Bulletin for the week of January 30, 2011

Mission Intention for February

That all may respect the family and recognize it for its unmatched contribution to the advancement of society.

FUNERALS: Funerals were celebrated this week for James Miner and Robert Bird. Please remember them and their families in your prayers.

A SENIOR MOMENT: Two elderly ladies were discussing the upcoming dance at the country club. "We're supposed to wear something that matches our husband's hair, so I'm wearing black," said Mrs. Smith. "Oh my," said Mrs. Jones, "I'd better not go."

IHC MYSTERY PLAYERS: The Immaculate Heart Central Mystery Players from Watertown, will present an unforgettable experience at St. Alexander’s Church on Saturday, March 12th at 7:30 pm. Through the use of special lighting, music, pantomime and paraliturgical readings, this group of high school seniors and adults present a moving, dramatic mediation. This group has traveled extensively in New York State as well as the neighboring States. You are most welcomed to attend this unique and powerful prayer.

BLESSING OF THROATS: There is a legend concerning St. Blaise (died 316 AD) in which he saved the life of a young boy who had a fish bone caught in his throat. The boy’s mother brought Blaise food and candles when he was imprisoned. Thus, on February 3rd, the Feast of St. Blaise, we have the blessing of throats using two candles in the form of St. Andrew’s cross in the throat blessing ceremony. The blessing can be given by a priest, deacon or lay person who follows the rites and the following designated prayer:

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise,

Bishop and Martyr,

May God deliver you from every disease

of the throat and from every other illness:

In the Name of he Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

THANK YOU KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: A heartfelt thank you goes to the Knights of Columbus for their generous donation of $2500 to Seton Academy. A portion of this money will be used to replace some of the chairs in the cafeteria. We are most grateful to the Knights for their support of Catholic education. We pray for them, their families, and their intentions. God bless the Knights of Columbus!

BAPTISM: Claire Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Benjamin and Natalie (Levac) Smith became a member of the Catholic community through the Sacrament of Baptism on January 23rd.

MARRIAGE TIP: Have you ever worked a crossword puzzle together? It can be done in the car or anytime your brain needs some exercise but your body doesn’t want to. It’s satisfying to find the right word and actually complete something together. Find more Marriage Rx atwww.foryourmarriage.org.

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FLU PRECAUTIONS: The Diocese of Ogdensburg has received some inquiries about precautions in church settings against influenza and concerning the recent hepatitis incident at a Long Island parish at Christmas. As in the past, Bishop LaValley is asking all parishes of the diocese to adopt the following precautionary measures:

Parishioners should not share the sign of peace if feeling ill.

It is recommended that parishioners receive Communion in the hand. Communion on the tongue presents hygienic problems during the flu season.

THANK YOU GIVING TREE: Richard Holcomb, Supervisor of Adult Services for the Clinton Count Department of Social Services sent the following letter: We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for the generosity of your Parish families who contributed to the Giving Tree Program. As you are well aware over one hundred gifts were received and distributed to children and youth in need during this past holiday season. This is particularly impressive during these difficult economic times. As a result many families were able to enjoy a Merry Christmas and know that there are people, such as your Parish members, who are willing to keep the true meaning of the Season alive.

Bulletin for the week of January 23, 2011

Mission Intention for January

That the riches of the created world may be preserved, valued, and made available as God’s precious gift to all.

STATEMENT OF GIVING FOR INCOME TAXES: If you wish to receive a statement of your financial contributions to St. James Church for 2010, please indicate this on your Sunday offering envelope so that we can assure confidentiality.

MARRIAGE TIP: Do you know what is currently stressing your spouse? If not, it doesn’t hurt to check it out. Maybe everything really is just fine. To ask, however, shows concern. Find more Marriage Rx at www.foryourmarriage.org.

LETTER OF BISHOP LAVALLEY ON RESPECT LIFE COLLECTION

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Since January 2005, the faithful of the Diocese of Ogdensburg have generously given to the annual Respect Life Collection. Such generosity reflects our strong commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel of Life. These financial gifts enable the Church to help fund many good works that promote the dignity of life in communities throughout our Diocese.

The Respect Life Collection supports a variety of pro-life initiatives. Among some of last year’s grant recipients: Gabriel Project crisis pregnancy programs in several locations in the Diocese, a Teen Pregnancy program administered through Catholic Charities in Malone, Liferight of Watertown, Champlain Valley Birthright, the New York State Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, as well as many other local Respect Life efforts.

Each year in January, buses of youth from various North Country communities travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in the annual national March for Life. We are able to assist these pilgrims for life from collection proceeds. These youth join hundreds of thousands of women and men who give public witness to the dignity and preciousness of every human life.

Thank you for your generosity as the second collection to promote Respect Life initiatives is taken up in your parish. Information on grant applications is available from your pastor. May God bless our efforts abundantly as we work together to build a Culture of Life!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Terry R. LaValley

Bishop of Ogdensburg

FLU PRECAUTIONS: The Diocese of Ogdensburg has received some inquiries about precautions in church settings against influenza and concerning the recent hepatitis incident at a Long Island parish at Christmas. As in the past, Bishop LaValley is asking all parishes of the diocese to adopt the following precautionary measures:

Parishioners should not share the sign of peace if feeling ill.

It is recommended that parishioners receive Communion in the hand. Communion on the tongue presents hygienic problems during the flu season.

Bulletin for the week of January 16, 2011

Mission Intention for January

That the riches of the created world may be preserved, valued, and made available as God’s precious gift to all.

STATEMENT OF GIVING FOR INCOME TAXES: If you wish to receive a statement of your financial contributions to St. James Church for 2010, please indicate this on your Sunday offering envelope so that we can assure confidentiality.

RIGHT TO LIFE MARCH THIS WEEKEND: The March starts at the Newman Center at 90 Broad Street at 1:30 P.M. on Sunday, the 16th. The march goes to St. John's Church for the program..Bishop LaValley is the speaker.

MARCH OF LIFE PILGRIMAGE: On Sunday, January 23rd a bus will depart from St. Peter’s Church, Plattsburgh for Washington for those who wish to participate in the annual March for Life. Please contact Mrs. Karen Smith for more information at 518-566-6229.

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY: We are celebrating 103 years of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 18-25. These days have been set aside each year so that Christians the world over may share the prayer of Jesus That they may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17:21). Promoting Christian unity is an ecumenical movement among Christians to pray for unity among all Christians. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity started with an eight-day liturgical prayer in 1908 at Graymoor, Garrison, New York, with a small group of Franciscans in the Episcopal Church. Prayers for each day of the Octave can be found on http://www.geii.org Let us continue to pray for Christian Unity so that one day “all will be one”.

MARRIAGE TIP: If time and expense were no barrier, what would your dream romantic encounter with your spouse look like? Fantasize together.. Find more Marriage Rx at www.foryourmarriage.org.

CATHOLIC TEACHING ON THE DIGNITY OF LIFE: In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents. The decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves.

~ Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth

FLU PRECAUTIONS: The Diocese of Ogdensburg has received some inquiries about precautions in church settings against influenza and concerning the recent hepatitis incident at a Long Island parish at Christmas. As in the past, Bishop LaValley is asking all parishes of the diocese to adopt the following precautionary measures:

Parishioners should not share the sign of peace if feeling ill.

It is recommended that parishioners receive Communion in the hand. Communion on the tongue presents hygienic problems during the flu season.

Bulletin for the week of January 9, 2011

Mission Intention for January

That the riches of the created world may be preserved, valued, and made available as God’s precious gift to all.

STATEMENT OF GIVING FOR INCOME TAXES: If you wish to receive a statement of your financial contributions to St. James Church for 2010, please indicate this on your Sunday offering envelope so that we can assure confidentiality.

FUNERAL: A funeral was celebrated this week for Joseph Clauss. Please remember him and his family in your prayers.

WHY DID JESUS ASK TO BE BAPTIZED? Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus invented baptism. It had been practiced for centuries among the Jews as a ritual equivalent of Confession. Until the fall of the Temple in 72 A.D. it was common for Jewish people to make a spiritual cleansing in a special pool called a MIKVEH--literally a "collection of water". This was said to remove spiritual impurity and sin. Men did this weekly on the eve of the Sabbath. Women did it monthly. Converts were also expected to do it before entering Judaism. Orthodox Jews still retain the rite. Jesus transformed this continual ritual into the one single, definitive act by which we begin our faith. In effect he fused his divine essence with the water and the ceremony.

BAPTISM SPONSORS: Sponsors for Baptism are to be at least 16 years of age, have received Holy Communion and Confirmation, and practice their Catholic faith. A baptized person who belongs to a non-Catholic ecclesial community may be admitted in the company of a Catholic sponsor, serving as a Christian witness.

MARCH OF LIFE PILGRIMAGE: On Sunday, January 23rd a bus will depart from St. Peter’s Church, Plattsburgh for Washington for those who wish to participate in the annual March for Life. Please contact Mrs. Karen Smith for more information at 518-566-6229. For those who are unable to travel to DC, there is a local March for Life being held in Plattsburgh on Sunday, January 16th beginning at 1:30 PM. The Plattsburgh March begins at The Newman Center (90 Broad St) and concludes with a prayer service at St. John's Church (20 Broad St). This year's guest speaker is Bishop Terry LaValley. For more information, please contact Wanda Gaffney at 518-647-5153.

MARRIAGE TIP: What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. How do your personalities or interests differ? What compromises have you worked out to deal with these differences? Which are still on the negotiating table?. Find more Marriage Rx at www.foryourmarriage.org.

CATHOLIC TEACHING ON THE DIGNITY OF LIFE: In order to protect nature, it is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents. The decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society. If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves.

~ Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth

Bulletin for the week of January 2, 2011

RELIGIOUS WEB SITES

www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.shtml (Complete Bible)

http://pray.nd.edu/ (Daily Prayer)

Mission Intention for January

That the riches of the created world may be preserved, valued, and made available as God’s precious gift to all.

STATEMENT OF GIVING FOR INCOME TAXES: If you wish to receive a statement of your financial contributions to St. James Church for 2010, please indicate this on your Sunday offering envelope so that we can assure confidentiality.

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD: On this first Lord’s Day of the new year we come together in joy to celebrate the festival of the Epiphany of the Lord. Today is the high point of the Christmas season and one of the greatest days of the year. A shining star in the heavens proclaims the good news that Jesus Christ is the new-born Saviour. You will notice that the Bible readings overflow with superlatives.

PRAYER OF BLESSING OF THE HOME AT EPIPHANY

Lord our God, bless this household.

May we be blessed with health, goodness of

heart, gentleness, and the keeping of your law.

We give thanks to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen

2011 SUNDAY OFFERING ENVELOPES: Some parishioners have not yet picked up their 2011 Sunday Offering Envelopes. Extra envelopes are available for those of you who will begin using Sunday offering envelopes.

CHRISTMAS COLLECTION: Thank you for your VERY generous contribution of $4,239 in our Christmas collection. Like every North Country parish, St. James Parish forward 60% of this collection plus $500 to the Diocese of Ogdensburg for a total of $3,043 to fund the pensions for retired priests. The remaining $1,196 is your contribution to St. James Parish. Retired priests currently receive a monthly retirement payment of $1,405 from this Priests Retirement Fund.

EPIPHANY CAROLS AND CONCERT: All are welcome to a concert of Lessons and Carols to celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany on Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 4:00PM at St. Alexander’s Church in Morrisonville.

MARCH OF LIFE PILGRIMAGE: On Sunday, January 23rd a bus will depart from St. Peter’s Church, Plattsburgh for Washington for those who wish to participate in the annual March for Life. Please contact Mrs. Karen Smith for more information at 518-566-6229. For those who are unable to travel to DC, there is a local March for Life being held in Plattsburgh on Sunday, January 16th beginning at 1:30 PM. The Plattsburgh March begins at The Newman Center (90 Broad St) and concludes with a prayer service at St. John's Church (20 Broad St). This year's guest speaker is Bishop Terry LaValley. For more information, please contact Wanda Gaffney at 518-647-5153.

MARRIAGE TIP: “Persevere in prayer.” (Romans 12: 12) What if I (or we) haven’t been praying – at least not regularly? Does grace before meals count? What about Mass or other religious services? These are all good, of course, but try praying daily, maybe even together. Find more Marriage Rx atwww.foryourmarriage.org.