Help a poor teen have a happy prom. Donate formal and semi-formal dresses and suits, shoes, jewelry, and accessories by April 13. Drop them off at Keller Williams Realty, 2300 Eastchester Rd. or call 718-514-3849 to schedule a pickup.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK's DAY Not many facts are known about the life of St. Patrick. We know that he was born around 387 AD, and was a Roman Briton. Some sources have listed his birth name as Maewyn Succat, with the name Patrick later taken on during his ordination. His father, Calphurnius, was a deacon from a Roman family of high social standing. Patrick's mother, Conchessa, was a close relative of the great patron St. Martin of Tours. Patrick's grandfather, Pontius, was also a member of the clergy.. When he was about 16, while he was tending his sheep some Irish raiders captured him and made him a slave. Patrick's master, Milchu, was a high priest of Druidism, a Pagan sect that held major religious influence over the country at the time. Patrick came to view his enslavement as God's test of his faith. During his six years of captivity, he became deeply devoted to Christianity through constant prayer. In a vision, he saw the children of pagan Ireland reaching out their hands to him and grew increasingly determined to convert the Irish to Christianity. He eventually was able to escape and return to Britain. There he heard the call to return and bring Christianity to Ireland. He was ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop and came back to Ireland around AD 432. Recognizing the history of spiritual practices already in place, nature-oriented pagan rituals were also incorporated into church practices. It is believed that Patrick may have introduced the Celtic cross, which combined a native sun-worshiping symbology with that of the Christian cross. Throughout his missionary work, Patrick supported church officials, created councils, founded monasteries and organized Ireland into dioceses. St. Patrick died circa AD 461 in Saul, Ireland, and is said to have been buried in the nearby town of Downpatrick, County Down. Many legends are associated around St. Patrick: how he drove the snakes out of Ireland, and the use of the shamrock to teach the mystery of the Trinity. Whether or not the legends are true, St. Patrick succeeded in bringing Catholicism to Ireland, and in time, the whole country converted from their pagan gods to the one true God. Although a small country, Ireland has played a large role in saving and bringing Christianity throughout the world. During the early Dark Ages, the Irish monasteries preserved Western writings while Europe remained in darkness. But as the Catholic country remained solidly Catholic, the Irish spread the faith to all corners of the world.. We have a few works attributed to St. Patrick, one being his autobiography called Confessions. It is a short summary of the events in his life, written in true humility. Below is a short excerpt: I am greatly God's debtor, because he granted me so much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after confirmed, and that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, the masses lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth, just as he once promised through his prophets: "To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited naught hut lies, worthless things in which there is no profit." And again: "I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the earth." Patron: Ireland; against snakes; against ophidiophobia; archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts; diocese of Burlington, Vermont; engineers; excluded people; fear of snakes; diocese of Fort Worth, Texas; diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; archdiocese of New York; Nigeria; diocese of Norwich, Connecticut; ophidiophobics; diocese of Portland, Maine; diocese of Sacramento, California; snake bites. Symbols: A bishop trampling on snakes; bishop driving snakes away; shamrock; snakes; cross; harp; demons; baptismal font.
Venerated as a saint, St. Joseph is a biblical figure who is believed to have been the corporeal father of Jesus Christ. St. Joseph first appears in the Bible in the gospels of Matthew and Luke where his lineage is traced back to King David. According to the visions of Venerable Mother Mary of Agreda, Joseph was born circa 47 BC and later wed the Virgin Mary when she was 14 and remained married to her for 27 years. He died in Israel at the age of 60 around AD 13. Everything we know for certain about St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus, comes from the Bible, and mentions of him are underwhelming. The 13 New Testament books written by Paul (the epistles) make no reference to him at all, nor does the Gospel of Mark, the first of the Gospels. Joseph first appears in the Bible in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, each of which traces Joseph's lineage back to King David but through different sons; Matthew follows the major royal line from Solomon, while Luke traces another line back to Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba. Consequently, all the names between David and Joseph are different. Most scholars reconcile the genealogies by viewing the Solomonic lineage in Matthew as Joseph's major royal line, and the Nathanic lineage in Luke to be Mary's minor line.To add to the problem of not knowing enough about Joseph, some apocryphal writings—such as the second-century Protevangelium of James and the fourth-century History of Joseph the Carpenter—muddy the historical waters further, presenting him as a widower with children when he met Mary and claiming that he lived to the age of 111. These claims, however, are spurious and most are not accepted by the church. After marrying Mary, Joseph found that she was already pregnant, and being "a just man and unwilling to put her to shame" (Matt. 1:19), he decided to divorce her quietly, knowing that if he did so publicly, she could be stoned to death. An angel, however, came to Joseph and told him that the child Mary carried was the son of God and was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so Joseph kept Mary as his wife. After Jesus's birth in Bethlehem, an angel came to Joseph again, this time to warn him and Mary about King Herod of Judaea and the violence he would bring down upon the child. Joseph then fled to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, and the angel appeared again, telling Joseph that Herod had died and instructing him to return to the Holy Land. Avoiding Bethlehem and possible actions by Herod's successor, Joseph, Mary and Jesus settled in Nazareth, in Galilee. The Gospels describe Joseph as a "tekton," which is a Greek word that means “one who works with his hands.” Traditionally, this word has been translated as "carpenter," and it is assumed that Joseph taught his craft to Jesus in Nazareth. At this point, however, Joseph is never mentioned again by name in the Bible. The last time Joseph appears in person in any Gospel is in the story of the Passover visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus is 12 years old, found only in Luke. No mention is made of him thereafter. The story emphasizes Jesus' awareness of his coming mission: here Jesus speaks to his parents (both of them) of "my father," meaning God, but they fail to understand. The circumstances of Joseph's death are not known, but it is likely that he died before Jesus's ministry began, and it is implied that he was dead before the Crucifixion (John 19:26-27). According to the visions of Venerable Mother Mary of Agreda (1602-1665), “The most fortunate of men, Saint Joseph reached an age of sixty years and a few days. For at the age of thirty-three he espoused the blessed Virgin and he lived with Her a little longer than twenty-seven years as her husband. When Saint Joseph died, She had completed the half of her forty-second year; for She was espoused to Saint Joseph at the age of fourteen. The twenty-seven years of her married life completed her forty-first year, to which must be added the time from the eighth of September until the death of her blessed spouse. The Queen of heaven still remained in the same disposition of natural perfection as in her thirty-third year; for she showed no signs of decline, or of more advanced age, or of weakness, but always remained in that same most perfect state of womanhood. She felt the natural sorrow due to the death of Saint Joseph: for She loved him as her spouse, as a man preeminent in perfection and holiness and as her protector and benefactor.” Already a patron saint of Mexico, Canada and Belgium, in 1870, Joseph was declared patron of the universal church by Pope Pius IX, and in 1955 Pope Pius XII established May 1 as the "Feast of St. Joseph the Worker" to counter the Communists' May Day. Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. In popular piety, Joseph is regarded as a model for fathers, and, of course, many people when trying to sell their homes will bury a little statue of St. Joseph upside down in their yard until their home sells.
Maria Anna Donati was born in Marradi (Firenze) on October 28, 1848. She soon felt attracted by the religious life, so she spent a period of reflection with the Sisters of Vallombrosa, but the experience was not successful. She returned to her family and was later entrusted to the spiritual guidance of the Piarist priest Father Celestino Zini, Sch.P., who recognized her hidden spiritual possibilities and led her to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. With his advice, at age 41, she founded the new Congregation of the “Poor Daughters of St. Joseph Calasanz” in 1899. Commonly known as the “Calasanziane,” its purpose was educating poor Christian girls, and their ministry was later expanded to include the education of the children of prisoners. The message of Calasanz, endorsed by Mother Celestina Donati, who, upon taking her vows, had changed her name from Mary Anne, was always alive and present, and her sisters actively taught educational and social skills, and they became well-known for instilling within their students more than just human and civil skills but especially the “extra soul” that comes from faith. In 1892, her spiritual director and driving force, Father Zini, died. He had become the archbishop of Siena but maintained all responsibility for the institution. He governed wisely, and the sisters soon spread throughout all regions of Italy. She knew how to instill within her daughters the spirit of poverty that accompanied all her life, avoiding many difficulties in the management of the Institute. Humble in nature, she posed any problem to her ecclesiastical superiors and followed their advice with docility. She worked hard to establish the Institute in Rome, contracting considerable debt, and succeeding with the help of many people. Mother Celestina died in Florence on March 18, 1925, and the cause for her beatification began ten years later. On July 12, 1982, the decree of introduction was published, and on April 6, 1998, she was acknowledged as one having heroic virtues and was given the title of Venerable. She was beatified in Florence on March 30, 2008. Among the many houses that her Calasanziane sisters run, there is the “oasis calasanziana” and "Mamma Bella,“ which is located on the Salentine Fields, near Lecce, in whose church lie the relics of the Piarist priest Saint Pompilio Maria Pirrotti, who had lived and taught there. The work of the sisters continues, and they now minister to Albanian immigrants.
If you happen to have been watching the Channel 2 evening news last Monday, you would have seen a parish photo of the Midnight Mass held at St. Helena on December 25, 1941. It was shown to introduce a new diocesam program. The Archives of the Archdiocese of New York has partnered with a family history company, Find My Past, to digitize and make accessible the historical sacramental records of the parishes of the Archdiocese. On Friday, March 2, Find My Past released the first set of data from the project, which consists of a searchable database for any records 100 years and older. The searchable fields include name, date, sacrament, and parish. Over the coming months, Find My Past and the Archives will be working together to digitize all parish original sacramental records. The records of the Archdiocese of New York, along with those from the Archdioceses of Philadelphia and Baltimore, will be available through Find My Past’s Catholic Heritage Archives, found at findmypast.com/catholicrecords. As one of the largest immigration hubs in the country, the Catholic roots of many Americans are tied to the Archdiocese of New York, and there has long been interest in accessing these records digitally. As we move forward with this project, we are committed to balancing access to the historical records with a respect for privacy for all of our parishioners, living and deceased. If you have any questions about the project, please contact Kate Feighery at the Archives: [email protected] or 914-476-6333.
I am sorry to inform you that Maureen Sullivan, a beloved, retired St. Helena Pre-Kindergarten teacher, who was very popular and was the wife of a St. Helena alumnus and the mother of four boys who also graduated from St. Helena School, passed away in her sleep early on the morning of March 11. She grew up in Astoria and is survived by her husband Eddie '63. Her oldest son Kevin '83 works for the Archdiocese at ICS, and her son Dennis '86 teaches and is the basketball coach for St. Ignatius of Loyola School, which is a member of our Catholic Basketball League. She also had twins, Michael and Brian (class of '92). Her wake will be on Wednesday at McGrath & Sons Funeral Home at 20 Cedar Street Bronxville, NY 10708 from 2:00 - 4:00 & 6:00 - 9:00 pm and her Mass will be Thursday, March 15 at 11:00AM at St. Theresa Church, Bronx, NY.
The viewing for Nelly Perez, the mother of our maintenance man Wilbert, will take place on Monday, March 12 from 3-9PM at the Ortiz Funeral Home on Westchester Avenue. Her body will then be shipped home to Puerto Rico.
Christian Colter began Thursday’s game with a two, and Devonne Stewart ended the game with a two, as the varsity Horsemen advance to the final game of the Catholic Basketball League with a 61-34 victory over St. Ignatius Loyola durang their final home game of the season. Before the game, both coaches recognized their eighth-grade players and cheerleaders. Coach Bobbie Shaefer also announced the four Horsemen who were selected by the coaches to the All-Star Team: Francisco Mattei, Omari Ward, Christian Colter, and William Manning. Both teams charged out of the gate to begin the game, and the first half was action-packed, full of steals and layups and threes, with the Horsemen leading 36-23 at the half. The second half was much slower, but every player had some playtime during at least one of the six-minute quarters. Omari Ward had the first score of the second half and a game-high 27 points, including 2 threes, which gives him 215 season points. Francisco Mattei also sank 2 threes, one of which was the second score of the game as part of his 16 game points. Christian Colter scored his 12 points all in the first half, and Khalil Black hit 2 twos in the fourth, while Devonne Steward finished the Horsemen scoring with his crowd-pleasing two. The 14 Horsemen cheerleaders gave an enthusiastic half-time performance. Charlie Gordon had 4 threes and a two, which got him a team-high 14 points for Loyola, and Luc Goble was also in doubt digits with 10 points. The Horsemen were 7 for 9 from the line, while Loyola sank its lone free throw. Last Thursday, the Horsemen played a close game against Our Lady of the Assumption at OLA, with the Horsemen finally crossing the finish line 65-59. Mattei had a game-high 25 points, Colter 20 points, Ward 15 points, and Manning and Black two points each. The Horsemen will play for the Catholic Basketball Varsity championships this Tuesday at 5PM at St. Theresa.