St.

Helen Church
4106 Mountain St.
Beamsville, ON L0R 1B7
Ph: 905-562-7427
Fax: 905-563-0003
Email: office@sthelenscatholic.ca
Opened - October 2, 1938 Est. as a Parish - January 1, 1986
Pastor: Rev. Krzysztof Szczepanik Sunday Masses:
Office Administration: Aggie Agnino Saturday: 5:00pm
Sunday: 9:00am, 11:00am *
*(Children’s Liturgy of the Word)
Office hours:
Tuesday to Friday 9:00am - 3:00pm Weekday Masses:
Closed on Mondays and all Statutory holidays Tuesday: 6:30pm
Wednesday to Friday: 9:00am
Website: www.sthelenscatholic.ca 2nd Friday at Albright: 10:00am
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/sthelenscatholic 3rd Friday at Mennonite: 10:00am

Sacraments Contacts
Catholic Funeral Rites:
Baptism: When a death occurs in your family, Music Ministry:
1st & 3rd Sunday at 1:00 pm. please call the Parish Office and we Anthony van Engelen
Call parish office. will assist you in making the adve1@yahoo.com
necessary liturgical arrangements.
1st Communion & Confirmation Ministry Scheduling & RFM:
Contact the Parish Office. Chronic Care Facilities: Rachel Reid ~ ministryschedul-
Pastoral visits are made monthly. ing@sthelenscatholic.ca
Reconciliation: Reception of Holy Communion is
Every Saturday 4:00pm - 4:30pm or by available to residence. Fundraising Events:
appointment with the priest. Joe Della Manna
Homebound: josephdellamanna@yahoo.ca
Marriage: Notify the Parish Office when serious
Arrangements six months in advance. illness occurs. When the sick, aged or Facility & Grounds Maintenance:
Marriage preparation is required. incapacitated are confined to home for Craig Luey
an extended time, pastoral visit can be craig.luey@gmail.com
RCIA & RCIC: arranged.
Contact the Parish Office. Catholic Women's League:
Colleen Drake ~ contact parish office
Anointing of the Sick: Schools
Please let us know when someone has St. Mark School Knights of Columbus:
a serious or prolonged illness or is to Principal: Steven Ward Marcel VanRuyven
have surgery. This sacrament mgvanruijven@gmail.com
celebrates the healing of mind and St. Edward School
body and the forgiveness of sins. Principal: Carla Bianco SVDP:
Lorraine Martin ~ contact parish office

Kindly complete the following and place in the collection basket.

Envelopes will be on the round table in the foyer the following weekend.
☐ New Parishioner* ☐ Change of address ☐ Moving
Name________________________ Phone_________________ E-mail___________________
Address______________________________________________ City_____________________
☐ I would like to use offertory envelopes* Postal Code______________
 Gaudete Sunday of Advent - Year A
December 15, 2019
Mass Intentions
This week, the Sanctuary Lamp burns in
 December 17 - December 22, 2019 memory of:
As we gather, let us remember and pray for . . . + DECEASED MEMBERS OF THE
th
Tues. ~ …………………………………….….. Dec. 17 CIPRO & ELIA FAMILIES
6:30 pm + Ferdinando Zanin (by Cathy Zanin)
The Sanctuary Lamp burns to remind us of Christ’s
Wed. ~ …………………………………….….. Dec. 18th presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
9:00 am + Dora Geczy & + Elizabeth Barna If you wish to sponsor the sanctuary lamp for one
(by Alex Geczy) week, the stipend is $35.00
Thurs. ~ ………………………………………... Dec. 19th
9:00 am
Fri. ~
+ Sal Paonessa (by Teresa Boncori)
………………………………………… Dec. 20th
our parish prayer
Jesus, open our hearts, enabling us to embrace
10:00 am + Fernando Lofreddo your teachings and to love one another. Holy
Menno Home (by Gennaro & Giuseppina Elia)
Spirit, lift us and lead us, deepening our desire to
Sat. ~ ………………………………………... Dec. 21st serve God through serving each other. Amen.
5:00 pm For the People of St. Helen Parish
Sun. ~ ………………………………………… Dec. 22nd BINGO GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR PURCHASE
9:00 am + Manuel daSilva (by Maria daSilva) Looking for that perfect gift? Stumped for gift ideas for
+ Anna Zona (by Viola & Peter Izzo) someone? Purchase a St. Helen Bingo Gift Certificate,
only $20.00 for Thursday Bingo (at the Legion) or
11:00 am + Rachelle Greco $25.00 for Friday Bingo (Angelina Prokich Great Hall).
(by Marlene Bourdeau) Certificates available at the Bingos or the parish office.
MINISTRY FOR THE SICK AND CHRISTMAS FLOWERS & DECOR
HOMEBOUND Envelopes to help pay for Christmas flowers and décor
We are grateful to those who give of are available in the pews or vestibule of the church and
their time and care to bring Holy can be returned in the collection basket.
Communion to our parishioners who cannot make it to
church due to sickness or infirmity. If you know of CWL NEWS
anyone who would like to receive communion in their Ladies, please join us for the Installation of
home or while hospitalized at West Lincoln Hospital, CWL Officers on Tuesday, January 7th after
please contact the parish office. the 6:30 p.m. Mass. It would be nice to see as many
members out as possible. After we will have a very
PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY brief meeting and a social hour after in the church hall.
The Prayer Shawl Ministry
continues to create handcrafted
shawls for parishioners, their
families and friends who are
coping with illness, loneliness,
pain or trouble. They are available to anyone who Thank you to Ken Roach
needs one. Please call the office to request a shawl or and St. Helen’s choir for
lap blanket or if you would like to join this ministry. putting together an enjoyable
Christmas concert last Sunday. We listened,
2020 OFFERTORY ENVELOPES READY we sang, and we enjoyed refreshments after.
Please pick up & check your label for accuracy and Thank you to those who came and
notify the office of any changes - please use in 2020. participated. Community Care was happy
to receive the non perishable food items!
SANCTUARY LAMP
We have openings for the Sanctuary Lamp in Our choir is looking for people to contribute their
2020. If you would like to book a particular week talents to help make our Masses and gatherings just that
in memory of your loved one, please contact the much more special. Join us! (or at least talk to us…
office sooner rather than later as the year is filling nothing is lost by simply asking). Come out to any choir
up. Cost is $35 per week. practice on Wednesday’s at 7:00 p.m. or speak to any
choir member. Choir members needed for all 3 Masses.
 Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday
God himself will come and save us. (Isaiah 35)
Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is
near. (James 5)
Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for
another? (Matthew 11)
Advent/Christmas is the
season of hope: The birth of
Christ restores our dreams for
“blossoming deserts”
(Reading 1) and new
harvests, for renewed
relationships with God and
with one another.
The Christ of Christmas comes to heal the divisions
among families and friends, to re-create our world in
the mercy and justice of the Messiah, to renew our lives
in the joy and hope of the God of unimaginably endless
love.
John's question, Are you the Messiah?, confronts us
with the apparent silence of God in our secular, amoral
society. We must come to recognize the Messiah in the
humble, merciful, liberating person of Jesus, the healer
and reconciler.
The question Jesus pose – What did you go out to the
desert to see? – challenges us to take on the hard and
never-ending Advent work of conversion and re-
creation, of rediscovering what we want are lives to be
for and about.
PREPARING OUR HEARTS
AND ASKING FOR GRACE
We prepare this week by feeling the joy. We move
through this week feeling a part of the waiting world
that rejoices because our longing has prepared us to
believe the reign of God is close at hand. And so we
consciously ask:
Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that
hinders us from feeling the joy and hope which his
presence will bestow.
Each morning this week, in that brief moment we
are becoming accustomed to, we want to light
a third inner candle. Three candles, going from
expectation, to longing, to joy. They represent our
inner preparation, or inner perspective. In this world of
“conflict and division,” “greed and lust for power,” we
begin each day this week with a sense of liberating
joy. Perhaps we can pause, breathe deeply and say,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
Each day this week, we will continue to go through
our everyday life, but we will experience the difference
our faith can bring to it. We are confident that the grace
we ask for will be given us. We will encounter sin - in
our own hearts and in our experience of the sin of the
world. We can pause in those moments, and feel the
joy of the words,
“You are to name him Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
We may experience the Light shining into dark places
of our lives and showing us patterns of sinfulness, and
inviting us to experience God's mercy and
healing. Perhaps we wish to celebrate the Sacrament of
Reconciliation this week. We may want to make
gestures of reconciliation with a loved one, relative,
friend or associate. With more light and joy, it is easier
to say, “I'm sorry; let's begin again.”
Each night this week we want to pause in
gratitude. Whatever the day has brought, no matter
how busy it has been, we can stop, before we fall
asleep, to give thanks for a little more light, a little more
freedom to walk by that light, in joy.
Our celebration of the coming of our Savior in history,
is opening us up to experience his coming to us this
year, and preparing us to await his coming in Glory.
Come, Lord Jesus. Come and visit your people.
We await your coming. Come, O Lord.
(Creighton Online Ministries)
CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE
Mass times:
Christmas Eve Dec. 24: 5:00 p.m. (Children’s Mass)
11:00 p.m.
Christmas Day Dec. 25: 9:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
New Year’s Day Jan. 1: 10:00 a.m.
Confessions during Advent:
Saturday Dec. 7, 14, 21: 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
5TH ANNUAL MEMORIAL
CHRISTMAS ANGEL TREE
The Memorial Christmas Angel Tree
glows with lights in memory of
deceased loved ones and friends. To
honour the memory of a loved one
with an angel, complete a “Memorial
Christmas Angel Tree” envelope
available at the entrance of the church
and place it in the collection basket or
simply stop in at the office reception
window during office hours with
your request.
Thursday’s - Legion
@ 11:00 am
Friday’s - St. Helen’s
@ 7:00 pm