LECTORS NEEDED

Do you like to read aloud, and would you like to proclaim the readings, psalm and Prayer of the Faithful at Mass to the congregation?  If so, please give Father Zak (stanzak7@yahoo.com) or the Lectors Coordinator, Lynn Suer (lynnsuer@aol.com), your contact information, and let us know which Mass you usually attend so we can make up a schedule. Also tell us when you are not available to read. God bless you!

 

OUR PARISH BULLETIN

Additional advertising support is needed to cover  the expenses of printing our parish bulletin. Now we have 8 pages every week. If you are a business owner, or know of someone who might wish to place an ad, please e-mail our BULLETIN PUBLISHER: mpublications@sbcglobal.net; or call them at 888-253-4358.  Please patronize our advertisers.

 

PRAY FOR OUR SERVICEMEN &

SOLDIERS: Robert Hoops, Thomas Campana, Connor O’Keefe, Matthew Valenzuela, Steven Mayer; John Molinari & other American soldiers and servicemen.

 

ST. MARGARET MARY JOBS NETWORK

Have you lost your job?

Do you know someone who is hiring? 

Are you an employer with job opportunities? 

      Because many people have lost their jobs recently in our declining economy, a number of parishes are trying to help parishioners who may be having difficulty finding employment in this tight job market.  St. Margaret Mary parish would like to use its resources to help unemployed parishioners find another job.  The parish will not function as an employment agency but as an informal network to help our unemployed parishioners in their job hunt.

       We ask parishioners who know of any employment opportunities, great or small, full or part-time, permanent or temporary, to send that information to our parish office to be passed on to our parishioners who are looking for work.  Please notify the parish office by email at stmargaretm@yahoo.com or Lynn Suer, jobs coordinator, at lynnsuer@aol.com if you know of any available jobs or if you are in need of a job.  You may also phone the parish office at 510 482-0596 or send a letter to St. Margaret Mary Church, 1219 Excelsior Ave., Oakland, CA 94610.

 

WHAT IS CATHOLIC CHURCH POLICY ON CREMATION?

       Because cremation seemed an affront to the Christian faith’s emphases on Christ’s Incarnation and His bodily resurrection, cremation was generally considered unacceptable to Catholics, except in rare instances where public health and safety were undermined by plague or disease.

       On July 5, 1963, the Holy Office (the forerunner of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a statement which permitted Catholics to pursue cremation, as long as it was not chosen as a sign of disrespect for the body or as a rejection of Christian belief.

       This found further expression in the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law (canons 1176 and 1184),

and more recently in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2301). Both the Code and Catechism, however, seem to suggest that while permitted, cremation should not necessarily become the norm.

       The revised Order of Christian Funerals (approved by Rome in April 1987), which contains the prayers and ritual directives for celebrating funerals, did not take into account the possibility of cremation, largely because the Rite seems to presume that, if cremation were to take place, it should be done after the Vigil Service and Funeral Mass.

       That is, if one is to be cremated, the Rite presumes that the cremation itself will not be done until after the wake and funeral liturgy.

       In the Spring of 1997, Rome approved an Appendix to the Order of Christian Funerals which deals with cremation. It reiterates the normative suggestion that the cremation take place after the funeral liturgy, but also permits (for the first time in Catholic history) a funeral liturgy to be celebrated with the ashes in a place of honor.

       The Appendix stresses that the same reverence shown to bodily remains be shown to cremated remains. The ashes are to be placed in “a worthy vessel” (again reaffirming reverence for the remains), and finally buried or entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium (a structure specifically designed to hold cremated remains). The ashes are not to be scattered or sprinkled, since such actions are not in keeping with the reverence and respect the Church expects to be shown to the bodies of the deceased.

 

 

March 19: St. Joseph, husband of the Virgin

honored on March 19 since the end of the 10th century; declared Patron of the Universal Church in 1870 by Pope Pius IX. Patron of workers and carpenters; also of Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and (South) Vietnam; mentioned in the Roman Canon. This day is also the patronal feast of His Holiness, Benedict XVI.

       It is the custom in some places today (St. Joseph’s Table) to bless bread, pastries, and other food and to give a large portion of it to the poor.

 

 

March 25: THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD.

Next week Solemnity commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to inform her that she was to be the Mother of the Savior. After giving her consent, Mary became the mother of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, is one of the most important in the Church calendar. It celebrates the actual Incarnation of Our Savior, the Word made flesh in the womb of His mother, Mary.

 

The biblical account of the Annunciation is in the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, 26-56. Saint Luke describes the annunciation given by the angel Gabriel to Mary that she was to become the mother of the Incarnation of God. Here is recorded the "angelic salutation" of Gabriel to Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" (Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum - Lk 1:28), and Mary's response to God's will, "Let it be done to me according to thy word" (fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum,). This "angelic salutation" is the origin of the "Hail Mary" prayer of the rosary and the Angelus. The second part of the prayer comes from the words of salutation of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation.