EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

After the 8AM Mass on Fridays in the chapel

ROSARY

7:00 PM Fatima Prayer Group on Monday

After the 6:45 AM and 8 AM Masses Monday thru Friday and after the 8 AM Mass on Saturday.

Moms and children’s Rosary group every Friday from 10AM to 11:30AM.  Call MaryAnn at 922-3461 before you come for the first time.

Adult Volunteers: Kate Hein,  Joan Gay

Designate a gift to Saint Antoninus Church in your will and give witness to your faith. 

FROM OUR PASTOR

Dear Parishioners,

    Today is the Baptism of the Lord, the feast which closes the Christmas season and explains why the decorations are still up in Church!  The Sacrament of Baptism is the doorway to all of the other sacraments we receive.  At our own parish’s baptismal font, you may have noticed a new addition.  It looks like an octagonal tower.  Its proper name is an “ampry”, which hold the oils used for the Sacraments of Initiation, for Holy Orders, and for the Anointing of the Sick.  According to ancient tradition these oils are reverently reserved in a special place in the church (Book of Blessings 1125).  Our granite ambry was designed by Norb Guetle, executed by Mees Distributing and donated by the Joe and Margaret Seta Family Foundation.  I am grateful for all of their generous contributions.  Below are two excerpts from “The Order for the Blessing of a Repository for the Holy Oils”

In Preparation for the Blessing

God manifests His grace through the sacramental signs He has entrusted to His Church.  By the anointing with oil, the sick are strengthened and healed, the catechumens are empowered to resist Satan and to reject sin and evil, the baptized are sealed with the gifts of the Spirit, and the ministers of the Church are sanctified in God’s service.  Through the use of these holy oils may God’s grace be poured forth always upon the Church.

Prayer of Blessing

Gracious and loving God, you anointed priests, prophets, and kings of old with the oil of gladness.  You infuse your Church with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and heal, comfort, and sanctify those anointed with oil in your name.  Let this repository (these vessels) remind us always of your sacramental mysteries.   May the holy oils kept here, the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and holy chrism, confirm our unity in faith and prayer with our bishop and with all the members of your church, and be effective signs of the love that you pour forth into our hearts.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Retirement Communities:  On New Year’s Eve, David Endres and I visited the following nursing homes: Bayley Place; Beechwood Home; Riverview; Western Hills Retirement Village; West Park Retirement Community.  I sent calendars to residents in Evergreen; Hillenbrand and Riverside Nursing Facility.  If you know of someone from our parish, who is in a nursing home not listed above, please call us and let us know.  If you wish to confirm a room number, please do so as we can only see those who have previously contacted the rectory office.  Thanks for helping us update our list and express our concern for parishioners in those facilities.

THANK YOU FOR your contributions of an additional $1,865.00 to the Retirement Fund for Religious.  St. Antoninus Parish has consistently given generously to this Appeal.

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL COLLECTION

     We are pleased to report that of this date $2,046 has been contributed to our Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.  We are extremely grateful to our parishioners for their financial support.

Biggs and Kroger Gift Cards are on sale in the church elevator hallway after all weekend Masses, and at the rectory, M-F from 8AM to 3 PM. 2008 Entertainment and Zone Books will be sold until January 14^th.

St. Antoninus Tuition Assistance Program donation request:  Christ has called us to care for each other.  To answer that call, St. Antoninus has developed a Tuition Assistance Program, supported by parishioners to help fellow parishioners pay their tuition.  TAP is also supported by funds from PTO.  Tuition assistance is provided 3 times a year to school families that are having financial hardship and apply for assistance. This is different than “Parish School Support” or the School Endowment in that the TAP donation directly pays the families’ current year school tuition bills.  Please pray for its success.

Tuition Assistance Applications are available for families having financial hardship this current 07-08 school year.  In-parish school families with children in grades 1-8 may apply for assistance to offset part of their tuition.  Applications must be received in the school or parish office by Thursday January 31, 2008.  Awards will be made in early February.

FROM OUR PRINCIPAL, MR. JACK COREY

Dear Parishioners,

     As this is the first article since we have come back from break, I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to all for the cards, gifts, and goodies that were given to us this Christmas season.

January is an important month in Catholic Schools.  This week is designated as Vocations Awareness Week.  We encourage all students to listen to God’s call and to follow His plan.  I encourage all parents to continue the conversation in the home.  A good reference is www.cincinnativocations.org.  While most of the site deals specifically with the priesthood, there are links on the page to different religious orders for both men and women.

     Sunday, January 27, is our Open House for Catholic Schools Week.  It is open to all who would like to tour the building and see the many exciting things that go on at St. Antoninus School.  Open House begins after the 11:30 Mass.  Tuesday, January 29, is our Family Fun Night.  Our theme for this year is Geography.  This week we also start the Everybody Counts! Program which ends with our Friday School Mass the following week.

     Finally, on Sunday, February 3, we will have our Kindergarten/New Student registration after every Mass.  Our kindergarten and first grade teachers will be present to help answer any questions prospective parents may have.  I encourage all who are thinking about St. Antoninus School to register early.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOME DEDICATION needs snacks and refreshments for Saturday, January 19^th.  If you can help, please call Julie Heil at 922-3848.

HOLY SPIRIT PRAYER GROUP

    Tuesday night will be a special occasion as we welcome those who completed the Scripture Program at Saint Antoninus in December. We will pray for each of them and commission them in their spiritual gift of teaching.  Two of the students will share a Bible teaching with us. Come and see how the Holy Spirit can use us to spread the good news in His Word. In the Chapel, 7:30PM.

THE ATHLETIC CLUB is looking for a volunteer to serve as Gym Coordinator.  Steve Niehauser is willing to assist the new coordinator.  For info please call Steve at 922-2670, Todd Logan at 922-1782 or Scott Reiter at 922-5002.

ADULT SOCIAL GROUP

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

Imagine finding God’s loving hands during a visit to the grocery!  While making my last minute Christmas dinner purchases, I paused to say hello to a young boy quietly sitting in his mother’s grocery cart.  Smiling at me she beamed, “He’s such an angel!”  She candidly continued, “We are so blessed!  Earlier this year, his mother told me she was pregnant and going to abort him! I begged her not to do that to her baby and herself!  I asked her to give him to me instead.  She agreed...He’s 11 months old and we are now finishing our adoption plans!” 

Consider a discussion of the following:  “It is no slight thing that those who come to us, so fresh from God, love us! Babies have a way of reaching into our hearts, of touching our lives and changing our world forever.” 

Adoption means making a loving plan for a child.  With God’s grace, love’s courage and generosity will always triumph.  Let us pray that our nation, our church our families, ourselves…recommit to cherishing and defending God’s precious gift of human life…from conception to natural death.  Check www.SaintAntoninus.org for more pro active New Year’s resolutions.  For Adoption Info see the   Catholic Social Services websites and e-mail address:  CarolW@CSSdoorway.org www.PregnancyCenterEast.com.         

God is good!  Jane Hoffman, St. Antoninus Pro Life Pro Family Committee