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Browsing From the desk of Fr. Tharp

January 3, 2021 - Feast of the Epiphany

Next Sunday:  Feast of the Baptism of the Lord                   Fr. Tharp

 

Timeliness of Bulletin Information

 

You are reading this bulletin on January 3, 2021, but I am writing it for deadline the Tuesday before Christmas.  Because the holidays of Christmas and New Years apply to staff of printing operations as well as everyone else, the bulletin copy we send to the bulletin printing company must be received by them (in this case) twelve days before it will be disseminated and read.  (The deadline is usually only five days.)  Since the advent of social media, we are accustomed to news happening and being reported instantaneously.  If urgent news from or about the pastoral region were to occur, I will try to make certain it is disseminated to you by email.  If your respective parish business office does not have your email address, please send a brief email update to our census file: for Sacred Heart to laureno@sacredheart-fairfield.org and for St. Ann to bookkeeper@saintanncc.com.  Obviously, you must already be registered in order for this address to be added to your census data.

 

Moral implications of COVID-19 Vaccines

 

Some have accused the Catholic Church of moral duplicity in its teaching regarding abortion and the use of fetal cells harvested from aborted babies in the development and testing of vaccines like the COVID-19 vaccine.  The USCCB website cited below reports the following:  One of the three pharmaceutical companies making the vaccine apparently did use a compromised cell line in design, development or production, but it would seem that the other two did not.  Later confirmatory tests applied to this vaccine manufactured by the three companies may have used the compromised HEK293 cell line.

 

The entire document is available on the USCCB.org website at: https://www.usccb.org/moral-considerations-covid-vaccines

 

The following statement from page 5 of the referenced document seems to sum up the advice of the USCCB regarding the moral issue associated with the vaccines.  It reads,  “In view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines, the reasons to accept the new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are sufficiently serious to justify their use, despite their remote connection to morally compromised cell lines.”

 

Communion on the Tongue

 

Please remember as I stated in recent articles, until the threat of COVID is over; if you wish to receive Holy Communion on the tongue, you must come to me (Fr. Tharp) ONLY and you must be sure you are at the end of my line.  Please do not present yourselves to Fr. Schmitz or any of the Lay Eucharistic Ministers for communion on the tongue!  If on Sundays, you see that I am going to be at St. Ann, then you must come to St. Ann that Sunday if you want to receive ONLY on the tongue.  I am not willing to ask Fr. Schmitz or any of the Lay Eucharistic Ministers to take a risk with which they are uncomfortable.  Be assured, I will follow all the protocols necessary to administer on the tongue safely.  

 

Live Streaming a precept Mass from St. Ann and Sacred Heart each week 

 

Please remember to access the Sacred Heart / St. Ann Pastoral Region youtube site by clicking on the following link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVLLqbEY5hKWinwz069MVcg

 

Reflection on Scripture: The Feast of the Epiphany

 

The song “We three Kings” is liturgically correct for use at Mass only one day each year.  The truth represented by the image of the three Wise Men is applicable to every Sunday throughout the year.   An epiphany is a sudden revelation or enlightenment when it all becomes clear.  When we see all races and peoples represented in the Wise Men coming to worship Jesus, we see the reality that Jesus Christ is universal.   Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of everyone in the whole world.  You cannot truly live in Jesus Christ and give any credence to bigotry. 

 

Jesus makes the greatest deal ever made with the whole human race.  He offers himself up for our sins, and forgiven by him, we are invited into eternal life.  Jesus pays the price for us, and all we have to do is turn around and love him in one another.  It’s the deal of an “eternal” lifetime.

 

Next WeekFeast of the Baptism of the Lord

 

Is 55:1-11

1 Jn 5:1-9

Mk 1:7-11 

 

 

Theme:   Jesus is baptized to show us the way. 

 

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