April 15, 2012 - Divine Mercy Sunday
Holy Family
Catholic Church
Divine Mercy
O God, bless our family,
all its members and friends,
with your many gifts of love.
We need you every day
to keep us safe from harm,
to heal the hurts we cause,
to begin together afresh.
Help us to be kind and patient
with each other’s burdens and
cares and not to miss the
wonderful gifts that together
we share.
Bless our family; gracious God,
Bless us, every one.
Amen
Mailing Address: P O Box 482
Van Alstyne TX, 75495
Parish Office:
903-482-6322
For a Priest:
972-542-4667
Website: www.holyfamily-vanalstyne.org
Sunday
Clergy
Fr. Salvador Guzmán, Pastor
Fr. Arthur Unachukwu, Parochial Vicar
Deacon Patrick A. Hayes
Mass Schedule
Sunday: 9:00 am - English Mass
12:00 pm - Spanish Mass
Thursday: 9:00 am - Daily Mass
ESTABLISHEDIN1980⦁919SPENCERD.,VANALSTYNE,TX.75495
Divine Mercy
April 15, 2012
SACRAMENTS
Baptism
Confirmation
Baptisms in English: Call for appointment
Baptisms in Spanish: 1st Sunday of each month
May 26, 2012 Saturday 10:00 am at Holy Family
Pre Baptismal Class Registration: Registration required by
the Sunday before class begins. Classes are held on the 3rd
Tuesday of each month.
Please call Parish office.
Parents: Bring copy of child’s birth certificate. Both parents
must attend class.
Anointing of the Sick
Reconciliation/Confession
Immediately following the 1st Mass
Marriage/Wedding
Godparents: Must be practicing Catholics. Copy of marriage
certificate through the Catholic church. Both godparents
must attend class.
As a courtesy, please do not bring children to class.
Both must be free to marry in the Catholic Church.
Arrangements should be made at least 6 months prior to
planned Wedding date.
First Communion
Talk to your Parish priest or call Fr. Rudy Garcia, Director of
Vocations of the Diocese of Dallas at 214-379-2860.
June 9, 2012 Saturday 10:00 am at Holy Family
Weekly Calendar
Ivah Abraham
Tony Pierce
Evelia Santibanez
Pat Rountree
Courtney Hicks
Jose C. Sanchez
Vonnie McClean
Deacon Ray Smith
Ron Thomas
Arnie Clark
Jeannette Sanchez
Suzie Keeton
Darcy Zufall
Corinne Lageose
Dave Parker
John Hibbard
Elizandra Torres
Ann Lageose
Francisco Sanchez
Miguel Arias
Forinda Sanchez
Joyce Vincent
Barbara Heath
Tommie Rosenthal
Offering
A endance: 4/1/12
690
4/8/12
640
4/1/12
$ 2,193.12
4/8/12
$ 2,212.37
Offering:
Holy Orders/Priesthood
Men of Holy Family
North Texas Catholic Men’s Conference
Saturday April 28th 7:00 am - 3:00 pm
Prince of Peace 5100 Plano Pkwy West
Plano, TX 75093
Sunday, April 15
8:30 am Rosary
9:00 am Mass
10:15-11:15 am Faith Formation
12:00 pm Spanish Mass
Monday, April 16
9:00 am Rosary
Tuesday, April 17
7:00 pm Baptismal Classes by Appointment
Wednesday, April 18
6-7:00 pm Faith Formation
Thursday, April 19
9:00 am Mass
9:30 am Bible Class
7-9:30 pm Spanish Youth Choir
Friday, April 20
7-9:30 pm Spanish Adult Choir
Saturday, April 21
9:00-am—? Confirmation Last Service Work Day
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
Today was once called in La n “Dominica in albis,” or “Sunday
in White,” because the church was full of newly bap zed
Chris ans wearing their white bap smal garments. Another old
tle, best forgo en, is “Low Sunday.” There’s nothing low
about this fes ve Sunday in Easter, the eighth day since the
first “Alleluia” rang out. In Chris an tradi on, the number eight
is a symbol of fulfillment, transi on, breaking through the
seven-day rhythm of life to a new way of being. That is why
many bap smal fonts have eight sides. The greatest feasts of
our calendar are always extended for eight days, called an
“octave.” In a way, this means that this first week of Easter is
really considered to be one great day. This octave day of Easter
sees the best features of Easter s ll vibrant: joyful alleluias, lush
spring flowers everywhere, sprinkling with water, and a lavish
table where the Lord gives us himself as bread and wine.
For Orthodox Chris ans, today is the Easter feast,
since their tradi on requires that the Chris an Passover cannot
begin un l the days of the Jewish Passover are ended.
—James Field, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.
Seeing Spring and Easter
RON ROLHEISER, OMI
In my mid-20s, I spent a year as a student at the University of San Francisco. I had just been ordained a
priest and was finishing off a graduate degree in theology. Easter Sunday that year was a gorgeous, sunny,
spring day, but it didn't find me in a sunny mood. I was a long way from home, away from my family and
my community, homesick, and alone. Virtually all the friends that I had developed during that year of
studies, other graduate students in theology, were gone, celebrating Easter with their own families. I was
homesick and alone and, beyond that, I nursed the usual heartaches and obsessions of the young and
restless. My mood was far from spring and Easter.
I went for a walk that afternoon and the spring air, the sun, and the fact that it was Easter did little to cheer
me up, if anything they helped catalyze a deeper sense of aloneness. But there are different ways of waking
up. As Leonard Cohen says, there's a crack in everything and that's where the light gets in. I needed a little
awakening and it was provided. At a point, I saw a beggar sitting at the entrance to a park with a sign in
front of him that read: It's springtime and I am blind! The irony wasn't lost on me: I was as blind as he was!
With what I was seeing it might as well have been Good Friday, and raining and cold. Sunshine, spring, and
Easter were being wasted on me.
It was a moment of grace, and I have recalled that encounter many times since, but it didn't alter my mood
at the time. I continued my walk, restless as before, and eventually went home for dinner. During that year
of studies, I was a live-in chaplain at a convent that had a youth hostel attached to it and the rule of the
house was that the chaplain was to eat by himself, in his own private dining room. So, even though that
wasn't exactly what a doctor would order for a restless and homesick young man, I had a private dinner
that Easter Sunday.
But the resurrection did arrive for me on that Easter Sunday, albeit a bit late in the day: Two other graduate
students and I had made plans to meet on the beach at nightfall, light a large fire, and celebrate our own
version of the Easter vigil. So, just before dark, I caught a bus to the beach and met my friends (a nun and
priest). We lit a large bonfire (still legal in those days), sat around it for several hours, and ended up
confessing to each other that we'd each had a miserable Easter. That fire did for us what the blessing of the
fire the evening before at the Easter vigil hadn't done. It renewed in us a sense of the energy and newness
that lie at the heart of life. As we watched the fire and talked, of everything and nothing, my mood began to
shift, my restlessness quieted, and the heaviness lifted. I began to sense spring and Easter.
In John's Gospel account of the resurrection, he tells the story of how on morning of the first Easter the
Beloved Disciple runs to the tomb where Jesus has been buried and peers into it. He sees that it is empty
and that all that's left there are the clothes, neatly folded, within which Jesus' body had been wrapped. And,
because he is a disciple who sees with the eyes of love, he understands what this all means, he grasps the
resurrection and knows that Jesus has risen. He sees spring. He understands with his eyes.
Hugo of St. Victor once famously said: Love is the eye. When we see with love we not only see straight and
clearly we also see depth and meaning. The reverse is also true. It is not for some arbitrary reason that
after Jesus rose from the dead some could see him and others could not. Love is the eye. Those searching
for life through the eyes of love, like Mary of Magdalene searching for Jesus in the Garden on Easter Sunday
morning, see spring and the resurrection. Any other kind of eye, and we're blind in springtime.
When I took my walk that Easter afternoon all those years ago in San Francisco, I wasn't exactly Mary of
Magdalene looking for Jesus in a garden, nor the Beloved Disciple fired by love running off to look into the
tomb of Jesus. In my youthful restlessness I was looking for myself, and meeting only my anxious
self. And that's a kind of blindness.
Without the eyes of love we're blind, to both spring and the resurrection. I learned that theological lesson,
not in a church or a classroom but on a lonely, restless Easter Sunday in San Francisco when I ran into a
blind beggar and then went home and ate an Easter dinner alone.
News /Meeting Schedules/Events
The Person of the Catechist
(Attention: Catechist)
Victor Valenzuela, nationally known catechetical
presenter will be in Dallas at St. Monica Catholic
Church, located at Midway at Walnut Hill, to speak
on The Person of the Catechist for PCLs and
Catechists in English on Friday, June 1st from 9:00
a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and Soy Catequista en Español,
sabado, 2 de Junio, 2012, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. The
event will be sponsored by Wm. Sandlier, Inc.
ALERT
Please be advised that the only approved religious
educa on program available for our children is that which
we provide at our parish. Our catechists are commissioned
to teach on behalf of Bishop Farrell and the pastor. If you
have your children enrolled in any other home catechesis
not connected to this parish, please contact our parish to
see if it is an approved diocesan program. We have been
advised by the Department of Cateche cal Services that
there is a catechist who provides not only catechesis for
sacrament prepara on in her home, but also recruits
priests from Mexico to celebrate the sacraments in
undisclosed loca ons without authoriza on to do so by
the Diocese of Dallas. All visi ng priests must receive
permission to func on in the diocese and Mass must be
celebrated in a Roman Catholic Church unless otherwise
approved by the Bishop.
Se le recuerda que el único programa de educación
religiosa disponible para nuestros niños es el que
proporcionamos en nuestra parroquia. Nuestros
catequistas son comisionados para enseñar a nombre del
Obispo Farrell y el párroco. Si usted ene a sus hijos
registrados en cualquier otro programa de catequesis no
asociado a esta parroquia, por favor comuníquese con
nuestra parroquia para verificar si se trata de un programa
diocesano aprobado. El departamento de Servicios
Catequé cos ha sido no ficado de una catequista que no
solo imparte catequesis para preparación sacramental en
su hogar, sino que además contrata sacerdotes de México
para celebrar los sacramentos en localidades no reveladas
sin la autorización de la Diócesis de Dallas. Todos los
sacerdotes visitantes deben recibir permiso para ejercer
su ministerio en la diócesis y la Misa se debe celebrar en
una Iglesia Católica Romana a menos que el Obispo
apruebe lo contrario.
TV Mass for Shut–Ins: Heart of the Na on is now
broadcas ng the Catholic TV Mass in Dallas/Ft. Worth on
KPXD-TV, Ch. 68, at 9:00 am every Sunday. For the cable
channel guide, log onto www.hearto hena on.org and
click on Find a Sta on. The TV Mass was formerly televised
on KFWD-TV, Ch. 52.
Misa en TV para los que no pueden salir de casa: El
Corazon de la Nacion esta transmi endo la Misa Catolica
en TV en Dallas/Ft. Worth en el Canal KPXD-TV 68 a las
9:00 A.M. cada Domingo. Para la guia del canal de cable,
entra en la pagina de internetwww.hearto hena on.org
y haz clic para encontrar el canal. La Misa en TV fue antes
transmi da en el canal KFWD 52.
BABY BANKS
(Return by April 22nd.)
Keep filling those Baby Banks! Show your children how
their efforts can help in this effort by sending them on a
treasure hunt for loose change around the house.
Remember: Each me you add to your bank, your
contribu on helps moms and saves babies! The women
you help will bless and thank you forever because you
cared enough to help them and their baby.
Your change can make a difference!
Sigue llenando esas alcancias de Bebitos! Ensena a tus
ninos como sus esfuerzos pueden ayudar al mandarlos a
buscar moneditas de cambio alrededor de la casa.
Recuerda: Cada vez que tu agregues cambio a tu alcancia,
tu contribucion ayuda a las mamas a salvar a sus bebitos!
Las mujeres que tu ayudes seran bendecidas y te
agradeceran por siempre porque tu te preocupaste tanto
por ayudarlas a ellas y sus babitos.
Tus moneditas pueden hacer la diferencia!
SAINTS AND SPECIAL OBSERVANCES
Sunday: Second Sunday of Easter
(or of Divine Mercy)
Thursday: Yom Ha-Shoa
(Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Saturday: St. Anselm
Resurrección: Sobreviviendo a Nuestras Crucifixiones
Ron Rolheiser ,OMI
Cada sueño, cada ideal, al final acaban crucificados. ¿De qué modo? Por el tiempo, las circunstancias, la envidia; y por ese
dictado curioso y perverso –de alguna manera innato en el orden de las cosas– que asegura que hay siempre alguien o algo
que no puede partir a gusto a solas, sino que, por razones muy suyas, tiene que partir cazando, persiguiendo y golpeando a lo
que es bueno. Lo bueno, el bien, siempre concita envidia, odio, persecución, denigración, asesinato. Así pasa incluso con los
sueños o ideales. Hay siempre algo que necesita una crucifixión. Cada cuerpo de Cristo sufre inevitablemente el mismo destino
de Jesús. No hay viaje tranquilo para lo íntegro, bueno, verdadero o bello.
Pero eso es sólo la mitad de la ecuación, la mala mitad. Lo que también sucede, lo que la resurrección enseña, es que, mientras
nada que pertenezca a Dios puede evitar la crucifixión, ningún cuerpo de Cristo permanece en la tumba durante mucho tiempo.
Dios siempre remueve la piedra del sepulcro y, a no tardar, una nueva vida explota y entonces comprendemos por qué aquella
vida original tenía que ser crucificada. (“¿No era necesario que Cristo tuviera que sufrir tanto y morir?”). La resurrección sigue a
la crucifixión. Cada cuerpo crucificado se alzará de nuevo, resucitará.
Pero, ¿dónde encontramos la resurrección? ¿Dónde se nos hace encontradizo el Cristo resucitado?
La Escritura es sutil, pero clara. ¿Dónde podemos esperar encontrar a Cristo después de la crucifixión? El evangelio nos dice
que, en la madrugada del día de la resurrección, las mujeres discípulas de Jesús, las comadronas de la esperanza, salieron hacia
la tumba de Jesús, llevando especias y perfumes, con la intención de ungir y embalsamar un cuerpo muerto. Con muy buena
intención, pero equivocadas, lo que encuentran no es un cuerpo muerto, sino una tumba vacía y un ángel que les interpela con
estas palabras. “¿Por qué andáis buscando al vivo entre los muertos? ¡Volved, en cambio, a Galilea y allí le encontraréis!”.
“Volved, en cambio, a Galilea”. ¡Qué expresión tan curiosa! ¿Qué significa Galilea? ¿Por qué regresar? En los relatos de la posresurrección, en los evangelios, Galilea no es simplemente un lugar geográfico físico. Es, antes que nada, un lugar situado en el
corazón. Galilea significa el sueño ideal, la ruta del discipulado por la que habían caminado anteriormente con Jesús; y es
también aquel lugar y aquel tiempo en los que sus corazones habían ardido con esperanza y entusiasmo inigualables. Y ahora,
precisamente cuando sienten que todo eso está muerto, que su fe es sólo fantasía, se les dice que regresen al lugar donde todo
comenzó: “Regresad a Galilea. Él se encontrará con vosotros allí”.
Y ellos, efectivamente, regresan a Galilea, a aquel lugar especial en sus corazones, al sueño utópico, a su discipulado. Como
era de esperar, se les aparece allí Jesús. No se les aparece exactamente como lo recuerdan de antes, ni con tanta frecuencia
como les gustaría, pero él aparece como algo más que un fantasma, un espíritu o una mera idea. El Cristo que se les aparece
después de la resurrección ya no encaja con su expectación original, pero tiene suficiente corporalidad física como para comer
pescado en su presencia, es suficientemente real como para dejarse tocar como un ser humano, y es suficientemente poderoso
como para cambiar sus vidas para siempre.
En última instancia, eso es a lo que la resurrección nos reta, a regresar a Galilea, a volver al sueño, al ideal, a la esperanza; y al
discipulado, que antes había inflamado nuestro corazón, pero que ahora está crucificado.
Esto es también lo que significa estar “en el camino de Emaús”. En el evangelio de Lucas se nos dice que, el día de la
resurrección, dos discípulos iban caminando de Jerusalén hacia Emaús, cabizbajos y deprimidos. Esa sola línea del evangelio
contiene una espiritualidad plena: Para Lucas –como Galilea para los otros evangelistas– Jerusalén significa el sueño utópico, la
esperanza, el Reino, el centro desde donde todo tiene que comenzar y donde, a la larga, todo debe culminar. Pero estos dos
discípulos se están “alejando” de Jerusalén, dejando atrás el bello sueño, caminando hacia Emaús. Emaús era un balneario
romano –un Las Vegas y Monte Carlo de consuelo humano. Su sueño cargado de ideal ha sido crucificado y los dos discípulos,
desalentados y sin esperanza, van caminando, alejándose de él, buscando consuelo humano, farfullando: “¡Pero habíamos
esperado!...” Pero ellos nunca llegan del todo a Emaús. Jesús se les aparece en el camino, remodela su esperanza a la luz de la
crucifixión, y les hace regresar a Jerusalén.
Uno de los mensajes esenciales de la Pascua es éste: Siempre que nos sintamos desalentados en nuestra fe, siempre que
nuestras esperanzas parezcan crucificadas, necesitamos volver a Galilea y a Jerusalén, esto es, al sueño ideal, al camino del
discipulado en el que nos habíamos embarcado antes de que todo fallara o fuera mal. Por supuesto, siempre que nos sentimos
así, siempre que parece que el Reino no funciona, la tentación nos induce a abandonar el discipulado para buscar consuelo
humano, caminar hacia Las Vegas y Montecarlo, en vez de volver a Galilea o a Jerusalén.
Pero, como ya sabemos, nunca llegamos completamente a Emaús. Con una apariencia u otra, Cristo siempre se nos hace
encontradizo en el camino, hace arder de nuevo nuestros corazones, nos explica el sentido de nuestra última crucifixión y nos
hace volver – a Galilea, a Jerusalén, y a nuestro discipulado abandonado.
Una vez allí, todo cobra sentido de nuevo.
Operation Rice Bowl Collection
Thank you for participating in CRS’ Operation Rice Bowl!
Our faith community helped make a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world suffering
from poverty and hunger. To ensure that Catholic Relief Services is able to continue providing life-saving work
to these communities, please return your Rice Bowl by April 22, 2012.
Your Rice Bowls can be placed in the box in the vestibule. Thank you for your generous support.
Informa on Page
Holy Family Quasi-Parish
020915
Date: Sept 18, 2011
Janis Hicks 903-744-7999
Transmission Date / Time Tuesday 12:00pm
Special Instruc ons