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4900 Rialto Road, West Chester, Ohio 45069 (513) 645-4212

parishoffice@sgg.org www.sgg.org www.SGGResources.org

TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS: Sundays 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM High, 11:30 AM, 5:45 PM

Most Reverend Daniel L. Dolan, Pastor Rev. Anthony Cekada

Rev. Charles McGuire Rev. Vili Lehtoranta Rev. Stephen McKenna

April 15, 2018

EASTER II GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

¶ GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY The Blessing of Expectant Mothers is available at the Communion Rail to-day. Sunday classes are at 10:40 AM. There are no Vespers. ¶ THE SOLEMNITY OF ST. JOSEPH Wednesday is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. A special High Mass is sung at 11:25, Low Masses at 7 AM, 8 AM, and 5 PM. ¶ NEXT SUNDAY: SOLEMNITY OF ST. JO-

SEPH / EASTER III Sunday classes will be at 10:40 AM. Recited Vespers will be at 5 PM, fol-lowed by Benediction. Set Your Missal: LOW MASSES: So-lemnity of St. Joseph (Votive Mass of St. Joseph) with comm. & Last Gospel of Easter III, & Ss. Soter & Caius. HIGH

MASSES: Easter III, with comm. of Ss. Soter & Cauis and St. Joseph, Paschal Preface. ¶ UPCOMING EVENTS 2018 YAG: June 22-24. For more in-formation and to register, please visit yagincincy.org. Girls’ Camp: June 27-29 Boys’ Camp: July 24-26

THE PASCHAL SACRAMENTS 2018 Please note these important dates:

CHILDREN’S DAY OF RECOLLECTION: Thursday, May 17th. CONFIRMATIONS: Vigil of Pentecost, Sat-urday, May 19th. FIRST COMMUNION: Corpus Christi Sun-day, June 3rd.

Lumen Christi The Sanctuary Lamp will burn before

the Blessed Sacrament during the next fortnight for the following intention:

For the Health of Linda F. Pilkenton (Edward Peschi)

First time: Joseph Young & Jacinta Hilla

Collection Report Sunday, April 8th…………..............$4,623.00

¶ CONFIRMATIONS The sacrament of Confirmation

will be solemnly administered on Saturday, May 19th. Anyone, child or adult, who wishes to receive the sac-rament, should contact the church of-fice at (513) 645-4212 or parishof-fice@sgg.org for the necessary form. If you’re new and were confirmed in the Novus Ordo (since 1971), you re-ally should receive a conditional Con-firmation.

Sponsors must be members of St. Gertrude the Great, or a church affili-ated with us. Please ask if you have a question.

¶ VISIT THE BOOKSTORE & GIFT SHOP!

The bookstore has First Communion and Confirmation items available. See them on the display outside the shop and more in store.

Graduation is coming soon; we have clever gifts for the scholar. Puzzle cubes are a fun way of gifting cash.

Don’t forget Mom and Dad! The Sisters offer beautiful no-tie aprons in many colors and patterns. Hot / Cold thermos mugs are new this year.

Find your Catholic essentials, reading, and gifts in our newly re-modeled shop.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore,

That I may love Thee daily more and more.

Musica Sacra presents a

SPRING CONCERT

Today, Sunday, April 15, 2018 3 PM at St. Boniface Church,

Northside

Mass No. 5 in A flat minor, D678 Stabat Mater in G minor, D175

Franz Shubert

For more information please visit musica-sacra.org

GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY THE POETRY CORNER

SHEEP OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Now let us ask why our Lord so often calls His friends sheep. Be-cause sheep have two qualities that our Lord especially loves, namely, innocence and gentle meekness. We read in the Apocalypse that the pure and guileless “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Apoc 14:4). The meek and humble of heart are near to God, and they hear His voice; proud and haughty men never hear it.

When the wind howls and the doors and windows clatter, one can hardly hear the voice of man. As to the voice of God, that fatherly, whispered, secret word, uttered in the inmost depths of your soul—if you will hear it, you must be deaf to all the roar of the world without, and hush all the voices of your own

inner life. You must yield yourself up like a meek and gentle little sheep, confess your sins, and, all humbly hushed and quieted, hearken to this voice of

God; it is denied to all who are not thus made like unto sheep. It was to His sheep that the Lord spoke, as we read in the lessons of this night’s office: “I will give you a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the army of the Gentiles. And I said: You shall call me Father and shall not cease to walk after me.” (Jer 3:19.)

And what is this lovely land which He has promised His chosen sheep, His beloved friends? That land is their own body. Our bodies are by nature full of concupiscence and rebellious, but He enables His friends to reduce them to obedi-ence, and they find much joy in compelling them to do their will. What was once waste and barren is now become a fertile and well-tilled land, in which one sows and reaps in all abundance.

- Father John Tauler, O.P.

GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

We must not overlook the emphatic personal note struck by every formula of the beautiful lit-urgy of this Sunday. Again and again it is impressed upon us that Our Lord is mindful of His crea-tures, not as in a confused flock, but as distinct individuals. This is apparent in the choice of the term “shepherd”; for in those Eastern lands the shepherd knows each sheep, and calls each by name, and the sheep recognize his call. St. Paul brings home to us this per-sonal love of Our Lord: He “loved me and delivered Himself for me.” It is the realization of this truth which will render our service wor-thy of so loving a Lord. But it is not so easy to realize it as it might at first sight appear.

It we believe that Jesus Christ is God, we are bound to believe that He has always known each of us in a personal way, and does so still. He came “to seek and to save.” No man seeks out a person for whom he does not feel a spe-cial desire. As our Good Shepherd, He sought each of us. Bethlehem, Nazareth, Egypt, Judea, Jerusalem, Calvary,—all give evidence of the intense interest Our Lord had, and still has, for man. “I know Mine,” He says. Each one is to Him as though no other being existed; for each He would have come to earth and died. He knows our sorrows, our pains, our weakness; and He sympathizes with us in all. He knows our sins, and yet bears with us and desires earnestly our salva-tion. It is impossible to meditate thus upon Our Good Shepherd’s loving care without being impelled to give Him our whole heart’s love.

Read this over. Meditate it.

PSALM OF THE SHEPHERD

Was ever stride broader Than His was in leaving

His space-spacious pastures For earth’s finite fodder And dwarfest of herds? (O pastoral rapturous

Beyond mind’s conceiving And bearing in words!)

From measureless summits In one step He traveled The Milky Way graveled

With crushed starry quartz; Away from His rambling, Fleet, long-fleeced comets And ray-horned sun-rams,

His moon-ewes and gamboling Asteroid lambs.

(O word-wanting pastoral That man’s mouthing mars,

Needing speech astral Attuned higher, deeper,

Than fleshly-strung hearts!) Strike, David, the cithar,

“The Lord is my shepherd;” Smite, angels, the ether

With news of that step heard On hills of Judea.

(O pastoral shunning The net of my cunning,

My best-set idea!) Stay, springes, unsprung, This much can be sung:

My shepherd who comes thus Keepeth the cosmos—

He is my keeper Who shepherdeth stars.

-Fray Chavez, OFM

THE BISHOP’S CORNER

- Bishop Dolan O Holy Soul of my Savior, give me more love, more faith, more hope. Give me joy and peace, humility and cleanness of heart.

Jesus, let me love Thee and keep Thy words in my heart. Then Thy Father will love me and come to me, and make His abode with me.

Congratulations to Joseph and Elizabeth Prell, who celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary on Satur-day, April 14. The date of their anniversary is April 17.

ST. JOSEPH THE PRAYER CORNER

WEDNESDAY: SOLEMNITY OF ST. JO-

SEPH, PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL

CHURCH

On March 19 we celebrated a feast in memory of St. Joseph’s sanctity and holiness. Today he is presented to us as the patron and protector of the Church. On this day we should thank this mighty protector and renew our faith in him. This day should bring us re-newed confidence in the efficacy of his help and protection. This should spur us on to seek his help in the many dangers that threaten us. “Go to Joseph.”

St. Joseph is the protector and

patron of Holy Mother the Church. In 1870, when the church was in great peril, Pius IX selected St. Jo-seph as the patron of the universal Church; the Holy Family of Naza-reth has become the family of God, the Church Universal.

The duties which Joseph once performed for Jesus and Mary he now performs for Holy Mother the Church and all her children. He performs these functions for us with the same love, the same fideli-ty, the same strength which he once displayed with respect to Je-sus and Mary.

NEGLECT OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Cardinal Manning used to refer to the neglect of the Holy Scriptures as one of the chief hindrances to the spread of Christianity. The saints and doctors of the Church regarded ignorance of the Sacred Writings as ignorance of Jesus Christ Himself, whose teaching is the standard of morals and the medicine of the wounds of human-ity. May it not be that the weak faith and worldly spirit of so many modern Christians, and the rapid spread of infidelity, are mainly due to the neglect of the Holy Scrip-tures? The world never needed the salutary lessons of the Sermon on the Mount, the fervent exhorta-tions of St. Paul, the solemn warn-ings of the Prophets, the counsels of the Wise Man, or the Psalmist’s spirit of true piety and penance, more than it needs them now.

How much do we read or see which is far from the Word of God each day? Read the Bible! Cleanse your eyes, purify your mind, fire your heart.

FLORIDA

Our forefathers used to call Palm Sunday Pascha Floridum, because the Feast of the Pasch (Easter) was only eight days off,—in bud, so to speak. It was in allusion to this name that the Spaniards, hav-ing discovered Florida on Palm Sunday (1513), called it by that name. How blessed is Florida to house Most Holy Trinity Seminary, which trains budding priests.

THE FIVE WOUNDS

Let me kiss the Wounds in Your Hands, dear Lord,

With sorrow deep and true, And may every movement of

my hands be An Act of Love for You! Let me kiss the Wounds in

Your Feet, dear Lord, With sorrow deep and true, And may every movement of

my feet be An Act of Love for You! Let me kiss the Wound in Your

Heart, dear Lord, With sorrow deep and true, And may every movement of

my heart be An Act of Love for You!

PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART

I offer up all the merits of the Adorable Heart of Jesus since He became man, every drop of blood that flowed from His loving Heart for our salvation, and all the merits of every Mass that has been said since the death of Christ, and the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart in every Host which has been con-secrated during all this time, and the merits of the Heart of Jesus in every tabernacle through the whole world; all this I offer for everyone dear to me, for everyone who has injured me, or tried to do so, and also for everyone I have in-jured knowingly or unknowingly, for the souls in Purgatory and all sinners, that we may all find mercy through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.

EASTERTIDE THOUGHTS

THE RISEN JESUS ON THE ROAD

Yet, now in His glorified Body, Jesus remained in the same little district, He hid His splendor, He kept the wounds of His Passion, He

walked and talked and ate with men. He seemed as intent on persuading them to realize that He was hu-man as He had

been before on proving that He was divine, and instead of appear-ing in dazzling light all over the world, He sent other people to car-ry the news of His Resurrection, people who were still afraid, who still had the stains of their tears on their faces, who were still broken by the grief and horror of Calvary.

He came out of the tomb and walked in the garden and on the road to Jerusalem, as if He was ea-ger to lay hold of the substantial earth with the same blameless feet that had so lately been lifted from it and fastened down by the cold, heavy iron to the cross. He had loved the earth before, had loved its mysteries of seed and harvest; and He loved it still. The love He had come to give was love like the seed in the earth. Love that must go down again and again into the darkness, be buried again and again in the heart of man, to live again and again in the resurrec-tions of innumerable springs. Christ who had died and risen from the dead would not approach those whom He loved from outside; He would not only be the voice in their ears, He would be the silence in their souls. He would be the life that quickens in darkness and flowers in countless millions of forms of beauty. He would over-come fear and sin and sorrow and death in the heart of everyone who would love Him until the end of time.

- Caryll Houselander

THE PEACE JESUS GIVES

This is the secret of peace, af-ter committing a fault. What is past is past. And if we accept the consequences, while bracing our will, we can be sure that God will know how to draw glory even from our faults. Not to be down-cast after committing a fault is one of the marks of true sanctity, for the saint knows how to find God in everything, in spite of human appearances. Once your will is sincerely “good,” then don’t wor-ry…

In all that we do, and at every moment, God has ordained an ex-act balance between what we have to do and the necessary strength to do it; and this we call grace. Our part is to bring our-selves into line with grace.

God uses all the horrors of this world for an infinitely perfect end, and always with an infinite calm. It is part of His plan that we should feel the blows and experi-ence the wounds of life; but more than anything else He wants us to dominate them by virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and so live on His level. It is these latter which will raise us up to Him, and then we shall share in His calm, and in the highest part of our being. - Dom Augustin Guillerand, O.Cart.

This is a great little meditation perfect for preserving Paschal

peace.

FRIENDSHIP

It takes a great soul to be a true friend,—a large, Catholic, steadfast and loving spirit. One must forgive much, forget much, forbear much. It costs to be a friend or to have a friend; there is nothing else in life, except motherhood that costs so much. It not only costs time, affec-tion, strength, patience, love: sometimes a man must even lay down his life for his friends. There is no true friendship without self-sacrifice.

- Robertson

God can lighten in a brief moment the darkness of a long life, as He can pardon in a moment a life’s of-fenses.

– John Ayscough

Jesus, my risen Savior, mighty Conqueror of sin and death, I adore Thee. I acknowledge Thy supreme dominion over all things and especially over my own body and soul. My life and all that I have are in Thy hands. Do with me what Thou wilt. To Thee alone all life, all glory, all praise forever and ever. Amen.

Rabboni, my good Master, how can I ever thank Thee for all Thy love has done for me? My sins crucified Thee and Thou dost come to me now without a word of reproach, and call Thyself my Brother, and promise me victory over death, and give me Thy risen Self as a pledge of Thy Mercy and Love! I thank Thee, dear Jesus! I want to thank Thee always.

Thou didst die for me, my ris-en Jesus; let me live in Thy life. Live in me, that I may live in Thee, and that by Thee I may give my body and soul to God. Let my life be ever hidden in God with Thee, my Jesus.

DID YOU KNOW?

THE PROTEST-ANTS

April 19—The religious sect, or sects, launched at the time of the Reformation is known as the “Protestant” religion. The name would seem to imply that it was chosen to express the idea that the new religion was a “protest” against the old one, with all its works and pomps. It had, however, a very differ-ent and much less glorious origin. It arose in this way.

The work of the Reformation was being carried on, to the great spiritual and social disturbance of the German Empire; threatening, in fact, to bring on not only spiritual but national chaos in the country. Hence there was a general desire to get together and talk things over. The different parties, Catholic and Lutheran, did get together at the town of Speyer in Bavaria. The Catholics were in the majority, but by no means dictatorial. After much argument and discus-sion, the sense of the assembly was that the different princes should see to it that neither party should practice any further violence or confiscation against the other; and that things should be allowed to re-main in statu quo (that is to say, as they then were) till a general council should be summoned.

This ought to have satisfied all, and should have brought quiet and rest to the distracted country. But the Lutherans had contracted habits of aggressive-ness which they could not control; they had devel-oped a taste for spoliation, which grew by what it fed on. Archbishop Spalding says: “They desired freedom to pull down the Catholic altars and to abolish the Catholic worship wherever they had the power to do so.” Consequently, they withdrew from the assembly, April 19, 1529, and solemnly “protested” against its decisions. Thus was one word more added to the dic-tionary of theological terms; and, though the Luther-ans then were just as disunited in their beliefs as they are now, they all go by a name which is negative in character, and recalls an exhibition of bigotry and greed.

With compliments to Doby

S e r v e r s

SUN 4/22 7:30 AM LOW: Brueggemann Bros.

9:00 AM HIGH: MC: P. Omlor TH: M. Simpson ACs: C Arlinghaus, T. Lawrence TORCH: D. Simpson, J. & N. Kolenic, J. Stewart 11:30 AM LOW: A.D. Kinnett, P. McClorey 5:00 PM VESPERS & BENEDICTION: G. Miller 5:45 PM LOW: G. Miller