FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT – December 22, 2024

Please, check out the Hungarian section (link at the bottom) as well, as some Hungarian related news or information may be found only there.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

TODAY’S MASS INTENTIONS:

9:00 AM: Parishioners of St. Emeric Parish

11:00 AM: Árpád, Irén, Árpád Jr. Szentkirályi, by the  Szentkirályi Family

MASS SCHEDULE & INTENTIONS FOR THE COMING WEEK:

FROM THE DESK OF FR. BONA: (1) Please, see the schedule for Christmas and New Year Masses below. Also, please note that Christmas and January 1^st (Mary Mother of God) are holy days of obligation.

(2) You may have heard of name days. In many cultures, there are first names associated with the days of the year. The associations between the days and the names have arisen primarily because the Church liturgically commemorated a saint of that name on that day or a strong cultural popular piety attached a certain day to a saint. The latter was the case for Adam and Eve, whose name day is December 24. Although, the tradition of the Church held that our first parents repented of their sin and lived a life of holiness (in an ancient homily, Adam and Eve are the first one to be led out by Christ from the shadows of death where the righteous awaited the redemption), liturgically she never established a feast for our first parents. Therefore, the martyrologies of the past (a list of martyrs and other saints/blesseds arranged in the calendar order) do not contain an entry for Adam and Eve. However, the popular devotion had them celebrated on the Christmas Eve as a reminder of the reason why the Son of God descended from heaven. The latest martyrology (2004), interestingly, for December 24 does have an entry for the ancestors of Jesus and specifically mentions Jesus as the son of Adam.

The commemoration of all the holy ancestors of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of Adam, namely the fathers, who pleased God and were found righteous and died according to faith, having not received the fulfilment of promises, but looking at and saluting them from afar, from whom Christ was born according to the flesh, who is over all God blessed for ever.

There has been some push to officially create a liturgical feast of Sts. Adam and Eve. As someone wrote: “To our smiling and compassionate first ancestors, who were married, who loved each other, who nurtured and educated their children, we owe our own precious lives. They are like grandparents to every generation. Each child can sit on their knees to learn about the Faith, to hear from them why we are on earth. Through them we are relatives with Christ; with the Christ who gives us a ticket to heaven at Baptism. If we hold on to that ticket, Peter the Gatekeeper will punch it for us at the Golden Gate; with it we can pass through to celebrate an eternal jubilee.”

TODAY: THE BLESSING OF THE BAMBINELLI: after the Mass, please come forward with the baby Jesus from your home Nativity set for this special blessing.

DECORATING CHURCH: today (12/22) after the 11AM Sunday Mass. If some of you are able to help carry some Christmas decorations into the church, that would be greatly appreciated.

LAST WEEKEND’S COLLECTION: Sunday Collection: $1,422; Immaculate Conception: $115; renovation fund: $1,125; Christmas Flowers: $205; in loving memory of Aladár Fricke: $500; in loving memory of Katalina & Mihail Horvath: $100; in loving memory of Imre Karetka: $50. Altar Guild’s profit from Stuffed Cabbage Sale: $1,502. May God reward your generosity in supporting the church. Thank you for sending in your donations by mail or using our website https://stemeric.com/donations/.

MASS SCHEDULE FOR CHRISTMAS – NEW YEAR

December 24:    5:00 PM Mass – English

December 24:    10:30 PM Christmas Carrols – Hungarian

December 24:    11:00 PM Mass – Hungarian

December 25:    9:00 AM Mass – English

December 25:   11:00 AM Mass – Hungarian

December 31:    5:00 PM – English

January 1:          9:00 AM – English

January 1:          11:00 AM – Hungarian

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK, especially for Bev Kimar, Teréz Kalász, Lajos Boday, Márta Takács, Kathy Szabó, Dorothy Fromhercz, Alex Szaday, Virginia Kachmar, Margaret Falk, Mária Hokky, Stephen Palko, and Balázs Bedy.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE DECEASED, especially for Mary Spisak whose Funeral Mass will be on Monday, December 23, at 11AM, at the Shrine of the St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen

THIS SUNDAY the 11:00 AM Mass from St. Emeric church will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/saintemeric/ and https://stemeric.com/

LET US PRAY THREE HAIL MARYS FOR OUR PARISH EVERY DAY!

Ez a bejegyzés olvasható Hungarian nyelven is.