Home | Archives

Weekly Bulletin

December 16, 2007

Monday, December 17
7:00 a.m.           Int. of Chester Kuczynski – The Zientek Family
9:15 a.m.           Int. of Sue Hurley – Ralph Luebbe

Tuesday, December 18
7:00 a.m.            Henry Hicks – Ted Zientek
9:15 a.m.            Audrey Kirby – Holy Spirit Prayer Group

Wednesday, December 19
7:00 a.m.            Nancy Wood – The Redden Family
9:15 a.m.            Rich Koch - JoAnn

Thursday, December 20
7:00 a.m.            Ethel Topicz – Jerry, Netty & Mary Ann Bosse
9:15 a.m.            Paul Burns – Bill & Elizabeth Dowdy

Friday, December 21
7:00 a.m.            Marie & George Ranz (In Thanksgiving) - Family
9:15 a.m.            Int of Leonard Cornelius – Janet Cornelius

Saturday, December 22
7:00 a.m.            Communion Service
9:15 a.m.            Jack Hautz – Louise Blinkhorn
4:30 p.m.            Jim Brown – Bill Huesman

Sunday, 4th Sunday of Advent
6:30 a.m.            Living & Deceased Members of St. Ignatius Parish
8:30 a.m.            Joseph & Josephine Ambrosiano – Virginia Ambrosiano
10:15 a.m.         Christie Budke & Bill Fulks - Family
12:00 noon        Jim Massa – Joan Squeri
7:30 p.m.            Shirley Gagnon (Anniversary) - Jack

Servers For the Week of December 17

Monday, Tuesday
7:00 a.m.            D Meymann, P Bellman, B Yauch
9:15 a.m.            J Huhn, D Koenig, M Dorsey

Wednesday
7:00 a.m.            C Otis, K Rajagopal, K Unkrich
9:15 a.m.            K Heusmann, L Odenbeck, J Cherry

Thursday, Friday
7:00 a.m.            E Diersing, B Stansell, M Paul
9:15 a.m.            E Eustaquio, M Grein, J Flohr

Saturday, December 22
9:15 a.m. S Walker, A Sweet
4:30 p.m. Bob Burger Family (Fr. St. George)

Sunday, December 23
6:30 a.m.            J Krismer & Family (Fr. St. George)
8:30 a.m.            J Lewnard, A Richter, S Stroube, A Urig (Fr. McCarthy)
10:15 a.m.          M Strawser, J & S Redden, K Lohbeck (Fr. Wall)
12:00 noon         N Toelke, J Huhn, G Smith (Fr. Wall)
7:30 p.m.             T Minich, A Sweet, D Minich, A Koch (Fr. McCarthy)

Readings for Next Week’s Liturgy
Is 7:10-14; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24

The Tabernacle Candle this week is in Celebration of
Larry Cichowlas
Rita

Nativity Set Raffle
Congratulations to the Rizzo Family. They won the Nativity Set. The proceeds will benefit the St. Leo's Food Pantry. Thanks to all the sellers.

Welcome all St. Ignatius women! The Annual Women’s Retreat is January 25th – 27th, 2008 at the Moye Spiritual Life Center. Retreat directors are Brother Allan Schmitz and Susan Schmitz. Retreat is open to non-parishioners after January 1st. Fee is $110.00. Financial assistance is available. Reservations: Angie Otis. For more information call Carol Pieper or Louise Redden. A short planning meeting will be held Thursday, January 3rd for those willing to help with the retreat.

Angel Food: Do you know someone on a fixed income? Maybe you could place an order for that individual and give them the food. It's true, for $30.00, you will receive between $60.00 - $75.00 worth of food! Our Parish Office is taking orders for Angel Food during day time hours. Questions? Call the Parish Office (66l-6565). Thanks to all the volunteers.

RCIA: On the Third Sunday of Advent, the catechumens and candidates will be dismissed during the 7:30 Mass. Greg Niehaus is the catechist for "Break Open the Word." On Wednesday evening, Fr. Wall is the catechist for the lesson, Sacramental Theology. Please remember to keep RCIA members in your daily prayers.

BEREAVEMENT GROUP A: The Bereavement Group Meeting will be December 18, 10:00am-12:00 noon. Please come and join us for sharing and ways to cope through the holidays after the loss of your loved one.

Thank you to those taking the Vocation Chalice. To have a Vocation Chalice in your home, call the Parish Office or to help with our Vocation Committee call Dennis Halaby. We encourage all parishioners (young, old, single, married, etc.) to participate in this ministry.

Vocation Chalice for Week of December16
The Freeman Family

It's the most wonderful time of the year again! Make extra time for yourself to enjoy it by purchasing your Christmas gifts through our PACE Committee. PACE offers gift cards to more than 300 popular restaurants and retailers, including Montgomery Inn, The Cheesecake Factory, Hofbrauhaus, Bonefish, Skyline, Gap, Dick's Sporting Goods, Limited, Toys R Us, iTunes and Showcase Cinemas, to name just a few. There's something for everyone on your list, so you can finish all your shopping without ever having to fight traffic, find a parking spot or stand in long lines. In addition, by purchasing gift cards through PACE, you will be supporting St. Ignatius programs. Gift cards will be for sale in the back of church after most Masses this weekend. Order forms will also be available in the back of church. If you have any questions, contact Julianne Smith, Leslie Odioso, Sue Newland or Heidi Kemper

School Open House
The school is hosting an Open House on Sunday, January 27th from 1:00 to 2:30 to kick-off Catholic Schools Week. Take a tour, meet the staff and peruse the student activity booths in the cafeteria. Due to limited space, it is very important that families who want to enroll for the Fall, submit an enrollment form and $50 registration fee before their category deadline. Enrollment forms for the 2008-2009 school year will be available in the School Office and may be turned into the School Office at any time. Children will be enrolled in the following order of priority. Priority within a category will be determined by the date of parish registration.. Children not registered during their appropriate registration period will lose their respective priority.

Registration
Period Category
1/7 – 1/25            1           Families with students currently
enrolled in school
1/27 – 2/8            2           Parishioners who live inside school
boundaries
2/11 – 2/22          3           Parishioners who live outside school
boundaries
Begins 2/25         4           Private students

Food For the Poor wishes to thank you for the welcome you extended to Bishop Boyle on his recent visit to your parish. On behalf of our less fortunate brothers and sisters of Latin America and the Caribbean, we thank you for having shared in their lives. They, and you, are blessed by your generosity.

From the Desk of our Pastoral Associate

One of our Sisters has a Ph.D. in literature and taught at a university before her retirement. When she was in her seventies, she moved to Rome to work as a librarian for Regina Mundi College, and so when I first joined the congregation I only knew her by reputation: a clear thinker who was extraordinarily effective at conveying her thoughts. I imagined her as a modern-day version of John the Baptist.

Our paths first crossed about fifteen years ago at a Congregational meeting during which we considered the lack of vocations to religious life. The median age of religious was approaching 70; congregations in general had few new members. It seemed to me that the data was painting a rather bleak picture of our future, and I was becoming a little depressed about the whole thing until this Sister stood up and took the floor with characteristic aplomb. "What does it matter if religious life as we know it is gone in fifty years, if that is what God wants?” she asked. “Our future is the Holy Spirit's business; our business is today. There is still plenty of good for us to do, and we are to just keep on doing it until we can’t do it anymore. Providence calls us to live the present, not the ‘what ifs.’ Why should we let ourselves get caught up in ‘bad news?’ We know that God is always found in the good…and that’s where we have to put our focus!”

Her point made, Sister sat down…and everyone in the room knew she was right.

Today’s Gospel recounts how the Baptist sent a disciple to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Instead of replying with a simple yes or no, however, Jesus tells the messenger to report back to John about all the good going on around Jesus: the blind see, the lame walk, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. Jesus seems to be saying to John: “Well, here I am, John; see for yourself what’s happening. Am I the Messiah you are seeking?” Only John can answer that question, because only John knows what he is looking for in a Messiah.

Then Jesus turns to talk with the crowds about John. He wants to know what they were looking for when they sought out the Baptist in the desert, and through a series of questions, helps them clarify that for themselves.

Perhaps we can ask ourselves a similar question as we reflect on the Gospel this week: what are we looking for when we seek the Messiah? The Advent season exhorts us to focus our attention in the direction of God’s coming, and the direction we are looking in can tell us something about what we are looking for.

As Sister reminded us at our meeting, God is always found in the good. Advent is a wonderful time to practice seeing, contemplating, and savoring the good at home, close to home, and in the world at large. Doing that will help it become more and more clear to us that the Kingdom is already surely here, even if it is also just as surely still in the process of coming into its fullness. Saints and mystics advise us that if we practice directing our gaze toward the good, we will come to recognize the overwhelming truth of our existence: Love abounds. And God is right here—with us. Right now.

Any joy we hope for in the future cannot possibly bloom without it already having roots in the present moment. Even in the driest of deserts, those roots are growing somewhere because Love is already and always at work in simple and small ways we often do not notice because they are so easy to take for granted. The world must wait for the fullness of God’s presence to be manifest, but if we keep our focus on the Good, we will have no doubt that God has already arrived in the world. And in that case, our waiting can be filled with JOY! Blessings on this Gaudete (Latin for Rejoice!) Sunday! –Sister Lucy

St Vincent DePaul is looking for beds for a formerly homeless family of four. A mother and her three children have been sleeping on the floor for four months which is becoming a huge problem now that the weather is cold. Please contact the Parish Office (661-6565) if you can help. Thank you.

Bagel Strips: the 7th grade Girls Scouts are selling bagel strips from Panera Bread for $12.00 each. The strips are good for free bagels or breads, brownies or cookies, and the proceeds are used to fund activities for the girls pursuing their Marion Award next year. The strips make great Christmas gifts. If interested, contact Beth Kemble.

The 7:30 Music Group “For His Glory” will be selling their Christmas CD and the CD with the familiar music you hear at Mass in the Parish Office and after the 7:30pm Mass on Sundays. They make great Christmas Gifts. Cost is $10 each.

Total Cost of Project 2000 Construction
Part 1, Part 2, Parking Additions, Interest, etc.        $ 8,142,596.98
Debt to the Archdiocese as of 12/12/2007              $     219,660.00
Fund Drive received last week                                   $             589.00
Current Debt to the Archdiocese                                $     219,071.00

Thank You For Your Support!

YOUTH NEWS

Adult Collection                                                             $  28,892.00
Children's Collection                                                   $        106.00
Total Collection                                                             $  28,998.00
Budgeted amount for Sunday                                    $  24,500.00
Immaculate Conception                                              $    3,911.00

Bingo                                                                              $     1,484.00
Concession Profit                                                        $          45.25

P.A.C.E.
Sales                                                                              $    24,465.00
Profit to St. I's                                                                 $      1,223.25

PACE Drawings are the last Sunday of each month. Every $50 purchase earns you 1 ticket in the monthly drawing. PACE Certificates are available at the Parish Office and from the PACE coordinators – Heidi Kemper, Julianne Smith, Sue Newland, Leslie Odioso.

Bingo Workers for December 23
John/Barb Meese                  Jerry/Lisa Russell
Sue Wilkens                           Abigail Barlion
Pat Sucher                              Shannon O’Brien
Ted/Diane Grievenkamp     Jenny Beckstedt
Nancy Papania                      Steve Jung
Amy Muddiman                      Ted/Donna Mechley
Dan Seig                                 Bernie/Colleen Karwisch
Marlene Lohbeck                   Mary Ann Bosse
Tim/Judy Crowley

*It is imperative you work your assigned week. For bingo questions, call Barb Campbell (661-6565).

Bingo is in need of additional workers. You will be scheduled to work only once every nine weeks, at the most six times a year. Please call Barb Campbell (661-6565)

Parish Health Ministry: Holiday Stress?
Tips for Managing Stress:

• Talk with family, friends, clergy or other trusted advisers about your concerns and stresses and ask for their support.
• Take 15 – 20 minutes a day to sit quietly, breathe deeply and think of a peaceful scene.
• Learn to accept things you can’t change. You don’t have to solve all of life’s problems.
• Count to 10 before answering or responding when you feel angry.

I wish to thank all the wonderful people of St. Ignatius for the Masses, flowers, cards, and prayers I have received because of my recent surgery. Praise God, my physician assures me that the surgery was successful.
Mary Ellen Koehne

SCARF IT UP CLUB: Oh Christmas Tree….Help those in need have a warmer holiday season. Please drop off at the Parish Office your hats, gloves, scarves, mittens, and yarn. Bless you.

Veterans History Project: The Library of Congress is sponsoring this project in order to preserve the oral histories of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them. The histories will be included in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress and/or the World War II Museum in New Orleans as appropriate. They will serve as a scholarly and educational resource documenting the American veterans’ wartime experiences. The histories will be preserved for the benefit of the present and all future generations. Fr. Pete has graciously consented to be interviewed concerning his Marine Corps service as a Chaplain in Iraq. Any other individual with wartime service in any branch of the military, or anyone with a wartime work record in a critical support position, who would be interested in being interviewed as a part of the project should please call Rudy Jansen. Interviews will commence in January of 2008.

Is Your Marriage Hurting in any way? Has your marriage grown cold, distant, unloving or uncaring? Then please consider Retrouvaille – a program designed to help heal and renew marriages. Retrouvaille is for marriages that have lost some of their spark, for marriages having difficulties in communication and even those marriages on the edge of separation or divorce. The next program begins January 11,12, & 13, 2008. For more information call:.

Celebrate the mystery of Christmas with the Comboni Nativity Experience: Leave December’s hectic turmoil behind and immerse yourself in the sacred meaning of Christmas. Let the room-sized animated nativity display at the Comboni Missionaries provincial home take you back to Gospel times. Open 6-9pm, December 9-30 except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Comboni Missionaries are located in Anderson Township. Admission is free but you may bring canned goods for the needy.

DISCOVER: We are a 20’s/30’s Christian based group designed to grow together and walk this journey with one another. Through guest speakers, presentations, videos, and small group discussions we will empower each other to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in the world today, foster spiritual and personal growth within one another, and encourage participation in the faith community we live in. Next meeting will be Dec. 18 at 7:30pm in the Fr. Gratsch Room (Room A), where we will be discussing Angels. Questions? Contact Rod or Andrea

To St. Ignatius Parishioners: Thank you for all the wonderful donations for old St. Marys Pregnancy Center from your Giving Tree. We will be able to give help and hope to many moms and babies because of your generosity. May you have a blessed Christmas season!
Terri Huwel
Director of OSM Pregnancy Center

Journeying with St. Paul: His Life and Theology (Part 2). To celebrate the 2000th Jubilee of the Apostle Paul, Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year of St. Paul” will begin this June. The study of Paul’s life and theology we began last fall continues during the winter with four more sessions held on Monday evenings from 7-8:30pm, starting January 14th. The topic: “The Flesh and the Spirit.” Check the flyer in January’s Insight and future announcements in the weekly bulletin. Questions? Want more information? Call Sr. Lucy at the Parish Office.

Bridges to Contemplative Living. Do you wish you could live a more contemplative life? The Bridges process designed by the Merton Institute for Contemplative Living can help. We began our exploration of the first part of this process (“Entering the School of Your Experience”) last fall, and will continue during January and February. Mark your calendar for the first gathering of Bridges on Monday evening, January 7th. Topic: praying through your changing image of God. Check the flyer in January’s Insight and future announcements in the weekly bulletin for more information. Meets in the Parish Office from 7-8:30pm. (Note that participation in the October/November Bridges process is not necessary to be part of these new sessions). Questions? Call Sr. Lucy (661-6565).

Counseling Services
Often individuals request help from a counselor only after events have damaged their lives or the lives of others. Here are services for counseling or support.

1. Alcoholics Anonymous – 351-0422 Visit www.AAcincinnati.org
2. Al-Anon – For those concerned about a friend or family member’s drinking – 771-4070
3. Anger Management – 528-6698
4. Gamblers Anonymous – 1-888-746-4942
5. Narcotics Anonymous – 820-2725
6. Sexaholics Anonymous – 522-1599
7. New Direction Treatment Services – Local Substance Abuse Services – 362-2732
8. The Women’s Connection – A Support Group For Women – 471-4673
9. Sexton Family Center – Counseling - 471-9169

Those experiencing the Loss of a Loved One meet on the 1st Sunday from 1-3pm at the Neidhard-Minges Funeral Home. Questions? Call Janet.

Catholic Social Services if you know anyone having an unplanned pregnancy, counselors are available on a free and confidential basis.