APRIL 2022 STOCCC GAZETTE

Saint Teresa Catholic Community a CACINA Parish

april 2022 GAZETTE 3803 Haines Road North, St. Petersburg, Florida Friday, April 1st, April Fools’ Day Wednesday, April 13th, Thomas Jefferson Birthday

Sunday, April 17th Easter

WWW.STOCCC.ORG

LIVE MASS LIVE STREAMING EVERY SUNDAY 10:30 AM

CHURCH CALENDAR Stations of the Cross video is found on the website at: www.stoccc.org

• Friday, April 1, 9:00 am, First Friday Mass

• Additional Liturgical Dates for April 1 Fri Saint Hugh of Grenoble 2 Sat Saint Francis of Paola, hermit 3 Sun Fifth Sunday of Lent, Saint Benedict the African 4 Mon Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor of the Church 5 Tue Saint Vincent Ferrer 6 Wed Saint Crescentia Hoess 7 Thu Saint John Baptist de la Salle, priest 8 Fri Saint Julie Billiart 9 Sat Saint Casilda 10 Sun Palm Sunday, Blessed James Oldo 11 Mon Saint Stanislaus, bishop and martyr 12 Tue Saint Teresa of Los Andes 13 Wed Saint Martin I, pope and martyr 14 Thu Holy Thursday Triduum, Blessed Peter Gonzalez 15 Fri Good Friday Triduum, Blessed Caesar de Bus 16 Sat Easter Vigil Triduum, Saint Bernadette Soubirous 17 Sun Easter Sunday SOLEMNITY, Saint Benedict Joseph Labre 18 Mon Saint Apollonius the Apologist 19 Tue Saint Alphege 20 Wed Saint Marian 21 Thu Saint Anselm of Canterbury, bishop and doctor of the Church 22 Fri Saint Abdiesus 23 Sat Saint George 24 Sun Sunday of Divine Mercy SOLEMNITY, Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen 25 Mon Saint Mark the Evangelist 26 Tue Saint Cletus 27 Wed Saint Simeon 28 Thu Saint Peter Chanel 29 Fri Saint Catherine of Siena 30 Sat Saint Pius V, pope

For Readings Visit: https://bible.usccb.org/F

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Friday, April 1, April Fool’s Day Sunday, April 3, 10:30 am, Fifth Sunday of Lent LIVE STREAM AND MASS Wednesday, April 6, 9:00 am, Morning Mass on CACINA Facebook Friday, April 8, 6:00 pm, PLG load vehicles Saturday, April 9, 8:00 am, PLG Popup Sunday, April 10, 10:30 am, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion LIVE STREAM AND MASS Sunday, April 10, 12:15 pm, House Of Ministry Meeting, Teresa Room on Zoom Wednesday, April 13, 9:00 am, Morning Mass on CACINA Facebook Thursday, April 14, 7:00 pm, Maundy Thursday Mass LIVE STREAM AND MASS Friday, April 15, 7:00 pm, Good Friday LIVE STREAM AND MASS Saturday, April 16, Holy Saturday, No Mass Sunday, April 17, 10:30 am, Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord LIVE STREAM AND MASS Wednesday, April 20, 9:00 am, Morning Mass on CACINA Facebook Sunday, April 24, 10:30 am, Second Sunday of Easter LIVE STREAM AND MASS Wednesday, April 27, 9:00 am, Morning Mass on CACINA Facebook

FELLOWSHIP AFTER MASS:

We are starting back up with refreshments in the Teresa Room following Mass. Coffee and water, cookies or pastries.

There is a sign-up sheet on the wall in the Teresa Room just over the fellowship table.

Please write your name on the Sunday for which you want to bring cookies; the church provides drinks.

If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Giddens or Paula Thomas Baker

All for One and One for All! Help in clean up would be much appreciated!

friday April 1st

HAPPENINGS Upcoming Birthday and anniversaries for the month

UP BIRTHDAYS CO MI Rev. Dr. Mary Foley 2 April NG Thomas Applegate 2 April Maria-Pilar Portell 12 April BIR Shelli Muncy 15 April TH Mike Munsell 28 April DA Y AN D AN NIV ERS ARI ES for There is something unbelievably the Mo crazy happening at church nth PC “Breaking News” "CHECK IT OUT" OM Holy crap! You won’t believe the crazy stuff ING BIR happening at church right now!

TH DA ("CHECK IT OUT" ) Y AN D

ANNIVERSARY

Breaking News!

GOTCHA: HAPPY APRIL FOOLS’ DAY ***********************************

Easter’s Bottom Line = Hope For Christians and non-Christians alike, there’s a powerful message in the ancient Easter Story.

While I’m not surprised so many non-Christian friends embrace Christmas with all its secular festivities, I am intrigued to find so many who are also wildly fond of Easter. As this holiday seems so specifically Christian in a theological sense, why does it resonate so much with non-believers or practitioners of other faiths?

Some enjoy the egg coloring, Easter egg hunts, Easter bunny, and the chocolates. To others Easter signals the end of winter and the warming promise of spring.

One friend said, “I’m not certain about all the details your faith story presents, but I like its bottom line.” I asked what he considered Easter’s “bottom line” to be. He said, “The bottom line is hope. Just don’t give up hope. Even when everything has gone wrong and you feel all captured and sealed up and despondent, victory might be just around the corner.”

My “spiritual but not religious” friend identified the essential bottom line take-away message of Easter for us all: “Don’t give up hope; victory might be just around the corner.”

In the biblical Easter story, it seemed that all hope was gone for those who believed that Jesus was Judaism’s long-awaited Messiah when they witnessed his murder by Roman soldiers on a Friday at mid-day and saw their hopes and dreams die, too. But the biblical accounts say that a few women went to give his body a proper burial on Sunday morning and found the tomb empty. The end had been transformed into a new beginning. In the pain and fear they experienced on Friday, they could not know that victory was just around the corner.

Years ago Duke University Divinity School professor Dr. Richard Lischer stated: “When Jesus emerged from the tomb, all his friends came out with him.” That’s the hopeful message that inspires us never to give up. Whatever tomb may hold us captive, from unhealthy relationships to economic disadvantage, from divisiveness to prejudice, “the present moment” is not the same as “the final word.”

New beginnings often spring out of painful endings. Who has not seen a person lose a job, only in time to discover a career? Or lose a relationship, only in time to discover a true and lasting romance?

Or lose an exaggerated ego, only to discover an authentic life?

Good Friday is a painful reality. But just around the corner from the shadows of every Good Friday is the breaking dawn of Easter.

I am reminded of the Thomas Edison story, where he finally succeeded in creating a light bulb after a thousand and one attempts. When a reporter asked how it felt to fail a thousand times, Edison replied, “I did not experience a thousand failures. Instead, I took a thousand steps to success.”

Perhaps beyond each “failure,” there is the very real possibility of growth, enrichment and “success” in the essential and spiritual meaning of the word.

I believe in the religious hope associated with Easter, the hope of life beyond this life, a kind of life that death cannot touch. But for those who don’t believe, there’s still a powerful message in the ancient Easter Story. As my friend put it, “The bottom line is hope…even when everything has gone wrong, victory might be just around the corner.”

Dr. Michael B. Brown

An Open Letter to those who have NOT yet come back to Church!

Non-church-goers — hi.

I know you're there. I know there are a lot of you. Or at least, there are a lot more of you than you've been made to believe. You haven't been back to church since, oh, March 2020. Maybe you have watched every online service or not a single one, or somewhere in between. No matter what, I want you to know I see you. I want you to know that I get how hard this stage of your faith life is.

How deciding to come back to church inside of the building on a Sunday at a specific time and in person, or not, feels a lot more complicated than you ever anticipated it would be almost two years ago. I know how some of our pandemic life felt like a reset — a breath even — and in that time you were able to look at the parts of your life and reevaluate anything that felt like a "had to."

I get that when you really thought about it, church was one of those things.

Maybe you weren't sure why you were going, or if it was something you even wanted to do in the first place, but week after week you found yourself getting to church on Sunday morning. And then you discovered that not going felt better than going on most Sundays. You discovered a love of easy Sundays without getting ready or leaving your house. You learned that a slow and steady walk in that wild area near your house felt more like church than trying to wrangle a kid or your own attention through a sermon. You found that what you gained somehow had more meaning than anything you lost. So you haven't come back. And there might not even be a "yet" on the end of that sentence.

You haven't come back, and I know that you might not ever come back.

If that's you, I hope you'll hear and trust my next words to you: Choosing to not attend in-person church, or attend any church at all, doesn't mean you don't believe in God, or that your faith is somehow lacking. It's just not true, even if you've been told it is by someone else.

I know there are a lot of reasons you may have decided to stay away, and I hope you hear me when I say that each and every one of them is valid. I get that maybe you aren't sure what you believe anymore, but whatever it is certainly doesn't look like what it used to look like, and you know you won't find it going back to the way things were. I understand that you might not feel like it's safe to gather yet, for you or for someone you love, and you don't trust that the people gathering will make decisions based on your safety.

I get that you don't want to come back yet and that it feels like the church is moving on without you, that you are being left behind and left out. Valid. All of this is valid. And I get it. I get all of it because I feel it too. I too, feel anxious about big groups of people. I feel unsure about what I believe anymore, or if I even believe at all. I don't know if I trust my neighbor to look out for me. I am so tired and want a break. I know, I know, pastors aren't supposed to feel this way. Or if we do we certainly aren't supposed to say it out loud. We're supposed to model faith without fear and confident leadership in the face of unprecedented challenges. But I can't. I feel all the things you are feeling too. And I want you to know that you are not alone. I want you to know you're not the only one feeling this way. And more than anything, I want you to know that I meant it when I told you that church was always more than a building.

I meant it when I told you the church was the people, the relationships, the wondering together about God and faith and life. So too, I mean it when I say you don't have to come back to church if you don't want to. If you can't, won't, or aren't sure yet, it's ok. God has always and will continue to meet you where you are.

We would love to see you at St Teresa of Calcutta... in fact, we need you....and we love you!

Hope to see you soon!

Fr Victor Ray

HOUSE OF MINISTRY MEETING Sunday, March 13th 12:15 pm in the Teresa Room Meeting will be on Zoom

TIME, TALENT, TREASURES 1) Time – Live Mass, Live Stream, or Participation in events (Live or Zoom) 2) Talent – Adding Input to Gazette, Matsat Home Assembly, Inspiring Others, etc.

Is It One Category Or, All Three?

3) Treasures – Ensuring Church Meets ItsNeeds. Online Giving in Website @ stoccc.org or App @ Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Community

Purpose of this Newsletter: One format in which to “Keep the lines of Communication OPEN” and inform the congregation, friends, and guestsof Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Community of what is happening.

SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY STATS: PHYSICAL ADDRESS: 3803 HAINES ROAD NORTH, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA 33703

MAILING ADDRESS: SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY P.O. BOX 47921, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA 33743

PHONE NUMBER IS: 727-245-0102 Line #1 is the Church Office Line #2 is Father Victor Ray Line #3 is Prayer Request Line #4 is Healing Ministry

Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Community Existing Ministry Teams: HOUSE OF MINISTRIES Moderator: William Schwartz Assistant Moderator: Michelle Mazuros Financial: Jon Laubscher Advertising: Michelle Mazuros Card Ministry: D.A. Marx and Dee Spano Decorations: Cindy and Dennis Giddens Hospitality: Paula Baker and Cindy Giddens Liturgical: Alexandra Kahn Media: William Schwartz Outreach: (Cindy Giddens/Frank Matzelle as needed) Parking Lot Gang: Shelli and Kelvin Muncy, Frank Matzelle Welcome: Susanna Glisson Immediate Needed Ministries: Records Keeper Planning Marketing Future Goals Mats Ministry

Pastor is Father Victor Ray HOUSE OF TRUSTEES President: William Schwartz Vice President: AVAILABLE Accountant: Jon Laubscher Legal: Catherine E. Blackburn, Esquire If anyone is interested in participating in an Existing Ministry, please contact the Ministry Leader. If anyone is interested in Leading any of the Immediate Needed Ministries, Please contact Father Victor Ray or William Schwartz.

Remember that Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Community follows the principles of: TIME TALENT TREASURE

FACEBOOK AT FACEBOOK.COM/ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY YOUTUBE AT SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY TWITTER AT STOCCC2 INSTAGRAM AT STOCCCLOVE APP AT SAINT TERESA OF CALCUTTA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY You can easily connect to all, on our Website: www.stoccc.org

Bring A Friend!

Live Mass/Live Stream Every Sunday at 10:30 am

A CACINA Parish

Chapel at SAFETY DURING THIS PANDEMIC IS OUR PRIMARY CONCERN. ELECTRONIC MEDIA IS AVAILABLE.

3803 Haines Road North St. Petersburg, FL 33703

Thank You, as always, for taking time out to read this recent STOCCC Gazette. Please “Pass It On” so that others will find out what we are all about.

This is your Gazette so if there is anything that you would like for me to put in, just let me know! Send all inquiries to: media.stoccc@gmail.com.

Until Next Time, Follow the Holy Spirit and remember what.

Saint Teresa says, “Spread Love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier”!