Sacred Heart’s Knights of Columbus Council #12110 will host their third annual Walk for Life on Saturday, February 4 from 8-11 a.m. at the North Campus (3515 N. Florida Ave.).
Money raised will help support the Foundations of Life Pregnancy Center in Tampa, with representatives from the center in attendance. The event will include praying the Rosary as you walk around the track.
* This page will be updated with fundraising information as soon as it is available.
For more information, contact Knights member Josh Kearns at via email.
RAIN or SHINE: If rain impacts the Walk, the duration of the event will move into the North Campus Auditorium.
Our thanks to the Knights and all ministries involved!
Gospel Greeting: Celtic Alleluia Preparation of the Gifts: Here I am, Lord G 844
Eucharistic Acclamations: Mass of Resurrection Lamb of God: Mass of Resurrection Communion Song: As the Bread of Life is Broken G 1028 Dismissal Chant: Go Make of All Disciples G 843
Readings for The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2023
Epiphany is often seen as the completion of the Christmas story. You’ll notice that our Creche below the altar is now complete with the magi in place, given their scriptural appearance in this weekend’s Gospel. While Epiphany provides a nice bookend to the Christmas season, there are lessons we can learn from the visit of the magi that remain relevant to this day.
Lesson 1: Seek Him: We need to actively seek out God in our lives. God speaks to us and give us directions. While there may not always be a big sign, like a star, we needn’t expect something huge or unavoidable to hear Him. Rather, we should survey the heavens, and be attentive to God’s whisper and have the courage to act!
Lesson 2: Embrace the Challenge We should expect that, whatever path God asks us to take, it is going to be challenge for us. I’m pretty sure the magi had a rough time getting across the desert and wilderness to Jerusalem. Often times, the more difficult path is the path God asks us to follow; think Robert Frost and “The Road Not Taken.
Lesson 3: Swim Against the Current Don’t be too quick to follow the crowd. In God’s way, the crowd is often wrong, and we usually come to our faith as individual children of God. Remember, the magi were a small group, maybe just three. Still, they recognized the birth of the Messiah, while “all Jerusalem” essentially missed it. With God, the minority is often the right place to be. We often need to find our own way.
Lesson 4: Share Yourself with God Break open the gift of yourself before God. The magi presented the Christ Child with very precious, yet material gifts. We are called to bring to God our very best self. They gave him their treasures, the very best they had. We are called to do likewise. Recognize you own special giftedness and pay homage to God by making the most of what God has blessed you with.
Lesson 5: Return Changed After meeting the Christ child, the Gospel tells us that the magi “returned to their own country by another way.” More than just geographical, they returned changed, as we should be when we encounter Christ in our lives. When we meet Jesus, we can’t go back the same way as if nothing happened.
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I pray that this celebration of the Epiphany may inspire you to listen carefully for God’s direction in your lives and to boldly set out where He calls. May Jesus in the Eucharist change our lives and set us off on a new way, inspired by the example of the magi. The season of Christmas may be ending, but our journeys towards and with Jesus continues forward!
Gospel Greeting: Celtic Alleluia Preparation of the Gifts: As with Gladness Men of Old G 505
Eucharistic Acclamations: Mass of Creation G 231, 234, 238 Lamb of God: Mass of Creation Communion Song: Gift of God, O Emmanuel G 469 & Silent Night G 476 Dismissal: We Three Kings G 504 Recessional: C Major Prelude (and Fague) by JS Bach
Readings for The Epiphany of the Lord, January 8, 2023
Happy New Year! I want to take the time to thank the people who have helped make this Advent and Christmas season a wonderful celebration of who we are at Sacred Heart.
I would like to thank our outreach committee who took charge of helping those stricken by the affects of Hurricane Ian at St. Michael Catholic Church in Wauchula. We had an excellent helping hand from those in our parish and we are so grateful to those who aided in these efforts. Our December Giving from the Heart drive saw 75 cars deliver items of need, the largest number of individual donations we’ve had for those events. Our Giving Tree was also a huge success, with parishioners and several ministries and groups coming together to provide Christmas gifts to the children of St. Michael’s. The delivery to St. Michael’s nearly filled the equivalent of two 10’ U-Haul box trucks. My thanks go out to my brothers friars, the choir, our Knights of Columbus council, Loving Hearts, Open Doors, Secular Franciscans, Social Justice Committee, our conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the outreach committee, and most importantly, our parishioners. Thank you all for your collaboration and determination in collectively assisting our neighbors in need.
We were fortunate to continue our parish’s tradition of the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe a few weeks back. I want to specifically thank Norma & Lazaro Hernandez and Alina & Joaquin Diaz for their continuous support of this event over the years. Out of all the parishes that I have celebrated this feast day, Sacred Heart is my favorite. We also were able to hold evening prayer with the help of our music director, Phil Jakob, and the choir. The choir, along with Phil, and our contemporary ensemble director Sam Corson, did a fabulously across all our Christmas Masses and we thank them for their efforts in aiding to what is always a memorable atmosphere celebrating the Nativity.
I’d also like to thank their families for sharing them with us during the holidays. Additionally, we thank our liturgical ministers, altar servers, the environmental committee, Eucharistic ministers, greeters, readers, and ushers for their hours of service. Thanks also to our faith formation families who produced this year’s Christmas pageant prior to the 4 p.m. Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve. Lauren Young directed the event, and I thank her and the children who participated for keeping this annual tradition active.
When we look behind the scenes, we can truly see all the hard work that our remarkable staff and volunteers do. Each and every one of our staff members and friars have been blessed with talents and we are so fortunate to have them here. When we all work together, our parish does incredible things!
Gospel Greeting: Celtic Alleluia Preparation of the Gifts: Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned AboveG 967
Eucharistic Acclamations: Mass of Creation G 231, 234, 238 Lamb of God: Mass of Creation Communion Song: O Little Town of Bethlehem G 482 & The God of All Eternity G 1088 Dismissal: Joy to the World G 448 – 5:30 p.m. Vigil: Holy God We Praise Thy Name (V 1 & 4) G 662 Recessional: Magnificat Fugue (Bach) – 5:30 p.m. Vigil: Wedding March (Mendelsohn)
This Christmas, I find myself thinking back to the Gospel reading we heard on the Third Sunday of Advent (Matthew 11:2-11), pondering at the words used by Jesus asking the people what they were looking for. The questions being “what did you go out to see?” and “why?”…
“What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet?”
Reflecting on this Advent and Christmas season, I see parents, grandparents, college students, children, and teenagers all living out the call of charity, in not only providing monetary gifts but also gifts of compassion and servitude to those who are in dire need. These people are bringing hope, love, and Christ into the darkness and destitution of those who would not otherwise experience the season as a season of hope or good will.
The seasons of Advent and Christmas are about providing hope and giving of oneself. It’s where the words within the Gospel are truly acted out in real life. It is the time of year when people are more generous, kind, self-sacrificing, and loving towards their neighbors and friends. If you were to ask me what I get out of the season, I would tell you that it’s the peace and good will exhibited and brought forth by the good deeds of every person. We see the Kingdom of God a little more clearly though our active participation in being brothers and sisters to the least among us.
Though this time of year is filled with the busyness and anxiety of fulfilling so many holiday obligations, the season of Advent gifted us the ability to step back and reflect on our lives, while Christmas provides the us greatest gift of all: God sending his Son into the word to share his love and mercy towards all humankind. It is my hope and prayer that we all experience that generosity, love, peace within our homes, family and neighbors during this Christmas season.
Let us Pray: The feast day of your birth resembles you, Lord Because it brings joy to all humanity. Old people and infants alike enjoy your day. Your day is celebrated from generation to generation. Kings and emperors may pass away, And the festivals to commemorate them soon lapse. But your festival will be remembered until the end of time. Your day is a means and a pledge of peace. At your birth heaven and earth were reconciled, Since you came from heaven to earth on that day You forgave our sins and wiped away our guilt. You gave us so many gifts on the day of your birth: A treasure chest of spiritual medicines for the sick; Spiritual light for the blind; The cup of salvation for the thirsty; The bread of life for the hungry. In the winter when trees are bare, You give us the most succulent spiritual fruit. In the frost when the earth is barren, You bring new hope to our souls. In December, when seeds are hidden in the soil, The staff of life springs forth from the virgin womb. — St. Ephraim, the Syrian
Peace and All Good, and Merry Christmas, Friar Henry
Preparation of the Gifts: Sir Christèmas (11 p.m. only)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing G 475
Eucharistic Acclamations: Missa Emmanuel G 419, 420, 421 Lamb of God: Mass of Creation G240 Communion Song: O Little Town of Bethlehem G 482, Angels We Have Heard– G 474, Silent Night– G 476
In today’s first reading, Isaiah 7:10-14, the prophet recounts the experience of the Lord telling King Ahaz to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses to obey, so the Prophet Isaiah responds saying, “the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.”
As Christians, we read that as a prediction surrounding the birth of the Messiah, Jesus, the Christ. This and many other citations are the reason the prophet Isaiah is often called the “fifth evangelist.” Today’s Gospel, Matthew 1:18-24, recounts the annunciation of Mary’s pregnancy to Joseph, who gives Jesus legitimacy and protection. Matthew quotes Isaiah with the introduction “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet…”
Matthew’s mission in writing his Gospel account for a largely Jewish audience is to show them that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. In Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah has come in a way that was inconceivable, since Jesus is both son of Mary, and Son of God. In Jesus, God is with us as one of us, albeit without sin.
A few years ago I wrote the following poem:
Arise from your slumber, Get ready the feast. With colored banners prepare the halls and the walls. Pick a tree and decorate its’ branches, But leave off the topping star or angel. Let the celebration not be put off! Our hope has come Wrapped in swaddling clothes. Let joyful expectation give rise to action As recognition of even now with us Presence Gives birth to thanks and wonder! Still our Hope is yet to come, Wearing honor and glory, Robed and crowned with the vulnerable power of Love. So let us wait, And do a bit of fasting before the feasting, And decorate our festal robes with Patient hope and charity. In this great already but not yet, Let us permit the Advent preparations for the great Christmas celebration!
Rather than seeing Advent as merely the time before the season of Christmas, I think it better to understand Advent as its own liturgical season of patient waiting. I like to think our entire lives are like Advent, as we too wait for the fullness of the birth of Christ within us, who has been gifted to us in Baptism.
Sacred Heart held its latest Giving from the Heart drive-through donation event at the North Campus last weekend, benefitting the hurricane recovery efforts of our neighbors at St. Michael Catholic Parish of Wauchula.
The city of Wauchula, especially those living near the Peace River, experienced\ record flooding after Hurricane Ian dumped nearly 20” of rain over portions of Hardee County. In a recent Gulf Coast Catholic article, Sr. Gema Ruiz, the director of religious education at St. Michael’s, shared the story of a family who lost their home to the flooding.
“My family of seven packed up a few items and headed to the shelter at the nearby junior high school. It was a long night as the storm passed over Wauchula. But we were safe. Then the next day, once the roads became passible, we went back home to look for any damage. We were shocked and dismayed to find our house partially underwater. We didn’t foresee that we would be dealing with flooding,” Sr. Gema recounted, on behalf of a parishioner who wanted to remain anonymous. “Our family tried to salvage some clothing items, then we returned to the shelter. The next day, we went home to find the house now completely underwater.”
Several parishioners of St. Michael’s have lost their homes and jobs in the wake of the floods, due to water damage and crops being destroyed. St. Michael’s is a multicultural congregation celebrating liturgies in English, Spanish, and Creole, with over 1,000 registered families. The parish helps operate a food bank, thrift store, and outreach center, and has continued to do so following the hurricane to ensure parishioners and locals have
basic necessities.
Sacred Heart is pleased to announce a record number of donors turned out for this all -important event, which collected home essentials such as bedding and kitchen supplies, non-perishables, and gift cards for the affected families. 75 vehicles drove through our North Campus parking lot, providing more than $4,000 in gift cards in addition to the needed items, which filled both a 15-foot trailer and transit van to their capacity.
Additional donations were dropped off at the parish office before and after the event. We would like to thank all of those who gave of their time and treasure in support of the families at St. Michael’s, including the Knights of Columbus Council #12110, who volunteered both the proceeds from their recent “Bourbon and Cigar Knight” event, as well as their time volunteering with the event. Special thanks also for members of our Loving Hearts ministry and the Outreach Committee, both for volunteering at the event, as well as for their assistance in organizing the event. Most importantly, we thank you, our parishioners, for your continued generosity and devotion to those in need by answering this call.
Our next Giving from the Heart event is scheduled for February. Please see future bulletins and parish communications for details on beneficiaries and needed items. Enjoy a gallery of photos from the December event below:
