Announcements

Jonah preached to Nineveh to turn away from sin lest they be destroyed. They did penance and they were not destroyed. Jesus told the people to repent and believe the gospel. These two stories should not be connected because we get the mistaken idea that Jesus was preaching the same a Jonah. What Jesus meant was to turn away from unbelief and believe in the good news that God loves us unconditionally. Have a good week! Peace, Father Bill

March for Life 2012 & Silent No More Campaign Holding signs stating I Regret My Abortion And I Regret My Lost Fatherhood, women and men have lined the platform at the Pro Life Rally before the March for Life in Washington DC for the past 7 years. Many of them share 3 minute testimonies so the marchers can hear the truth about abortion’s impact on women and men. Women talk about feeling guilt, anger, shame and worthlessness; and how they struggled with suicidal thoughts, drug/alcohol addiction to numb the pain, eating disorders or depression. Men share how the abortion of their children caused them to feel pain, guilt, and anger. They also share their experience in finding peace, healing and forgiveness. Many have found that healing through Rachel’s Vinyard, a ministry created to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion in a supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment. More information at http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/ and http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/ The MARCH FOR LIFE  will be held on Monday, January 23, 2012. Please pray for protection for the unborn and that their mothers choose life.  Thank you.

Retreat, Renewal and Restoration at the Bellamauro Conference Center near DuBois, with Father Ralph DiOrio on Saturday, January 28, 2012.The retreat will begin at 11 a.m. and end around 5 p.m. This will include a luncheon buffet. Tickets are required. For tickets or more information please call: Tillie (814) 371-4116, Marie (814) 375-4667, Jeff (814) 541-4913, Ben and Peggy (814) 781-1633, or Bill (814) 371-1765.

The Venango Catholic Preparatory Schools St. Patrick School, St. Stephen School, and Venango Catholic High School are raffling off Steelers season tickets for the 2012 season! The raffles are $20 each, and the winner will receive four season tickets (Section 509, Row R, Seats 10 - 13), as well as an on-field visit during one of the home games. The raffle will be drawn at a tailgate party in June 2012

St. Joseph School: Faith. Academics. Service. Our annual celebration of Catholic Schools Week begins next Sunday, January 29. This year's theme is "Catholic Schools: Faith. Academics. Service." Please join us for a variety of events that demonstrate our focus on learning about faith, striving for high academic standards, and serving our community, as well as some that are just plain fun. There will be open house at the school that week from 9 am-2:30 pm each day, except Friday. Come see what makes St. Joseph School exceptional! To volunteer to help with the festivities, please contact the school at 226-8018 or e-mail at the new address: stjcsoffice.lucinda@gmail.com. 

SPONSOR OF THE WEEK: Victor C. Cherico, O.D. Please patronize those who advertise in our bulletin.

Jesus seemed to caution his contemporaries to humility and patience before the subtle mystery of who He was: “You do not know where I came from and where I am going” (John 8:14). He seemed to know that this mystery of being both divine and human would take a very long time to absorb, understand, accept, or reconcile. It is the ultimate paradox, and every Christian and every human being struggles with it anew, both in themselves and in Him, and every day. We could not hold the mystery together in Jesus, despite being assured that He is “the one single New Man” (Ephesians 2:15), the Archetypal Person who reconciles and recapitulates everything inside Himself (Colossians 1:15-20). The sad result is that we could not then see, honor, and reconcile the mystery inside of ourselves or in one another either! We could not let Jesus “save” us, you might say. It is the third eye that allows us to say yes to the infinite mystery of Jesus and the infinite mystery that we are to ourselves. They are finally the same mystery.  Fr. Richard Rohr

Today the unnecessary suffering on this earth is great for people who could have “known better” and should have been taught better by their religions. In the West, religion became preoccupied with telling people what to know more than how to know, telling people what to see more than how to see. We ended up seeing Holy Things faintly, trying to understand Great Things with a whittled-down mind, and trying to love God with our own small and divided heart. It has been like trying to view the galaxies with a five-dollar pair of binoculars. Contemplation, my word for this larger seeing, keeps the whole field open; it remains vulnerable before the moment, the event, or the person—before it divides and tries to conquer or control it. Contemplatives refuse to create false dichotomies, dividing the field for the sake of the quick comfort of their ego. I call contemplation “full-access knowing”—not irrational, but pre-rational, non-rational, rational and trans-rational all at once. Contemplation is an exercise in keeping your heart and mind spaces open long enough for the mind to see other hidden material. It is content with the naked now and waits for futures given by God and grace.  Fr. Richard Rohr

Our DNA is divine. The divine indwelling is never earned by any behavior whatsoever or any ritual, but only recognized and realized (Romans 11:6, Ephesians 2:8-10), and fallen in love with. When you are ready, you will be both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the boundless mystery of your own humanity. You will know you are standing under the same waterfall of mercy as everybody else and receiving an undeserved radical grace, which waters the “roots” of everything.   Without that underlying experience of God as both abyss and ground, it is almost impossible to live in the now, in the fullness of who I am, warts and all, and almost impossible to experience the Presence that, paradoxically, both fills the abyss and shakes the ground. Fr. Richard Rohr 

Before 800 B.C., the thinking on the whole planet, no matter the continent, was tribal, cosmic, mythic, and ritualistic (German philosopher Karl Jasper’s notion of “pre-axial consciousness”). Owen Barfield calls it “original participation.” Simply by watching the sky, birds, and trees, the seasons, darkness and light, people knew they belonged. Though we call these people uncivilized people, Owen Barfield conjectures they might have had healthier psyches than we do because they lived in an enchanted universe where everything belonged, including themselves. The natural cycles of darkness and light, death and growth, loss and renewal, which were everywhere all the time, were their teachers. They “participated” naturally! So we should not necessarily think of them as backward or primitive peoples. The very word “pagan” is a dismissive word used by the urban elites meaning “those who live in the country.” We thought by moving into so-called civilization, we were better, smarter, and more evolved. Most people who have ever lived learned of the divine through the natural world. God did not leave them “orphans” (John 14:18). They perhaps saw and met God in everything, and yet from our distance we called them animists or pantheists. Religion was much more about healing and harmonizing. “Salvation” was not a reward you got after you died for good moral behavior. God could be found now and IN ALL things! (Which, by the way, is the motto of both the Franciscans and the Jesuits, who rediscovered original participation through Jesus.)  Fr. Richard Rohr

St. Joseph School Scrip Gift Certificate Program:
Scrip is a term that means "substitute money."  When you purchase scrip, you're purchasing negotiable gift certificates and prepaid cards that are used just like cash.  SCRIP cards are currently available in the school office Monday through Friday from 7:30 am-4:00 pm.  Order forms are available in the rear of the church and may be dropped off or mailed to the school.  For each scrip purchased, St. Joseph School earns two to fifteen percent or more in profit.  The following cards are currently in stock.  We are also able to order cards from other businesses through The Great Lakes Scrip program.  Please go to glscrip.com for the complete list.

Merchant Denom. Aeropostle $25 American Eagle $25 Applebees $25 Arby's $10 Bath & Body Works $10 Bob Evan's $10 Bon Ton $25 Borders $10 C & A Trees $20 Captain Loomis $20 Comet $25 CVS Pharmacy $25 Destinta $6.50 Domino's Pizza $10

Merchant Denom. Eat 'n Park $25 Game Stop $25 Giant Eagle/getgo $25 Home Depot $25/$100 iTunes $15 J C Penney $25 Jerry's Grocery $10 Kentucky Fried Chicken $5 Kmart $25 Lowe's Home Improvement $25 Old Navy/GAP $25 Payless Shoes $20

Merchant Denom. Peebles $25 Pizza Pub $10 Red Lobster/Olive Garden $25 RRR Roadhouse $25 Sears $25 Sheetz $25/$100 Starbucks $10 Subway $10 Target $25 Walmart $25/$100 Wendy's $10