19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 8/13/2023

Mission Statement

The Roman Catholic Parish of St. Monica-St. Elizabeth of Hungary-St. Stephen of Hungary opens its doors to welcome and embrace all in our community. We strive through worship, hospitality and service to receive those seeking a spiritual home. In the midst of diversity of thought, life style, nationality, economic status & age, we endeavor to live as a community of faith and invite you to join our familya family seeking to know and love Jesus Christ.

Parish Staff

Pastor: Rev. Donald C. Baker ............................ frdcab@stelmo79.org

Weekend Associate: .................................... Rev. Anthony Ciorra, IVD

Weekend Associate:...............................................Rev. Edward Beck, CP

Pastoral Associate: Ms. Maryann Tyrer ........ mtyrer@stelmo79.org

Music Director: Mr. John Zupan .................... jzupan@stelmo79.org

Wedding Coordinator: Ms. Debbi Burdett.....dbweddingsnyc@gmail.com

Parish Manager: Jennifer DeSpirito.............................jdespirito@stelmo79.org

Plant Manager: Guillermo Vanegas .......... gvanegas@stelmo79.org

Sacristan: Pedro Pizarro ...................................ppizarro@stelmo79.org

Administrative Assistant: Gladys Tejada ..... gtejada@stelmo79.org

Mass Intentions

Saturday, August 12th Vigil Saturday, 12th

5:30pm Jozsef Tomahatsch 5:30pm Tomahatsch

Sunday, August 13th Sunday, 13th

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinar y Time Nineteenth in Ordinary Time

Church Address : 413 East 79th Street, NYC 10075

Parish Center: 406 East 80th Street, NY, NY 10075

Tel: 212-288-6250 Fax: 212- 570-1562

Email: info@stelmo79.org

Our Offices are open:

Monday & Wednesday 9am - 4pm

Tuesday - Thursday ....................................... 9am - 7pm

Friday ....................................................... Closed

Saturday ................................................. 10am - 2pm

Sunday ..................................................... Closed Closed for Lunch Weekdays..................1pm - 2pm

Visit us at: www.STELMO79.org

Follow us on social media by searching STELMO79

Mass Schedule

Daily Mass: Mon-Sat, 12 noon

Saturday Vigil: 5:30pm

Sunday: 8am, 10am, 12pm & 5pm

Confessions: Saturdays at 5pm or by appointment

8:00am John R. Flack, Lars Matton

8:00am R. Flack, Lars Matton & John J. Mor ris & Morris

10:00am Virginia Tuosto

10:00am Virginia Tuosto

12:00pm All Parishioners All Parishioners

5pm Dolores St. Mar tin Dolores St. Martin

Monday, August 14th 14th

St. Maximillian K olbe Kolbe

12pm T hanksgiving 12pm Thanksgiving

5:30pm K atalin Kovecses Katalin Kovecses

Tuesday, August 15th August 15th

T he Assumption of the The of the Blessed Virgin Mar y Blessed Mary

12pm Priest of St. Monica’s Priest of St. Monica’s

Wednesday, August 16th Weekday 16th

12pm Souls in Purg ator y Souls in Purgatory

T hur sday, August 17th Weekday Thursday, 17th

12pm Finola Breslin Finola Breslin

Friday, August 18th Weekday 18th

12pm Maureen Freer Maureen Freer

Saturday, August 19th Weekday 19th

12pm Isabel & Javier Litrenta (Living) Isabel & Litrenta

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament

Every Friday after the Noon Mass until 3pm in the church and live on-line

Devotions

Miraculous Medal on Mondays after Mass in the church and live on-line

Divine Mercy

Prayed every Friday at 3pm in the church and live on-line

Vespers (Evening Prayer)

Every Friday at 5:10pm in the Chapel and live on-line

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Saturdays at 5pm or by appointment

Anointing of the sick

Every third Saturday of the Month after the noon Mass.

Baptisms & Marriages

Please call the rectory office for more information.

Communion for the Homebound:

If you know of anyone who cannot attend church because of illness or age, and would like to have communion brought to them, please contact the Parish office, so that we can arrange for a Eucharistic Minister to bring communion to them.

PRAYERS FOR THE SICK

Judith Farber, Camille Madonna, Caroline Yurkutat, Christopher Elliot Lewis, Maurine Lynch, Danielle Boros, Linda Clarke, Mary O’Connor Lynch, Bruno Franco Adame, Susan Bacerra, Michael Reilly, Dorothy Condon, Marcelle Ferrier, Joanna Jack, all those ill and Victims of Military activities

PRAYERS FOR THE DECEASED

Proceso Lopez, Mary Reginio, Thomas Acheson, Margaret Biggs, John Paul Chihorek, William Bahr, Juzefa Rezgiene, Michael P. Keating, Eugene Flynn, Lorraine Vaccari, Michele Chigrinsky & Marie Sheridan

Weekly Readings & Observances

Readings for the week of August 13, 2023

Sunday: 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a/Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14 (8)/Rom

9:1-5/Mt 14:22-33

Monday: Dt 10:12-22/Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20/Mt 17:22-27

Tuesday: Vigil: 1 Chr 15:3-4, 15-16; 16:1-2/ Ps 132:6-7, 9-10, 13-14/1 Cor 15:54b-57/

Lk 11:27-28 Day: Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab/Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16/ 1 Cor 15:20-27/Lk 1:39-56

Wednesday: Dt 34:1-12/Ps 66:1-3a, 5 and 8, 16-17/Mt 18:15-20

Thursday: Jos 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17/Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6/Mt 18:21—19:1

Friday: Jos 24:1-13/Ps 136:1-3, 16-18, 21-22 and 24/Mt 19:3-12

Saturday: Jos 24:14-29/Ps 16:1-2a, and 5, 7-8, 11/Mt 19:13-15

Next Sunday: Is 56:1, 6-7/Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 (4)/Rom 11:13-15, 29-32/Mt

15:21-28

Observances for the week of August 13, 2023

Sunday: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Monday: St. Maximillian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

Tuesday: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Wednesday: St. Stephen of Hungary

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday: St. John Eudes, Priest

Next Sunday: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

©LPi

St. Stephen of Hungary School (SSHS) offers a life changing education through a supportive, nurturing and faith-filled environment. Educating the whole child through a growth mindset, students are challenged to think critically and creatively while solving complex, real world issues in our everchanging global community.

Consider this:

Overall proficiency in Math and ELA as per the New York State Exams and in MAP Growth Subject Assessments (Kindergarten – Grade 8) ranks SSHS in the top 5 percent of schools in the Archdiocese of New York and the top 15 percentile nationally.

The Class of 2023 has received close to $1 million in merit scholarships at highly-rated high schools in the metropolitan area, including Regis High School, Convent of the Sacred Heart and Marymount School. Our dedicated and highly committed faculty work collaboratively in preparing students to be passionate leaders and life-long learners. Our campus features unique learning spaces including outdoor classrooms in our rooftop garden & turfed play yard. With a dedicated Parents Association and active SSHS Foundation, our community is truly a gem on the Upper East Side.

Choosing the right school for your children is one of the most important gifts you can bestow on them. For more information about applying to SSHS, your parish school, please email jdickson@saintstephenschool.org

The Preparation of the Gifts

To set a table is a sign of hospitality. A beautiful table setting not only invites diners to feast at the banquet, but also gives reason to anticipate what is coming and to wait in hope. Setting a table is an essential aspect of the preparation of a meal.

Just as tables are set in homes and restaurants, the altar is set before the Eucharistic meal. The corporal, the chalice or chalices, the purificator, and the Missal are placed on the altar. Then the gifts for the poor, support for the needs of the Church, and the bread and the wine are brought forward.

From the earliest centuries, people have presented food and other items for the needy during Mass. The offerings of candles, oil, wheat, grapes, and other items connected the gifts offered in the Eucharist with gifts of Christian charity. It was customary to think of every gift to the Church and to the poor as a gift to God and to designate it as an offering. Many cultures still bring food items to the altar along with the bread and the wine.

Why are bread and wine brought to be consecrated for our Eucharistic food and drink? Those are the items that Jesus, as an observant Jew, used at the Last Supper when he commemorated the Passover meal with his disciples. These foods are still staples in the Mediterranean diet. When Jesus blessed the bread and wine at that ritual meal, he was telling the disciples that from then on, it would be his Passover that they would remember, celebrate, and share. Thus, the most sacred food of the Jewish Passover meal has become the very essence of the Eucharistic meal.

Jesus used bread and wine to signify his passing from death into new life. In the Mass, bread and wine are significant symbols of the death and Resurrection of Jesus. When grains of wheat are planted, they must die (John 12:24) in order to become the food we enjoy. Shafts of wheat are cut down and ground into flour before the dough is mixed to produce bread. Likewise, grapes are planted and harvested, crushed and

fermented to become wine. Both of these processes involve a continual cycle of dying in order to become a new substance.

After the bread and wine are placed on the altar, the priest blesses them by giving thanks to God. The prayer that begins “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation” comes from a Jewish table blessing, called berakah. A similar prayer is said over the cup. These prayers bless God for creation and sanctify human work, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands.”

The prayers remind us that we offer our human toil, the labor that comes from our hearts, along with the bread and wine to be transformed anew by God’s grace.

Photo © John Zich. Permission to publish granted by the Archdiocese of Chicago on October 25, 2018.

With the bread and wine, the faithful offer their human toil and labor so that they, too, will be transformed during the liturgy.

Five Minute Jesus

The Gospel according to Matthew 15:21-28 Monday

will return next week Just a Word

GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE

August 13, 2023

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A man at my parish was struggling to overcome a habitual sin. He said to me, “Father, I know the chance that I will commit sin again is really high. Why should I keep confessing my sins? Isn’t that dishonest?” Anyone who has felt the tyrannical power of sin — and who hasn’t? — has pondered this kind of question.

I responded to him, “What was the probability Peter would walk on the stormy water?” After some silence, he said, “Zero. But when Jesus called, he did it.” I could tell my penitent friend was re-framing the question from his own weakness to the greatness of the Lord’s love for him. The question for us should not be one of human probabilities about our sin, but rather whether or not we will trust the Lord’s grace in our lives.

This week the Lord is calling you and me to do the impossible: overcome sin with love. The only way to do that is to trust he is calling, and then to walk with the eyes of faith locked on him. And if we sink, he will raise us up again and again. Of that, we can be 100% sure.

— Father John Muir ©LPi