July 11, 2010 - Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time

"Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." - Lk 10:36-37

COMING SOON FROM THE STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE
We are looking for your input! St. Mary’s will be distributing (via e-blast and the pews) a questionnaire, soliciting your thoughts and ideas about parish functions and fundraisers. We welcome your thoughts, ideas and comments. We will greatly appreciate if you can take the time to give us your ideas and feedback. Thank you.

THANK YOU
St. Mary’s-Stony Hill wishes to acknowledge and thank Bob Hayward for his active role in the parish, helping with SHIP over the past several years. Bob will continue to act as a volunteer for SHIP, however, the Knights of Columbus will be collecting the frozen pans before each weekend Mass (once a month).

PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE
Samaritan Homeless Interim Program or SHIP is a Somerville based program that provides homeless with warm meals. The meals have been served by SHIP at local shelters and from SHIP’s mobile soup kitchen. During the last weekend of the month (it can be either be the fourth weekend or fifth weekend, depending on how many weeks there are in a month), empty serving trays and recipes are available in St. Mary’s narthex for parishioners to pick up. Parishioners prepare the recipe, freeze it and return the frozen casserole the following weekend (the first weekend of the next month).

Also, St. Mary’s supports The Food Bank Network of Somerset County, distributing packages of food to 2,200 individuals monthly. Recipients are usually low income, working families who cannot always meet the high cost of living in this area. Canned and other non-perishable is collected on the 2nd weekend of the month in a bin located in the narthex.

Please remember the hungry during the summer months…..HUNGER DOES NOT TAKE A VACATION!!

Below is a schedule through the month of September for SHIP and the Somerset County Food Bank Drive:
 

GOSPEL REFLECTION
In today’s Gospel from Luke, Chapter 10, Verses 25-37 , Luke speaks about The Good Samaritan.

Think about the victim by the road, would you be willing to help? Can you think of someone else who would? If the victim in the story were your neighbor or your friend would you be more willing to act like the Good Samaritan? So what is Jesus telling us? What is it the makes all people neighbors?

Think of the Good Samaritan story in terms of today’s world, and ask yourself how might I care for people when they can’t do for themselves……Can I be The Good Samaritan?

IN AND ABOUT THE DIOCESE OF METUCHEN
 - National Family Planning Awareness Week July 19-25: Trust – God has a plan for your marriage- “a call to celebrate and reverence God’s vision of human sexuality.”

This program is open to married and engaged couples who want to learn about NFP.
The benefits of using NFP:
 Low cost
 No harmful side effects
 Effective for achieving, spacing or limiting pregnancy
 Can be used throughout a woman’s reproductive life
 Marriage enrichment and mutual understanding
 Appreciation for the value of children
 Fosters respect for and acceptance of the total person
 Morally acceptable.

Please call the Family Life Office/Diocese of Metuchen @ 732-562-1990 ext. 1624 or e-mail familyfe@diometuchen.org for more information or to register for classes at a location nearest your home. 2010

MOUNT ST. MARY HOUSE OF PRAYER
SUMMER SACRED PLAY: SPIRIT, WIND AND CLAY: Enjoy a creative reflection on the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Celebrate creating clay wind chimes. No clay experience necessary. Saturday, July 24, 9:00-11:30 a.m. ($30 includes materials) Tina Geiger, RSM Registration is required: call 908-753-2091 or e-mail msmhope@msmhope.org

BENEDICT XVI CREATES COUNCIL FOR NEW EVANGELIZATION
Will Be Dedicated to Secularized Christian Countries

Vatican City, June 28, 2010: To ward off secularization in nations where the Gospel put down roots centuries ago, Pope Benedict is creating a new pontifical council. The Pope announced the newest Vatican dicastery, as he celebrated vespers for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

This council----dedicated to a “renewed evangelization”---will be the 12th of the Roman Curia. There is also nine congregations.

“Man of the third millennium also desires an authentic and full life, he has need of truth, of profound liberty, of gratuitous love,” the Holy Father said before announcing the new organization. “Also in the deserts of the secularized world, man’s soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

The Pontiff cited his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in affirming that the mission Christ entrusted to the Church is still far from completion, and that it requires strong commitment.

There are regions in the world that still wait for a first evangelization; others that received it but need more profound work; others still in which the Gospel put down roots a long time ago, giving place to a true Christian tradition, but where in the last centuries – with complex dynamics – the process of secularization has produced a grave crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and of belonging to the Church,” Benedict XVI observed.

And he announced: “In this perspective, I have decided to create a new organism, in the form of pontifical council, with the specific task of promoting a renewed evangelization in countries where the first proclamation of the faith already resounded, and where Churches are present of ancient foundation, but which are going through a progressive secularization of society and a sort of ‘eclipse of the sense of God,’ which constitutes a challenge to find the appropriate means to propose again the perennial truth of the Gospel of Christ.”

The Holy Father did not announce who will be the president of the new dicastery.