March 2 Meeting of the Parish

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for 7:00 p.m. March 2, 2017 for a general parish meeting at St. Ann Church so we can as a parish plan (as regards buildings) for the future.  We have architects renderings as to buildings and usage of the half block of land that is our parish parcel.  We would like to bring everyone on board in considering costs of renovation versus replacement, as well as best use of the structures we have.  Please come to hear our presentations so you can be fully engaged in the deliberations.  We don’t want to be surprised by the future, we want to be the surprise in the future.

CMA Commitment Sunday

This is “Commitment Weekend” for CMA in the parishes of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.  The CMA allows parishes to pool resources to provide ministries no individual parish could supply.  There is strength in numbers.  Make sure you show the entire Archdiocese that St. Ann and Sacred Heart is a Pastoral Region that is playing in the game, not standing on the sidelines.

Federal Income Taxes

At Sacred Heart, we have sent out statements of donations to all who used their envelopes or electronic giving regularly during 2016.  If you need a statement for your taxes and did not receive our mailing, please contact the parish office.  At St. Ann, we ask that you send us a self addressed envelope, and we will send a statement of your 2016 donation back to you in the envelope you provided. 

Also it is imperative that parishioners at either St. Ann or Sacred Heart retain all contemporaneous letters of acknowledgement received during the year,

Reflection on Scripture

“You are the salt of the earth, ……the light of the world.”   So what’s with salt and light?  Salt can be mined or it can come from evaporating sea water.  When I was young, we used to take a salt tablet in our mouths in the summer to replenish the salt we would lose in perspiration.  Today medical science would consider this suicidal.  Now we have low salt pretzels, which my ancestors would have considered heresy.  Like it or consider it a “coronary in a shaker,” salt is a recognizable, and perhaps even a “striking” taste.

Light behaves both as a wave and a particle.  But for most of us it is what comes out of the end of the flashlight.  Without it, we cannot see.  Light transforms a darkened maze into a living room with furnishings.  It is essential for sight.

Jesus uses the salt and light metaphor to convey that at our baptism, we are all charged to be evangelical.  We share with others our faith in Jesus Christ.  Faith makes life understandable.   It lights our way.  Faith enhances our experiences in life and gives them meaning.  Without faith, life would be as interesting (as tasty) as dry cardboard.  Jesus uses the analogy to remind us that, as members of his body, we are bearers of salt and light to the world.  Our lives are his evangelical tool in the world.

Readings for Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 15:15-20

1 Cor 2:6-10

Mt 5:17-37

Theme:  Jesus uses hyperbole to get his point across.