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TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME A
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BR
EAKING OPEN THIS SUNDAY'S READINGS
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How do we know what God will do? That might seem like a useless question, for we cannot know the mind of God; he does what he wills. But, we can get hints. In
Isaiah 22
, one officer in the king's court was promoted over another; the prophet described the advancement in terms of God's judgment. The man advanced because he was a virtuous and faithful man. We, too, are called to be faithful. In this way, we can learn the will of God.
In
Psalm 138
, the author thanked God for his quick answer to prayer and his presence, even in times of trouble. YHWH is the God of all, for he is with us, no matter where we are or what shape we're in.
In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul reminded his audience that God deserved praise because he works in mysterious ways. His will is beyond us, but his providence always works for our good.
In
Matthew's Gospel
, when they were alone, Jesus asked his followers a simple question: "Who do you say I am?" That question from Matthew's gospel has rung down the centuries as THE question of faith. Answer the question and you will know where you stand with Jesus. Simon Peter answered the question for most followers: "You are the Christ, the son of the Living God." In that answer, Peter defined followers as believers in the Messiah, the Savior
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Most relationships we have with others assume some honesty. We like to believe that others see us the way we see ourselves, or others will be honest enough with us to mention ways of improvement. OF course, there are times we need feedback, so we ask: "How am I doing?"
When Jesus asked his followers a question about his identity, he wasn't asking them for feedback. Instead, he was asking for honesty. He wanted to know where they stood. Did his followers really know him and his mission? Were they really with him? Those are questions that are still pertinent with us today.
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This great pope was born Joseph Sarto in 1835. He was the son of a mailman in Riese, Italy. Joseph was given the affectionate nickname of "Beppi." When Joseph decided to be a priest, he had to make many sacrifices to get an education. But he didn't mind. He even walked miles to school barefoot to save his one good pair of shoes. After he was ordained a priest, Father Sarto labored for the people in poor parishes for seventeen years. Everybody loved him. He used to give away everything he had to help them. His sisters had to hide his shirts or he would have had nothing to wear. Even when Father Joseph became a bishop, and then a cardinal, he still gave away what he owned to the poor. He kept nothing for himself.
When Pope Leo XIII died in 1903, Cardinal Sarto was chosen pope. He took the name Pius X. He became known as the pope of the Holy Eucharist. Pope Pius X encouraged everyone to receive Jesus as often as they could. He also lowered the age for children to be permitted to receive Holy Communion. Before that time, boys and girls had to wait many years before they could receive the Lord. He is also the pope of religious instruction. He believed in and loved our Catholic faith. He wanted every Catholic to share in the beauty of the truths of our faith. He really cared about every single person and their spiritual and material needs. He encouraged priests and religion teachers to help everyone learn about their faith.
When World War I broke out, St. Pius X suffered greatly. He knew so many people would be killed. He had said: "I would gladly give my life to save my poor children from this horrible suffering." Toward the end of his life, he also said: "I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor." He never kept anything for himself, right to the end of his life. Pope Pius X died on August 20, 1914.
Pope St. Pius X was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954. He was the first pope to be canonized in 242 years.
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St. Pius X understood the importance of religious education. Teaching children to love God and preparing them to receive the sacraments was very close to this pope's heart. Is there a way we can honor his legacy by helping out in our parish religious education program?
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LECTORS - EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS - ALTAR SERVERS
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Coming to St. Joseph September 2017!
Ministry Scheduler Pro (MSP) makes it easy to customize your personal ministry schedule and coordinate with other family members who serve.
MSP sends you a text or email reminder the week you're scheduled and makes finding a sub super simple, with a click. Learn more...
Watch for an invitation to customize your scheduling preferences this summer!
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ST JOSEPH RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE
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W
E HAVE BEEN BLESSED BY A DONOR
(who wishes to remain anonymous)
WHO VERY GENEROUSLY UNDERWROTE THE FIRST TWO
MONTHS OF OUR NEW PROGRAM.
PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS PERSON
BECAUSE GOD KNOWS WHO SHE/HE IS ..
You are probably asking yourself what this familiar sign from Route 7 and 133 has to do with
St Joseph Pro Life Committee
. Well, a few months ago the
Pro-Life Committee
thought we should begin to bring our pro-life message from the church to the community.
Let's face it, for the most part we are preaching to the choir when it comes to the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death... "Life" is God's greatest gift to the world and it needs to be protected and defended. I am sure we would not get too much resistance about that from our SJC faithful but spreading the message needs to be ubiquitous... (like Geico).
We believe that the community at large is not as informed or convinced of what we believe and why we believe it, so
St Joseph Pro-Life Committee, under the leadership of chairperson Pat Tharrington, want to bring our message public and to do so using local bulletin boards.
Recently, we have gotten quite an education on the location bulletin boards and their monthly rental fees. We looked in New Milford, Danbury, Brookfield and Newtown. We seem to be able to get the best value for our investment right in our backyard from Dr Jenny Conner's office on Federal Road ... and the months of November and December are available.
The monthly rental is $1100 and the one time set up for the ad itself is $850 and it is reusable. This is much more affordable then some of the others boards on more heavily travelled roads.
To fund this endeavor, we have begun a program called the weekly $
Five $ for Life
Envelope Campaign.
Beginning this week we will have gray envelopes in the pew holders requesting financial assistance for our Pro-Life Bulletin Board Campaign. We are trying to raise enough $FIVE$ to fund the November/December bulletin boards to kick off this campaign. We will replenish these envelopes each week and give you a running count of where we are in our goal process.... once we make our goal, we will secure the current bulletin board contract and then go in search of another available board to target and for which to save.
St Rose of Lima in Newtown does a similar program however, they have an
archangel that ensures financially that they have always have a Pro-Life message on Route 6 for the community to think about... If this is your passion and you have the where with all, please let us know.
In light of the above great news and because a parishioner who does an awful lot of business with LAMAR signs has stepped forward to help us with other signs locations and funding leverage, we will continue with our $FIVE$ for Life program to fund future bulletin boards with our messages for life.
Thank you for your support of this very worthy campaign!
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ST JOSEPH CHURCH 125TH ANNIVERSARY FAMILY PICNIC
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ST. JOSEPH'S 125TH ANNIVERSARY PARISH PICNIC
Sunday September 17 12noon - 4pm
ADVANCE TICKET PRICES $5 PER PERSON - $10 FAMILY MAX (LIMIT 6)
DAY OF PICNIC PRICES $8 PER PERSON - $15 FAMILY MAX (LIMIT 6)
"FAVORITE DISH" TENT SIGN UP BEFORE SEPTEMBER 10TH
SIGN-UP SHEETS AND PANS IN THE VESTIBULE VOLUNTEERS!!!!
WE
ALSO
NEED DESSERT MAKERS PLUS
COOKS,
GENERAL HELPERS,
SETUP & TEAR-DOWN, ETC.
WORK FOR 1 HOUR ... PARTY FOR THREE
MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK!
SIGN UP SHEETS IN THE VESTIBULE AFTER MASSES
COMPANY/
FAMILY SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE
$100 EACH FORMS IN THE VESTIBULE OR AT THE PARISH OFFICE
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THE 5 @ 6 AFTER MASS & HOTDOGS AND STUFF
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HELP NEEDED FOR SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER
We began two additional social events at St Joseph on Sundays to the already popular Coffee and... after the 9am Family Mass. They are the
5 @ 6 After Mass
after the Saturday evening Mass and
Hotdogs and Stuff
after the 11:00 Mass on Sunday. They are both well attended and enjoyable however
we need assistance
so that the same people are not carrying all the workload.
There will be sign up sheets at the future events to request assistance for future weekends into October. Please consider adopting a weekend or two so that we can keep these great social events going...
Thank you to those of you who have stepped forward to assist thus far.
And great big THANK YOU to Suzanne and Paul Holko for faithfully offering the Coffee and Donuts after the 9am Sunday Family Mass year round for the past many years.
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Education in the context of Faith is Wisdom
As many of you know, our wonderful principal Mr Scott Bannon was offered a position as Assistant Principal of Notre Dame High School in Trumbull this past June. Although we will miss him very much at St Joseph School for all the wonderful educational and institutional innovations he brought to SJS, we know that this offer was one that he could not let slip away and we wish him well and God's blessings in his new position.
Thankfully, the Holy Spirit is alive and well and with St Joseph, watching over our wonderful school. That is most evident in that after an extensive search of several highly qualified applicants,
Ms. Dina Monti has been named the new principal of St. Joseph School and we are very blessed indeed.
Ms. Monti has more than 26 years experience as a Catholic school principal. In making the announcement, Dr. Steven Cheeseman, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Bridgeport, said "Ms. Monti is a proven academic leader and is committed to making sure that students will be well prepared for high school and beyond. In addition to Ms. Monti's strong academic credentials, she is committed to sharing her deep faith with young people.
Ms. Monti comes to St. Joseph School from Stamford, CT, where she was principal of St. Cecilia and Holy Spirit Catholic Schools. She previously served as principal at Our Lady of Fatima School in Wilton, and as principal and teacher at Catholic elementary schools in Bronx, NY. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Fordham University and a Master in Education in School Administration & Supervision from Iona College.
Please welcome Ms. Monti to our St. Joseph Community!
COME AND SEE WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT.....
YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID!
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WWW.STJOSEPHBROOKFIELD.COM
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We are proud to present our new and improved website!
There are many new features and Catholic content ...
- Static content about the Catholic faith, what Catholics believe, becoming Catholic, the Sacraments and more.
- Daily Meditations: Readings to help parishioners and visitors find a way to set the day in context.
- Faith In Action: Stories about real people and their experiences, plus guides and games for family activities.
- Catholic News and Perspective: Regularly updated news items covering the most pressing Catholic issues.
- Convenient links for electronic contributions applications
- All masses will now be streamed live to the website and Facebook Live and then archived when completed for later viewing - after a week of technological hiccups, learning curves and Mother Nature, I thing we have it locked in... (prayer hands emoji)
- Link to the Pastor's weekly eNote and a link to the Pastor's blog
- Photo albums from many of the parish events over the past year under the Parish Life Tab
- Parish Calendar of Events
IF YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN THE APP FOR YOUR SMART DEVICE YET HOLD OFF FOR A WEEK OR SO... THE COMPANY WHO DESIGNED OUR WEBSITE IS CREATING A NEW MORE POWERFUL APP THAT WILL ALLOW US TO ACCESS ALL THINGS ST JOSEPH CHURCH QUICKLY AND EASILY ....
....TO BE CONTINUED...
Take a look and enjoy...
May God bless your travels through our new site with inspiration and peace!
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ST JOSEPH CHURCH GOES
GREEN
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St Joseph is going GREEN and the work continues...
Very quiet around SJC this week... some electrical/solar punch list activity in preparation for the Town of Brookfield and Eversource Inspections to go live with the panels... I've learned not to depend upon "promised" schedules .. and to be patient... it comes with age.
However, this is still a very exciting time for our parish, and it is especially timely in that these upgrades will be completed as we celebrate our 125th Anniversary year of serving the community of Brookfield.
I'll update again next week but feel free to talk to me after Mass or call the office if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thank you and God Bless you!
PROGRAM OVERVIEW (from previous eNotes)
In a nutshell, the Federal Government, in conjunction with the State of Connecticut, the Town of Brookfield, Eversource Utilities, and the Connecticut Green Bank have offered a solar program called - the C-Pace Program.
Early last year the Diocese of Bridgeport reached out to pastors and principals in the Diocese and presented this program to us as a viable way to upgrade our aging infrastructure. The cost of the upgrades is offset with solar credits from solar panels installed on the school building and by the reduction of annual energy costs by upgrading the HVAC systems in our buildings to high efficiency systems while thoroughly upgrading the foundation, walls and roof insulation to maximum R-factor ratings. In effect we use less by maximizing insulation R-values while minimizing overall energy usage through high efficiency HVAC systems thereby reducing energy costs.
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Let us pray for those in our parish who were recently welcomed through
the Sacrament of Baptism
PARKER WYATT SPARACO
MATTEO JOHN COLUCCI
RONAN MICHAEL VIZE
May their lifetime journey in faith sustain them and light their way.
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Let us celebrate with great joy those within our parish who have recently joined hearts and hands in the most sacred union of Holy Matrimony.
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May God continue to bless them and keep them in his watchful care for the rest of their lives as the two of them became one in their new seamless union of love.
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FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
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Let us pray for those in our parish who have entered into their eternal rest,
....
Eternal rest grant unto them
O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them..
May they rest in peace.
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JUST A FEW THOUGHTS TO PONDER
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*** NEW ***
ST JOSEPH CHURCH 2016/2017 YEAR END FINANCIAL REPORT
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| Yours in Christ Jesus, 
Rev. George F. O'Neill
Pastor
(please excuse my typos etc...)
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