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St. Emily and St. Thomas Becket Parishes
December 4, 2018
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Dear Families,
Next week, December 12, is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Under this title, Mary is the patron of the Americas.
Fun fact: the biggest crowd on this feast day is at the basilica in Mexico City, where more than a million gather.
The second biggest crowd in the world is at the Shrine in Des Plaines, a mile east of St. Emily.
The moral of the story: On next Wednesday,
please leave early and plan to make a wide circle to avoid River Road, Wolf Road, and Central near the Shrine.
Our storm last week reminds us that it makes sense to take note of our
Emergency Closing procedure
. It is a good idea to visit the site below and sign up for alerts, in case we need to close on a class night.
The Queen of Hearts Raffle at St. Emily continues. The raffle pot is building up and will increase until the Queen of Hearts is drawn. Drawings are held weekly. Come to the St. Emily office to buy tickets. It's a fun and exciting way to support the parish.
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 Keeping Advent
At home and in our class sessions
It isn't too late to help your children have a meaningful Advent.
Make sure to put up the Advent calendars they received and look for what to do each day during the season.
One wonderful tradition that we would recommend is
lighting the Advent wreath at home each evening. Kids love ritual, and being able to light the candles (or blow them out if they are still little) is part of the fun.
Combine it with grace before meals. Take the time to pray for family and friends in need of prayers. End with the Our Father, Hail Mary or Glory Be. (This helps if you have a child still working to memorize any of these!)
A few minutes of quiet family time in prayer is an enormous gift to give your children.
Simcha Fisher is raising ten children and keeping her sense of humor. You can find some quick tips on how to keep Advent in your house on her
Advent cheat sheet.
Join us here at St. Emily for Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction on December 19. We'll take the students to church in staggered shifts. You are welcome to join us there, beginning at 6:30 PM.
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Was your child in our Sunday pre-school?
Come Back And Sing!
St. Emily's Sunday School is celebrating 10 years!
To mark this milestone,
we would like to invite all former Sunday school students to join us in singing "Light One Candle" (our traditional Advent song) after communion during the 9:30 AM mass on December 16.
We will have a brief practice on December 9 after the 9:30 AM mass.
Please contact Barb Zediker at
barbzediker@comcast.net or 847.650.5308 with questions and to let us know if you will be able to sing with us.
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Immaculate Conception
on December 8
Holy Day of Obligation
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the patronal feast of the United States and is a holy day of obligation.
Masses at St. Emily are at 7:00 PM on Friday, December 7 and 8:30 AM on Saturday, December 8. Masses at St. Thomas Becket are at 7:00 PM on Friday, December 7 (bilingual English and Polish) and 9:00 AM on Saturday, December 8 (English.)
The evening masses on December 8 will be to mark the Second Sunday of Advent.
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Breakfast with Santa
Join in a fun Christmas event on December 15. There will be two sittings, at 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children.
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Christmas Eve Family Mass
Children are invited to participate
Please join us in celebrating the birth of Jesus at the St. Emily Christmas Eve Family Mass at 4:00 PM. If any children of the parish in Kindergarten through 8th grade are interested in participating,
email the information form to Jen Kottra by
Wednesday, December 12.
Children participating in the Children's Choir are also welcome to participate in the living gospel.
The mandatory practice for the Christmas Eve Mass will be held on Tuesday, December 18 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the church.
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Share Your
Christmas Blessings
Donate a Gift for a Needy Child
My name is Jeff Prostko and I am a sixth grade catechist for the St. Emily/ St. Thomas Becket Religious Education program and the coordinator for the
River Trails School District #26 Holiday Give-Away. River Trails School District #26 is roughly bounded by Central, Rand, Camp McDonald and River Roads.
I am asking for your help this year. It is a great way to demonstrate service to the community.
To participate, you would purchase a gift worth about $15, wrap it and put on the tag whether the gift is for a boy or a girl and the age range of the child.
The need is greatest for older children (12-13 years old.) If you want a simple gift idea, a gift card to Target (around $15) wrapped around a candy bar makes a great gift.
Return your gift by Wednesday, December 12 to the St. Emily RE office.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call me at 224-522-1806 or email me at
jprostko@wowway.com. Thank you for your consideration.
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New Year's Eve Dinner and Dance
St. Thomas Becket - December 31
Join in the fun and ring in the New Year. There will be dancing to the music of The Rangers Band. A full sit down dinner and hot hors d'oeuvres will be served. Included is a free bottle of alcohol and champagne for each table. New Year's Eve accessories, too! Tickets are $80 per person. Please call for tickets: 847-827-9220.
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St. Emily Dinner Dance
Save the Date for February 9
Thank you for your generosity! We received contributions toward the raffle basket totaling $250. The committee chair was very appreciative and I thank you as well.
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Living the Beatitudes
More in our exploration of Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation,
Gaudete et Exsultate.
Pope Francis now moves on to consider each Beatitude in turn.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."
Mercy has two aspects. It involves giving, helping and serving others, but it also includes forgiveness and understanding. Matthew sums it up in one golden rule: "In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you" (7:12). The Catechism reminds us that this law is to be applied "in every case",especially when we are "confronted by situations that make moral judgments less assured and decision difficult".
Giving and forgiving means reproducing in our lives some small measure of God's perfection, which gives and forgives superabundantly. For this reason, in the Gospel of Luke we do not hear the words, "Be perfect" (Mt 5:48), but rather, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you" (6:36-38). Luke then adds something not to be overlooked: "The measure you give will be the measure you get back" (6:38). The yardstick we use for understanding and forgiving others will measure the forgiveness we receive. The yardstick we use for giving will measure what we receive. We should never forget this.
Jesus does not say, "Blessed are those who plot revenge". He calls "blessed" those who forgive and do so "seventy times seven" (Mt 18:22). We need to think of ourselves as an army of the forgiven. All of us have been looked upon with divine compassion. If we approach the Lord with sincerity and listen carefully, there may well be times when we hear his reproach: "Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?" (Mt 18:33).
Seeing and acting with mercy: that is holiness.
(#80-82)
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Emergency Closing Information
Know how to be informed
We hope that all our Wednesdays are sunny and dry, but it is Chicago and we realize that winter weather is no joke.
If we find it advisable to close, we will send a blast email to all families that day.
We will also post any closings at the
Emergency Closing Center. Please check there to make sure.
You can also sign up there for email alerts that tell if and when the Religious Education program cancels.
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- December 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception
- December 12 - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
- December 19 - Eucharistic Adoration in the church.
- December 26 and January 2 - No Class
- January 9 - Class resumes
- February 9 - St. Emily Dinner Dance
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St. Emily Parish
Catherine Crino, DRE
847-299-5865
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St. Thomas Becket Parish
Renata Sosin, CRE
847-296-9051
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