St. John the Baptist R. C. Church 895 Piermont Avenue, Piermont, New York 10968

www.stjohnspiermont.org stjohnspiermont@optonline.net 845-359-0078

March 19, 2017, Third Sunday of Lent

Rev. Tom Kunnel, C.O. Administrator

frtomkunnel@gmail.com

Deacon John Cunningham Deacon Robert Pang

Kathleen Dunn Religious Education Director

May Pang Parish Admin: maysoohoo@optonline.net

MASSES

Saturday: 5:00 PM Sunday: 8:00 AM, 10:30 AM

1:00 PM (Spanish) Weekdays: 8:00 AM Saturday: 9:00 AM

Holy Days: As Announced

Rectory

Mon – Fri 10:15 AM – 4:00 PM

Sat 9 AM – 11 AM (Spanish)

March Sponsor of St. John’s App: Mr. & Mrs. Michael Ryan

“May Peace Prevail on Earth.”

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE APP ‘ST JOHN PIERMONT’

Dear Parish Family, The Samaritans were a mixed population who worshipped God differently from the Jews. While they worshipped the one true God, they only held the first five Books of Moses to be Sacred Scripture; rejecting the

rest of the Jewish testament. Also, they worshipped on Mount Gerizim in the Palestinian West Bank, not at the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jews of Jesus’ time despised the Samaritans as heretics who defiled God’s words as spoken through his prophets. Even talking with a Sa-maritan would taint a self-respecting Jew, rendering him ritually un-clean. The fact that Christ treated Samaritans like human beings was considered scandalous and he would weave stories about their virtue in the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan woman was clearly a social outcast. Typically, women in first century Palestine gathered at the well in the morning to avoid the searing heat of the midday sun to collect water for their families’ domestic needs. Additionally, it was one of the few opportunities where women could gather in public to engage in conversation and socialize and perhaps acquaint themselves respectfully with men who came to the well. The Samaritan women was drawing water at noon (instead of the morning) probably to avoid the scornful stares and ridi-cule of the woman of her village to whom she was a walking scandal. She might have come at midday to avoid humiliation or to rebel again another social etiquette. Jesus on his part engages in a severe breach of protocol as it was forbidden for men to engage women in extended conversation. Christ does not merely exchange pleasantries with the woman, or demand water from her condescendingly. Instead, he speaks to her respectfully. John’s account notes the disciples’ surprise: "At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, 'What are you looking for?' or 'Why are you talking with her?'" (John 4:27) When the Samaritan woman came to the well, she was searching for plain water, but she probably did not know that her heart longed for the water of eternal life. She thirsted, but did not know what she thirsted for. This is true of the people of our age too. People thirst, they search, they long for something beyond their imagination. Today, so clouded is the mind and the soul by the noise, the glamour and the empty prom-ises of the world. How often we hear the refrain: “I don’t know what I want!” There is, deep inside all of us who come into the world, that deepest desire that Father Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I., writes in his book, The Holy Longing, “There is a loneliness, a restlessness, an aching, a yearning, a longing, an ‘appetitiveness’, a disquiet, a nostalgia…that never quite gives us easy rest….Each of us, beyond what we can name, has a dark memory of once having been touched and caressed by hands far gentler than our own.” In the mind of the Samaritan women, her understanding of Jesus con-tinued to change from Jew, to human, to prophet to Messiah. Follow-ing her encounter with Jesus, this woman who lived in shame, ostra-cized because of her past sins, now proclaimed the love of Christ to the world with joy. In his last Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI suggested strongly that new wording be added to the dismissal rite of the Eucharist. In English two new options are of-fered: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” and “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Pope Benedict suggested these texts to emphasize the connection between the Eucharist and how we go about living our lives. At Eucharist we Christians return again and again to the source and fount of the saving waters of baptism and like the Samaritan woman our flame of faith is rekindled that we might set the world ablaze with divine love…and become what we are called to be: channels of God’s love, of his life, of his grace, of his joy!

Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.

THE SANCTUARY LAMP Is Being Offered this week

In Memory of Philip Doro By Janet Zahn

Please remember in your prayers the Sick and/or Homebound of our Parish Family. Antoinette Naglieri, Ann Ely, Tommy McGuire, Nicholas Bruni, brother of Marge Olsen, Fr Frank Samoylo, Gio-vanni Mercurio, Nijole Paronetto, Joseph Iorio, fa-ther of Lee McGarvey, Caroline Kelly, Julie Caw-ley, Betty Keyes.

As a Parish Family, let us remember in our prayers all our beloved departed members of our Parish Community, Ralph Merola, Michael Rotundo,Tebby DeMaio, Francisca Aguilar Gomezz, Deloress Pontone, mother of Jim Pontone, Gene Cummins, father of Jeanine Kennedy, Elizabeth Reyes, granddaughter of Dcn Rob & May Pang, Maureen O’Connell, Lucy Lynch, Michael Mooney, uncle of Christine Mooney, June Groll, Karen Emden

Sat 3/18 5:00 PM Maureen O'Connell by Fri Renew Group

Sun 3/19

8:00 AM Martin Fabry by Thomas Fabry

10:30:AM Gertrude Guglielmello by Family

Mon 3/20 8:00 AM Jack Downey by Helen, Anthony, Kathy Koza

Tue 3/21 8:00 AM Donald Friedkin by Thomas Fabry

Wed 3/22 8:00 AM Natalie Maffei by CDA

Thu 3/23 8:00 AM James Baker by Thomas Fabry

Fri 3/24 8:00 AM Rustico Dumlao by Ana Dumlao

Sat 3/25

9:00 AM Priest & Religious by Thomas Fabry

5:00 PM Elsie Cobb by Elaine Laurino

Sun 3/26

8:00 AM Edward Fabry by Thomas Fabry

10:30 AM Elizabeth Reyes by Jake & Silvia Miraglia

Liturgy Schedule March 25/26

Day Time Lector Eucharistic

Minister Altar Servers

Saturday 3/25

5:00 PM Mike Yannazzone Derek Gazzetta Drew Dillon

Sunday 3/26

8:00 AM Jean Delongis Lucy Bosco Shane Cawley CaEmily Moran 10:30 AM Jeanine Kennedy Marge Olsen Booke Comito Hailey Comito 1:00 PM Santiago Nova Mario Zamora Pedro Aguilar Armando Guzman Emmanuel Nova Marvin Vivar Jakie Mazariego Erasmo Maldonado

THE GOOD NEWS FROM OUR SCHOOL OF RELIGION

Our March FAMILY MASS is today at 10:30 am. Both of our 7th grade classes will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation tomorrow evening during their regular class time. Our Confirmation Candidates will be presented to the Parish at the 5 pm Mass on Saturday, March 25th. Please join us as we pray over them.

Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, pray for us.

3rd SUNDAY IN LENT YEAR A— Readings No. 814

Sun 19-Mar

9:00AM Religious Ed

11:30AM Spanish Religious Ed

11:30AM Legion of Mary

7PM Men's Club Meeting

Mon 20-Mar 6:30PM Religious Ed /Confessions

Tue 21-Mar

10AM Scripture Class

7PM Baptism Prep

7PM Spanish Bible

7PM Altar Server Prep and Practice

7PM Rios de Agua Viva Group

Wed 22-Mar

1:30PM Piermont Sr Meeting

7PM Spanish Choir Practice

7PM RCIA

Thu 23-Mar

1PM CDA Knitting

7PM Amigos de Jesus

7PM Rios de Agua Viva Group

Fri 24-Mar

10AM Fri Renew Group

7PM Spanish Adult Prayer Group

7:30PM Youth Group

Sat 25-Mar 1PM Nutrition Meeting

Sunday, 3/12 $4,422 Campus Dev $1063

Will be reported next week

Our Parish Code RGDV27

UNSCRAMBLE THE WORDS

FIND A MESSAGE using the ‘Letter’ in the “( )”.

IPSTIR (__) __ __ __ __ __ VENDIIT __ (__) __ __ __ __ __ IFHAT __ __ (__) __ __

Christ died for us, sowers of __ __ __.

Answers are words from this week's readings (See Pg. 7 below the cartoon)

Contributed by Jill Ammerman

Recommendations for March * Estos títulos están disponibles también en Español

13

ANNIV OF ELECTION OF POE FRANCIS

Movie: Conclave

Movie: Who is Pope Francis?

Movie: Francis: The Pope of the Renewal Audio: The Pope: Answering Common Objections

17

ST PATRICK

Movie: Patrick: Brave Shepherd of the Emerald Isle

Ebook: St. Patrick's Summer Ebook: Twenty Tales of the Saints

20 SOLEMNITY OF ST JOSEPH

Movie: Joseph of Nazareth

Ebook: Father of the Family

25

SOLEMNITY OF ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD

Prog: The Bible and the Virgin Mary, Lesson 2: Handmaid of the Lord Movie: Mary of Nazareth

Ebook: Mary: God's Yes to Man

Audio: Mary the Indispensable Mother of God

Every Tuesday from MARCH 21—at 10AM

St. John’s Connelly Hall

The Book of Psalms

Twelve superb lectures via DVDs, you will explore Scripture, theology, prayer, and the life of the Church. There is a $20 fee to cover DVD, Study Guide duplica-

on, and coffee. Please bring a friend. Contact Johan-na Krumm at 845-353-8910 for addi onal informa on.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

11AM—5:30PM

St. Joseph Seminary

201 Seminary Ave, Yonkers, NY Speakers include Mr. Alfred Kelly, CEO of Vi-sa and Director of the 2015 Visit of Pope Fran-

cis to NYC; Fr. Jonathan Morris, pastor, au-thor and media personality; and Mr. Ryan

Young, director of the well-renowned Camp Veritas. Register at:

www.ArchNYMensConference.event.eventbrite.com

Living Water

When we see the full mystery of Lent and Easter, we realize that, as great as our dry thirst and wide yearning may be, it is God’s eternal thirst for us, for our faith, our trust, our love, that is the central mystery of being; Jesus is the stream of love between God and ourselves. We are invited to drink of the mystery, this outpouring of love, embodied in Jesus, the thirst of God in us. His “I thirst” from the cross is as much the voice of God as it is the stirring of a human heart. It is not Christ’s humanity alone that feels the parching. It is his divinity too.

The story of the woman at the well, like our own rituals of baptism and the Eucharist, interprets for us the fundamen-tal nature of our rela-tionship to God. We are nothing without God. God is our drink. God is our sustenance. There are days when we realize the deep meaning of our Eu-charist, when we fully enter the actions we do and the words we say. It amounts to this: “I take you for my food and drink, my nutriment. You become my very being as food and drink become my own flesh.” So great is the expanse of our hunger and thirst that only God can fill us, fulfill us. Thus our desire is insatiable. But that is not even half the story. More vast than the furthest reach of our hunger and thirst to be known and loved is the God, eternal love and truth, who longs to be our bread of life, our living water, the sustenance that has loved us into being and keeps us there. In the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul recalls the awesome dis-proportion between our own aspirations and the beneficence of God. We are not to be fixated on how deep and undying our desires are, but on the vastness of God’s desire for us. “At the appointed time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us godless creatures. It is rare that anyone should lay down one’s life for a just person, though it is barely possible for someone good to have such courage. It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” As acute and overwhelming as our thirst for God might be, as

exhausting and ener-vating as our journeys to God might seem, the yearning that God has for us and the journey that God has made into our hearts surpass it all infinitely. Drink it in.

John Kavanaugh, SJ

LECTURAS DE HOY

Primera lectura -- Agua salió de la roca para apagar la sed del pueblo (Éxodo 17:3-7). Salmo -- Si hoy oyen su voz, no endurezcan su corazón (Salmo 94). Segunda lectura -- El amor de Dios se ha derramado en nuestro corazón por el don del Espíritu Santo (Romanos 5:1-2, 5-8). Evangelio -- El agua que yo les daré se convierte en el manantial de vida eterna (Juan 4:5-42 [5-15, 19b- 26, 39, 40-42]).

SEDIENTOS DE LAS AGUAS QUE DAN VIDA Especialmente durante la Cuaresma, la Semana Santa y el tiempo de Pascua, los textos de oración de la Iglesia Occidental se deleitan con imágenes paradójicas de Cristo: la vida eterna que muere, el anfitrión de la cena que es también alimento, el crucificado sediento del que mana agua de vida de su costado. Estas imágenes fluyen de las representaciones de Jesús por parte de los evan-gelistas y de su mismísimo ministerio, durante el cual muchas veces cambió o invirtió las expectativas que las personas tenían sobre él o sobre los designios de Dios. Esta "inversión" está en juego en el Evangelio de hoy, cuando Jesús habla con una extranjera enemiga que está por debajo de su condición social. Además él, el que tiene sed, demuestra que la mujer es la única que tiene sed verdadera. Él -cuyos labios secos dirán "Tengo sed" antes de morir- es la fuente de vida y del agua que da vida. La Cuaresma nos llama a reflexionar sobre cómo cada uno de nosotros tiene sed de Cristo y nos lleva, en última instancia, de vuelta a las aguas dadoras de vida de nuestro bautismo en su Cuerpo.

Para los cursos pre-bautismales llamar a: .Alex Aguilar 845-480-1502 y Natalia Lemus 845-480-1682. Los cursos se dan previa cita los martes 7pm y domingo 11am.

LECTURAS DE LA SEMANA Lunes 2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Sal 88:2-5, 27,

29; Rom 4:13, 16-18, 22; Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a o Lc 2:41-51a

Martes Dn 3:25, 34-43; Sal 24:4-5ab, 6, 7bc, 8-9; Mt 18:21-35

Miércoles Dt 4:1, 5-9; Sal 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20; Mt 5:17-19

Jueves Jer 7:23-28; Sal 94:1-2, 6-9; Lc 11:14-23

Viernes Hos 14:2-10; Sal 80:6c-11ab, 14, 17; Mc 12:28-34

Sábado Is 7:10-14, 8:10; Sal 39:7-11;

Domingo 1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Sal 22:1-6; Ef 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41[1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38]

TRADICIONES DE NUESTRA FE Para ser cristiano en la Iglesia católica necesitas recibir los tres sacramentos de Iniciación, es decir, el Bautis-mo, la Confirmación y la Eucaristía. Si te falta uno de estos sacramentos no estás completamente iniciado. Algunos cristianos insisten que si no estás confirmado no te puedes casar por la Iglesia, pero esto no es com-pletamente cierto. Según las leyes de la Iglesia, los cris-tianos que desean contraer Matrimonio deberían buscar ser confirmados, si les es posible sin grave dificultad (Canon 1065). Todos conocemos el Bautismo y la Eucaristía, pero ¿qué es la Confirmación? El nombre lo dice todo. Con la Con-firmación, confirmamos ante Dios y la Iglesia que deseamos ser cristianos por el resto de nuestra vida. Confirmarse es comprometerse, es entregarse al ser-vicio de Dios ayudando al prójimo con la gracia y el poder del Espíritu Santo. Por eso es importante recibir una buena preparación. La mayoría de nosotros no tuvimos opción cuando nuestra mamá y nuestro papá nos bautizaron. Nuestros padres y padrinos dijeron sí por nosotros y, si cumpli-eron con su compromiso, nos enseñaron con palabras y buen ejemplo como decir sí al Evangelio de Cristo. Sea que nos hayamos bautizado como infantes o como adul-tos, la Confirmación nos da la oportunidad de dar un sí pleno. ¡Sí! a ese bautizo, ¡Sí! a la Iglesia y en especial ¡Sí! a Cristo.

P A R I S H M I N I S T R I E S & C H A I R Buildings & Grounds Pat Miele, Alex Aguilar, Buzz Johnson Deanery TBD Eucharistic Adoration Dcn Robert Pang Health Mary Loftus Hispanic Community Mario Zamora Hospitality Robin Miller Men’s Club Bill Loftus. Ralph Olsen Ushers Jake Miraglia Music Elise Espinosa, Chris & Carolyn Yates, Spanish Choir Carlos Cerna, William Martinez Outreach Maria Nest Parish Council Scott Giblin Parish Worship Dcn John Cunningham Religious Education Kathleen Dunn RCIA Dcn Robert Pang, Jose Bolaños Right to Life Scott Giblin Social TBD Spiritual Life Johanna Krumm St. Vincent De Paul Fr. Tom Kunnel

P A R I S H C O U N C I L Kelli Chilson, Kathleen Dunn, Scott Giblin. Paul Johnson, Andrew Lee, Martina Lynch, William Martinez, Maria Nest , Ralph Olsen,

May Pang, Carolyn Yates, Janet Zahn T R U S T E E S

Phil McCartin James Pontone

Our Sacramental Life

Baptism: Please call the Rectory well in advance of the expected day of Baptism to arrange an appointment for an interview. Pre-baptismal meeting for parents is required. Godparents must be confirmed, practicing Catholics. Generally Baptisms are celebrated the third Sunday of each month at 12:00 pm.

Reconciliation: Confessions are heard from 4:30-5:00 pm on Saturday. You may also make an appointment with Fr. Tom. Spanish confessions is availa-ble from 12:30–1:00 PM on Sundays.

Marriage: Marriages should be arranged at least six months in advance. Participation in Pre-Cana is essential. Please call the Rectory to schedule an appointment with Fr. Tom.

Anointing of the Sick: Before you enter the hospital for elective surgery or other serious treatment, and for those who have need of spiritual healing. In an emergency, please call Fr. Tom’s mobile 845 608 9358.

Holy Orders: Any gentleman interested in exploring the question of vocation to the priesthood or the permanent diaconate should contact Fr. Tom Kunnel. We would also be happy to direct anyone interested in living their lives as Religious Sisters or Brothers.

Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults: For instruction for Baptism, Confirma-tion and Eucharist for adults and to learn about Catholic Faith. If interested please contact Dcn Robert Pang.

For more details and forms—www.stjohnspiermont.org

Parish Registration: All adults (over age 21) should register in the parish themselves and should use envelopes or parishpay.com. Tithing is 5% of income. This registration is our only means of certifying anyone as a member of the parish, especially for Baptism and Confirmation sponsorship

Answers (S)pirit, I(n)vited, Fa(i)th Solution - SIN

Inauguration of Flag Pole at Scheffold Monument at the Piermont Pier on 03.12.2017. Fr. Tom led the prayer of Invocation.

New book by Oscar Nordstrom, a member of our Parish