Historic St. James at Sag Bridge Church 10600 S. Archer Avenue | Lemont, Illinois 60439-9344

(Ph) 630.257.7000 | (Fx) 630.257.7912 | E-mail: stjames1833@att.net |Website: www.historicstjames.org Facebook: https://Facebook.com/Saint James At Sag Bridge

Mass Schedule WEEKENDS: Saturdays: 5:00pm Sundays: 8:00, 9:30 & 11:30am

HOLY DAYS: 8:15am & 7:00pm

WEEKDAYS: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 8:15am & Fridays 6:00pm

Wednesday: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 5:00-7:00pm, w/Confessions at 6:15pm & Mass at 7:00pm.

CONFESSION SCHEDULE:

Saturdays, 9:30am-10:00am

Wednesdays, 6:30pm

Otherwise by appointment

BAPTISMS, WEDDINGS & FUNERALS:

Contact the rectory office (630.257.7000).

SICK & HOMEBOUND PASTORAL CARE:

Please notify rectory.

RECTORY OFFICE HOURS:

Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri: 9:30am to 1:00pm

FATHERS DAY — JUNE 18TH Spiritual Bouquet Cards will be available in back of Church. All intentions will be read during the 11:30 Mass on Fathers’ Day.

FIRST SATURDAYS: Beginning in June until October there will be an 8:30am Mass.

DON’T FORGET LISTEN TO

The Winds of Change 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm on WNDZ AM 750. Fr. Koys substitutes every other Wednesday. Visit: windsofchangeshow.com, Fr.

Koys’ e-mail: unlikeothernations@gmail.com. Register on Flocknotes to receive important text

messages and emails. Text: jamesatsag to 84576

Register with www.formed.org & use our St. James’ code: KFWMDB (ALL CAPS)

Baby shower items for The Women’s Center: Baby fur-niture (in good condition), health and hygiene prod-ucts, diapers. Drop off at Sag hall. Questions call: Mary, 708-839-8834.

Holy Trinity Sunday June 11, 2017

Page Two June 11, 2017

FROM THE DESK OF THE PASTOR, FR. THOMAS KOYS, M.A.,S.T.L.

Back on May 10th, the Illinois Senate passed House Bill 40, by a vote of 33-22. It previously passed the Illi-nois House by a vote of 62-55. Governor Rauner has 60 days to veto it. If he does nothing, it automatically be-comes law. He promised to veto it a few weeks ago. As of the writing of this article, that has not yet happened. He has until July 6. HB 40 forces taxpayers to pay for Medicare abor-tions. In 1977, there were over 12,700 tax payer-funded abortions. Based on the increased number of new Medi-care recipients in the last 5 years, Illinois taxpayers could be forced to pay for over 15,000 abortions each year. HB 40 removes the policy statement in the Abortion Law of 1975, that an unborn child is a person. It also adds abortion coverage to state employees’ insurance plans, which, as taxpayers, you also pay for. HB 40 tar-gets minorities. Blacks make up 30%, Latinos – 16% and Asians 5% of the Medicaid recipients in Illinois. Combined, these minorities are 51% of the Medicaid recipients. HB 40 is a spending bill that expands entitle-ments. Illinois owes $10 billion in unpaid bills with tens of billions more in unfunded liabilities. Illinois has the lowest credit rating in the nation because we can’t pay our bills. It’s outrageous that Illinois lawmakers would spend money we don’t have to kill unborn children. Please call Governor Rauner and urge him to keep his pledge to ve-to HB 40. (Chicago office: 312-814-2121). In my humble opinion, this is such a test of the char-acter of our Christian faith because it pits two very op-posing views about how to deal with the poor and the people from different races and classes. Some people can read the above information and say to themselves, “Well, paying for 15,000 abortions of children that should never be born in the first place is cheaper than paying for 15,000 big people on welfare and food stamps.” But is this the way Christians have thought and behaved for two thousand years? Shouldn’t we rather say, “When you were hungry, I gave you to eat. When you were sick and in prison, you came to visit me.” Even if the lowering of the number of abortions means raising the number of people living under the poverty level, we cannot accept the killing of the poor as the right way of helping the poor. Better moral principles is the right way the American way, the Christian way of helping the poor. We welcome Fr. George A John V.C, a Vincentian Missionary Priest from In-dia, to our parish this weekend to partici-pate in our Annual Missionary Coopera-tion Plan. He is preaching at all the Mass-es this weekend and will make an appeal on behalf of the Vincentian Missions. The Vincentian Congregation (V.C.), a missionary

sending Religious Congregation, was founded in Kerala, India in 1904, modeled after the Congregation of the Mission founded by St. Vincent de Paul. Members of this flourishing Religious Congregation, all natives of India, are engaged in Mission Work in all parts of India and in several countries in Africa. The Vincentian Missionaries need our help to carry out their many missionary, educational and charitable activities in their missions. They need our special finan-cial support for the training of young men studying for priesthood. There will be special collection today to help the Missionary work of the Vincentian Missionaries. We urge you to be very generous in your mission offering since these Missionaries need our help. If you did not have an opportunity to make an offering today or would like to make an additional offering, you may make your offering through the general parish collection next week-end in a specially marked envelope. Please keep Fr. George and all the Vincentian Missionaries and seminar-ians in your prayers. Thank you very much for your prayers and generous financial support. John, Bob, and Fr. Tom Koys, three brothers partici-pating in the National Multiple Sclerosis “Tour de Farms” this weekend. Any donations to help the Koys’ team, named: Starwood Retail, Go Johnny Go reach it’s $25,000 goal will be greatly appreciated. Checks can be made out to National MS Society, or go to www.nationalMSsociety.org and search for participant: Rev. Tom Koys.

ZACCHAEUS HOUSE NEWS:

1. We have a new man at Zacchaeus House, Jackie 60years old, driver for lifeline, Please keep him in prayers. 2. Tommie, has been in the house for one year and

a half, was made supervisor at Wal-mart six months ago. He is set to move out into his own apartment soon. Please keep him in prayers. 3. Also CC, Brian Leonard is a member of Zacchaeus House new Advisory Council Peace, Deacon Coleman, Director

Holy Trinity Sunday Page Three

JESUS, RELIGION AND MY FRIENDS... By Carlos Espinosa

An old and dear friend recently posted a video on Facebook of a rap poem that went viral five years ago, about hating religion but loving Je-sus. Among its many claims, the poet suggests that Christ came to abol-ish the institutionalized practice of devo-tion to God because of corruption. It's amazing. The video has over 32 million views! I first saw it during the height of the fren-zy, as well as several responses, includ-ing by Bishop Robert Barron and Fr. Claude Burns (aka Fr. Pontifex on YouTube, who produced his own clever rap poem using the same motif as the original) but it got me thinking, about all those millions of people, who, maybe like my friend, agree, or at least sympa-thize, with the poet's claim to loath reli-gion in a culture that is so infused with a warped sense of individuality and free-dom. Unfortunately today, instead of an Absolute Truth, which dictates and shapes our understanding and guides our moral behavior, truth, with a small t, has become subject to interpretation. Therefore, one man's truth is as valid as the next guy's and his, is as valid as the one next to him and so on. It's part of the "coexist" mentality. Meanwhile, in all this individualism and freedom (Which by the way, Lincoln once said, "is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought"), our relationship with God has suffered in the process. God has been bent and contoured to fit the image and likeness of the individual, instead of the individual transforming his life to fit God. So, if someone doesn't like the message of the church they're attending because it doesn't fit their lifestyle, they go down the block and find one that does. As Catholic author/speaker Stephen Ray said at a conference I attended recently, "Americans choose their churches and their morals like they choose their restaurants; how they feel that day." In this case, the poetic rapper makes the point that it's all about him and Jesus; a vertical relationship, which has no room for authority, doctrine and, least of all, religion. But, did Jesus mean it to be just about a relationship without religion? Last weekend, I was at one of, what I regularly call, my biannual week-end getaways with the boys, although, I point out, it is without alcohol, drugs, tattoos, debauchery or the traps that Hollywood movies like to showcase. It was a retreat, meant to lead men, from all walks of life, ages and faith backgrounds, to a closer relationship with Jesus and His Church, which I have been involved with for the past ten years. Yet, as long as I have been serving on these spiritual sanctums, it took until this year, while I was running errands and thinking about the hating religion and loving Jesus video that my friend posted, for me to realize that the underline theme of the retreats, and this last one in particular, is the Cross, and its vertical and horizontal relational components. What I mean by that is that, according to Jesus' own words, the greatest Commandments are to love God (vertical) and love our neighbor (horizontal). So, our faith was never meant to be individualistic and in-ward but public and outward. In fact, at one point on Saturday, one of the men I was talking to shared that, while he wanted to believe in God, his faith was still a struggle for him, which reminds me of the father, whose son was possessed, and, after Jesus cures him, says, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."

I told him that, for me, one of the ways I know God exists is because I feel His presence through the brotherhood in the holy grounds of the retreat house, which is why I keep coming back! God becomes real in the love we share with one another, the service we render, the peace we experience and the lives we impact. It's surreal. That's the horizontal aspect of the Cross. So, it's not just about me and Jesus because that's

not what Jesus taught. I remember, before attending my first men's getaway, when I was one of those people who said I believed in God "in my own way." And, I didn't need the Pope, or the Church, or anybody else telling me how or what to believe. Maybe, I was a lot more like the rapper poet in the video, than I would like to admit. However, the more I learned about my faith and the more I studied the Bible, the more I understood that it's not just about me and God. It's about me and God and the person in the pew next to me, and my family, and my friends, and

my co-workers and the people I come across on any given day. It's about family; God's family, which is what the Bible is all about. Jesus called us to take care of one another, even our enemies, and said that our final judgement was not going to be based on our relationship or our faith but on our love and service for others; "For I was hungry and you gave me to eat; thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in; naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to me; ... whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me." (Matt 25:31-40) Let's also keep in mind that Jesus was a devout Jew, who observed the Jewish customs, including Passover, attending service at the Temple, affirming Scripture, the Commandments and the Law of the Prophets. Furthermore, He tells His disciples, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach." (Matt 23:2-3) While He railed against corruption of the religious of His time, He also said He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. In any case, the bottom line is this; Christ knew the human condition. He understood well that left to our own devices, our pride, egos and self-righteousness would eventually lead to division and strife, including about the faith. That is why He did not leave us a book. He founded and left us a Church (And, dare I say a religion), which He founded upon the Rock of Peter, which He gave the Keys to the Kingdom. A Church, whom He promised the Holy Spirit to guide to "all the truth," gave the power to "bind and loose on earth what would be bound and loosed in heaven," said that whoever listens to them, listens to Him and whoever rejects them, rejected the one who sent Him, and vowed the "gates of hell would never prevail against." Members of His Church, the Apostles and their successors, have been heeding to Jesus' Last Command to make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ever since. They preserved and passed on the teachings of Christ from gen-eration to generation. They compiled and canonized the books of the Bible. They started the hospital and university systems, established orphanages, helped the poor, the sick and the downtrodden and be-came the largest charitable organization on the planet.

His Church (And religion) is over one billion strong and just, as its found-er, has and will always be a sign of contradiction in the culture; no mat-ter what the popular opinion may be. You can't have a king without his kingdom and you can't have Jesus without His Church (And Religion), no matter how many views a video may get.

Our Weekly Offertory collection from the

weekend of June 4, 2017 was $4,139.00. The Maintenance collection was $1,590.00.

The number of envelopes was 97. OUR MANY THANKS TO OUR REGISTERED

FAMILIES USING ENVELOPES & THE CASH-AND-CARRY FOLKS.

Our CHURCH CLEANERS FOR FRIDAY 6/16/17 Are Irene, Barbara, Bronislawa & volunteer. If you

are interested in volunteering, please contact the rectory office at 630.257.7000.

BODY & BLOOD

6/17 & 6/18/17

Celebrant

Altar Servers

Lectors

8:00 AM Fr. Ed Gleeson

J. Beecher J. Beecher S. Carver

C. Stach-Pearman

9:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

J. & J. LaSota M. Lawler T. Lawler

D. LaSota

11:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

J.P. Colarelli M. Colarelli A. Gallager

DeRoche

5:00 PM Fr. Tom Koys

A. Ramirez A. Ramirez J.P. Ramirez

C. Zarzycki

VOTIVE OFFERINGS FOR THE WEEK OF 6/11/17

St. James Altar & Rosary Society Blessed Birthday for Larry Flynn Special int. for the Helm’s Family Speedy recovery for Dolores Magrini Special int. for the Rossi Family In memory of Lillian Simanavicius

Our beautiful bouquets of flowers surrounding our altar were made available in birthday celebration for

PATRICK FORAN

Monday June 12th 9:00 AM Fred Butalla

Tuesday June 13th-St. Anthony of Padua 8:15 AM Fred Butalla

Wednesday June 14th-Flag Day 7:00 PM Julia Dvorak

Thursday June 15th 8:15 AM Joseph Nedved

Friday June 16th 6:00PM Birthday Wishes for Roberta Pieta

BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST Saturday June 17th 5:00 PM Barbara & Leon John Pieprzyca

Sunday June 18th 8:00 AM Jozef Dziaba

9:30 AM Wedding Anniversary of Anna & Piotr Slezak 11:30 AM Edward & Virgina Yorke Anthony Sarlo Lena DiSalle & All Extended Family Members.