Mass Intentions for the First Week of Advent
Tuesday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m.
Private Intention
†Brenda Lueke
Wednesday, December 6 at 8:00 a.m.
††Xavier, Frances, Sarah, & Conner Roesch
Mass Intentions for the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Holy Day of Obligation)
Thursday, December 7 at 6:00 p.m. - Vigil
†Bob Tennyson
†Robert Aydt
Friday, December 8 at 8:00 a.m.
†Larry Hunt
Mass Intentions for the Second Sunday of Advent
Saturday, December 9 at 5:00 p.m.
††Rich & Tillie Miller
Living & Deceased Cletus Kaufman Family
†Donnie Lueke
Sunday, December 10 at 8:30 a.m.
All Parish Family
We the parishioners of St. John the Baptist,
brothers and sisters in Christ, accept as our mission:
to know our faith and share it with others, to continue to grow spiritually with respect for the sacraments, to celebrate the liturgy and the Holy Eucharist as the center of our Christian life, to live by truth and love, to serve those in need, to teach by example, and thereby strengthen and inspire our Parish family in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church.
Office Hours ~ December 4-8
Monday ~ Closed
Tuesday thru Friday ~ 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Closed Noon-12:30 p.m. for lunch
Visit Parish Website For
Bulletins: New & Old
Calendar
Photo Gallery
Monthly Ministry List
Your financial support remains an important part of our Parish life and helps us keep going. Please continue giving your time, talent, and treasure at this difficult time. Please mail, drop-off your offering in collection box or in the mailbox by Parish office front door.
Collection Envelope Misprints
As some of you may have noticed this past weekend, there was a misprint with your Building Fund/Christmas collection envelope. The office has contacted our envelope company and they know about the problem and apologizes for the misprint. Please look at your envelopes prior to putting them in the collection box. If you have questions on what a particular envelope should be, please contact the office.
Watch bulletin for more details.
December
2: Note mass time change, due to Christmas parade.
3: PSR Classes 9:30 a.m.
3: NO Bible Study
3: PSR Christmas program practice 10:30 a.m.
4: Holy Name Society Meeting 7:00 p.m. Refreshments Mike Karcher
5: Ladies Quilting 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. City Hall.
5: Parish Council Meeting 7:00 p.m.
7: AA/NA Meeting 7:00 p.m. City Hall
10: PSR Classes 9:30 a.m.
10: Bible Study 9:30 a.m.
10: PSR Christmas program practice 10:30 a.m.
12: Ladies Quilting 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. City Hall.
13: Building & Grounds Meeting 6:00 p.m. - All Parishioners are welcome to attend.
14: AA/NA Meeting 7:00 p.m. City Hall
17: PSR Christmas Program after Mass
17: One Strong Youth Breakfast with Santa Visit 9:30 a.m.
17: PSR Classes 10:30 a.m.
17: NO Bible Study
18: Christmas Memorials for Needy in the Parish due to the office.
19: Ladies Quilting 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. City Hall.
19: Christmas Penance Service 6:00 p.m. - second Priest available
21: KC #8745 Meeting at Dahlgren 7:00 p.m.
21: KC #7118 Meeting at Enfield 7:00 p.m.
21: AA/NA Meeting 7:00 p.m. McLeansboro Hall
23-24 & 30-31 Two Week Bulletin. Please have announcements to office by DeC. 20.
24: NO PSR Classes or Bible Study
24: The Nativity of the Lord Christmas Vigil Mass 4:00 p.m.
25: The Nativity of the Lord Christmas Day Mass 9:00 a.m.
QUILTING EVERY TUESDAY
Starting at 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at the City Hall, 601 E Market Street, McLeansboro, IL. Everyone is welcomed and if you don't know how to quilt, this is a great way to learn. For more information contact Phyllis Wuebbels 618-895-4895 or Sharon Bigley 618-736-2964.
PRAY FOR & REMEMBER THE SICK & HOMEBOUND
James Frey
Bob Wilson
Kent Karcher
Paul & Helen Wellen
Mary Karcher
Deacon Alfred Karcher
Paula Campbell
Clem Aydt
Tillie Kaufman
Reminder: Due to federal privacy laws, we are not allowed to list people or visit who are sick or in the nursing home without written authorization from that individual or from their immediate family who has authorization. Form can be requested from the office.
REMINDER
Please contact office for funerals and baptisms. For weddings contact office six months before.
PLASTIC TOTE BY OFFICE DOOR
Weekly bulletins
Living Faith Books & are located at each door in church.
AA & NA MEETING - CITY HALL
Alcohol & Narcotic Anonymous Meeting
Every Thursday Night
7:00 p.m.
601 E Market Street ~ McLeansboro, IL
For more information contact Jim Bell 618-387-1077
Our Parish was asked to provide food for the hospitality room for the Hamilton County Foxes Invitational Tournament. Our church provided the meal for 85 people this past Wednesday. Local churches were all asked to take different nights. It was an honor for our church to be asked. A huge thank you to Bert Dodson for helping me get all of the food ready and Julia Zimmerman for helping me transport all of it and set it up. And thank you to several others who helped make dumplings and answered my many questions on how to prepare food for this event. Everyone was so appreciative of our church helping support this event.
~ Cara Bowling ~
TAX-SMART STRATEGY FOR GIVING WITH AN IRA
Individuals and couples age 70½ and older can use a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) to reduce income taxes when withdrawing funds from an IRA. The QCD allows a donor to instruct their IRA administrator to send any amount up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity including churches. The IRA contribution goes directly to the charity so the donor does not owe income taxes on the QCD, unlike normal distributions that become part of a taxpayer’s gross income. A qualified charitable distribution counts toward satisfying your annual required minimum distribution. QCD’s to this parish, may be directed to: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 7598 Piopolis Road, McLeansboro IL 62859. If you wish to more specifically direct the contribution, also include the fund name, such as General, Building, Cemetery, One Strong, PSR, etc. Contact your IRA administrator or your tax professional for more information.
WAYS TO DONATE DURING ADVENT
Starting Next Weekend
Food Collection for Ruby's Hands of Hope Food Pantry
at Turning Point Church in McLeansboro
There has been an increase in more people needing to use this food pantry to help support their family. Any items are greatly appreciated. Please remember that what you donate, it can make a meal for a family. Donation tubs are located at the back of church or can be dropped off in the hall.
Catholic Relief Services - Gift of Hope Tree
At the back of church during Advent, there is a tree with tags. All tag items are actual goods and services CRS supports in poor communities around the world. The gifts described on the tags are symbolic of the good your donation will do for children, women, and men in 100 countries. Here's how it works...take a tag from the tree and either go online to make your donation or place your tag along with a check made to Catholic Relief Services in an envelope (marked CRS) and drop in the collection box.
The 2023 Catholic Service & Ministry Appeal
Financial Target $9,444 ~ Pledged to Date $3,313
The CSMA Fund for provides funding to parishes, schools and organizations throughout our diocese for local projects. Help this popular program which funds local projects continue through your gift to this year’s CSMA. Please help our Parish meet our goal.
PASTOR'S NOTE:
First, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to wish me a happy birthday on November 14th. I appreciate all of the prayers on this occasion, beautiful cards, attached gifts, and YES also Facebook "likes". For me, every birthday is a reminder to be appreciative to God for the gift of life and also to my parents for welcoming me into this world, cherishing me, and doing their best to raise me. The number that moves forward to measure our biological life is just a number and does not determine anything about us. We are and feel what we "feed "in us. We might be 20 years old with a bitter and sour soul inside or we might be 80 years old with a joyful and cheerful spirit. The choice is ours to make and inviting Jesus Christ and His "bunch" (Saints) into our lives makes the choice much clearer.
Second, this is the New Liturgical Year 2024 which begins today with the celebration of the First Sunday of Advent. This is a time that many of you love and wait for all year. The liturgical color is purple and there are no decorations (flowers) in church (except on the feast of Mary on December 8th) and the visible sign of this time is the Advent wreath with four candles symbolizing the four Sundays before Christmas. Four weeks of expectation have begun. It is good to have these weeks of expectations because we realize that Jesus will return for the second time to fulfill His promises to the end. This is a time of joyfully waiting for the coming of Christ which is symbolized by one of the candles in the wreath; it is pink and is lit for the third Sunday of Advent and is called the Sunday of JOY (latin: Gaudete). As we prepare ourselves during this time with prayers, sacraments, acts of mercy, and charitable work, let us be mindful that we do all of this because of Christ. As St. John wrote in his Gospel: "He must increase; I must decrease.” (John 3.30).
And third, I wanted to inform all of you that have been sincerely concerned about "the chipped and cracked walls" that work will begin on Monday, December 4th in the presbyterium area to fix the plastered wall behind the main altar, around the windows, and the ceiling above the altar. We will move the mobile altar down to ground level so we may celebrate masses on the weekdays without interruption. The estimated time of this project is approximately two weeks. Also, since my last note about the church renovation project and the possibility of building, for the first time in history, a Piopolis parish family hall, I would like to inform you that during our last Building & Grounds meeting we decided to hire an architect who will guide us during this process. After almost a year of meetings, the committee came to the conclusion that we need a professional to help set our goals for the revitalization of our church and prioritizing particular projects due to their complexity and due to the limited knowledge we have of today's technologically advanced world of renovation. The additional reason behind hiring an expert to help us fix things in our church building is that there was no revitalization done over the last 45 years and issues have simply piled up, which very often happens in our daily lives. We look at this project with hope and excitement because many of you have expressed to me that you want to come to a living church not a museum; a church where kids, youth, young adults, and older parishioners like to spend time and "be" instead of just quickly visiting church during services. To those who are skeptical about this idea, please talk to your kids and your grandkids and ask how they want to see their future Church. With that being said, our Building & Grounds meetings are open for every parishioner to attend. New ideas, concepts and also constructive criticism are welcome because all of that helps create an environment of inclusiveness that all are welcome to discuss and all voices will be heard. Great things are born not in the quiet of a room but very often in tensions and a heated temperature just like diamonds or crystals. In the end, this is your parish and you will leave it for your children and grandchildren. The question is, will you leave it in good shape to carry the light of Christ forward or will it be left destined to collapse due to the lack of further vision and rejection of a chance. In the near future, we plan to hold a meeting with the architect for all parishioners. He will help us navigate through this project and answer our questions. Our goal is to divide this project into specific phases and share them with all of you phase by phase before, during, and at their completion. There will be opportunities to sponsor certain projects if anyone chooses to do so after learning the details, different options, and scenarios.
May God bless you and your loved ones as we travel through the journey of this life! Have a blessed week.
Fr. Slawomir
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