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
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