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St. Emily and St. Thomas Becket Parishes
January 15, 2019
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Dear Families,
We had a wonderful Confirmation retreat this last Saturday with our candidates who will be confirmed in April. The retreat featured witness talks by seven high school students who have been through our sacrament preparation program. It was wonderful to see what they have learned - and to hear them be able to share this with their peers.
I hope you received your child's progress reports in the mail this last week. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. We hope to help everyone spend their time well in the program. Keeping account of this is one way we do this.
If you received notice that your son or daughter (third grade and up) needs to memorize a prayer or prayers, please check in with him or her and make sure that this happens. We only see the students one time a week. You see them for hours every day. The easiest way to memorize something is to say it daily. Like putting laundry in the hamper, brushing teeth or finishing homework, it might be something you need to mention to make sure it happens!
Check ups to see who has finished memorization will resume the week after next.
And, we have begun
collecting for Project Exodus. There is no better way to celebrate the promise of America - and live out the Works of Mercy - than to help a family begin a new life here in the United States.
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Learning about Islam
Special speaker on January 23
On January 23, we will welcome Ms. Karen Danielson to help our students learn about Islam. Ms. Danielson is an educator and a Muslim who has done various interfaith projects with the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Why speak about Islam?
- It is part of our responsibility as Christians to help our students understand about toleration and respect for all faiths.
- The Archdiocese of Chicago religion curriculum specifies material that students are expected to learn about Islam in fifth grade and above. (I would be glad to supply you with that material.)
- Kids have questions, and we seek to offer an expert who can answer them honestly and respectfully.
Parents are welcome to come and hear Ms. Danielson as well.
As with all speakers on topics that parents might find sensitive, we offer families the option of excluding their child from this activity.
Please let me know if you decide to take this option.
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Project Exodus
Help a family begin life in the United States
Project Exodus is an outreach project we have done the last four years. We collect the items that a family needs to begin life in the United States. (We don't take care of furniture - but all the rest, including linens, towels, and kitchen equipment.) We do this in conjunction with
Exodus World Service.
On the day they land to begin their new life, we meet them at their apartment and set it up so that they can settle in quickly.
We have helped families from Syria, Iraq, Myanmar, and Congo. We don't yet know who we will help this year.
There are 62,000,000 refugees in the world today. It takes between five and twenty years to apply for and receive refugee resettlement status in the United States.
How can you participate?
- Sign up to bring some of the items. Sit down with your kids and decide what you want to contribute and take them with you to shop. (Besides modeling generosity, I have found this project helps to teach kids about setting up a household!)
We hope to have all the items donated by February 13.
- Come with us the day we move them into their new apartment. Because we don't know when refugees will be arriving until about a week to ten days prior, this date is not yet set. Kids have a fantastic time meeting the arriving family and doing the work to set up. "It is like playing house, but with real stuff!" Let Cathy know if you'd like to be included.
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First Penance / First Eucharist News
Reconciliation Family Event in January
There will be a Reconciliation Family Event for parents and children to share this month.
- Thursday, January 24 at 7:00 PM
- Saturday, January 26 at 9:30 AM
Families can choose which one to attend. Both sessions will be held in Hajdu Hall at St. Emily.
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St. Emily Dinner Dance
February 9 - Buy your tickets now
The evening will include cocktails, silent and live auctions, dinner and dancing. Your presence is requested!
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Living the Beatitudes
The beating heart of the Gospel
We are winding up our exploration of Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation,
Gaudete et Exsultate.
The text continues after this, but I think we would all do well to ponder what living out the Beatitudes means in our day-to-day lives and call to holiness.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel (vv. 31-46), Jesus expands on the Beatitude that calls the merciful blessed. If we seek the holiness pleasing to God's eyes, this text offers us one clear criterion on which we will be judged. "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me" (vv. 35-36).
Holiness, then, is not about swooning in mystic rapture. As Saint John Paul II said: "If we truly start out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified". The text of Matthew 25:35-36 is "not a simple invitation to charity: it is a page of Christology which sheds a ray of light on the mystery of Christ". In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.
Given these uncompromising demands of Jesus, it is my duty to ask Christians to acknowledge and accept them in a spirit of genuine openness, sine glossa. In other words, without any "ifs or buts" that could lessen their force. Our Lord made it very clear that holiness cannot be understood or lived apart from these demands, for mercy is "the beating heart of the Gospel".
(#95-97)
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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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- January 23 - Speaker Night - Parents are invited
- January 24 and 26 - Reconciliation Family Event
- February 23 - First Penance Celebration
- March 6 - Ash Wednesday. Class time includes mass at 7:00 PM.
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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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