100 South 8th Street Arma, KS 66712 Tel.

(620)347-4525
Mailing Address: PO Box 948 Arma, KS 66712

Weekly Bulletin Saint Joseph Church, Arma www.stjosepharma.com

of

GIRARD Sat. 5:30pm Sun. 10:00 am Sat. 2:00-2:45pm

ARMA 4:00pm 8:00 am 3:15-3:45pm

The faith-filled parishioners of Saint Joseph Catholic Church of Arma, in union with the Blessed Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, value tradition and prayer. We are committed to strong leadership, responsive community service, and forming caring, welcoming, intimate relationships with our fellow brothers and sisters. We seek to become a more diverse, vibrant, active church family. Notes from the Pastor: Let us praise and thank the Lord as we enter this season of advent and at the same
time ask the Lord that we may be open to His grace so that we can truly prepare for His coming. God is Emmanuel - He is with us, and He is not far away. He wants to be with us all the time, but it all depends on how much we open up ourselves to let Him in. As He came to us as the Word made flesh, born in the manger more than 2000 years ago, He continues to come to us today in many different ways: He comes to us every time we receive the Holy Eucharist worthily and consciously. He comes to us through the words of the Bible if we listen attentively to Him - "not by bread alone does man live but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." He comes to us when we see Him in the people we meet, especially welcoming the strangers, when we take care of the needy, or visit the sick and those in prison. He comes to us when we do what He commanded us to do. As Mary said her fiat, may all of these also be done in our lives so this Advent season may truly prepare us for Christmas. I know many of you have already put up your Christmas tree and Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving. That is not bad, but it would be better if you include putting up even a small Advent wreath where every Sunday or Saturday night you and your family could gather together and light one of its candles and say your prayers. You can also share reflections on each other's experiences while spiritually preparing during this Advent. I am sure this would help us and our families experience more meaningfully our Christmas celebration! Like last year I am putting copies of Advent wreath prayers and reflection at the back of the Church for you to take home. December 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation. It falls on a Saturday. Some maybe thinking that going to 4 or 5:30 mass on Saturday will be good for both the Immaculate Conception holy day of obligation and the Sunday of obligation. The answer is NO! The Saturday afternoon vigil mass (4PM in Arma, 5:30 in Girard) is a celebration for the first Sunday of Advent. Because of this, you have to attend either Friday night or Saturday morning masses to fulfill our

Saint Joseph Parish Mission Statement:

Weekdays before Mass; anytime by appointment.

STAFF Fr. Roger Lumbre Pastor Janel Scales/Marcel Normand Bookkeeper/Bulletin Editor Judy Smerchek Secretary Rectory Office Hours Wednesdays 9AM-Noon Tel. (620) 347-4525

Next Saturday (12/08/2012) Altar Servers: Ushers E. M. E. Lectors: Gift Bearers 4:00 PM Grant Waterman Mike Buche & Bernie Wingebach Sharon Giacometti Pat Westhoff Mary & Georgiana Galichia

Next Sunday(12/09/2012) 8:00 AM Kaylee Bogina Greg Bogina & Mike Ashbacher Tracey Bogina Linda Broyles Tom & Debbie Amershek

Mass Schedules & Intentions for December 1st-9th:

Dec 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 4:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 AM Sunday 10:00 AM 7:00 AM Monday 5:30 PM Tuesday Wednesday 6:30 PM 8:00 AM Thursday 8:30AM-3PM 7:00 AM Friday 8AM-6:30PM 6:30PM 8:00AM Saturday 10:00AM 4:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 AM Sunday 10:00 AM Saturday St. Joseph Bud LaForge Pro Populo Frank OToole Chris Sponsel John Albertini Intentions of Ryan Sevart Family Jennie Carregio Eucharistic Adoration Gilpin Family Intentions Eucharistic Adoration Kay Arthur St. Joseph Carolyn Bentley Poor Souls by Alba Marchetti Winnie Walsh Black Family Pro Populo Arma Girard Arma Girard Girard Arma Girard Arma Arma Girard Girard Girard Arma Girard Arma Girard Arma Girard

09

obligation for this solemnity. We have our mass at 6:30PM in Girard on Friday December 7, and 8AM in Arma, and 10AM in Girard on December 8. These are our masses for the holy day of obligation. I hope you will find time to come to any of these. Otherwise kindly check the schedule of masses in Frontenac or Our Lady of Lourdes so you wont miss celebrating this very wonderful and important Holy Day of Obligation - a very important solemnity which reminds us of God's intervention to save us from our sins. One of the important things we need to do during Advent is to make a humble and thorough examination of conscience. We have a printed guide of this at the back of the church. Also, to make a sacramental confession, aside from our regular schedule of confession (it is printed in our bulletin), we have a scheduled confession in Girard this December 12, Wednesday at 7PM or right after the 6:30PM Mass. This is primarily intended for our middle and High School kids but it is open for parents, catechists and for everybody. I have invited Fr. Tom Leland and Fr. Cris Ah-maung to help us. I will try to get one more priest so we can all have a good chance of making our confession and consequently prepare ourselves this advent. In Arma, our penance service will be on December 9 at 6PM. I am not sure yet if I will invite another priest to help. Last time in Advent and Lent the attendance was so minimal. But surely I will be there to preside over the penance service. I would like to make a correction about the stewardship renewal form that we have distributed last weekend. It is the YELLOW COPY that you need to return back to me. The blue or white copy you have to keep for your guidance. Those who were not around last weekend, if your family does not have the renewal form yet, please take a copy at the back of

COLLECTIONS Last Week Contributions Expenses Over/ (Under)

Saint Josephs Upcoming Events Eucharistic Adoration: Thursdays from 8:30am to 3:00pm Finance Council Next Meeting, TBA 6:00pm St. Ann Altar Society Next meeting, Dec. 12 Parish Council Next Meeting, Dec. 3rd After 5:30pm Mass Knights of Columbus 1st Tuesday of Month, 7pm St. Michael Parish Hall

July 2012 to date $28,732.27 $21,245.35 $7,486.92

Christmas Poinsettias - We are now accepting donations for our Christmas poinsettias in memory of a family member or special friend. We will be purchasing larger poinsettias for the altar this year and publishing a list of the memorials in the Christmas bulletin. Any size donation will be appreciated. Please place donations and names in an envelope marked CHRISTMAS FLOWERS and place it in the collection basket. In order to publish the list of names we would need to have them no later than Sunday, December 16. Advent: A Challenge to Observe in Todays World! The new Church Year starts this weekend with Advent, the short season of four weeks to proclaim the One who is to come, hence the Latin, ad-vent, the ven meaning to come. As Fr. McElwee once told us, Its not a holiday season, despite our behavior! Its a time for preparing for Gods coming not partying through it all. If we did that, it would be like celebrating Easter in mid-Lent! While the season isnt equal to the Lenten season, some penance is called for, such as attending a weekday mass, saying a rosary, or spending an hour in Adoration. Christian families are challenged today in their efforts to observe the Advent season. It isnt easy to break with the rest of the world and to focus on preparing for Christ, especially when party invitations fill your mailbox and the media tells you its Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I liked what Fr. John Reinkemeyer said to us years ago here in St. Josephs Church: Christmas season begins for most of the world on Thanksgiving Day (remember, this was 1965!) when wares are displayed for holiday gift giving, and ends on December 24. Families who wouldnt dream of eating their Thanksgiving turkey in mid-November, or having their Fourth of July picnic in June, or celebrating their childs birthday a month in advance, give no thought to the fact that when they awake on December 25 there is not a shred of Christmas left! Every present has been opened, every carol sung. The tree was dried out. Christmas is apt to be a full day given to over-eating! There was no fast in Advent, so there can be no feast at Christmas. We humbly beg that you make some sacrifices during Advent, the season of Hope. Its difficult to hope for what one already has. If the world has been celebrating Christmas for the last four weeks, its hard to have hope and expectation. Try the positive approach this year--focus more on Christ and His coming and Christmas will be more meaningful.

Christmas Cantata: December 2nd, 6:00pm, St. Josephs Church Chair Members at Large Secretary Parish Pastoral Council Officers: Pat Westhoff Betty Rons, Dustin Ashmore, Joe Broyles, Debbie Amershek Karen Pryer Parish Finance Council: Chair Fred Bogina Members Bill Harman, Judy Wingebach, Linda Broyles

St. Nicholas: Patron of Children Nicholas was born in Asia Minor (Turkey) in 295, of wealthy parents. He studied the church and reflect upon it, then fill them up. Please return the Yellow for the priesthood and when ordained, he gave all of his wealth to the poor. A genercopy by dropping them at the collection basket or you can hand it to me ous man, he was the special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Once, he personally after the mass. Also please return the raffle ticket with the heard that a man, who had become quite poor, intended to abandon his three daughyellow copy so we can include you in our raffle drawing before Christters to a life of prostitution because he couldnt afford a dowry for them. Nicholas mas. Thank you and God bless you all! Fr. Roger went out at night, on three occasions, and threw a bag of gold into the window of the sleeping father and hurried away. Soon, his daughters were married and later, the Special Collection - There will be a special collection after the Masses grateful father fell at Nicholas feet and thanked him. This, and many other works of on Dec. 1 & 2 in order to help fill the Christmas baskets for the area charity led to the tradition of giving presents on his feast day, December 6, and at needy. Christmas, in his name. He is the special patron of children. The term, Santa Claus, comes from his name. The Dutch term for St. Nicholas was Christmas Cantata-The Christmas Cantata will be presented this Sunday Sinter Klaas or St. Klaas, which became Santa Claus. The term, Santa, itself, means (December 2nd at 6:00pm) at St. Josephs Catholic Church. All donations saint in French, Spanish and Italian. Many of our own U.S. cities got their name from go to the Community Pantry for area needy Christmas baskets. this: Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz, and many others. Msgr. William Carr, Wichita, told me theres a bit of Judgment in the German Altar Society - The next meeting of St. Anns Altar Society will be a custom of putting the shoes out on the night before Christmas. (we put stockings) covered dish dinner on December 12th at 6:00p.m. at the parish hall. All Good children get goodies, but bad ones got coal! Since Advent is a season of Penmembers and a guest are invited. ance, we see a Judgment as the season moves to the next one: Christmas--if youre good, you get presents; if not, none, or at least, not as many. There is an underlying Christmas Decorating - We will be decorating the Church for Christmas theme in all this letting us know there will be a Judgment!! immediately after the 8:00am Mass on Dec. 23rd. All volunteers are apSt. Nicholas died on Dec. 6, 350, in Turkey and his popularity has grown with the preciated. Thank you! centuries. He is honored by the Eastern Church, for he is also the Patron of Russia,

Worship Committee: Chair Karen Pryer E.M.Es Joann Black Ushers/Greeters Bill Harman Altar Society Judy Smerchek Lectors Marcel Normand Music Jan Harman

We Thank our advertisers for your support!

Please support our Parish Bulletin! Advertise Here!

while the Western Church reveres him due to his kindness to the poor and the tradition of giftgiving on his feast day and on Jesus birthday. After Mary, he is the Saint most pictured by Christian artists. Articles by Marcel Normand

Please support our Parish Bulletin!

Hickory Bend, LLC

St. Joseph, pray for us!