Recent News &
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Recent News &
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November 19th Mass with Class
Mass 6 PM Fr. Paul Portland At the 6 PM Mass “Rite of Commitment” Juniors. Juniors Confirmation Candidate and Sponsor night 7 – 8:30 PM Freshmen and Sophomores in small groups. Have a Very Blessed Thanksgiving! Remember to Thank God above all! December 3rd Mass with Class Mass 6 PM Fr. Phillip Bogacki Class 7 – 8:30 All Grades Meet in Small groups! December 10th Summer Outreach Mission Trip at 7:00 PM St. Pius X in the Cafe – enter at the Gym doors! Trip is June 10 – 15th to Mishawaka IN. Catholic Heart Work Camp. Scholarship money available. We are called to be Jesus’ Disciples! December 17th Mass 6 PM at St. BERNARD (PLEASE note: New location for this night) 7 – 8:30 PM at St. BERNARD Special Eucharistic Adoration Night with Praise and Worship Music led by Ben Wagner. Questions Call Barb Abler 414-322-0298 or blerb@archmil.org December 3rd, 2017—11:30am-1:30PM | North Hall, Christ King Parish
Bring your family for an afternoon of ADVENTure as we explore what this special season of preparation has in store for each and every one of us. There will even be a hot chocolate bar to enjoy! Come right at the beginning so you do not miss out on any of our exciting ADVENT activities. Admission: A plate of cookies! RSVP Here: https://goo.gl/forms/NxofckdjXybv46wg1 Join Salvatorian Brother Silas for a pre-Advent mini-retreat. This will be a time of reflection and prayer on the meaning of Advent and Christmas. Bro. Silas will include art, music, and scripture to help participants enter more deeply into these important seasons.
Date: Saturday, December 2, 2017 9:00 AM-12:00 NOON Place: Atrium of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist Coffee and refreshments will be available during the break. $10.00 donation requested. RSVP by Monday, November 27 to Pat: 414-276-9814 ex. 302 or e-mail patwisialowski@stjohncathedral.org. Envelopes for our seasonal environment collection are found in your packet of envelopes and also in the pews. Your donation helps decorate our church for Christmas and enables us to send holiday plants to the homebound members of our community.
We invite you to make your donation in memory of your loved ones so that their lives may be a part of our celebration of the Christmas season. MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY of the week: baptismal preparation! We are looking for a back up to Joan Quinn, who does our baptismal preparation. Sessions are held four times a year on Sunday mornings, from 11:30 until about 1 pm. A married couple would be good, but that is not a condition for involvement. Preparation would be by participating a few times with Joan and discussing the program with her. This is an extremely important and relevant ministry without a big time commitment. If you are interested, please talk with Fr. Paul.
This coming weekend we will have our annual parish meeting in the cafeteria after each Mass. Updates will be given on various topics and there will be time for questions. Please plan on attending. I thank all who worked so hard to put on our auction and all who attended. This is the largest fundraiser for our school. An incredible amount of volunteer time, effort, and talent go into making it a success. It was a fun evening: we look forward to next year! Three Pius parishioners were honored at the auction for their contributions to our community: Blake McDuffie for his cleaning of the church each Saturday morning over many years; Chris Graham for his support of our communications (webpage, e-mails, etc.); and John Kielich, who supports both our prayer ministry and our stewardship efforts. Congratulations and thank you for your generous service to our community. These last weeks of the Church year, which ends with the feast of Christ the King on November 26, deal with the end time. When will it be? No one knows but the Father. What will happen? No one knows. But what we DO know is that we have to be prepared, as were the five wise virgins waiting for the bridegroom to arrive. The foolish virgins wanted the wise virgins to share their oil, but that was impossible because the oil represents good deeds, the kind of life we lead that keeps us prepared for whatever will happen. In other words, if we live a life centered in Gospel values, if we are improving in our ability to demonstrate love of God through love of neighbor, we don’t need to be preoccupied with the end time: we will be prepared, no matter what happens! God is on our side. He wants the best for us. We don’t have to be perfect: we just need to do our best to cooperate by continuing to grow in our ability to share his love and forgiveness with others. That is all God asks of us! -- Paul James Portland, SDS Second Weekend of Advent - December 9-10
Gift Sunday is coming on December 10! As you start your holiday shopping, please don’t forget Gift Sunday. A full announcement will be coming in the bulletin on November 18 & 19, detailing the agencies that we will be providing gifts and needed items for this holiday season. It is that time again to register anyone in your family that would like to participate in the Nativity Pageant before the family Mass at 5:00pm on Christmas Eve. If you are between the ages of 4 and 18 and want to act, sing, or work behind the scenes, please join us! But that doesn’t mean that adults are excluded from all the fun. We need adults to help with costumes, props, lighting, and with direction. Auditions for speaking parts will be held December 3; practices will be held on December 10 and 17th. Join us in helping to tell the story of Jesus’ birthday!
(We are also looking for an infant, male or female, to be the Baby Jesus). Remember Our Parish Shut-ins
First Weekend of Advent December 2-3 MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY of the week: Music! Singing or playing instruments. All year or seasonal for Christmas. See all the possibilities on the main page of our website by clicking on become involved in our community. For more information or to sign up call our Liturgy Director, Kathy Wellenstein, at 414 453 3875, ex 14 or e-mail kwellenstein@stpiusparish.org. Remember: the one who sings prays twice!
You should have received your pledge material for the coming year in the mail this week. If not, please call the parish office. I ask you to read the material carefully, prayerfully considering your support of our community and its ministries. Our annual open parish meeting will be held after each Mass on November 18-19. Please plan on attending to learn more about what is happening and to ask any questions you may have. This past week I wired $6,250 to Fr. Diego in Guatemala, the result of our sister parish collection ($4,157) and another donation that we received earlier but were waiting to wire at the same time. On behalf of our sister parish, I thank you for your generosity. Our readings this week are directed specifically towards religious leaders. The first reading and the Gospel present what to avoid (not practicing what you preach, making things unnecessarily difficult for people, looking for honor and status); the second reading from St. Paul presents what to do (share self in service, have integrity, not be a burden). It challenges me as pastor to a little self-reflection and I shall do it! It is also a good opportunity for me to thank you for the support and encouragement you have given me in the four and a half years I have been walking with this community. I have felt accepted and comfortable being with you, and I appreciate that. God bless! Our annual ALL PARISH meeting will take place the weekend of November 18—19, following all weekend Masses.
Come and hear what’s happening in our parish and get answers to your questions. November is National Family Caregiver Month. Health Ministry invites family caregivers to a special evening by a witty, insightful, thought-provoking and delightful presenter, Lynda Markut, Education and Family Support Coordinator for the Alzheimer’s Association of SE Wisconsin.
This presentation helps caregivers (not just those caring for someone with dementia) understand what makes caring hard work, what caregiving can do to us as well as what it does for us. Information is offered on stress to help caregivers acknowledge the stress of caring. Through stories and personal examples, caregivers will start to identify if they are caring too much, losing sight of themselves, and are only focusing on a disease process as opposed to focusing on living. This session helps participants gain perspective to take steps to care for themselves as they care for their family member. Lynda will not be doing a presentation on dementia, but will include information on why caring for someone with dementia is more challenging than caring for someone with other chronic conditions. Join us on Monday, November 13th, 5:30 – 7:30 PM, in the rectory living room. To celebrate you, the family caregiver, and to give you a break, a light supper will be served. The session is open and free of charge. Please RSVP by calling the parish office by Thursday, November 9th: 414-453-3875. *Parking: Street parking or east church parking lot, Enter building off Wauwatosa Ave. and follow the signs. Want to learn more about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd? Join the Vision Team that will meet monthly to discuss the relevant CGS texts, pray for the mustard seed of CGS to grow within our parish communities.
For more information, please contact Samantha El-Azem, our Director of Formation for Children at elazems@christkingparish.org. Next class: Sunday, November 12 and November 19 St. Pius Classrooms—9 AM This weekend we begin our warmup for the 2018 pledge drive for financial support of our community with witness talks at each Mass (thank you to Emily Wisniewski, Steve True, and Joanna Clementi for sharing their stewardship stories with us). Our goal this year is $425,000. The mailing will be coming soon with all the information needed. Please be as generous as you can and support our efforts with your prayers.
Our readings this weekend are powerful and challenging. The religious leaders continue to try to trip Jesus up with trick questions. Last week it was about paying the census tax to Caesar; this week it is about the greatest of all the commandments. Jesus makes clear that the essential command of following him is loving God and showing it through love of neighbor. When we think of “love,” we might think of warm, fuzzy feelings. But Jesus is not talking about emotions and feelings: he is talking about actions, HOW we treat others. It is important to keep that distinction clear in our minds, or it becomes too easy to say I cannot “love” people I don’t know. There are two aspects of this “love in actions,” a negative and a positive: not harming others and doing good for others when needed and possible. The examples in the first reading from Exodus, challenging to the people of the Old Testament, remain challenging for us today. One example is to protect and take care of the alien (we would say immigrant or refugee); a second is for those with power and money not to take advantage of the poor by usury. These examples are showing that those who HAVE need to take care of those who HAVE NOT. The topics of immigration and supporting the poor are “hot” political topics today. If we wish to be true followers of Jesus, we need to keep His values in mind as we approach these topics and as we live our lives. Let us pray in a special way this week that we as a country with Christian roots may follow Gospel values in dealing with the most vulnerable in society. -- Paul James Portland, SDS Have you ever thought about joining our choir but just aren’t able to make that year-long commitment?
How about joining us for the 10:00 pm Christmas Mass on December 24th which is preceded by a concert and carols at 9:30 pm. Rehearsals will be held in church at 7:15 PM on the following dates: Tuesdays - November 7 & 14 Thursdays - November 30, December 7, 14, 21 We are also looking for hand bell ringers and other instrumentalists for that Mass and the Christmas Masses at 5:00 pm on December 24th and 9:30 am on December 25th. Rehearsals will be scheduled based on your availability. Call Kathy Wellenstein at 453-3875 Ext. 14 or email her at kmwellenstein@yahoo.com if you have any questions or to let her know that you are interested in participating. |