Seventh Sunday of Easter 5/21/2023

Parish life

Message from Msgr. Ivers

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD 05/21/2023

Faith

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

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

Mass Intentions

Saturday, May 20th Vigil May 20th Vigil

5:30pm Rober ta Chapey (Living) Roberta

Sunday, May 21st May 21st

T he Ascension of the Lord The Seventh Sunday of Easter Seventh of Easter

8:00am Peter Sammut, 8:00am Peter

Greg or y Fenech & Jose ph Zarafa Gregory Fenech & Joseph Zarafa

10:00am Emily & Jose ph Coleman

10:00am & Joseph Coleman

12:00pm All Parishioners

12:00pm All Parishioners

5pm Nemecia Contreras Nemecia Contreras & Belinda Mosquera & Belinda

Monday, May 22nd Easter Weekday 22nd Easter

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

Tuesday, May 23rd Easter Weekday 23rd Easter

12pm Jake Genova (Living) Genova

Wednesday, May 24th Easter Weekday May 24th Easter

12pm Caridad R. Bonifacio (Living) Caridad R. Bonifacio

T hur sday, May 25th Easter Weekday Thursday, May 25th Easter

12pmVirginia Lubrano Lubrano

Friday, May 26th St. Philip Neri May 26th St. Neri

12pm Souls in Purg ator y Souls in Purgatory

Saturday, May 27th Easter Weekday May 27th Easter

12pm James & Marg aret Downes James & Margaret Downes & son T homas & son Thomas

PRAYERS FOR THE SICK

Mary O’Connor Lynch, Anne Jason, Stephen Smail, Maurine Lynch, Michael Patrick Keating, Albert del Rosario, Ashley Wilson, Bruno Franco Adame, Susan Bacerra, Michael Reilly, Dorothy Condon, Marcelle Ferrier, Joana Jack, Cindy Garnica Castro and all those ill with or recovering from the COVID-19 virus and all Victims of Military Activities

PRAYERS FOR THE DECEASED

Michael O’Connell. Teeny Klaver, Mike Ward, Almuth Raspe, Bessie McKenna, Fr. Bernard Heter, Eugene Flynn & Isidro Manalad

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.

Baptism Announcement

Today, May 21st, there will be Baptism service at 1:30pm At this service we will be baptizing: Leah Stephanie Vera

Please join us in congratulating: Johnny Vera & Jeniffer Vera on their child’s new life in Christ

Bap sm Services are open for members of the parish to join in the welcoming of our newest members

Sanctuary Lamp

This Week’ Sanctuary Lamp

In Memory of Elizabeth & Diarmuid O’Connell

Offered by Ann Joseph

Bread & Wine

This Week’s Bread & Wine

Intentions for Anne Jason

Offered by The Tejada Family

St. Stephen of Hungary School

Pre-K through 8th Grade Catholic Parochial School

408 East 82nd St., New York, NY 10028

(212) 288-1989 Fax: (212) 517 – 5788

Principal: Ms. Allyson Genova-Hall

www.saintstephenschool.org

Interested in admission to our parish school? admissions@saintstephenschool.org

“EACH COMMUNITY HAS THE DUTY TO PROTECT THE EARTH AND TO ENSURE ITS FRUITFULNESS FOR COMING GENERATIONS.”

-- POPE FRANCIS

Remember and Act

Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, wrote dozens of books but may be best known for Night, an autobiographical account of his time as a teenager in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

The Nobel laureate committed his life to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. As a Jew, Wiesel knew the power of keeping memory. He understood the rabbis who said, “To remember is to give life; to forget is to let die.” He believed that by remembering the horrors of the Holocaust, humankind could never again repeat such an atrocity. Determined not to allow those who perished in the Holocaust to die in vain, he became a voice for the voiceless and a human rights advocate. He confronted hatred, bigotry, and intolerance and defended human dignity. He spoke out against the massacres in Bosnia and Rwanda and the burning of black churches in the United States. He championed the rights of blacks in South Africa and political prisoners in Latin America. For Wiesel, keeping memory and taking action were two sides of the same coin.

The relationship between keeping memory and taking action unfolds in our midst in each celebration of the liturgy. Memory is kept of the passion and death of Jesus, whose death atoned for our sins. And memory is kept of God’s power in raising Jesus from the dead. As Eucharistic Prayer IV states: Therefore, O Lord, as we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, we remember Christ’s Death and his descent to the realm of the dead, we proclaim his Resurrection and his Ascension to your right hand, and, as we await his coming in glory, we offer you his Body and Blood, the sacrifice acceptable to you which brings salvation to the whole world.

Keeping memory of the death and Resurrection of Jesus calls us to act. It urges us to offer ourselves in sacrificial love. It asks us to refuse to allow the death of Jesus to be in vain. So we too must become voices for the voiceless and advocates for human rights. We too must confront hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and defend human dignity.

At the entrance to the United Stated Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, are Wiesel’s words “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” May we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, be mindful of his death and Resurrection and bear witness to peace and justice for the dead and the living.

Photo © John Zich. Excerpt from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy. Permission to publish granted by the Archdiocese of Chicago on October 25, 2018.

Keeping memory of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ calls the faithful to act in the world.

“The

Five Minute Jesus

Using the Gospel for Prayer –Pentecost Sunday May 28, 2023

It’s simple. 1. Read the Gospel for the following Sunday slowly, reflecting on the story it tells. 2. Reflect on the questions assigned for each day. 3. Make some resolution about how what you read can be lived that day. 4. Then thank God for speaking to you through this reflection.

Gospel John 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Monday May 22nd

Was there something in this reading that spoke to me? Comforted me? Challenged me? What was it? Why did it have this effect on me?

Tuesday May 23rd

Sunday is referred to as “the first day of the week”; a reference to the old idea of Saturday as being the 7th day, the day of rest – first by God, then by humans, and in the kingdom, by all creation. In john, things happen on the first day of the week; notably, the resurrection and Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a symbol of the new creation. What is Sunday for me? Do I get to church? Do I try to make it a day different from the rest of the week? If so, how? If not, why not?

Wednesday May 24th

In John’s time, his community had already come to see themselves as separate from Judaism. This is ironic, as Jesus and his disciples were Jewish, as was probably the writer of the Gospel of John himself (we presume this due to his fascination with the temple, the Jewish liturgical year, as well as the fact that the language the Gospel was written in, Greek, was not his first language). It says they were afraid of “the Jews”. What do I think of my Jewish neighbors? What kinds of prejudices do I harbor against them? How do I square this with the fact that Jesus was Jewish, Mary his mother was Jewish, and theologians and even popes have paid homage to the fact that “Spiritually we are all Semites” (Pope Pius XI)? What steps can I take to counter that fear with respect and even thankfulness for our Jewish spiritual heritage?

Thursday May 25th

When English-speaking people greet each other, we wish one another a “good day/morning/evening”. We say “Hi”, a word most probably derived from the English “hail” – related, uncomfortably, to the German “Heil”. However, in Hebrew one wishes Shalom or “peace”. However, shalom in Hebrew is about more than the absence of war. It is about the restoration of relationships, and the healing and renewal of the world. Wishing one another “peace” is part of our Jewish heritage. It is the first thing Jesus says to his frightened disciples, and in that word, they hear the promise of the kingdom of heaven. Wishing one another peace, as we do at mass, is part of our Jewish heritage, and expresses the desire for the healing of the world. How do I treat that greeting, “Peace be with you?” Do I take it seriously? How can I take it seriously in my daily life so that the world, my own world, at least, might begin to heal?

Friday May 26th

Jesus sends his disciples. This is the root of the word we use to describe them: “Apostles”, a Greek word which means, “one who is sent”. Fundamental then, to being a Christian is being sent. We have a mission (another word which derives from the Latin word “to send”). Our mission in life is to discover what Christ’s mission for us is. We can’t do that, however, if we don’t ask in prayer. If we do not read and listen to his Word and participate in the life of the Church. Am I confident I know what God’s will for me in my life is, my “mission”? IF not, why not?

Saturday May 27th

As our world grows more secular, the whole idea of God’s forgiveness is strange. “Why do I need to be forgiven by God?”, we ask. Not so in the ancient world. They had a profound sense that the world worked the way it did because of a “divine logic” or Law. To live in harmony with that Law is to live in accord with God’s will. To break it was to sin – something which had real life consequences, which people experienced as punishment. Thus, forgiveness was important and the temple in Jerusalem was central to this in Judaism. Jesus gives his disciples the power to forgive each other. With this he supersedes the Temple in favor of the spiritual temple. i.e. the community of believers. Forgiveness is something we all want, and yet, when it comes to giving it, we are remarkably stingy. How easily do I forgive others? How often do I forgive? What keeps me from Following Jesus’ command to forgive?

Dear Parishioners,

As many of you are aware, I have been placed on medical retirement by the Archdiocese of New York. The reason is the difficulty I have been having with both knees (knee replacement and a second surgery on my right knee and anticipated replacement of my left knee.) Our rectory is a four-story building without an elevator, and it is most difficult for me to climb stairs.

Now that I am retired with no responsibilities for parish work, I have considerable time available which I wish to put to beneficial use. A friend suggested that I might offer to do spiritual direction for members of the parish, and I believe this is a wonderful idea. I spoke with Fr. Baker about this, and he is very supportive. I have had training in spiritual direction and am very comfortable in taking on this role.

A spiritual director assists an individual as he or she seeks to grow in their spiritual life and in their relationship with God. The director is a non-judgmental guide who accompanies a person on their spiritual journey, who does more listening than talking, asks reflective questions, offers suggestions, and helps the person discern how God is working in their life. Together, the director and directee allow themselves to be open to the working of the Holy Spirit as they seek to grow in holiness and faith. A person seeking spiritual direction needs to be serious about entering into this process and committed to the time it will take.

I would meet monthly with the directee for 45 minutes. This would be done virtually, either by Facetime or Zoom. There is no charge for spiritual direction, and anything said in the context of direction is held in the strictest of confidence.

If you might be interested in spiritual direction, please contact me by e-mail at msgr.ljivers@aol.com. I will then be in touch with you for further discussion.

In Christ, Msgr. Ivers