T h e V o i c e

Welcome everybody!

S TANDING SQUARELY at the intersection of faith and life, St. Matthias Catholic

Parish and School in Chicago’s Lincoln Square Community is committed to your spiritual and educational journey.

The soul of a wildly varied and thoroughly Chicago neighborhood, St. Matthias welcomes everyone. Joined by a faith that celebrates Catholic social values, we treasure each individual’s unique gifts. In our school and church we build values for living and friendships for life. Welcome to our vibrant, nourishing, and faith-filled community that is the heart of a life well-lived from infancy to eternity.

RECTORY ADDRESS 2310 W AINSLIE CHICAGO, IL 60625 RECTORY PHONE 773-506-2191 RECTORY HOURS: Monday & Tuesday 9am-6pm, Wednesday & Thursday 9am-5pm, Friday 9am-3pm GENERAL INQUIRIES: michael.brauer@stmatthiasparish.com PASTOR Rev. Larry McNally larry.mcnally@stmatthiasparish.com DEACON DEACON DENNIS RAMOS RAMOSD60@OUTLOOK.COM MANAGER OF FINANCE Stuart Boldry stuart.boldry@stmatthiasparish.com DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Karyn McGovern karyn.mcgovern@stmatthiasparish.com 773-896-8209 RECTORY OFFICE MANAGER Michael Brauer michael.brauer@stmatthiasparish.com DIRECTOR OF MUSIC Mark Meier mark.meier@stmatthiasparish.com SCHOOL PHONE 773-784-0999 SCHOOL PRINCIPAL Katie Carden kathleen.carden@stmatthiasschool.org SCHOOL SECRETARY Lee Valdez lee.valdez@stmatthiasschool.org ADMISSION DIRECTOR Carmen White info@stmatthiasschool.org

From the Finance Council

Weekly Intentions

WEEKEND MASSES SATURDAY 5pm SUNDAY 8am, 10:30am, 4pm Daily Masses MONDAY-THURSDAY 7:15am FRIDAY 8:15am (when school is in session) RECONCILIATION SATURDAY 4:00—4:30pm or by appointment MARRIAGES Arrangements should be made 8 months to a year before the date and before confirming details for a reception. BAPTISMS 2nd and 3rd SUNDAYS immediately after the 10:30 am Mass.

PRE-BAPTISM SESSIONS Upcoming classes –Saturdays: March 21 (11am), April 18 (11am), May 16 (11am), and June 20 (11am) in the Rectory—(773)506-2191 ANOINTING OF THE SICK Please contact the rectory at (773)506-2191

Our Lady of Perpetual Help WEDNESDAY 6:30pm Holy Hour and Mass in Honor of the Sacred Heart FIRST FRIDAYS 7pm (Convent) Our Lady of Peñafrancia FIRST SATURDAYS 6pm Our Lady of Fatima Devotion (Convent) Mass and Devotional Prayers First Saturdays 1:30pm

Weekly Intentions for February 15th-February 23rd

Please contact the Parish Office to schedule Mass Intentions Saturday, February 15 5:00pm +Kathryn A. Brennan and The Vincentian Fathers (F. Cunningham) and +Eddie O’Shaughnessy (F. Cunningham) and Gilbert Cabaong (family) Sunday, February 16 8:00am +Fred Forte (D. Forte) 10:30am +Michael Santilli (M. Colella) 4:00pm +Sr. Anna Eberhardy (student) and Our St. Matthias Family Monday, February 17 7:15am Tuesday, February 18 7:15am Wednesday, February 19 7:15am Thursday, February 20 7:15am Friday, February 21 8:15am Saturday, February 22 5:00pm +Sr. M. O’Connor, O.P. and +Restituto Cabaong (family) Sunday, February 23 8:00am +Steve Forte (D. Forte) 10:30am +John H. Waylen (M. O’Connor) and +Arlyne Borja (the Jacinto Family) 4:00pm Our St. Matthias Family

Thank you for your continued generosity

Sunday Collections Income Update Collections – February 8th - February 9th

A $0 deficit is required for the collections to balance their portion of the church’s

operating budget

Offertory Collections $2,449

Give Central $1,609

Total $4,058

For Fiscal Year Starting July 1st 2019 (update in next weekend)

Total Collections Year-to-Date $151,507

Budgeted Collections Year-to-Date

$182,400

Collections Surplus/Deficit -$30,893

Upcoming Second Collections: February 15-16, 2020: Annual Catholic Appeal February 22-23, 2020: Annual Catholic Appeal Feb. 29-Mar. 1, 2020: the Church in Central and Eastern Europe April 9, 2020: Holy Thursday Collection April 10, 2020: the Holy Land May 9-10, 2020: Catholic Charities—Mother’s Day June 13-14, 2020: Fund for Retired Priests June 27-28, 2020: Peter’s Pence June/July/August: Missionary Co-op (one weekend) September 20, 2020: Seminarian Education October 18, 2020: World Mission Sunday November 22, 2020: Catholic Campaign for Human Dev. December 13, 2020: Retirement Fund for Religious

Little Sisters of the Poor If you’d like to donate or volunteer we can be reached at: St. Mary’s Home 2325 N. Lakewood Avenue Chicago, IL 60614-3112 Phone: 773-935-9600 www.littlesistersofthepoorchicago.org

A Letter from Father Larry McNally

Dear Family of St. Matthias, Many thanks to our Senior Club for a delicious and a wonderful lunch this past Tuesday. We meet the second Tuesday of the month at noon in the Convent. Please join us for a wonderful time. Please accept my apologies for the confusion that I caused in last week's letter. I totally misunderstood the Bishop. As I mentioned at our Masses last weekend, a new pastor will be named for our merging parishes next month. The three to six months the Bishop was referring to was my next assignment. Eventually, I will receive some options from which to choose. So, I apologize for misleading you last week. As we await the announcement, I thank our committees for continuing to work on Renew My Church. I thank you for your time and effort and am keeping you in my prayers as I am keeping the hope that our Church remains open as a Worship Site. For further information concern-ing Renew My Church, please see page 6 of our Voice. Please join our parish Confraternity of Our Lady of Peñafrancia on Saturday nights at 6 PM immediately follow-ing the 5 PM Mass. The intention of the Marian Novena is that of keeping our Church open as a Worship Site. I thank our Confraternity for this prayer time. This Novena will conclude on Saturday, February 29. Ash Wednesday is fast approaching on February 26. The distribution of ashes will continue throughout the day until 10 minutes before the beginning of our Masses and Prayer Service. Masses will be at 8:15 AM and at 7 PM. There will be a para-liturgy at 5 PM. Ashes will be distributed after the homily at our Masses and at the para-liturgy. Please start thinking of how you will experience Lent through fasting, extra prayer, and alms giving. To help with additional prayer in our Lenten season, the Stations of the Cross will be celebrated on Fridays of Lent at 7 PM. RCIA is continuing every Tuesday night. As Lent ap-proaches, it means that the Easter Sacraments for our new converts to Catholicism are not far behind. Please keep the RCIA community in your prayers. I thank you. As I have mentioned in the past few weeks, we will not be doing the in-pew solicitation of the Cardinal's Annual Appeal due to our merger with Queen of Angels. For those who would like to participate, envelopes are available at all church

entrances. Please put your donation in the regular collection basket. All monies raised go to support the ministries of the Archdiocese in the spirit of stewardship. A certain percent-age is also designated for the Catholic Relief Services. No monies raised will go towards the abuse cases. Thank you for your past participation in this Annual Appeal. Please see page 2 of our Voice for the Offertory collection summary. On behalf of our Parish Finance Committee and myself, I thank you for your generosity. Your continued par-ticipation in our Offertory collection program is truly appre-ciated. I thank you for ALL that you do for our Family of St. Matthias. I pray for you every day. Again, please accept my apology for misleading you last week regarding the timing for the announcement of the new pastor. I hope the above paragraph clarifies what lies ahead. May the Holy Spirit guide those who are involved in select-ing our new pastor. Have a good week. GOD’S BLESSINGS! Fr. Larry

St. Matthias Elementary School

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donates 0.5% of all eligible purchases to our Parish! Select St. Matthias Parish in Chicago as your charity, and change your

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Queen of Hearts Please help us pack the Piggery in honor of Catholic Schools Week. This week's hosts are the families of first grade and the pots is currently at $12,900! Get your tickets at the school office or the Piggery for a chance to win 1/2 of the pot. Remember to mention St. Matthias if you visit for dinner, as the Piggery graciously gives us a percentage of sales on Thursday evenings.

The Piggery is located at:

1625 W. Irving Park Road Chicago, IL 60613

(773) 281-7447

Tax Credit Benefits Remember that you can have your family re-enrollment fee of $200 waived by donating at least $1,000 to the Empower IL Tax Credit Scholarship Fund before the 2:1 match ends. It was origi-nally communicated last year that you had to OWE taxes to the state of IL, but it is now clear that you can reduce your liability, meaning even if you do NOT owe IL state taxes depending upon how you file, you can still reduce your liability which can translate into a refund for you when you file your IL taxes. It does take a couple of weeks to complete the multi-step process, so if you'd like to take advantage of this opportunity, please consider doing so now. $1,000 donated today and restricted to St. Matthias School will provide $3,000 in scholarship funds give you a $750 tax credit on your 2020 IL income taxes save you $200 on your re-enrollment fee end up costing you $50 for the $3,000 gift.

Change for CHANGE: 8th Grade DC Trip Fundraiser

During the entire month of February, our 8th Graders will be managing a fundraiser to help gain needed funds for their class trip to Washington, D.C. in May. The students will be requesting donations of loose change (pennies, nickels, dimes, and they es-pecially LOVE quarters). They have dubbed the fundraiser “Change for CHANGE”, since they know that this class trip to our nation’s capital offers the opportunity to change their lives forever. We are excited to advise as well that the students reached out to the business community and have received a generous MATCH-ING donation from Wintrust Bank’s Lincoln Square branch! That means for every $1 of change donated by our com-munity, Wintrust will donate another 50 cents (up to the first $1,000 donated). There will also be a classroom competition – the grade level (PK, K, 1st – 7th) that donates the most change (in total value) will receive the following prizes: 1st PLACE – Pizza or Ice Cream Party 2nd PLACE – every student receives an extra out of uniform pass 3rd PLACE – on one select day, the students will receive an extra 15 minutes of recess 8th Graders will be all around during February – at school, Sun-day Masses, sporting events, on social media – please support their DC trip by donating your loose change. Search your houses, your cars, your offices, old coats and clothes. Make it a fun family activity this Sunday, pre-Super Bowl, to have your kids search the house for every last penny they can find. In this effort – literally every CENT will make a difference.

On Sunday, April 26, 2020 the Alvernia Alumnae Association will host its 28th Annual Spring Luncheon at The Cotillion, 360 W. Creekside Drive (Northwest Highway & Route 53), Palatine, IL 60074. Attendance at the luncheon is by reservation only.

Registration deadline: April 17, 2020.

The Alvernia Alumnae Association welcomes anyone who attended, taught, worked at or was otherwise affiliated with Alvernia High School in Chicago, Illinois. Alt-hough the school closed in 1989 we continue our mission to fund raise for the School Sisters of St. Francis retirement fund; to date our generous alums have contributed

more than $3,000,000 in gratitude for their Alvernia education.

For information on attending the 2018 luncheon, or a printable registra-tion form please visit our website at www.alverniaalumnae.org or contact

Eileen Lowery ‘71 at 773-882-1637 or alverniainfo@gmail.com.

St. Matthias Ministry Schedule

St. Matthias Ministry Schedule Saturday, February 22nd—Sunday, February 23rd

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saturday, February 22nd

5PM L P. Kubistal, D. Yassan EM Deacon Dennis, L. Finland, G. Key AS M./S. Hammel, G. Higgins Sunday, February 23rd

8AM L T. Schonberger, D. Javier EM Deacon Dennis, D. Rubino, T. Tud AS P./W. McIntee, K. Holzman 10:30AM L K. Mueller, A. Davis EM Deacon Dennis, K. McGovern, K. O’Conor, R. Hernandez, G. Key, A./G. Winters AS L. Hasmonek, E. Huber, A.M. Galarion CLW P. Woebel, K. McGovern 4:00PM L T. Elliot, C. Blalack EM Deacon Dennis, M. Coomes, N. Dodd AS K. Mejorada, L. Nieto, C. Pacholski

MARRIAGES Arrangements should be made 8 months to a year before the date and before con-firming details for a reception. BAPTISMS 2nd and 3rd SUNDAYS immediately after the 10:30 am Mass. PRE-BAPTISM SESSIONS Upcoming classes: March 21st, April 18th, May 16th, and June 20th. All sessions take place at the St. Matthias rectory at 11am and last about one hour. Please call to RSVP for a class – 773.506.2191.

Tweet from Pope Francis

“Painful reports are still emerging from Syria regarding the conditions facing women and children, as people are forced to flee the war. I renew my appeal to all parties involved to engage in dialogue and to respect Humanitarian Law in order to safeguard the lives of civilians.”

@ Pontifex

Religious Education

News

Upcoming Baptisms Sunday, February 16, 2020 Harley Antonio Cardona, son of Juan and Holly (Ortiz) Cardona Benjamin Michael Weninger, son of Brandon and Rebecca (Starkel) Weninger

Our Lady of Peñafrancia Novena for St. Matthias We invite all parishioners to join the Confraternity of Our Lady of Peñafrancia to pray our devotion to our Blessed Mother under the title of Our Lady of Peñafrancia for the next several weeks. This 9-week devotion will take place immediately after the Saturday, 5pm Mass and will go for about an hour. This will include the Divine Mercy, the Holy Rosary and the Novena to Our Lady of Peñafrancia. The prayer intention will be for Mary’s intercession on behalf of St. Matthias Church that we will remain open as a worship site and any private intentions. Our shared prayer will continue each Saturday until February 29th.

New Ministry Schedule The schedule is underway for March to June for Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers and Altar Servers. If you have any scheduling requests, please send those to Karyn (karyn.mcgovern@stmatthiasparish.com, 773.506.2191) by February 16th. Thanks for your commitment to our Church!

Lent 2020 Ash Wednesday, Wednesday, February 26, 2020 • Mass times (ashes will be distributed during Mass) o 8:15am School Mass (all are welcome) o 7pm Evening Mass • Prayer Service (with distribution of ashes), 5pm • Stations of the Cross, 6pm • Ashes will be distributed continuously from 7am-9pm in

the Church, except for the 10 minutes leading up to the Masses and the Prayer Service.

Madonna della Strada Chapel is home to

Goulding and Wood, Opus 47, the Katheryn "Kay" Stamm Memorial Organ

Concert Series: 3rd Sunday of the month at 3pm

All concerts are free, please join us! February 16, 2020 Charlie Sega March 15, 2020 Solena Rizzato April 19, 2020 Laura Bottei May 17, 2020 John Weit

Madonna della Strada Chapel Loyola University

1032 W. Sheridan, Rd., Chicago, IL, 60660 (773) 508-2200

(directly on the shores of Lake Michigan)

RENEW MY CHURCH UPDATES The St. Matthias community is actively fighting the decision to close St Matthias Parish and

Church. The canon laws which govern all activities of the Catholic Church allow St Matthias to appeal these decisions directly with the Vatican in Rome, and we are taking all actions available to us to en-

sure that St Matthias remains open for many, many years to come. Do not give up hope – we need eve-ryone’s hope, prayers and support as a community to be successful.

For more information on community efforts to save our Church or to offer your direct help,

please contact parishioners: Gerry Winters, Gerry.Winters@willistowerswatson.com Pat Kubistal, pkubistal@aol.com Terry Tuohy, terryntuohy@gmail.com Bob Farster, bobfarster@gmail.com Bill Horan, william.horan@gmail.com Molly Cook, molly_cook@outlook.com Sean Vinck, seanvinck@gmail.com

We will also continue to update the community as changes happen.

If you have not read it, please take a letter from the back of the Church that details more of what our Transition Team is

working on and how you can take an active role in helping our church and school. We need everyone’s help, support and prayers!

Current Reality for St. Matthias:

As of July 1, 2020, St. Matthias Church will merge with Queen of Angels,

with Queen of Angels being the parish church. A new pastor will be named in the coming months who will work with both parishes to transition to our new parish model.

St. Matthias School will continue its academic and spiritual excellence under the direction of Principal Katie Carden and the school staff

as an Archdiocesan School. Please continue your prayers and support for our Church and School. The community of St. Matthias has always been

a very strong one and that will continue as we move forward together.

Those in military Damon Magnus Daniel Grisius Joselito Mercado Those who are ill Marty Nagle Henry Schoffer Nevelle Tompkins Darin Rubino Miriam & Stuart Boldry, Sr. James Desecki Nelda Clay Joe Vavrusa Mary Mann Mary Ann Plagge Vic Adriano Sarah Schito

Karla Brocker Hal Mann Rick Kasper Emilio Cruz Celia Johnson Mike Scholz James Bradshaw Magdalena Lovejoy Pat Eder Meghan Griezak Tim Weyers Debbie Weyers Maryann Stuckel Pamela Chouinard Diana York Ray Helm Evan W. Beck John Baltrus

Tom Fencl Leonides Ramos Guadalupe Hernández Lila & John Wolfram William Dale Judy Wachler Dimitris Tsamados Patrick O’Looney Kathleen Parke James Doherty Kaila Mabus Mary Carden Mary Selim Paul Maczkowski Mary Ann Illarde

Those who are recently deceased Joe Elkin Kathryn Hernandez Karen Paugys Josef Wolfram Katie Creagh Luz Torres Patricia Giacomino Robert Rodgers Larry Zirbel Rosa Valdez Ana Liza Ramil Mary Ann Rupp Marion Waldmann Russell Freund Colleen Ryan

Please Pray for Loved Ones in our Parish

Readings of the Week

Monday, February 17th Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial: The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order 7:15am—Mass (Chapel) Readings: James 1:1-11; Mark 8:11-13 or Romans 8:26-30; Matthew 19:27-29 Tuesday, February 18th Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time 7:15am—Mass (Chapel) Readings: James 1:12-18; Mark 8:14-21 Wednesday, February 19th Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time 7:15am—Mass (Chapel) Readings: James 1:19-27; Mark 8:22-26 Thursday, February 20th Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time 7:15am—Mass (Chapel) Readings: James 2:1-9; Mark 8:27-33 Friday, February 21st Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial: St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church 8:15am—Mass (Church) Readings: James 2:14-24, 26; 12:19; Mark 8:34-9:1 or 2 Timothy 4:1-5; John 15:1-8 Saturday, February 22nd Feast: The Chair of St. Peter the Apostle Readings: 1 Peter 5:1-4; Matthew 16:13-19

Events of the Week

Monday, February 17th President’s Day/No School 7:00pm—Parish Council Meeting (rectory) Tuesday, February 18th Happy Birthday, Mrs. McGovern! 7:00pm—RCIA at St. Matthias (rectory) Wednesday, February 19th 4:00pm—The Oman Center (Erz Hall) 6:30pm—Our Lady of Perpetual Help Devotions (church) 7:00pm—School Board Meeting Thursday, February 20th Hot Dog Day! 7:00pm—Chicago Chamber Choir (church) Saturday, February 22nd 6:00pm—Novena and Rosary to petition Our Lady of Peñafrancia