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Our Lady of Victory / St. Malachy
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SECOND SUNDAY

IN

ORDINARY TIME

 
CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST
Our Lady of Victory   St. Malachy
Sunday - 9:00 A.M.   Saturday - 7:00 P.M.


F O O D   F O R   T H O U G H T

Reading I Isaiah 62.1- 5 Responsorial Psalm Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Reading II 1 Corinthians 12.4 - 11 Gospel John 2.1 - 12
Food for Thought
  • The gospel writer tells us that this way was the first of Jesus’ “signs.” He means that in this story we have clear pointers to the presence of God in Christ.
  • What happened? What did Jesus do? What are the qualities of this God/man?
  • How does he move me?

January 14th, 2007


Pastor
William Marrevee s.c.j.
Email
Rectory
490 Charles Street
Gatineau, Québec J8L 2K5
Secretary
Monday and Thursday 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Telephone
(819) 986-3763
Fax
(819) 986-9889

A sincere welcome to those who are new among us. We hope you find a warm and welcoming faith-home with us. Please introduce yourself after Mass and call the Rectory to register.


M A S S       S C H E D U L E

WED. Jan. 17th - 9:00 a.m. OLV Larry Miller by Patricia Teske & family
SAT. Jan. 20th - 7:00 p.m. St. Malachy George Roos by Tom & Isabel Laframboise
SUN. Jan. 21st - 9:00 a.m. OLV Larry Miller by Ken & Monique Simpson
Clayton Lacelle by Alma Miller & family
Frances Costello by the O. L. V. Society

THINGS ARE BACK TO “ORDINARY” IN THE CHURCH
Thank you so much to those who took the Christmas decorations down earlier this week. That “closes” the Christmas Season, but it does not put an end to our living from what we celebrated in the Christmas Season: God’s gift of Jesus who in the power of the Spirit lives among us and is the enduring living source of our Christian identity.

Now we are into Ordinary Time as it is called in church language. It is very much as in life itself; we have our high and low points, and a lot of grey and ordinary areas in between. In all of it, Jesus Christ is the one who leads the way for us and in whom God graces us.

A REAL CHALLENGE - PREPARATION FOR SACRAMENTS
It really does not make much difference whether it is for baptism, for confirmation, or for first communion, but preparation for these sacraments has become for many such isolated incidents. And that causes a lot of uneasiness and in some instances also a fair amount of frustration.

Why? Because preparing for sacraments in isolation does not accomplish much. Ideally, the celebration of sacraments is part of a larger mosaic, namely that of the Christian life. It is only in the context of that larger mosaic of the Christian life that the sacraments make sense; apart from that larger Mosaic sacraments don’t amount to much and it is quite difficult to prepare for them.

That seems to be the situation we are in today. Many of us have lost the sense of the larger mosaic. Yes, we still ask for the sacraments for our children, because that is “the catholic thing to do” or we can say “been there, done that”. But we are at a loss when it comes to appreciating them for the role they are meant to play in the larger reality of the Christian life.

Why mention that “pastoral problem”? It is a fact of church life that all parishioners may need to take notice of. Here follows the way it is expressed in some preliminaries to the schedule we have drawn up for the parents who want to see their children get ready for their first communion:

  • Preparation for Sacraments on its own accomplishes very little. If it is to accomplish its real purpose, it has to be part of something more important, namely Formation to Christian Life. That is why our Bishop urges us to move from the practice of preparing for sacraments to the practice of forming to Christian Life. To make that switch is not easy. It can only be done in small steps.


  • This is not for children only. We are moving beyond special sessions for children only, isolated from the rest of the family and from the rest of the parish community. The younger members of our parish community are introduced into faith practices that are important to the wider parish community; they belong to that wider parish community which, in turn, has a stake in what they do.


  • Participation in Sunday Eucharist or “going to Mass” is really an Easter deed. That is why first participation normally takes place in the Church’s 50-day Easter season. That makes the preparation for the Easter season in the 40-day Lenten season and the celebration of the Three Great Days (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Sunday) all the more important. The preparation of our younger members for “their first communion” coincides with what as Church we are about in the Lenten season and in the Three Great Days.

HOW DO PARENTS AND THE LARGER COMMUNITY TAKE PART IN THEIR CHILDREN’S PREPARATION FOR FIRST COMMUNION?
The time that the school looked after it is past. But so is the time that parents could simply drop their children off and pick them up again after a number of sessions at church. Now the parents are very much part of the process in a number of ways.

But the parish community is to be part of it too. How do we do that? Here are some suggestions or possibilities:

  1. There will be two Sundays (most likely February 4 and March 11) that the children and their parents will be more formally recognized at our Sunday Mass. That will be done in a special ritual for them as part of the Mass.

  2. Parishioners that are interested may want to be part of the sessions that we are going to have with the children and their parents. The schedule for that will be available as soon as it is finalized (which we hope will be this coming week).

  3. ndividual parishioners or families may want to “sponsor” any of the candidates and their families. This could be done in the form of taking them under their wings, show an interest, provide baby sitting in case there are younger children in the family, pray with them and/or for them.

Of course, there may be other ways of getting this sort of involvement of the wider parish community. Please, keep in mind the motivation for this. The children and their families who are getting ready for first communion are our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Normally we would want to support them as they take an important step in their belonging to Jesus Christ to whom we belong too.

STATISTICS - OUR LADY OF VICTORY
YEAR
BAPTISMS
MARRIAGES
FUNERALS
2003
12
1
15
2004
4
1
8
2005
7
0
15
2006
8
2
16

STATISTICS - ST. MALACHY
YEAR
BAPTISMS
MARRIAGES
FUNERALS
2003
1
1
4
2004
2
0
4
2005
3
2
3
2006
2
0
3

INCOME TAX RECEIPTS - OLV
Please drop off a self-addressed stamped envelope in the collection basket or at the rectory, if you wish to receive an Income Tax Receipt for 2006.

CEREAL BAR DRIVE
Next Sunday, the third Sunday of the month is cereal bar day for the Buckingham Elementary School. There will be a box at the entrance of the church to collect your cereal bars and will then be delivered to the school during the week for needy children. Your support is appreciated.

SYMPATHY & PRAYERS
sympathy to the Michael Butler family. Please remember Michael (Mick) in your prayers.


W E E K L Y     R E C E I P T S
  Date Collection OLV St. Malachy

     Jan. 7th Regular $   593.00    $   261.00   
     Jan. 7th Support  345.00     80.00   


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490 Charles Street • Gatineau • Quebec • J8L 2K5
Telephone: (819) 986-3763
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