december2012 - saint therese of the child jesus catholic maronite
TRANSCRIPT
Divine Liturgy:
8:30 am & 10:30am Sunday
5:30 pm Monday through Friday
7:00 pm Holydays
Sacrament of Reconciliation
One half hour before Mass on
Sunday
Baptism: Contact the priest as soon
as the baby is born
Marriage: Contact the priest at
least six months prior to the
wedding
Sickness: Contact the priest if
someone is sick at home or in the
hospital or in a nursing home.
Pastor:
Fr. Elias Abi Sarkis
The Tulsa Maronite News,
published monthly by:
Saint Therese Catholic Church 8315 South 107th East Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74133 (Hwy 169 & East 81st St. South)
Office (918) 872-7400
Fax(918) 286-6619
Hall & Kitchen (918) 461-9450
Emergency (678) 772-8708
Web: www.Saintherese.org
Volume 17, Issue 9
Tulsa Maronite News
December 2013
Our Mission Statement
To establish a permanent
Eastern Catholic presence
for Northeast Oklahoma by
sharing the Mysteries of
Jesus Christ as expressed
through the richness of the
Maronite tradition
Tulsa M aron ite News
Tulsa Maronite News
SAINT THERESE CATHOLIC CHURCH Maronite Rite
Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Therese Church,
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your families. This holiday
means a lot to me because it is not a commercial one. It is a day with the family
getting together to thank God for everything He bestows upon us. As you know,
Christmas is around the corner. I would like you to celebrate the spirituality of
the Birth of Our Lord, not the commercial event. Remember that Jesus was
born for a spiritual purpose and He needs our heart to be a gift. Make sure to
attend Divine Liturgy during this day of obligation and to ask Our Lord to cre-
ate in you a new person.
I would like to remind you that we are having our Christmas Luncheon on De-
cember 15th. I would ask you to support the fund raiser of the parish. Please
don’t forget to buy tickets, to invite your families and friends so we can cele-
brate together our Christmas Luncheon as a family.
During the Christmas holidays we are having three Divine Liturgies. One on
Tuesday Dec. 24th at 10 p.m. and two Christmas Day at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Jesus is waiting for His gift, which is you, to come to wish the world peace and
harmony among mankind and charity in our hearts. Please, I ask you, to take
your religion seriously and to be a good disciple of Our Lord.
I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry and Blessed Christmas and a
Happy Year filled with joy, kindness, and health.
Father Elias
PAGE 2 TULSA MARONITE NEWS VOLUME 17, ISSUE 9
1 Visitation of the Virgin to Elizabeth
8:30 Mass Jacobe and Anna
10:30 Mass for Sandra Fogley
2 Mass for Habib and Victoria Abi-Sarkis
3 No Mass
4 No Mass
4 Mass for the Sick and Dying
6 Mass for Peace in the World
7 No Mass
8 Birth of John the Baptist
8:30 Mass for Dominico and Anna
10:30 Mass for Louis Nasr
9 Mass for Toufic Abi-Sarkis
10 Mass for a special intention
11 Mass for Archbishop Francis Zayek
12 Mass for Naim Farah
13 Mass for Mariam AL-Adem
14 No Mass
15 Revelation to Joseph
8:30 Mass for Joseph Abi-Sarkis
10:30 Mass for the Sick and the Dying
16 Mass Marie Abi-Sarkis
17 Mass for Joseph Wakim
18 Mass for Elias Zayek
19 Mass for Milad Antonios
20 Mass for Therese Zaghrini
21 No Mass
22 Genealogy Sunday
8:30 Mass for Jacob & Juanita Jorishe
10:30 Mass for Chafic Nemer
23 Mass for the Youth
24 10 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass for Parishioners
25 Christmas Day
8:30 a.m. Mass for Unborn Babies
10:30 a.m. Mass for Peace in the World
26 Mass for the Sick and the Dying
27 Mass for the Faithful Departed
28 No Mass
29 Sunday after Christmas
8:30 Mass for Eugene & Karl Brugman
10:30 Mass for Vocations
30 Mass for all the Travelers
31 New Year’s Eve 7 p.m.
Mass for the Christian Families
Sunday December 15, 2013
At Saint Therese Church—Jorishie Hall
8315 S. 107th E. Ave., Tulsa (81rst St and Hwy 169)
Marinated Chicken, Kafta (beef patties), Hummus,
Salad, Hashwa (rice, ground beef, almonds),
Dessert & Beverage
To reserve your tickets
To order from the Bake Sale please call
Please make checks payable and mail to:
8315 S. 107th E. Ave., Tulsa OK 74133
Dec. 1 Women’s Club meeting after 10:30 Liturgy. Ro-
sary at 10 a.m.
Dec. 7 Decoration of church and hall at 10 A.M. Clean-
ing of the church after decoration. Volunteers needed to
help with the decoration.
Dec. 8 Men’s Club meeting in the Hall after 10:30 Lit-
urgy.
Dec. 13 & 27 Adult religious education at 7 p.m. in the
classroom.
No Meeting for the Board of Trustees in Decem-
ber. New members will be announced.
* THANK YOU for your gifts for the needy for
Thanksgiving.
* Every Sunday Catechism classes after 10.30 Mass.
Children must learn about Religion and especially
about the Maronite church.
Mass Intentions for December 2013 Dates to Remember
Sunday Contributions for November 2013
$5,017.00
Thank you for your generous act towards
your Church.
Sunday December 15, 2013
Lebanese Christmas Lunch
At Saint Therese Church—Jorishie Hall
11:30 am to 2:30 pm
8315 S. 107th E. Ave., Tulsa (81rst Street and Highway 169)
Marinated Chicken, Kafta (beef patties), Hummus, Salad, Hashwa (rice,
ground beef, almonds), Dessert & Beverage
Tickets
Adult — $ 15.00 Child under 10 — $ 10.00
To reserve your tickets OR
To order from the Bake Sale please call
Jackie Abraham @ (918) 627-0271 or
Ronald Fogley @ 918-260-2962
Please make checks payable and mail to:
St. Therese Maronite Catholic Church
8315 S. 107th E. Ave., Tulsa OK 74133
PAGE 4 TULSA MARONITES NEWS VOLUME 17, ISSUE 9
PAGE 4 TULSA MARONITE NEWS VOLUME 17, ISSUE 9
Reflections of the Meaning and Lesson of Christmas by Bishop Thomas G. Doran
For a long time now many people have written in this or a similar vein — that it is too bad that the Christmas sea-
son has become as much a celebration of exuberant consumerism as it is the celebration of the Incarnation. It
strikes many as odd that the coming of Christ as a poor and humble child should somehow become an occasion for
profligate consumption and, frequently, self-indulgence.
We wonder why it has come to this, and so we resolve that next year it will be different. But it will not be different
unless we, ourselves, become different. Instead, it is likely that out of habit and momentum we will be more caught
up than ever in the frenzy, until at last we mercifully reach the point we can no longer shop lest we drop. And so we
give it all up as a bad job. Then a time of great anticipation and joy becomes for us an occasion fraught with frustra-
tion and disappointment. Merry Christmas, indeed!
Actually, these feelings about trying to escape the consumer binge do credit to those who experience them. It is, to
be sure, important to keep in mind “the reason for the season.”
When we do that, we move closer not only to the meaning of Christmas but to the traditions regarding its celebra-
tion. Christmas giving goes back to a time when Christians gave one another small gifts in celebration and in imita-
tion of God’s great gift to us, which is the incarnation of Christ.
We do not like to think in theological terms in this age when we are so preoccupied with other questions, but God
could have made known His salvation in any way He chose. Think about it: He could have come bounding from the
heavens as a magnificent, awesome, kingly figure. Instead, He chose to be born of a humble couple in straitened
circumstances, far from home and out of money — and, indeed, out of luck because there was no room for them in
the travelers’ lodge. And so, as a result of mean circumstances to which he submitted, he was born in a stable. The
simplicity of that birth has given Christians ever since pause to realize that God chose to communicate the great
mystery of His love and mercy by sending us the least threatening divine presence we can imagine — a small child
totally dependent on his parents.
This was the beginning of a great problem for those who wanted a Wonder Counselor, Lord Mighty God, Father of
the World to Come, Prince of Peace, King of All. The Jews had longed for a Messiah who would be a prophet like
Moses, only greater. They longed for a savior who would lead his people to military and material victory over all
their enemies, subjugate those enemies, and give the chosen ones wealth and power in their world.
It is only with difficulty and over time that some of them eventually came to grips with the fact that Jesus, born in
the stable at Bethlehem, fulfills every prophesy made about the Messias in the Old Testament, and yet did so in a
way totally unexpected by the wise and the prudent of the generation to which he was born.
Today we glory in our knowledge (though not, it must be said, in our wisdom) and we are bedazzled by the myth
that knowledge is power. It is Christmas that can remind us, if we choose to be reminded, that power is borne of
weakness and strength of humility, and that the meek ultimately do and should inherit the earth.
So I say that in the midst of all our Christmas preparations we should take time to realize who is born on Christ-
mas Day. A sign of our subtle inversion of values is the practice that has grown up of celebrating Christmas for chil-
dren on Dec. 24. Instead of the first Mass for Christmas at midnight, we have the so-called Santa Claus Masses at 4
or 5 in the afternoon, so that the children do not have to be bothered with thinking about Jesus and his birth on
Christmas Day itself. This, of course, is a great convenience for parents and I sympathize with them in their ac-
ceptance of what basically is an anti-Christmas practice.
We should all realize that Christmas is a time when God in his humility shows us, if not who we are, at least what
we should strive to be.
In that spirit we should extend ourselves in yearlong gift-giving, not offering immense gifts and fabulous benisons,
but in providing little things that, one by one, make our neighbor’s lives holier, healthier and happier.