a reflection of our love for the Lord and trust that he will provide. Be-ing a planned giver of our treasure means we really reflect on how much and how we give. Using stewardship envelopes becomes a way of being intentional about our sharing by giving God a special enveloped gift. The same goes for Online Giving, in which we sit down and plan our treasure stewardship so that week-in and week-out our faith-gift is shared with our parish. How much should we give? There's no set number. But we can start with a review of our level of giving now. Does God's portion of our resources come first and does it reflect our gratitude for God's generosity? The bible and church teaching call us to strive to give a tithe of 10% (5% to our parish through the weekly offertory, 2% to the Archdiocese collections, and 3% to other charities that serve the poor, needy and other community needs). We may not be able to reach that level yet, but we should be trying to move closer. In the end, our goal is to return to God and our parish a first portion of our gift of treasure and to do so consistently, making up for weeks when we're not able to worship with our parish family. The amount we give should make sense and really reflect our means and gratitude for the Lord’s gifts and presence in our lives. This leads to the final part of living as good stewards of our treas-ure: it should be a sacrifice. Our treasure commitment should nudge us to go beyond our comfort zone. Our gift becomes sacrificial when it causes us to make challenging choices about how we live out our dedication to the Lord. It may mean cutting back on our spending habits or adjusting our priorities. A good rule of thumb as treasure stewards: if we give and don't notice it, it's probably not a sacrifice. It is when something in our lives changes to give the gift back to God. We reconsider our values and the Lord’s place in our lives. And like in the gospel story of the widow's mite, something begins to happen inside of us. We draw closer to the Lord who sacrificed everything for us. We give in a prayerful, responsible, sacrificial way to assist oth-ers and help our parish grow and tend to its needs. Let’s keep this in mind as we reflect on all our blessings this week and fill out our Stewardship Intention Card for the coming year. Then, when we process up to the front of the church next weekend with our card at offertory time, we’ll be making a committed stewardship offer-ing to our faithful God who is always with us.

Scripture Readings - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5

Luke 20:27-38

SMC Stewardship Renewal 2019 Commitment Weekend

Over the past few weeks we’ve been reminded that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God. Living as respon-sible Christian stewards means answering our own personal call to be grateful followers of Jesus and imitate his life of service to others by sharing our gifts of time, talent, and treasure. We celebrated Sign-up weekend last week, with many folks stopping by the tables to share their time & talent in a particular ministry or parish activity. This week is Lay Witness Weekend as we listen to fellow members share their stewardship story while we call to mind our departed who lived faithfully in the past in our Masses of Remembrance. Next week, our stewardship renewal for this year comes to a close when we join in Commitment Weekend to live out the steward-ship way together at all our Masses. Over the next few days we’ll have a chance to reflect on the parts of our renewal so far and look ahead to how we’ll commit to stewardship in the new year. Everyone is invited to fill out their “Stewardship Intention Card” which was part of the packets that were mailed or made available on the resource tables. One side is for the Time & Talent parts of the stewardship journey, enabling you to write in or circle the various ways you’d like to be a steward-disciple both inside and outside the parish. There’s also space at the bottom to note any other way you serve our parish in addition to the ministries and activities listed. The other side of the Intention Card is to fill in your Treasure Stewardship for the coming year. In light of this week’s Pastor’s Desk, the stewardship pamphlet handed out in week 1, and your own prayer and reflection, please write your treasure commitment by entering in the amount and circling the frequency and means by which you will share your treasure. There’s also a place to take part in the annual collection as we tend to our yearend financial needs. Next week during our parish Masses, we will all have a chance to process forward to place our Stewardship Intention Cards in the basket near the altar area. This will be a symbol of our shared dedi-cation to growing as stewards of Christ as we deepen our relation-ship with the Lord and build up our parish in the months ahead. It will be a special weekend. Remember your Stewardship Card!

Altar Rosary Society News

This Monday, November 4th at 7:00 PM, our Pastoral Minister Jan Albetski, will be speaking about Funeral Planning at Saint Catherine Rectory. The parish Altar Rosary Society would like to invite any interested parishioners to this timely and informative talk. Please call Carolyn at 860.289.0572 and leave a message about any specific questions you would like answered to help Jan tailor the talk to those who are present. All are welcome to attend.

Cemetery Cleanup St. Catherine Cemetery will be conducting the Fall

cleanup during the week of November 10th. Lot own-

ers are asked to please remove any decorations they

wish to keep. Any decorations not in accordance with

cemetery regulations will be removed and discarded

as part of the cleanup. It is important that our parish

cemetery continue to look neat and clean for all who

visit. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

- The Cemetery Committee

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

What happens after we die?

If you’re hankering for the storybook heaven in which you get your heart’s desire and live happily ever after, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews just may support it. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1). Take note: Trust in God is the nonnegotiable price of admission. Eternity as the land of hopes is not a bad way to envision the hereafter. This may or may not include an endless supply of blue corn chips - but for me, heaven would be a nonstarter without them. After we die, we also get clarity. Whether that’s good or bad depends on the choices we make before the funeral: to seek the light of truth or to wallow in self-deception. If truth is our aim, we will “see [God] face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12). That’s St. Paul talking, and it’s a premise he advances several times with assurance. Paul describes our present perspective as a cloudy mirror image, unable to reflect the big picture. Prophecy never offers up all the secrets. Human knowledge is forever incomplete. Only death supplies the big reveal. Jeremiah allowed that God knows us intimately before we’re born. Paul claims that God returns the favor in eternity, initiating us into the divine mystery. This shouldn’t be surprising, since we’re made in the divine image to begin with, according to Genesis. If our mirrors weren’t so dimmed by excess of ego, we might be able to glimpse less of us - and more of God - right now. John confirms this destiny: When what will be is finally revealed, “we will be like [God], for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). John seems to push the envelope further than Paul, beyond “seeing” God to “being like” God. Our family resemblance to God will be burnished and set free at last. Halos, here we come! “We will all be changed,” Paul declares, as we surrender our mortal selves to immortality like a simple change of clothes (1 Cor. 15:51–54). Paul is fond of this idea, bringing it up again in another exchange with the Corinthians. He compares mortal bodies to tents - as a tentmaker, the metaphor comes readily to Paul’s mind. These fleshy tents are bulky and weigh us down. Our heavenly habitation will clothe us better, free of burden (2 Cor. 5:1–10). Paul is even more explicit in his correspondence with the Philippians. In the life to come we’ll share in Christ’s glorified nature, as Christ becomes all in all (Phil. 3:21). Does this imply that we’ll each adopt that “fuller’s bleach” (Mark 9:3) radiance displayed at the transfiguration? Fulfilled hope, clarity, liberation, transformation. Does anything else await us after death? Seriously, what more do you want? The sister who taught art at my high school used to say: “If God bores you, who in the world will entertain you?” We can trust that the beatific vision, whatever that everlasting face-to-face with God is, will satisfy.

Alice Camille in US Catholic, Oct 2019. All rights reserved.

“May the souls of the faithful departed, through

the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

Mass Intentions

Saturday, November 2

4:00PM +Departed Members of Saint Marianne Cope

Sunday, November 3

8:30AM +Memorial for Mary Miller

requested by Frances Keenan

10:30AM +Memorial for Martha O’Donnell

requested by her family

Monday, November 4

8:00AM

Tuesday, November 5

8:00AM +Memorial for Adele Miller

requested by Ann Marie Reichle

Wednesday, November 6

8:00AM

Thursday November 7

8:00AM

Saturday, November 9

4:00 PM

Sunday, November 10

8:30AM +2nd Ann. Memorial for Sandra Shick

requested by her husband James & daughter Tracey

10:30AM +Memorial for Adele Miller

requested by Allen and Carmen Pinette

Parish Sharing & Support (October 26 & 27)

Weekly Offertory - $2,998 Online Giving - $615

Thank you for sharing your gift of treasure with our parish.

We are called to be good stewards of our personal voca-

tions. St. Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians is therefore

ours, too—”that our God may make (us) worthy of his

calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good pur-

pose and every effort of faith.”

A Stewardship Prayer

Loving Father, you alone are the source of every good

gift. We praise you for all your gifts to us, and we thank

you for your generosity. Everything we have, and all

that we are, comes from you. Help us to be grateful and

responsible.

You have called us to follow your son, Jesus, without

counting the cost. Send us your Holy Spirit to give us

courage and wisdom to be faithful disciples.

We commit ourselves to being good stewards. Help us to

be grateful, accountable, generous, and willing to give

back with increase. Help us to make stewardship a way

of life.

We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who

lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and

forever. Amen. - Daniel Conway in “Stewardship”