Immaculate Conception

Father Mike’s Homiletter – November 1, 2020

Scripture:  Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14; Psalm 24:1b-6; 1John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12a

This week we honor All Saints and All Souls – two of the three groups which make up the Church – and we, those who are praying to them and for them, are the third group.  Years ago, we called the saints the “Church Triumphant”, and the souls of those who had died, but were not yet in heaven,  the “Church Suffering” because we saw them as fulfilling a final stage of repentance before entering the presence of God.  Those of us still alive on earth were the “Church Militant”, charged with guarding our souls as we closely followed Christ.  Together, the three groups form the Church, the Body of Christ, also called the “communion of saints”, united in the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, which we also call “Holy Communion”.   

At a basic level, a saint is anyone who gets to heaven after death.  Those who are obviously and outstandingly holy during their lifetimes or who respond to prayers after their deaths with events which we call miracles – these are people the Church can officially name “saints” because it has evidence of their presence in heaven.  But there are thousands, even millions of others - our first reading describes a heavenly vision of 144,000 souls from all nations, a number meant to be overwhelming in Biblical terms - who are present in heaven, in the presence of God.  Each of these is also a saint, though we may not have the kind of evidence which results in   canonization.  Jesus has told us not to judge, so we do not, but many souls will be in heaven, some who might surprise us.  And all these saints are praising God and praying for others who can benefit from prayer – anyone who has not yet reached the fullness of heavenly life.  That would include us.   

Those who have died are those we refer to as “in Purgatory” – a place of further preparation for the vision of God.  These souls have the joy of knowing they will be in heaven, after a time of further preparation – they are in heaven’s “waiting room”, with a ticket to get through the pearly gates.  Their lives have been a success.  While they do more to prepare for heaven, they can pray for us.  It might not speed up their own entry into heaven, but those prayers can certainly help us to stay on track in our journey to heaven. 

Those of us still on earth are called the “Church Militant” – because we should be guarding our souls against anything which would distract us from following Jesus to heaven.  Sunday and Monday are days on which we pray especially to honor the saints and to help the souls waiting to enter heaven.  And we should be asking them to pray for us – to help us to join them.   We reflect on how those souls followed Christ, the examples of holiness which they left us, and ask for their help in imitating those holy examples. 

Most of us are not going to live lives of visible, overwhelming holiness, but Jesus has invited all of us to become saints, and we all have the capacity to do so.  While we may not be able to spend 25 hours a day praying, while living on bread and water, we all have the capacity to do some “saintly things”.  St. Therese, the Little Flower, knew her circumstances meant she would not do grand, splashy things for God.  So she resolved to follow a hidden “little” way – doing little, everyday things, with great love.  Her life assures us we don’t need to lead a “brass band” sort of life to become a saint.  And Jesus gave us the “roadmap” outlined in St. Matthew’s Gospel.  After all, Jesus was a humble carpenter, who became an itinerant preacher – He did small things with infinite love …for all of us.   

Peace, Father Mike 

 PREP Parish Religious Education Program 2020-2021

Classes take place on Sunday mornings for Grades K-5

Wednesday evenings for Grades 6-8 

Please click on the link below for our calendar and class times.

Please send registration requests or questions to me at [email protected]

or you can contact me by phone at  (847) 433-0130 ext. 110 

Thank you!

Blessings,

Barb

PREP Registration 2020-2021

PREP Calendar as of Oct 5 2020

Sacramental Requirements

SACRAMENTAL DATES TO KNOW

Retreat and Reconciliation Saturday 2/7/2021 9 a.m.

First Holy Communion Saturday 5/8/2021 10 a.m.

Confirmation  Wednesday, May 5, 2021 7 PM

Sources which will enable you to hear Mass on-line or watch on television:

ABC7 – 12:00 Sunday – Cardinal Cupich – Mass at Holy Name Cathedral

Univision - 10:00 AM – Sunday – Mass in Spanish                 https://radiotv.archchicago.org/television/broadcast-masses - includes Mass in Polish

EWTN:                    Direct TV - Channel 370

                                Dish Network - Channel 261

                                Verizon Fios – Channel 285

                                Xfinity – Channel 33, 291, 1668

Online:  St. James Chapel [Archdiocesan Center] – anytime

                                Holy Name Cathedral – anytime       www.catholictv.org/masses/catholictv-mass     Daily at 9:30am

Relevant Radio:  The Relevant Radio app is available at www.relevantradio.com  Mass – 12 noon, rebroadcast at 7:30 pm - Also on the Father Rocky’s Facebook page

Word On Fire Ministry:  www.wordonfire.org                             

Resources for Scripture and Prayer:

Daily Mass readings are available on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops web site:    www.usccb.org  – choose the date on the calendar on the right or

• Go to http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings

Give Us This Day – a daily Mass and prayer book is making its content available for free during this time.  Go to Give Us This Day. Org

Living With Christ – another daily Mass and prayer book is also making its content available for free. Go to Living with Christ.us

Liturgy Training Publications, the publishing arm of the Archdiocese, also has on-line prayer resources, including daily reflections and a virtual retreat for the Triduum.  Go to www.ltp.org , look for the window offering resources during times of crisis, or the media events – current virtual workshops.  

For material needs or other assistance, we understand that you can find resources by going to http://211.org, a web site sponsored by the national United Way organization

Immaculate Conception Parish offers a very fine Religious Education Program (P.R.E.P.) to provide the very best in formation and education for our grade school parishioners.

Immaculate Conception Parish does not have a parochial school. For those who would like to consider the time honored option of a catholic school we are happy to provide the following links to the Catholic School options in association with the parish.