January 17, 2021
Sunday AFter theophany (Tone 8)
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COLLECTIONS
1/10/21: $3,027.50
Online: $ 270.00
ALL SOULS' SATURDAYS - Dear Parishioners, by mistake you will find more envelopes for All Souls' Saturdays in your boxes this year. I wanted you to know the dates of the All Souls' Saturdays this year, so I put all the dates on 1 envelope and instead they printed 5. Please, in case you want to have these remembrances of your relatives who preceded you to Eternity, use only one envelope as was the custom of previous years. Thank you very much!
WHY WE ARE PRAYING FOR DECEASED? - Last year, I received the question from you: what's the point of prayers for our deceased relatives? Isn't it already decided for them? Can I pray for the past? Well, the response is simple (can be also difficult and long but I prefer to keep things simple): God is beyond time. It's only us who live in the time and we think relatively to the time. But God knows from Eternity everything and he knows also about the prayers of yours on behalf of the others and of the others on behalf of yours. In such a fashion you can also pray about the conversion of St. Augustine (and I have a good message for you: if you do, you certainly will be successful!) You can praise God for the things from your past when you remember how God saved you or prevented you from committing some grave things. This praise is also a prayer that helped you at that moment to overcome that difficult situation. Israelites were thought to remember all the glorious deeds of their forefathers to ponder and praise God for His marvelous deeds. And with this understanding, we - Catholics - are praying for our deceased relatives and we are teaching our children because one day they will be offering these prayers on our behalf. Prayers on behalf of our predecessors and on behalf of our inheritance (we pray both for living and the dead) are not any superstitions but acknowledgement of God's majesty and rule over the history of salvation.
PRAYER REQUESTS - Please pray for Andy Mascella and all nursing home residents. If there is anyone you would like prayed for please submit their names to htssbulletin@gmail.com by Monday so that they will be included for the following week’s bulletin.