News
Racism comes in many forms. It can be seen in deliberate, sinful acts. In recent times, we have seen bold expressions of racism by groups as well as individuals.y Racial profiling frequently targets Hispanics for selective immigration enforcement practices, and African Americans, for suspected criminal activity. There is also the growing harassment of persons from Asian and majority Muslim countries. Extreme nationalist ideologies are feeding the American public discourse with xenophobic rhetoric. Finally, too often racism comes in the form of the sin of omission, when individuals, communities, and even churches remain silent and fail to act against racial injustice when it is encountered.
Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism developed by the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church (USCCB) and approved by the full body of bishops as a formal statement of the same. *Part of a sequential daily series to read and reflect
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the one who takes refuge in him.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.
-Psalm 34 #dailyingodsword
Every day, Lord,
you give me all the help I need:
to do what you call me to do,
to say what you call me to say,
to mend what you call me to mend,
to comfort whom you call me to comfort,
to go where you call me to go,
to stop when you call me to stop
to help whom you call me to help,
and to pray as you call me to pray...
Every day, you give me all the help I need
to live the life you call me to live,
so open my mind and my heart
to the grace you offer today day
- especially when I need it the most...
Amen.
Racism occurs because a person ignores the fundamental truth that, because all humans share a common origin, they are all brothers and sisters, all equally made in the image of God. When this truth is ignored, the consequence is prejudice and fear of the other, and—all too often—hatred. Cain forgets this truth in his hatred of his brother. Recall the words in the First Letter of John: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him” (1 Jn 3:15). Racism shares in the same evil that moved Cain to kill his brother. It arises from suppressing the truth that his brother Abel was also created in the image of God, a human equal to himself. Every racist act—every such comment, every joke, every disparaging look as a reaction to the color of skin, ethnicity, or place of origin—is a failure to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God. In these and in many other such acts, the sin of racism persists in our lives, in our country, and in our world.
-Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism developed by the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church (USCCB) and approved by the full body of bishops as a formal statement of the same.
This is Anne Sullivan, teacher. How humble that description seems, yet how noble and self-giving a vocation.
For Anne, who was Catholic, it was a calling she fought hard to fulfill, ultimately coming to fruition as she lead the young Helen Keller, who lived with both deafness and blindness, from the darkness of her world.
Today is Sullivan’s birthday - a fitting prompt to express our gratitude to our teachers, recognizing the difficult path that they and their students continue to navigate through this pandemic. 🙏❤️
📷Anne Sullivan with her student Helen Keller
MOTHER’S DAY
Mother’s Day is May 9th. Masses will be offered for Mothers on Mother’s Day through May 12th. If you would like your mother, living or deceased, to be remembered in the Mass intentions please add their names to the envelopes which are available near the doors of the church and in the Ministry Center and return in the Sunday collection or the Ministry Center.
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2021
EASTER WEEKDAY
Let your life be your witness
How do you live your faith? Some days may be harder than others, but rarely, if ever nowadays, will the effort to be a faithful follower of Jesus land someone in jail or cost them their life. Yet that was the fate of the early disciples who insisted on proclaiming the stories of Jesus’ life, death, and rising. There are 20th-century martyrs as well (Blessed Stanley Rother, Sister Dorothy Stang SNDdeN, the martyrs of El Salvador among others), but faith calls all of us to kindness to all people, fairness in the face of injustice, trust in God’s promised Spirit, and a constant willingness to see the face of God in our neighbors. Do people recognize you as a follower of Jesus by the way you live?
TODAY'S READINGS: Acts 5:17-26; John 3:16-21. “The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area and are teaching the people.”
#takefiveforfaith
John 3:16-21
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
#dailyingodsword
What Is Racism?
Racism arises when—either consciously or unconsciously—a person holds that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard. When this conviction or attitude leads individuals or groups to exclude, ridicule, mistreat, or unjustly discriminate against persons on the basis of their race or ethnicity, it is sinful. Racist acts are sinful because they violate justice. They reveal a failure to acknowledge the human dignity of the persons offended, to recognize them as the neighbors Christ calls us to love (Mt 22:39).
-Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love - A Pastoral Letter Against Racism developed by the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church (USCCB) and approved by the full body of bishops as a formal statement of the same.
This month of April, we honor all of our wonderful military families. It is good and right that our country sets aside a special month to honor the brave men and women who serve in the military, and their children. At Sacred Heart, this is especially important because of the large number of active and retired military families in our parish and school. We recognize that our military put their very lives on the line to protect our country and freedoms. That, in and of itself, deserves our respect. However, there is also a daily cost, not only to those in uniform, but their families, in time spent apart and the tremendous difficulties that brings. Sacrifice is at the core of our Catholic faith. Jesus gave His life for us, and those that serve make a noble sacrifice. The military families in our faith community exemplify and live that virtue for all of our benefit. For that, I know you will join me in thanksgiving, gratitude, and prayer to our wonderful military families this month.
(Adapted from our school’s Heart to Heart bulletin, written by Mr. Harris, SHPS Principal)
