SCHEDULE
FOR THE WEEK
ST. JOAN OF ARC
SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK
Sunday 4/24:
Mass Times: 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m.
Holy Hour 3 p.m.
Monday 4/25:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
Dave Ramsey Financial Consulting 6:30-8 p.m. in the Parish Hall.
SJA Men’s Focus Group meets at 7 p.m. at the home of Tom deTar.
Tuesday 4/26:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
Wednesday 4/27:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
First Communion Class 6-7 p.m.
Adult Religious Instruction 6-7 p.m.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
To prevent the overlapping of events at the church, please contact the church secretary at
208-660-2603 before planning your event.
Each Mon., beginning April 4th-May 30th, Parish Hall reserved from 6:30-8 p.m.;
Wed., May 18th Parish Hall reserved from 6 p.m. & throughout the evening.
First Communion. Sun., May 22nd, Feast of the Holy Trinity at the 9:30 a.m. High Mass. A reception
will follow in the Parish Hall with cake and refreshments.
First Communion Classes. Classes for youth who will be receiving First Holy Communion this year
are being held weekly on Wed. evenings from 6-7 p.m. in the Cry Room.
Confirmation. Confirmation will be Sun., June 26th at the 11:00 a.m. High Mass. Archbishop
Alexander K. Sample will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. Masses on June 26th only will be
at 7 a.m, 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.
Raffle! Please see the two beautiful porcelain dolls for raffle, in the Parish Hall. Separate raffle for
each doll on Sunday, May 15th (Pentecost Sunday) after the 11:30 a.m. Mass. Also see the lovely
homemade “forest animals” quilt which will be raffled on Sunday, July 3rd, after the 11:30 a.m. Mass.
All proceeds benefit the SJA Building Fund. Tickets are available in the Parish Hall after each of the
Sunday Masses. Ticket prices: 1 for $1, 6 for $5 or 13 for $10.
SJA Youth Camp Dates. Boys camp 7/10-15; Girls camp 7/17-22. Camp registration begins April
10th and ends when spaces are all filled. Paperwork may be found on the credenza. Questions?
Call Elena Bresee at 292-4356.
Thursday 4/28:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
Catechism class for ages 7-12, 6-7 p.m. in the Parish Hall.
Idaho Catholic Appeal. The ICA goal for SJA is $37,568. Pledge $11,531; Paid $10,941. Whatever
you can contribute will be appreciated.
Friday 4/29:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
Exposition of the blessed sacrament after the 6:30 a.m. Mass
until 12 p.m. Benediction followed by 12:15 Mass.
Pancake breakfast! Today, April 24th after each Mass. All proceeds benefit the SJA Summer Youth
Camps.
Saturday 4/30:
Mass Times: 6:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m.
SJA Youth Group. Bowling 2 p.m. and party after. For details call Daniel 699-8775.
Mass emails...register to receive. If you have noticed that you are not receiving “Parish Information”
emails from the church, and would like to receive them, please check with the church secretary
(208-660-2603) to see if you are actually registered with the parish.
SJA Men’s Focus Group. Meeting on Mon., April 25th at 7 p.m. at the home of Tom deTar?
Mass Times for Ascension of Our Lord. Thurs., May 5th, the Mass Times are 6:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.,
6:30 p.m.
Little Flowers. There will be no meeting in May for the Little Flowers, and no other meetings until
Fall.
Circle of Grace. SJA families who have children attending Catechism Classes at SJA, should have received this
past Fall, a diocesan packet entitled “Circle of Grace.” These packets are age appropriate for children
attending SJA Catechism Classes. Each packet contains an evaluation form which needs to be completed and
returned to the church secretary by May 1st. Thank you.
SJA Phone System. We have been experiencing technical difficulties with our phone system (i.e. unable to
retrieve voicemail). However, we are able to accept incoming calls and to dial-out. We apologize for any
inconvenience. This situation is in the process of being resolved. Thank you for your patience.
Finding God’s Will For You
By St. Francis de Sales
Sin excepted, nothing is done except by what is called God’s absolute will or the will of good pleasure. No
one can block this will. It is known to us only by its effects. When they are accomplished, they make clear
to us the fact that God has willed and planned them.
Theotimus, let us consider as a sum total all that has been, is, and shall be. Completely rapt in amazement,
we shall then be forced to cry out in imitation of the psalmist, “I will praise You because You are excessively magnified. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knew this full well. Your knowledge is too wonderful
to me. It is too lofty for me to attain.” From there we will pass on to a most holy complacence, rejoicing
because God is so infinite in wisdom, power, and goodness, the three divine properties of which the
universe is but a small proof and, as is were, a sample.
Let us review both men and angels and that whole varied array of nature, qualities, conditions, powers,
affections, passions, graces, and privileges which supreme Providence has established in the countless
multitude of those celestial intelligences and human persons in whom divine justice and mercy are so wonderfully exercised. We shall be unable to keep ourselves from singing with joy filled with respect and loving
fear: “All honor, Lord, to Your just law I bring; Your mercy and Your righteousness I sing.”
He cut off His mercy forever, from generation to generation? Or will God forget to show mercy? Or will
He in His anger shut up His mercies?“
Lastly, let us turn to ourselves in particular and see both the quantity of interior and exterior goods and the
very great number of interior and exterior punishments that Divine Providence has prepared for us in most
holy justice and mercy. As if opening the arms of our consent, let us most lovingly embrace all this as we
acquiesce in God’s most holy will, and let us sing to Him as a hymn of eternal acquiescence, “Your will be
done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Yes, Lord, Your will be done, on earth where we have no pleasure without admixture of some pain, no
roses without thorns, no day without a night to follow, no spring without a winter that went before; on earth,
Lord, where consolations are rare and trials are countless. Still, O God, Your will be done, not only in
fulfillment of Your commandments, counsels, and inspirations, which must be done by us, but also in the
suffering of afflictions and punishments, which must be accepted by us, to the end that by us, for us, in us,
and with us, Your will may do all that is pleasing to it.
Be assured that God’s will for you is both just and merciful
Theotimus, we must take the greatest complacence as we see how God exercises His mercy by the many
diverse favors He distributes among angels and men, in Heaven and on earth, and how He exercises His
justice by infinite variety or trials and punishments. His justice and His mercy are in themselves equally
worthy of love and admiration, since both of them are simply one and the same most unique goodness and
Godhead.
Because the effects of His justice are severe and full of bitterness for us, He always sweetens them by
mingling among them the effects of His mercy. Amid the waters of the deluge of His just wrath He keeps
safe the green olive, and He enables the devout soul, like a chaste dove, to find it at last if it will only
lovingly meditate in the manner of doves. Hence death, affliction, sweat, and toil, with which life abounds,
are by God’s just decree punishment for sin, but they are also by His sweet mercy ladders to ascend to
Heaven, means to increase in grace, and merits to obtain glory. Blessed are poverty, hunger, thirst, sorrow,
sickness, death, and persecution. They are in truth just punishments for our faults, but they are
punishments so steeped and, as the physicians say, so aromatized in God’s sweetness, benignity, and mercy
that theirs is a most pleasant bitterness.
Theotimus, it is a thing strange yet true that if the damned were not blinded by their obstinacy and hatred
for God, they would find consolation in their torments and see how wonderfully divine mercy is mingled
with the flames that eternally consume them. Hence when the saints contemplate on one hand the horrible
and fearsome torments of the damned, they praise God’s justice and cry out, “In You alone has justice
reigned, and still, impartial law flows from Your mighty will.”
On the other hand, they see that although such torments are eternal and incomprehensible, they are still far
less than the faults and crimes for which they have been indicted. Hence they are enraptured by God’s infinite mercy and say, “Will God then cast us off forever? Or will He never be more favorable again? Or will
APOLOGETICS CORNER
By Fr. Dennis M. Gordon, FSSP
“Ever wonder where some of the truths of our Catholic faith are found in Sacred Scripture? This section is
where you will find answers to this question, to help us better know our faith, and be better equipped to
share our faith with others.”
Question: “I have heard that Catholics believe in a place where someone who dies with lesser sins—
sins that wouldn’t send someone to hell—are punished: a place where imperfect actions are made up
for. Where is that in my Bible?”
Answer: “A place of purgation for souls who are saved (Purgatory) is spoken of in several places! St.
Paul says, “every man’s work shall be manifest...the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is…
If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire”
(1 Corinthians 3:13-15). Notice that he is speaking of men who are saved but through a purgation of
fire. This place of purgation must exist because the Bible says that ‘nothing defiled’ shall enter heaven
(Revelations 21:27).
“Not only that, but Our Lord also said, “Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes, whilst thou art in
the way with him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be case into prison (Greek: phulake). Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from
there till thou pay the last farthing.” Notice that He says one will go out from there, so He is not
speaking of Hell which is eternal (Matthew 25:46).”
“This same word “prison” (phulake) that Our Lord used, is used by St. Peter to name the place where
the dead spirits who are not in hell but not in heaven go (1 Peter 3:19). We know that these souls are
not in hell because they are able to receive the preaching of Christ, yet they are in prison (i.e. not yet in
heaven).”