Queen of Angels Catholic Parish Chicago

Part II: All Souls’ Day or “Whatever Happened to Purgatory?”

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

Last week I wrote about the celebration of Halloween and its relation to the Feast of All Saints. The topic of this article is the third day of this three-day feast, All Souls’ Day. This day, celebrated on November 2, follows the Feast of All Saints and is a commemoration of all the faithful departed who die in faith and friendship with God. Catholic doctrine teaches that not all that die are ready for the Glory of God in heaven, but must pass through a process of purgation for their sins. This process of purgation is called Purgatory. What the Church believes and teaches about Purgatory is essentially two things:

A process of purgation and purification must take place before entering heaven.
The prayers and masses offered for these souls help them in the process of purgation.
The Church has no doctrine as to the exact nature of Purgatory, other than that it exists and our prayers help those souls there. Many theologians, including our present Pope Benedict XVI, believe that Purgatory is not a temporal place, but rather a state of being. In other words, Purgatory may be that moment when we come face to face with God and for the first time in our lives realize the true depth of our sins, and for the first time experience the true depth of God’s love, which we cannot do in this life on earth because of our human limitations, rather than a place where souls go for and spend millennia to repent of their sins.

Fiesta de Todos Los Santos (Parte I)

NADA ES IMPOSIBLE CON DIOS
En los tiempos recientes se ha visto un aumento de popularidad de la fiesta de Halloween en nuestra sociedad. La decoración de casas en nuestros barrios es más común hoy día. Más grupos usan la fiesta como una manera de recaudar fondos por poner “casas de espantos” para emocionar tanto a los niños como a los adultos. Los niños se alegran al disfrazarse y piensan el los dulces que van a colectar.

Hay también un aspecto negativo de Halloween que nos hace pensar en la seguridad de los niños que van pidiendo dulces y las travesuras destructivas de algunos niños más grandes y algunos adultos.

En algunos sectores religiosos de la sociedad hay también un sentimiento “anti-Halloween” que percibe que la fiesta es anti-Católica y llena de brujería y demonios.

Columbus Day vs. Dia de la Raza

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

October 12 is the day that people from all over the Americas, North, Central and South, celebrate a turning point in their history. It is the day that has been traditionally associated with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the “New World”. Columbus, an Italian explorer, was looking for a shorter route to India when he discovered America.

The reason was that India, and parts nearby, was the source of many products that were of great value to the Europeans. Particularly, this part of the world produced many spices that were in great demand in Europe. The problem was that to get to India by ship one had to sail around Africa, a process that took many months and increased the dangers of trade with India, not to mention inflated the price of the products brought from there. The prevailing belief in those days was that the world was flat, but Christopher Columbus had a hunch that it was not. He thought that by sailing west from Europe, across the uncharted Atlantic, one would eventually come to India. He would have been right, except that he had no idea that there was another whole mass of land in between Europe and India. He looked for financiers for his journey, but since everybody thought the world was flat, it was hard to find anyone willing to support such a preposterous endeavor. It took Columbus eight years to convince Queen Isabella of Spain to support his endeavor. On October 12, 1492 he landed with his expedition of three small ships somewhere in the Caribbean, thinking he was in India. When he finally realized that he was not in India, he claimed the whole territory for Spain.

Farewell, Angels Ball. Hello, Bigger and Better Fall Wine Festival

There’s good news, and more good news. After five years of success and fun with the Angels’ Ball, we are bringing that event to a quiet close.

Why won’t we be hosting an Angels’ Ball this year? So we can reduce the number of events we ask you to support. We know your time and contributions are valuable, and we want to make sure we aren’t burdening you with monthly fundraising events.

What does that mean for our essential fundraising efforts? We will have a second Rome Raffle in the spring, for an expanded 10-day trip to Rome. And we are bringing the silent auction from the Angels’ Ball to the Wine Festival. This way more guests can successfully bid at this great school and parish fundraiser, and there will be a wider variety of items for you to consider. We are going to have some of the most popular items from the Angels’ Ball at the silent auction tables.

Catholic Charities Update on Hurricane Katrina Victims

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago has provided emergency assistance to 450 evacuees who have come to Chicago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Because Catholic Charities has eight emergency assistance centers in Chicago and its suburbs, the agency was able to begin assisting evacuees as soon as they reached the Chicagoland area.

Catholic Charities has provided shelter to 250 individuals—47 families— both in traditional shelters that we were able to prepare with the help of parishes and volunteers and in apartments that many parishes in the Archdiocese helped sponsor. These individuals have received food, clothing, shelter, counseling and financial assistance from the agency as have another 200 evacuees who came to live with family members in Chicago but came to Catholic Charities in need of other emergency help.

Catholic Charities has received $110,000 through the generosity of donors. It is estimated another $500,000 has been collected by archdiocesan parishes.

Catholic Charities is still in need of funds, gift cards, food and winter coats for our evacuees, who will have ongoing needs in the coming months. To donate, call Catholic Charities’ Disaster Relief Donation Hotline at 312-655-7174. The hotline is update daily to inform donors of evacuees most pressing needs.

—Rev. Michael Boland, Administrator, Catholic Charities of Chicago

Announcements, October 16, 2005

FOOD FOR EDUCATION
As the teacher coordinator for the General Mills’ Boxtops for Education and Campbell’s Labels for Education programs, I wanted to thank all parishioners who have been collecting both of these label for the school. I’d like to especially thank those who do not have children in the school and have been dropping the labels off at Church.

Each Boxtop for Education collected earns us 10 cents. During the 2004-05 school year, we earned $829.93 in cash from the Boxtops for Education program. We collected almost 5,000 labels and the rest of the monies earned came from families using their Boxtops Credit Card. We were able to purchase some much needed Walkie-Talkies as well as books and Accelerated Reader Tests for the Library.

For more information about the program, please check the website at boxtops4education.com. From the Campbell’s program, we collected 2,162 Labels for Education.

We are continuing to collect both labels this year. The collection box remains in the Church. Again, many thanks for your support.
         —Ami Allen

CUB SCOUT PANCAKE BREAKFAST NEXT WEEK
The 2005 Cub Scout Pancake Breakfast will from 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, October 23 in the Lower Church. The event offers all-you-can-eat pancakes with sausage, juice or coffee. Great raffle prizes will be available. Donation is $4 for adults; $2 for children and seniors. Contact one of the Cub Scouts or Larry Brown at 773-509-1155 or brownpkg@comcast.net.

Mass Schedule & This Week at Queen of Angels, October 17 - 23, 2005

Thursday, October 20—
Girl Scouts, 6 p.m., Upper Voss
Circulo de Oracion, 6:30 p.m., Lower Church Kitchen
Choir Rehearsal (Spanish), 7 p.m., Lower Church Music Room
SPRED, 7 p.m., Upper Voss
Men’s Club, 7 p.m., Guild Hall Gym
Singers Rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Upper Church
St. Vincent DePaul, 7 p.m., Upper Voss

General Parish Meeting Scheduled for Monday, October 10

In accordance with Archdiocesan policy regarding recommendations of priests to the pastorate, representatives of the Priests’ Placement Board will meet with our parishioners at 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 10.

The purpose of this meeting is not to name a new pastor but to give the Board members an opportunity to meet with our people personally to discuss the needs of the parish and what they would like to see in a new pastor. Everyone is welcome to attend.

The meeting is divided into four segments and usually lasts one and a half hours. The Vicar and/or Dean may be in attendance.

1.    Since the meetings are conducted in an atmosphere of prayer, the Board asks that someone from the parish (such as president of the Parish Pastoral Council) offer the prayer to begin the consultation. Introduction of persons conducting the meeting takes place after the prayer, and an explanation of diocesan policy regarding pastorates is given.

2.    In the listening segment, parishioners are asked to speak about their parish, its needs, present concerns and the qualities they are seeking in a new pastor. This portion of the meeting takes the longest time and is most interesting. Most people have very definite ideas about their parish and the kind of priest they want to serve as their pastor.

3.    A question/answer period follows. Generally the people are interested in how long the process will take, what they can do if the new pastor is not all they had hoped for and whether they can interview the applicants before a decision is made.

4.    For the written segment, a form is given to the attendees asking them to:
    a)    List qualities they want in a pastor;
    b)    Name the top three strengths of the parish;
    c)    Name the top three areas of greatest need for their parish;
    d)    Evaluate parish programs;
    e)    Make other comments. The parishioners may wish to name a priest they would or would not like to see as their next pastor.

The meeting concludes when people have finished writing and talking privately with Board members.

“Make Me a Channel of Your Peace’

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

This past Tuesday (October 4) the Church celebrated the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, one of the most popular saints in the liturgical calendar. When most of us think of St. Francis, the image of his love of animals comes to mind. There are other details about the life of St. Francis that can be a real inspiration to all of us as we struggle with our own spirituality and journey toward God.

St. Francis was born in 1182 in Assisi, the son of Peter Bernardone, a wealthy cloth merchant. In his early life Francis worked in his father’s business and wanted for nothing. He was young, popular and one of Assisi’s eligible bachelors. His father hoped that Francis would follow in his footsteps and eventually take over the family business. At age 19, Francis entered military service to help defend his native Assisi in a war against neighboring Perugia, during which Francis was taken captive and spent several months in prison. While there he became ill and came very close to death. This was a turning point in Francis’ life. Having been released from prison and returned to Assisi, Francis was nursed back to health by his family. He began to reevaluate what was important in life, which led him to a deep life of prayer and working with the poor. He found God present in the poor and in creation around him. In 1206 he publicly renounced his father’s wealth and went to live as a hermit rebuilding a church (San Damiano) outside of Assisi that had fallen into ruin. It was here that his life of prayer and poverty began to attract other young people to live and work with him. One of these, Clare, collaborated with him and founded a community of women who likewise followed the spirituality of St. Francis. By the time of his death in 1226, at age 44, Francis’ spirituality had caught on and his religious order well established. He was canonized just two years after his death and the Franciscan spirituality and way of life is one of the major religious disciplines in the Church to this day.

The Queen of Angels 4th Annual Fall Wine Festival

Whether or not you’ve followed the grapes in the past,
You’re in for a fall spectacular
The likes of which you’ve never encountered before…

Come….experience the magic in the rebirth of our autumn gala

The Queen of Angels 4th Annual Fall Wine Festival
Saturday, November 19, 2005
6 p.m. til Midnight
Guild Hall

Save the date…it’s definitely not the “usual” event