Sunday– July 5, 2020

Celebrations at 9 AM, 11 AM and 6 PM Independence Day Weekend

Baptism We celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism for infants once a month at 2:00 PM. No baptisms are celebrated during Lent. To make arrange-ments call the rectory office.

Communion Calls Please call the rectory to make arrangements for a priest or Extraordi-nary Minister of Holy Communion to visit the homebound.

Anointing of the Sick Please advise the parish office of your intention to be anointed at any Sunday or weekday Mass. Priests are also available to visit the sick at home for anointing.

Marriage Couples must make arrangements for marriage at least six (6) months before their intended wedding date. Marriages are not celebrated on the First Friday of the Month.

Parish Registration We welcome all newcomers to our community! Parish registration entitles parishioners to celebrate the Sacraments and funerals at Holy Trinity, and is necessary to receive sponsor certificates. Inquire at the rectory.

Religious Education Program Grades K-8 Sunday at 10:15 AM

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FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A July 05, 2020

ANNOUNCED MASS INTENTIONS

SATURDAY, JULY 04, 2020

5:00 PM People of Holy Trinity

SUNDAY, JULY 05, 2020

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Zm 9:9-10/Rom 8:9, 11-13/Mt 11:25-30

9:00 AM Agnes Tretter

11:00 AM Nicholas Leone

6: 00 PM Angelina Romanelli

MONDAY, JULY 06, 2020

Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr

Hos 2:16, 17b-18, 21-22/Mt 9:18-26

8:45 AM Edda Uggeri

TUESDAY, JULY 07, 2020

Hos 8:4-7, 11-13/Mt 9:32-38

8:45 AM Sister Marian Lenihan

WEDNESDAY, JULY 08, 2020

Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12/Mt 10:1-7

8:45 AM Matthew Tuccitto

THURSDAY, JULY 09, 2020

Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, Priest and Companions, Martyrs

Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9/Mt 10:7-15

8:45 AM Carmine Falco

FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020

Hos 14:2-10/Mt 10:16-23

8:45 AM Dorothy Meno

SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020

Saint Benedict, Abbot

Is 6:1-8/Mt 10:24-33

8:45 AM Angela Commisso

SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020

5:00 PM Larry Panaciulli (Birthday Remembrance)

SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2020

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 55:10-11/Rom 8:18-23/Mt 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

9:00 AM People of Holy Trinity

11:00 AM John D. Sess

6: 00 PM Olga DiSalvo

the sick and the home bound: Florence Mottola, Josephine Oliveri, Pauline Falco, Maria Marinell, Maria Madrizal, Peter Simonelli, Irene McCarthy, Matty Piccione, Enza Dattero, James Leung, Debra Klingele, Vincent Capone, Luann Branowitz, Kath-leen Ermann, Vicki Popdan, Margurite Forren, Jerry Faraino, Margie Antinoro, Lu Ann Ruiz, Evelyn Burns, Lena Giliberta, Sue Ryan, Stephen Roldan, Mira Serafin and Denise Herbert.

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE For the Deceased Members of our Parish. We especially pray for Carmine Falco, Sister Mary Lehihan, Edda Uggeri Robert Guilmette and Richard Sparacino.

Remembering our parish expenses, please continue your weekly offerings to support Holy Trinity. We strive to support St. Fidelis Food Pan-try and we need to maintain our basic building expenses. You can send your envelopes and of-ferings through the mail, drop them in the rectory mail slot, or contribute on line. For on-line offer-ings, please consult our website. We all must work together to get through this difficult time. In this crisis, let us all pray together as Holy Trinity Parish. As the days more forward, we will face new challenges. Please check our website for mass streaming times and up-to-date information. May Our Lady of Guadalupe protect us all!

Over the years the 4th of July has taken on many meanings

for me. I am happy to say the real meaning of this national holiday has become clearer for me. For many, July 4th has become a day to celebrate Summer: barbeques, ice cream cones and soft ball! When I was a child it meant family gath-erings, John Philip Sousa marches (his name sounded as if it could be Sicilian) and fireworks. It was all about pride in being an American. It had to do more with family, friends, good food, and all the fun stough rather than freedom and independ-ence. Freedom and independence, I so naively thought, could never be in question. I was in the United States, life was

good, so be happy and pass the pasta salad and Italian sausage sandwiches. I never really con-sidered the words of the Declaration of Independence that gave the holiday its real meaning: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all Men [sic] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. But that was then and this is now. I have been thinking a lot lately about July 4

th. My concerns

are focused around the words of Jesus: I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. Are we in the United States on the very verge of losing our Christian sense of moral responsibility to God and our neighbor? If we lose this then we are on the verge of losing the true measure of this amazing of ours. If “my” pursuit of life, liberty and happiness outweighs “yours,” then it is selfishness that is more important than freedom. One of my most recent “aha” moments came as I reread the words of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, another old Italian philosopher: You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself. Our Lord invites us to be men, women, and children for others, considering always what is for the common good. This has and always will be the great American Dream. This will be the first July 4th I will celebrate since returning from the Holy Land last September. As pilgrims, a group of citizens of the United States had a front row seat in witnessing the contin-ued persecution of Christians. It wasn’t my first experience behind the wall in Bethlehem, but this time around I found myself identifying more closely with my brothers and sisters in the City of David. They are prisoners in their own birth place. Men, women, and children in a land thousands of miles and many worlds away are not so different than we are. Do we not need to be aware of their right to worship as we celebrate in our newly opened churches? We have all recently had the sense of being locked out of our Church; as we open our doors, needent we open theirs? I recall the words of the Baltimore Catechism: Why did God make you? God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him forever. This is the true American vocation. Similar feelings came over me as I recall the Fortnight for Freedom scheduled for June 21

st

through July 4th. The Fortnight for Freedom refers to the 14-day period established by the bishops

to encourage Catholics and other people of faith to pray for our country and conduct activities in support of our constitutional rights. The Fortnight for Freedom begins appropriately on the eve of the feast of the great English martyrs: St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More who died in defense of their consciences. Many citizens of the U.S. have taken to the streets in the past weeks to de-fend the freedom of their consciences. However, there is a moral distinction between an act of conscience and violence. During the same period of time many have refused to wear a mask be-cause it is their right not to be burdened with good health practices. The defining distinction be-tween conscience and freedom must be the words of Jesus: Amen I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. This is the true American vision. So this July 4

th will be different for me this year. Yes, I will still watch fireworks, listen to John

Philip Souza, and enjoy plenty of good pasta salad. But, first and most significantly, I will spend a lot more time on my knees thanking God for the American dream, vocation, and vision.

In 1776, when the American Revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a gray-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions estab-lished under the direction of Junipero Serra. Born on Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order tak-ing the name of Saint Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was 35, he spent most of his time in the classroom—first as a student of theol-ogy and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Sud-denly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before

when he heard about the missionary work of Saint Francis Solano in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World. Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a compan-ion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross—sometimes life-threatening—for the rest of his life. For 18 years, he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there. Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military com-manders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquench-able zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight till dawn. He baptized over 6,000 people and confirmed 5,000. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988. Pope Francis canonized him in Washington, D.C., on September 23, 2015. The word that best describes Junipero is zeal. It was a spirit that came from his deep prayer and dauntless will. “Always forward, never back” was his motto. His work bore fruit for 50 years after his death as the rest of the missions were founded in a kind of Christian communal living by the Indians. When both Mexican and American greed caused the secularization of the missions, the Chumash people went back to what they had been—God again writing straight with crooked lines.

Prayer for Healing in Time of A Pandemic

O Mary, you always shine on our path as a sign of sal-vation and of hope. We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick, who at the cross took part in Jesus’ pain, keeping your faith firm. You, Patroness and Pro-tector of the People of the United States of America, know what we need, and we are sure you will provide so that, as in Cana of Galilee, we may return to joy and to feasting after this time of trial. Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform to the will of the Father and to do as we are told by Jesus, who has taken upon himself our sufferings and carried our sorrows to lead us, through the cross, to the joy of the resurrection. Amen.

St. Fidelis Food Pantry Current Needs

As well as our usual contributions of canned and non-perishable food, the Food Pantry partici-

pants need:

Paper products

Lysol

Cleaning products

Annual Catholic Appeal Prayer 2020

God and Father of all gifts, we praise you, the source of all who we are. Teach us to acknowledge always with generous gratitude the many good things your infinite love has given us, as together we support the work of the Church In Brooklyn and Queens. Open our hearts that we may answer your call to follow the message of the Gospel as disciples in love and service, so that all may come to know You by the example of our faith and good works. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy

Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

It is wonderful to be able to say: Welcome Home! Holy Trinity is open daily from 8 AM until 4 PM. Daily Mass is at 8:45 AM and the Sunday Mass schedule remains as Saturday evening at 5 PM, Sunday morning at 9 and 11 AM, and Sunday evening at 6 PM. The church looks a little different when you enter and will sound a little different. We have removed the cushions, missals, and hymnals. The bulletin will remain electronic for awhile, and there will be nothing in the vestibule. Collections will not be taken, but there will be free will offering baskets. All processions have been stopped and you will not see altar servers. Yes, many things have changed; yet, the true reason that we gather is to celebrate the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Please be respectful of the general health of the congregation by wearing a face mask or covering at all times. Also, please make sure that your nose and mouth are covered; no cheating on the nose! Father and the Extraordinary Ministers will come to you with the Eucharist. Please maintain a respect-ful silence in Church with no speaking. We have a beautiful plaza and vestibule for those who wish to visit. There is no more sharing of a sign of peace during the liturgy. All of these are precautions to protect our health. Everyone is aware that covid-19 will be with us for awhile longer. If we wish to continue gathering for Mass we need to be patient, respectful, and concerned for one another. These attitudes are the hallmark of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We have done well so far; let’s continue to help one another. I know you have all missed the jokes; yes, you have! So how is this Fourth of July special:

"May the Fourth be with you."

"Sorry for this Alexander

Hamilpun."

Have a safe and blessed

Fourth of July!

During these uncertain

times wouldn’t it be a nice gesture to have Masses

offered for deceased and living loved ones? While the Church is not opened

for public Mass, priests do say Mass every day. So if you would like to have a Mass offered, please call the

Rectory Office. Masses are $15 and all are announced during the Sunday

Streamed Mass.