Historic St. James at Sag Bridge Church 10600 S. Archer Avenue | Lemont, Illinois 60439-9344 | (Ph) 630.257.7000 | (Fx) 630.257.7912

Email: stjames1833@att.net | Website: www.historicstjames.org Facebook: https://Facebook.com/Saint James At Sag Bridge

Altar & Rosary Society We thank all of our members for their support this year. Best wishes for a safe and

happy summer. All the women of the parish are invited to join us for our next monthly meeting on Saturday, Sept. 8th.

Pres: Barbara (708.257.9129) V.P: Irene (773.366.2185) Sec: Judi (630.243.9414) Treas: Linda (630.257.8252)

June 24, 2018 | The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Page Two June 24, 2018

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

ART THOU RUMOUR MONGERING?

By Fr. Andrew Kooi One day, I was on my way to the sacristy to vest for Mass. An old lady came running to me with a concerned look on her face. I was quite taken aback to see such an elderly lady running in this way, and I motioned her to slow down, lest she hurt herself or even trip and fall. She looked like she was in her late 70's and even then could sprint pretty fast. The lady took a few deep breaths and said in an excited and exasperated tone: "Father aaa... I heard you are going to be transferred to another parish. Really ah?" I looked at the lady with amusement, saying: "Really? How come I didn't know about it?" The lady exclaimed with much consternation: "But I heard the news from so and so, and so and so heard from so and so, and so and so claims to have heard it from a reliable source. Is it true? Are you going away?" I responded: "Did so and so get the news from the Archbishop?" "I don't know..." came the reply. So I said: "Why not ask so and so to see me, and then we’ll make a call to the Archbishop to verify. What?" The lady, with an uncomfortable look on her face said, "Better not... afterwards he scolded us for wasting his time. He’s such a busy man." I chuckled and said: "Next time, don't just believe everything you hear . If the news does not come from a reliable source, or through proper channels, with proper announce-ments made, don't just take other people's words for it." The lady looked sheepishly and said: “Ok." Then she went off on her merry way. While watching the lady scoot off, I prayed that she had leant her lesson and to not just believe everything she hears, and then start spreading such fake news or even lies. This incident reminded me of another incident where a parishioner called me on the hand phone and his voice sounded quite distraught. I asked him what the matter was, and he exclaimed: "Oh dear! Oh dear! oh dear! I just got news that Fr. so and so has passed away." I smiled, and sighed, replying: "Don't worry... Fr. so and so is still very much alive. I am sitting next to his bed and he is still breathing and moving." The parishioner was stunned to hear such news, and he apologized quickly before terminating the call. So what do these incidences tell us? It reminds us of the need to be vigilant and careful in discerning what we hear, and only share such news if it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that it is true. May we watch our tongue and check our facts and sources thoroughly, so that what we share is true, lest we get caught embarrassing ourselves unnecessarily.

WHY DO SOME CHURCHES EXPOSE WOODEN BEAMS IN THE CEILING?

By Joby Provido

When visiting older Gothic (or Gothic-revival) style churches, one cannot but ignore the beautiful vaulted ceilings. In some churches, they leave part of the ceiling exposed so you can see the wooden beams.

This is symbolic and not due to a lack of funds. When we see the exposed beams we are meant to see the keel (bottom) of a ship. Imagine a ship stripped of everything expect the bot-tom structure, then turn it upside-down and stick it to the ceil-ing. That is what we are intended to see.

Some churches have the exposed beams running the entire length of the church, and if not, it is usually found above the nave. The nave is the area where the pews are located. In large churches, the nave is flanked on the left and right by smaller aisles.

The symbolism of the ship comes from one of the metaphors of the Church. In the story of the Great Flood in Genesis, only those who were in Noah’s Ark were saved from death. It fore-shadows the Church as an Ark that “navigates safely in this world” to bring those in it to a destination where death does not exist – which we understand as salvation. (CCC §845) It shouldn’t be startling that a dove heralds new life in the Gene-sis story, while a dove also heralds our new life in Christ, dur-ing his baptism. (Genesis 8, Matthew 3:16)

Many episodes in Christ’s life are linked with boats where we can find some meaning of the Church in it. For example, it is from an episode in Peter’s boat that Christ promised Peter would no longer catch fish, but catch men. (Luke 5:1-10) And, for as long as Christ is in the boat, he wouldn’t allow it to sink (Mark 4:35-40), just like he promised “the gates of the nether-world” will not prevail against the Church. (Matthew 16:18) ) It isn’t surprising, then, that the boat became an early Christian symbol and found its way into church architecture and termi-nology. For example, the word nave comes from the Lat-in navis, which means ship. Another example is the container of incense is called navicula, that means boat. Scholars like to go a bit further and liken the Church to Peter’s boat because Christ would preach from the boat of Peter (Luke 5:3), and we revel in the thought that Christ’s words are still preached from that same boat today.

Nativity of St. John the Baptist Page Three

SUMMER DELIGHTS By Linda Kracht We all love summer. And for obvious reasons. Sum-mertime is synonymous with Fun, Relaxation, Get Togethers, Vacations, Camps, No School, No Sched-ules! Tim McGraw sings (with a slight adaptation) “in every person’s life, there seems to be an event he/she will never forget and it all began in the summer!” And so we grab summer — rather selfishly — and fill it up with carefully planned out lake times, ocean vis-its, golf trips, tennis matches, lemonade sales, gar-age sales, bike trips, swimming lessons and more.

What a paradox! Yearning for the essence of sum-mer — free time, leisure, relaxation — while filling it up with scripted plans and schedules for the cabin, camping trips, vacations, sports camps, brainy camps, art camps, baseball or soccer practice, swim-ming lessons, gardening plans, building sheds, plant-ing flowers, etc. Summer can so easily get over-booked allowing us to forget having spontaneous, lemonade sipping moments in our screened-in porch-es, our front porches, or backyard decks. And then, before we know it, summer trips into fall, robbing us of an abundance of leisure time and relaxation that we had hoped for!

May all of us look back after this summer has passed with genuine gratitude for sharing our leisure time with plenty of people and guests we so love. By the time fall rolls around, may all of us have had more leisure time than we knew what to do with! So, let’s turn to the sage advice of St. Peter. “Make every ef-fort — especially this summer (my emphasis added) — to supplement your faith with virtue; virtue with knowledge; knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.” [2 Peter 1:7]

That’s it! Let’s make sure we don’t lose out on a vital opportunity this summer! The opportunity to teach

our children about virtue! Let’s strike while the match is hot! [figuratively and literally speaking] and refigure summer so we ensure that our children learn to put on even more virtue — virtuously. Surely, summer-time provides parents with endlessly more opportuni-ties to observe their children more closely! Even as we attend their games and practices, and especially as they hang out at home. Let’s use summer to instill invaluable virtue training — on the sly and the not so sly! Just as we schedule baseball practice, schedule in weekly lessons that help train your children in vir-tuous living. Yes, this training will need you to take explain what each virtue looks and feels like; what it is; its importance; and how it opposes vice! Addition-ally, work on shoring up your children’s self control which in turn will help them to effectuate heart-felt changes.

Allowing a child to do anything he/she wants to and in excess does not instill the virtue of self control; re-focusing self-interests on others will help them re-gain the virtue. For example, allowing a child to use entertaining electronics more than 30 minutes a day is excessive! Watching daytime TV is a pure waste of good, summer time! Over-scheduling a child’s sum-mer is also excessive.

This summer, we can all benefit from attending to St. Peter’s call to “make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue; virtue with knowledge; knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endur-ance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.” These efforts will tru-ly help you make beautiful memories - and that’s a promise from St. Peter. May you make every effort to supplement your faith — and that of your children — with virtue! You - not society — are your children’s best teacher in the art of living well. In fact, modern day society doesn’t make it easy to be good at all! And so, it is critical to teach your children that virtue helps them to be good; it allows them to live more freely, and it also helps them to discover true happi-ness. Make this summer really matter!

Our weekly Offertory collection from June 17th was $3,745.00. The number of envelopes received was 110. The Zacchaeus House collection was $906.00.

OUR MANY THANKS TO OUR REGISTERED FAMILIES USING ENVELOPES &

THE CASH-AND-CARRY FOLKS.

Our CHURCH CLEANERS FOR FRIDAY – 6/29/18 Are Chris, Peg, Bronislawa & volunteer. If you

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

VOTIVE OFFERINGS FOR THE WEEK OF 6/24/18 St. James Altar & Rosary Society

Health & Healing for Cathy A’Hearn Healing for Pat Miller

Health & Healing for Sharon Stach In Memory of Lillian Simanavicius

Our beautiful bouquets of flowers surrounding our altar

were made available for special intentions of the

STACH & PEARMAN FAMILIES

MASS SCHEDULE WEEKENDS: Saturdays: 5:00pm Sundays: 8:30, 10:00 & 11:30am HOLY DAYS: 8:15am & 7:00pm

WEEKDAYS: Mon, Tue, Thu 8:15am & Fri 6:00pm WEDNESDAY: Adoration at 5:00 & Mass at 7:00pm. CONFESSION SCHEDULE: Weds 6:00-7:00pm & Sats 9:30-10:15am, otherwise by appt. BAPTISMS, WEDDINGS & FUNERALS: Contact the rectory office. SICK & HOMEBOUND PASTORAL CARE: Please notify rectory. RECTORY OFFICE HOURS: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu & Fri: 9:30am to 1:00pm. CLERGY: Fr. Tom Koys, M.A.,S.T.L., Pastor, Fr. Edward Gleeson, Pastor Emeritus Fr. Robert Coleman, Resident Deacon John Wilkinson, C.K.M. Deacon Doug Szarzynski

MONDAY JUNE 25TH 8:15 AM Dick Benes

TUESDAY JUNE 26TH 8:15 AM Helen Drust Walczak

WEDNESDAY JUNE 27TH – St. Cyril of Alexandria 7:00 PM Clement Maliszewski

THURSDAY JUNE 28TH – St. Irenaeus 8:15 AM Special int. for Peter Szopinski

FRIDAY JUNE 29TH – Sts. Peter & Paul 6:00 PM Marion DeMange

THIRTEENTH ORDINARY SUNDAY SATURDAY JUNE 30TH 5:00 PM 50th Birthday Blessings ~ Sue Bock

SUNDAY JULY 1ST 8:30 AM 19th Birthday Blessings ~ John Louis Sendziak &Louis C. Sendziak 10:00 AM Ronald Marsik 11:30 AM Bob Beedy

13TH ORDINARY SUNDAY

6/30 & 7/01/18

Celebrant

Altar

Servers

Lectors

5:00 PM Fr. Tom Koys

Ramirez Ramirez Ramirez

B. Grandat

8:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

J. Beecher J. Beecher S. Carver

C. Slowik

10:00 AM Fr. Tom Koys

N. Akroush J.P. Colarelli M. Colarelli

P. Brunk

11:30 AM Fr. Tom Koys

D. Estrada G. Estrada J. Jacobek

S. Kelley

WEDNESDAY JULY 4TH

Celebrant Altar Servers

Lectors

9:00 AM Fr. Tom Koys

N. Akroush A. Gallager S. Imbarrato

L. Pieprzyca