St. John’s is participating in the 20th Annual Coats for Kids drive by Anton’s Cleaners. All you have to do is drop off the coats on the weekends of November 8-9 and 15-16, and we will take care of the rest.
What Type of Coats? Warm coats of all sizes for babies, children, teens, and adults in good quality with no rips, tears, broken zippers or permanent stains – coats you would give to a friend.
When/Where Do We Drop Off Coats? After all Masses on the weekends of November 8-9 and November 15-16 in the Rectory garage (behind the church.)
Questions? Please contact Shilan Yeung (781-237-2612) or Deirdre Heilbron (617-894-4416)
“Coats for Kids” Drive Continues This Weekend
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Posted in Seasonal Initiatives, Service Commission
November 9: News from Religious Education
This Week: Sunday, November 9
Grades 1 – 6 Class 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Grades 9, 10 High School Retreat 1:00–6:00 pm, Church Social Hall (prior registration required)
Next Week: Sunday, November 16
Grades 1 – 6 Class 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Grades 7, 8 Class 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Friends for Good 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Grade 9 Class 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Grade 10 Friends for Good 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Class 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 19
Grades 1- 6 Class 3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
A full calendar of all events is available on the Religious Education page.
If you have any questions, please contact Jane Leonard, jane.leonard@stjohnwellesley.org, or Linda Messore, linda.messore@stjohnwellesley.org.
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Posted in Important Announcements, Religious Education Program
Thanksgiving Dinner at Bristol Lodge
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and with it comes our commitment to serve Thanksgiving dinner to approximately 100 guests at Bristol Lodge in Waltham. Please consider helping with this important outreach program. Volunteers are needed to provide cooked turkeys and vegetable dishes, cranberry sauce, rolls, and beverages. (The turkeys and other side dishes may be cooked as early as the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving.)
The food is dropped off between 12:00pm and 2:00pm on Wednesday, November 26 in the St. John parking lot. Volunteers are also welcome to help serve the meal on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, starting at 4:00pm. For more details and to sign-up to prepare food and/or help serve, please visit our SignUp page:
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Posted in Seasonal Initiatives, Service Commission
Christmas Wish Kicks Off This Week – Help Make Wishes Come True…
Some children wish upon a star. This year, about 400 children will wish upon the caring generosity of our parish community through the St. John Christmas Wish program, started by Fr. Tom in 1993 when he first came to the Parish. Needed clothing and a special Christmas wish gift will go to youngsters in our own parish and in parishes in Roxbury, Lowell and Brockton. You can help make wishes come true by:
Sponsoring a child or family fulfilling specifically desired clothing and gift requests
Helping us shop for children who have not been matched with sponsors
Making a financial donation to be used to purchase clothing or gifts
Christmas Wish invitations with Helper and Applicant forms were mailed to all parishioners this week. Paper forms and checks can be returned to the Rectory Office. (Forms should be returned as soon as possible or by Sunday, November 16.) If you prefer, you can click the link below to visit our online sign-up page:
Donations can also be made online via ParishPay, St. John’s online giving program (you do not need to be a regular ParishPay user – anyone can use ParishPay to make a one-time donation to Christmas Wish):
If you find your family needs assistance this holiday season, you are invited to complete a confidential Applicant form and return it to the Rectory Office.
Questions? Please contact Liz Corcoran (efcorcoran@aol.com) or Sarah Connolly at the Rectory (stjohnwellesley@stjohnwellesley.org or 781-235-0045)
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Posted in Christmas & Lent, Christmas Wish, Service Commission
Who’s Who at St. John
Throughout the next several weeks, St. John’s will be highlighting many of the staff members at St. John’s who make our Parish a vibrant, welcoming community. The article, Who’s Who at St. John will enable you to get to know each staff member a little bit more. The first two entries highlight members of St. John’s Music Ministries, Maria Wardwell and Chris Holownia.
Maria Wardwell – Family Mass Cantor
Maria has been cantoring with the Family Mass Musicians since 1998. A Wellesley College graduate, Maria has performed as a singer and actress her whole life. She is very involved in community theater and performs in and around the Boston area. She is the president of the Footlight Club, America’s oldest continuously running community theatre which performs at Eliot Hall in Jamaica Plain. Maria and her husband have lived in Wellesley since 1990. They have 2 sons – Nate, who is a Middle School teacher for Teach for America in Charlotte, NC and Ben, who is a sophomore at Colby College in Maine. When Maria’s not cantoring at St. John’s or performing in a production she is busy working as a Learning and Development Account Executive and Facilitator for Wilson Learning Worldwide.
Christopher Holownia – Family Mass Music Director
Chris has been the music director for the Family Mass and Sunday 5pm Mass ever since he graduated from Yale in 2007. Chris grew up in the parish and his parents are still active parishioners. He is currently teaching foreign languages including Spanish, Latin and Chinese at the Rivers School in Weston. He advises the philosophy club at Rivers and also music directs their winter musical. Chris is the resident music director for the Woodland Theatre Company in Medfield and during the summer he is a music director for the Weston Drama Workshop. In his “free time” Chris directs the music for other area musicals, acts on stage, and sings in area choirs.
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Posted in CME, Family Mass Music, Music, Youth Choir
St. John Book Discussion Group: Thursday, November 13, 7:30pm
All members of the parish are invited to the November 13 meeting of the Parish Book Discussion Group at 7:30pm in the Parish Center. The topic will be “The Synod of Bishops on the Family”, and our discussion will focus on both the process and structure of decision-making in the Vatican and the substance of the many issues discussed (or that should have been discussed!) There has been extensive press coverage of the October meeting in Rome; thus we are asking participants in the November 13 meeting to read as much as possible and come prepared to express your conclusions, opinions, reservations, hopes and expectations. These are obviously important challenges in the life of our Church and we all have a serious responsibility to become as informed as possible. One new and wonderful source of information is CRUX, the website of Catholic news sponsored by The Boston Globe. For further information and to give us an idea of how many will attend, please contact John Stewart (617.969.0950) or Peter Mongeau.
St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org
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Posted in Adult Faith Formation, Book Discussion Group, Important Announcements
Evening for Women – Tuesday, November 4, 6:30pm
Please join us on Tuesday, November 4 at 6:30pm in the Church Social Hall for our Opening Program of the new year! Evening for Women is an evening of reflection, prayer and sharing. Cardinal Martini once described grace as knowing that “you have been loved for a very long time.” This year’s Program for Women will take us deeply into this truth, that we may help one another embrace its reality and be transformed. Please bring your favorite Fall recipe for our fabulous ‘Pot Luck’ dinner. All Welcome!
Moderator: Sr. Evelyn Ronan, SND
St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org
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Posted in Adult Faith Formation
November 2: News from Religious Education
This Week: Sunday, November 2
Grades 1 – 6 Class 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Grades 7, 8 Class 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Friends for Good 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Grade 9 Friends for Good 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Class 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Grade 10 Class 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 5
Grades 1- 6 Class 3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
Next Week: Sunday, November 9
Grades 1 – 6 Class 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Grades 9, 10 High School Retreat 1:00 – 6:00 p.m., Church Social Hall
(prior registration required)
A full calendar of all events is available on the Religious Education page.
If you have any questions, please contact Jane Leonard, jane.leonard@stjohnwellesley.org, or Linda Messore, linda.messore@stjohnwellesley.org.
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Posted in Important Announcements, Religious Education Program
St. John Music Survey
As we look ahead to a new season, the St. John’s music staff thought it prudent to take stock of our current music ministry as a whole in an effort to review, with your help, what we do well and discover areas of potential change and/or improvement. By completing this survey, you will provide us with important feedback that we will endeavor to implement as we move through the year. (A paper version of this survey will be available in the bulletin this weekend.)
Once the data is collected and analyzed a summary of the findings will be published in the bulletin and on the website. Thereafter, we hope to sponsor some focus groups after each Mass at which music plays a part so that we may have meaningful discussions about the results and chart a course for the future. Please complete your survey by November 16. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.
Blessings!
– St. John’s Music Staff
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Posted in CME, Family Mass Music, Music, Parish Choir, Youth Choir
FAITH MATTERS: Some Common Elements among the World’s Religions
In the last blog post, we looked at what religious faith is and the variety of religions we find in the world. In this post, I want to explore some commonalities among religions. Religions tend to use the similar vehicles to transmit their beliefs and practices. These vehicles are scripture, myth, creed, liturgy, and theology.
Scripture: The word scripture comes from the Latin scriptura, the act of writing. So the scriptures of a religion generally refers to the official or holy writings of a religion. Scriptures are vehicles for the transmission of a religion in that they contain the stories, myths, rules, and liturgies of a religious community. The book of Scripture for Christianity is the Bible, which is divided into two sections, the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and the New Testament.
Myth: Myth is one of the most misunderstood and misused words in our religious vocabulary. All too often people think that a myth is a fable, a fairy tale, or a fictional story. But a myth is a great deal more than that. Myths are fictional stories, but they are stories that are trying to explain a major religious concept. Myths are true in that, while the details of the story are not scientifically or historically accurate, they are conveying an important religious truth, usually a truth about human nature or the relationship between God and humanity. For example, in the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box, Zeus gives Pandora a box and tells her not to open it. Pandora is overwhelmed by the temptation and opens the box, letting loose all of the bad things in the world: envy, hatred, etc. However, just before everything can escape from the box, Pandora slams it shut keeping hope safe in the box. This myth is not historically or scientifically accurate, but it does try to explain, in terms that regular people can understand, how all those bad things came into the world and why hope is more important and more powerful than the bad. Let us now look at a myth from Christianity. We are all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. In the story, Adam and Eve, the first people to be created by God, are told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve, however, is tempted and eats; she then convinces Adam to eat from the tree as well. God punishes their behavior by expelling them from the Garden of Eden and by sentencing them to labor throughout their lives. What is important about this myth is not whether or not Adam, Eve, the Garden, and the tree really existed. What is important is that this story tries to explain to regular people why there is sin in the world, why people must continue to work really hard to survive, and why there are rules and punishments. These religious truths are the point of this myth, not the details that were used to get those religious truths across.
Creed: The word creed comes from the Latin word credo, which means “I believe”. A creed, then, is a statement of belief. It is an explanation or recitation of the important beliefs of a religion. The creeds of Christianity are long but careful summaries of what all Christians believe. The Apostle’s Creed was the first one to be written and the Nicene Creed is an expansion of it. Both of these creeds are very ancient; the Nicene Creed was written at the Council of Nicea in the early 4th century.
Liturgy: A liturgy is the formal and ritualized worship of a religion. Liturgies are made up of a number of ritual actions and prayers that are done in the same or a similar way every time. Liturgies allow the community to come together to celebrate their religious faith and to remind themselves of the fundamental truths of their faith. Think of the Liturgy of the Word, which is the first part of the Mass in Catholicism. At a Mass on a Sunday, the Liturgy of the Word is almost always made up of a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, a Psalm, a reading from one of the letters in the New Testament, a reading from one of the four Gospels, a homily or sermon, a recitation of the creed, and a series of community prayers. This format is the same in every Catholic Church on every Sunday of the year. It is a liturgy.
Theology: The word theology comes from two Greek words, theos (god) and logos (word or study). Therefore, the word theology means words about or study of God. Theology is not just something that is done by professionals; anyone who thinks, talks, and studies about God is a theologian. Theology is the attempt by the people of a particular religion to understand their faith better and to explain it in a way that helps others deepen their faith. In Christianity, theology means trying to understand who God is, how God is related to human beings, and what God wants human beings to do.
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Posted in Adult Faith Formation, AFFC-blog