|
|
Alumni Reconnecting With Catholic Elementary Schools
|
Exculsive Connecticut and New York Campaign Feaures Celebrity Testimonials
the answer is elementary.
If you want to know what made me who I am, look no further than the Catholic elementary school system. It's the same place where today, our children achieve the academic excellence that will allow them to excel and continue to make the country great. Today, these elementary schools are under serious financial pressure. Recently, my school and others have closed. But there's a simple way to help.
Go online to clickyes.com and click YES to add your name and support to the growing list of advocates and alumni intent on preserving Catholic elementary education.
Together, we can create a new future for the schools that helped us realize our own.
-- Regis Philbin, TV host, Graduate, Our Lady of Solace Elementary School |
|
Vocations Corner
|
BECOME A SPIRITUAL MEMBER OF OUR DIOCESAN VOCATION TEAM
By Father Greg Galvin
During the past two and half years I have been visiting parishes around the diocese speaking about the importance of everyone in the family of God sharing the responsibility of identifying those in the family of God who might have a special call to serve the church as either a diocesan priest or religious sister, brother or priest. I have said that prayer is our most important tool. The vocation office continues to work at promoting and raising awareness of the need for Catholic single men to consider the possibility that God might call them to serve His family as one of His priests. This does not mean that because one may consider that possibility that they actually called to the priestly life. It also does not mean that every single Catholic female is called to religious life either. It does mean every one should consider the possibility as they try to figure out what God wants of them in this life.
As the year 2010 begins, I ask everyone in the family of God that makes up the Norwich Diocese to consider accepting a membership on the first ever Diocesan Vocation Awareness Team beginning the week of January 10th – 16th, which is National Vocation Awareness week, for the period of one year.
I am looking to create the first ever Diocese of Norwich Vocation Awareness Spiritual Team. The mission is clear cut – to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life for our diocese, including those who are presently seminarians studying for the Diocese and those men or women preparing to serve as a religious brother, sister or priest.
The Norwich Vocation Awareness Spiritual Team will be made up of different members, divided into different divisions, having different spiritual responsibilities for the year. Listed below are the divisions. You can choose to be part of the division you best find to be the best fit.
Spiritual Grandmother Spiritual Grandfather
Spiritual Mother Spiritual Father
Spiritual Brother Spiritual Sister
Spiritual Family Spiritual All - Star
Bishop
Priest
Religious priest, brother, sister
The responsibilities of each division are few but very, very important to the success of growing good holy vocations in our diocese to the priesthood and religious life. Those responsibilities are listed below:
Spiritual Grandmother or Grandfather – To offer one rosary per week for vocations and to offer your participation at Sunday Mass once a month for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Spiritual Mother and Father – To offer one rosary per week for vocations, to spend 15 minutes per week in quiet prayer before the Holy Eucharist praying for an increase of vocations
Spiritual Brothers and sisters: To offer one night of homework each week during the school year prayerfully for an increase of vocations and to pray at one Sunday Mass once per month for an increase of vocations.
Bishop and Priests: To pray one personal holy hour per week for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To keep in your general intentions at each mass to offer a prayer for vocations to the priesthood
Religious Priest, brother, sister: To pray one personal holy hour per week for an increase of religious vocations and priestly vocations. To keep in your general intentions at each mass you offer or attend a prayer for religious vocations for your order.
Spiritual All – Star: Pray one rosary per day for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, Pray one Holy hour per week for vocations and include in your prayers at each Sunday Mass you attend an intention for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life
Spiritual Families: To pray together one evening a week for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To Attend Sunday Mass once a month as a family praying for an increase of vocations.
If you are willing to join the Norwich Vocation Awareness Spiritual Team please either email me, Fr. Greg Galvin at vocations@norwichdiocese.net or call and leave a message at 860.887.9294 extension 246 or 248. |
|
Liturgy Notes
|
New Translation of the Roman Missal
By Sister Elissa Rinere, CP, JCD
In the coming months, there will be much talk in Catholic circles about the new translation of the Roman Missal. At their last meeting, the bishops of the United States approved the final changes, so the new year will probably see the new translation of the Mass finally put into use. The actual ceremonies of the Mass are not changing, but only some of the words spoken by the people and by the priest.
Since Vatican II approved the use of many languages at the liturgy, rather than Latin only, there has been a system in place in the Church to assure that our prayer as a Church is unified. Ideally, the Vatican issues an official Latin text for a particular ritual, and then each language group in the world takes that Latin text and translates it into the language of the country.
The most recent translation of the prayers of the Mass from Latin into English was done back in 1973. In recent years it was determined that a new translation should be undertaken to make our English prayers more closely resemble the Latin original. For instance, the Creed in Latin says “Credo in unum Deum...” The verb (credo) is singular. But in our churches, we are accustomed to saying “We believe in one God...” The new translation will be accurate to the Latin, so we will be saying “I believe in one God...” The new translation of the Nicene Creed contains several word changes of this kind.
Some of our music will have to change as well, since the words of the Gloria and some of the acclamations will be different. For instance, now we say or sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.” In the new translation we will say or sing, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will...” Composers are already at work to make musical accommodation for the changes in words and syllables.
Another example can be taken from the Communion rite, just before we receive the Eucharist. When the priest holds up the Host, we are accustomed to say “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, only say the word and I shall be healed.” The new translation is a more exact rendering of the Latin, which makes reference to a New Testament story in which Jesus offers to go to a man’s home to cure a sick person, and the man answers “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” We will repeat those words before receiving Communion when the new translation of the Mass is implemented.
There are some other word changes coming for the people, and many several more for the priests. Here in the Diocese of Norwich, we will begin holding workshops on the new translation later in 2010, following final approval of all the changes by the Vatican. After that, new Missals for the altar will have to be printed, and even missalettes will be changed. All this takes time and preparation.
Some might think that these word adjustments are not too important, but if we value our liturgical life together as Catholics, we will appreciate the principle of universal prayer and the unity it provides for us. Also, implementing the new translation of the Roman Missal gives us the opportunity to look again at the Mass, the center of our lives as Catholics, and to deepen our understanding of this great and timeless mystery. |
|
From Norwich Soup Kitchen to Haiti, Priest Finds Fellowship with the Poor
|
By Barbara Wysocki, Haitian Ministries Board Member
Father Jim Carini’s long commitment to the Office of Haitian Ministries began at the door of the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen in Norwich. At that time, Fr. Carini, who has been pastor at St. Matthew in Tolland since 1996, was in charge of Norwich Diocese’s Ministry for the Deaf, which was housed there. Though uncomfortable at first as the homeless came for their noon meal, he gradually recognized his own inner poverty. It was after those less fortunate befriended Fr. Carini that he was ready to accept what he calls “the Lord’s invitation” to join Bishop Daniel P. Reilly on the diocese’s first official trip to Haiti in 1982.
Fr. Carini vividly recalls the distinct, conflicting feelings he experienced in the midst of the Haitian poor. “I wanted to get away from it,” he said. “And, at the same time, I felt called to enter into it more fully.”
Clearly, it was the latter emotion that prevailed. After he returned to Connecticut, Fr. Carini worked with others in the Diocese, helping to organize two more visits—planting seeds that took root as a group formed to consider an ongoing connection with Haiti. Then in 1985, Bishop Reilly asked him to travel from January to May throughout the financially ravaged nation of Haiti to meet with clergy and laity, both local and international. He was accompanied by a Maryknoll lay missionary and, from Norwich, Sister Marilyn Channing, RSM. The three considered what it would take to create formal ties between Connecticut and this Caribbean nation. After his return, Fr. Carini worked on a task force, discerning Norwich’s relationship with Haiti. By 1987, the Diocese’s Norwich Mission House was established in Port-au-Prince, signifying a “commitment to a permanent presence in Haiti.” Later, Fr. Carini served on Haitian Ministries' first corporate board.
Two decades and numerous visits later, Fr. Carini continues to see the Lord in the faces of all he meets through the Norwich Mission House. In 1999, he and parishioners from St. Matthew visited Saint Pierre church in the town of Gauthier, which is in southeastern Haiti, not far from the border with the Dominican Republic. The Tolland community pledged themselves to a twinning covenant with their Haitian sisters and brothers at St. Pierre. Today, that commitment includes supporting teachers in the parish school and regularly welcoming Ganthier’s pastor Fr. Emmanuel to Tolland. Also, Fr. Carini returns annually to Gauthier with parishioners to strengthen their twin relationship.
Speaking as one who’s accompanied Fr. Carini many times, parishioner John Bouley said, “Traveling with Father Jim, we see a man living his faith. He keeps us focused. He reminds us to promise only what we can deliver.” Mr. Bouley is now a member of the Haitian Ministries board.
Reflecting on the value of mutual promises, Fr. Carini said, “As I look back over the years of our presence in Haiti, I can only say that God has been at work in bringing the people of our Diocese and the people of Haiti together in friendship and love.”
(For more information, see: info@haitianministries.org)
Editor’s Note: January 2010 marks the start of Haitian Ministries’ 25th year. In celebration of this Silver Anniversary and the many people within the Diocese of Norwich who have supported the ministry and the people of Haiti, this story looks at one of priests involved in the ministry’s beginnings.
|
|
Catholic Charities Profile – Jay Gelfond
|
By Molly Murkett
Jay Gelfond is the Housing Counselor at Catholic Charities in Norwich. He has been working there for over a year. Before he joined Catholic Charities, Gelfond was primarily a real estate industry appraiser. Now, he balances his time between the two jobs, and even had time to run for public office this year. This is his first time working for a non-profit organization.
Gelfond spends most of his time counseling clients, but also assists people through workshops about Foreclosure Prevention and Homebuyers’ Education. These services are free and available to the public, all over southeastern Connecticut. He is the only counselor that covers the geographic territory from Willimantic to New London.
“We strictly educate on the do’s and the don'ts,” Gelfond said. Through monthly homebuyers workshops, he focuses on educating clients about financing a home. Topics range from which agent to work with, to who can provide assistance with a down payment.
For those who are going through foreclosure, Gelfond also offers a workshop with information about the process in general and additional programs that provide assistance. When people begin to miss mortgage payments, they are referred to the different organizations, like Catholic Charities, that provide foreclosure prevention education. Many people are unaware of the free services available for those undergoing foreclosure.
“I don’t know if I see an end to this yet,” Gelfond said, about the housing crisis.
He said that he has observed the number of clients continue to grow over the past year. He currently sees an average of 20 clients on a weekly basis, most of them facing foreclosure.
Workshop attendees get first priority for one-on-one appointments with Gelfond. He found that the main reason behind foreclosure is not necessarily poor money management skills, but rather the loss of income and employment as a result of the economic downturn. He understands that the situations that bring his clients to him are stressful.
“I try to make it very, very relaxed for them,” Gelfond said. Upon meeting, he works to understand the financial situation his clients are in, and from there, he helps them create a budget. He teaches them how the bank perceives their finances, to prepare them for seeking a loan. He found that only a small percentage of new homebuyers are unprepared to afford financing a new home, but were primarily motivated by the $8000 allowance promised by the administration.
Gelfond said that while there are no official statistics, he has about a 90% success rate with his clients. He is conscious of providing a realist perspective, and not giving clients false hope.
“I feel like I’m servicing my community by helping people,” Gelfond said. He enjoys his work, from working with numbers to arguing with banks. Through the housing counseling program and professionals like Jay Gelfond, Catholic Charities continues to provide positive services and programs that help the community. |
|
The Midnight Arrival of Our Lady of Guadalupe
|
By Leticia Velasquez
Late Friday evening December 11th, in the bitter cold, a hundred parishioners of Sagrado Corazon in Windham processed through the streets of Willimantic in honor of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Led by a large lighted sign which portrayed Our Lady and her Basilica in Mexico City, the faithful carried statues of Our Lady and bouquets of roses as they sang, “Ven con nosotros a caminar, Santa Maria ven.” Which means, “Come and walk with us, Holy Mary”. Sisters of Charity Mary Jude, and Gabriela, led the singing alternating with decades of the rosary. Doors and windows opened as curious onlookers along the route of the procession were drawn into the spirit of prayer which emanated from the procession.
The midnight arrival of Our Lady’s image at Sagrado Corzaon in Windham was celebrated by a display of fireworks. Fr Pablo Murdock greeted the crowd at the door of the church, and the Mariachis struck up the traditional “Mananitas Tapatitas”, a morning serenade in honor of Our Lady, “How beautiful is the morning when I come to greet you. . . We salute you, Guadalupana”(Our Lady of Guadalupe). Bishop Michael Cote awaited the procession which filled the tiny church with color and song. He greeted the crowd who had come honor the Mother of God in Spanish. A skit re-enacting the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St Juan Diego taught the origins of this beloved devotion. Sister Mary Jude, SCMC, Director of the Hispanic Apostolate gave a short talk on the apparitions and then petitions were offered for Our Lady’s intercession.
Parishioners brought up their bouquets of roses to show their love for their Heavenly Mother, who is Mother of all the Americas, since when she appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, there were no borders between nations. Six million Native Americans converted after the apparitions, beginning the evangelization of the New World. Our Lady is a also patroness of the unborn, because, in her miraculous image on the tilma she is expecting baby Jesus. Many expectant and new mothers offered special prayers before her image, dressing their babies with replicas of the Tilma of St Juan Diego.
The final song of the prayer service was “Goodbye, Queen of Heaven” and the mariachis joined the procession out of the sanctuary downstairs where many hands had prepared a savory Mexican fiesta. Chicken Mole (chocolate sauce spicy with hot peppers), arroz con leche (rice pudding), and Mexican pastries were enjoyed as the mariachis played Mexican folk tunes. Sr Mary Jude, SCMC encouraged the crowd to continue the celebration of Our Lady’s feast day at St Patrick’s Cathedral later that evening.
Ven con nosotros a caminar, Santa Maria ven
Hacía mucho frió en la noche del 11 de diciembre, cuando más de cien parroquianos de la Iglesia Sagrado Corazón en Windham caminaron por las calles de Willimantic en una procesión en honor de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. En frente de la procesión, llevaban un estandarte con la imagen de Nuestra Señora y su basílica en México, DF. Los fieles llevaron estatuas de Nuestra Señora y ramos de rosas mientras cantaban, “Ven con nosotros a caminar, Santa Maria Ven”. Hermanas de la Caridad acompañaron la procesión, cantando y rezando el rosario. Muchos residentes de Willimantic abrieron sus puertas y ventanas para compartir el espíritu de oración que venia con la procesión.
La llegada en la medianoche de la imagen de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe a la iglesia Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en Windham fue celebrada con mucha alegría. Fuegos artificiales llenaron la noche con luz y color. El párroco, Padre Pablo Murdock,
saludó a la gente a la entrada de la iglesia, y los mariachis cantaron las “Mañanitas Tapatías”. El Obispo Michael R. Cote esperaba la procesión en el santuario mientras se llenaba de color y cánticos. El saludó a la gente quienes venían a honrar a la Madre de Nuestro Salvador. Después, se presentó un dramita de la historia de las apariciones de la Virgen de Guadalupe a San Juan Diego. La Hermana Mary Jude, SCMC, Directora del Apostolado Hispano, compartió sus pensamientos sobre la Madre de Dios.
Los fieles ofrecieron peticiones y ramos de rosas, confiando en la ayuda de su querida Guadalupana por sus necesidades. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe es Madre de todas las Américas por que cuando apareció a San Juan Diego en 1531, no habían ningunas fronteras. Más de seis millónes de nativos Americanos se convirtieron a la fe católica después de las apariciones, empezando así la evangelización del nuevo mundo. Nuestra Señora también es la patrona de los niños que aun no han nacido. En su milagrosa imagen en la tilma, ella está encinta del niño Jesús. Muchas madres con niños recién nacidos rezaron frente de su imagen, vistiendo sus niños con la tilma de San Juan Diego. La canción de despedida fue “Adiós, Reina del Cielo”, y los mariachis seguían la procesión de la iglesia hasta el salón social donde muchos habían preparado una fiesta especial.
La gente desfrutó de pollo con mole, atoles y postres Mexicanos mientras los mariachis tocaron música típica. La Hermana Mary Jude les animó a asistir a la misa de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe más tarde en la Catedral de San Patricio. Fue una celebración llena de alegría y amor por la morenita más linda, por nuestra madre del cielo.
Traducido por Leticia Velasquez |
|
Windham nursing home a celebration of living
|
By Colleen Egan
“No one dies alone at St. Joseph Living Center,” said Administrative Assistant Kathy Calvo during a recent interview. Despite being well known for its excellent end of life care, the Windham Center, true to its name, is more about the living than the dying.
St. Joseph’s, established in 1988, was brought into being by Sister Mary Christine of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church. With the help of community leaders, Sister Christine worked diligently for four years until the Center was dedicated on Aug. 20, 1988. Administrator Lynn Iverson said the Center was an “outgrowth of a need for a home for the aged.”
The St. Joseph Living Center is a 120-bed facility, with 30 of those beds dedicated to short-term rehabilitation. The remaining beds are for the long term care of the aged and infirm. According to RN Admissions Coordinator/Case Manager Valerie Oliver, the center offers physical, occupational and speech therapy, as well as IV care, wound care, cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation and other clinical procedures. A staff of nearly 200 employees cares for patients from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Short-term care patients are usually referred to St. Joseph’s from area hospitals, whereas long-term care often comes through word of mouth, or from physician referrals. There is a waiting list for long-term care beds.
The physical needs of patients are not the only thing St. Joseph’s provides for, say staffers. Both spiritual and recreational needs are also provided for. And patients do not need to be Catholic to receive services. “We accept people of all faiths,” they said.
The Center boasts of a beautiful, large chapel, which can accommodate 100 people including those in wheelchairs. The Rosary is said daily, as is Mass. The Center had a chaplain in residence until recently. St. Joseph’s also offers Protestant Services and a Protestant chaplain is available to residents 24 hours, seven days a week.
Therapeutic Recreation Director Diane Cordes said Hanukah was to be celebrated last month as the Center also houses Jewish patients.
Recreation is also an important offering at St. Joseph’s Living Center, which has its own bus to take residents to community events. Activities are held six days a week.
Resident volunteers help their peers by visiting other residents or helping push wheelchairs around. In addition, nearly 100 community volunteers help staff.
St. Joseph staff tries to make the Center as homey as possible. The Center boasts five free roaming cats, and multiple birds.
St. Joseph’s Living Center is renowned for its end of life care. Terminal patients receive pain management, social services and pastoral care. Sisters of Adoration are on staff and maintain vigil at the beds of the dying.
“End of life is our niche,” said staffers. “We get many referrals from hospice. I think St. Joseph has a very strong hospice of its own.”
Staff also said that family support is crucial to end of life care and each year the Center has a celebration of the people who have passed there, in which they invite all the families back.
The Center is currently fundraising for an end of life care suite to accommodate family members who would like to stay over and be close to their dying relatives. Donations are always welcome, earmarked for the end of life suite. |
|
Movie Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
|
Provided by the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops, Office of Film and Broadcasting
Though it contains positive messages about choosing loyalty over selfishness, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" (Fox) -- a comedy with music that mixes animation and live action -- presents these lessons to young viewers wrapped in an entertainment package that feels somewhat shopworn. Still, a bit of gently rude humor aside, the proceedings are unobjectionable.
Director Betty Thomas' extension of the 50-year-old Chipmunks franchise -- which includes hit recordings, a pair of television cartoon series and this feature's 2007 predecessor, called simply "Alvin and the Chipmunks" -- opens with its familiar trio of harmonizing rodents, brothers Alvin (voice of Justin Long), Simon (voice of Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (voice of Jesse McCartney), having a series of slapstick misadventures.
As a result of these, their usual protector Dave (Jason Lee) winds up in the hospital, and they end up in the inept care of Dave's cousin Toby (Zachary Levi), a gadget-obsessed slacker. On Dave's orders, Toby enrolls his new proteges in school, where Alvin's popularity with a clique of bullying athletes leads to membership on the football team and the temptation to leave his socially less successful siblings in the dust.
A school singing competition sees the high-pitched warblers pitted against their female opposite numbers, the Chipettes, made up of divas Jeanette (voice of Anna Faris), Brittany (voice of Christina Applegate) and Eleanor (Amy Poehler). Backing the Chipettes is unscrupulous producer Ian (David Cross), whose manipulation of the Chipmunks made him the villain of the previous film.
Out for revenge, and confident that the Chipettes are the key to his renewed success, Ian increasingly showcases Brittany to the disadvantage of her sisters, forcing her to face a moral choice between egotism and family faithfulness similar to the one confronting Alvin.
While this harmless, mostly routine offering may keep undemanding youngsters diverted, accompanying adults will likely find little to entertain them apart, possibly, from the spectacle of both singing groups giving the patented Chipmunks treatment to pop tunes by everyone from the Bee Gees to Beyonce.
The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. |
|
Twenty Something
|
Seize your second chance in this second decade
By Christina Capecchi
It is nearly impossible to recognize Danny Cahill, the Oklahoma land surveyor, in NBC’s Biggest Loser. But if you look closely, you can see him in the corners of his smile and the familiar glimmer in his blue eyes – hints of the former man, eight months and 239 pounds ago.
Today the 40-year-old dad is a reality TV star, peddling an eponymous website and a hit single. “This is your second chance at life. Don’t you wait there for it,” he sings. “Don’t let this chance pass you by ’cause you are ready for it.”
It’s an apt soundtrack to the footage he has given us: sweating on the treadmill, crying to the camera, stepping onto the scale, pumping his fists in the air and hugging his family as confetti cascades.
“I feel like a million bucks,” Danny told Meredith Vieira the morning after his victory. By losing 55 percent of his body weight, he has gained so much: cash, celebrity, confidence and, best of all, longevity.
Danny’s extreme weight loss makes him the Biggest Loser ever, a triumph we all can get behind right now. As the century’s first decade gives way to the second, we’re feeling a heightened desire for turnaround, an itching to up the ante on our typical New Year’s resolve.
Time magazine has added to our urgency, bidding farewell, on a recent cover, to “The Decade From Hell.”
“Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post-World War II era,” Andy Serwer writes. “Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.”
The magazine’s dramatic claim is laced with the promise, a subtitle, that the next decade will be better.
As Catholics we have cause for great hope – and a myriad of turnaround tales. The lives of the saints are full of second acts and second chances: heretics and hedonists, embezzlers and extortionists, gossips and gamblers and gang leaders who turn around and do great things for the glory of God. St. Augustine stopped denouncing the church. St. Olga stopped killing. And Mary Magdalene was freed of seven demons, becoming the first witness of Jesus’ resurrection.
Our merciful God has given us the grace of the sacraments and the power of reconciliation. “As far as the East is from the West,” David the Psalmist reassures us, “so far have our sins been removed from us.”
My favorite expression of that hope for transformation comes from the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.”
What a sweet and simple phrase: things that have never been. Mountains that have never been climbed. Prayers that have never been uttered. Cures that have never been found. Babies that have never been born. Books that have never been written. Dreams that have never been imagined.
For as long as our history here, there is so much yet undone, waiting to be breathed and willed into life. This new decade. This new year. This new day.
Maybe it’s your turn for a turnaround.
Christina Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights, Minn. Contact her at Christina@ReadChristina.com.
|
|
|
