Bellarmine Chapel Bulletin

To receive the Bellarmine bulletin by email, please send your name to Liz Keuffer at Keuffer@xavier.edu.   Thank you!

February 24, 2008

Third Sunday in Lent

BELLARMINE CALENDAR

Sunday, February 24

Fair Trade Coffee for Sale

Streetvibes

Monday, February 25

7:30 PM Lenten Series - Conaton Board Room, Schmidt Hall

7:30 PM Centering Prayer - Parish Center

Tuesday, February 26

6:45 PM Religious Education - St. Agnes, Bond Hill

Wednesday, February 27

7:00 PM BYG - Parish Center

7:00 PM Social Mission Core Team - Aerni’s Home

Thursday, February 28

7:00 PM RCIA - Activity Room

Saturday, March 1

9:00 AM St. Vincent de Paul - Activity Room

Sunday, March 2

Children’s Liturgy of the Word

LENTEN SERIES CONTINUES

Our Lenten Series continues tomorrow evening. Please join us in the Conaton Board Room, Schmidt Hall at 7:30 as Rev. Steve and Lynn Greiser discuss Sexuality, Relationships and Commitment.

Pete Buswinka and Mark Stockman will be participating in an upcoming Kairos Prison Ministry at Southern Ohio Correctional Institution. Kairos is a 4-day Christian retreat for residents (inmates). It has been a life changing experience for thousands, the start of a new faith journey and ray of hope for them. You can be part of it by: baking cookies, praying for the team and residents, giving monetary donations, or having children create "agape" posters and/or placemats that will be used for the weekend.

Cookie instructions, prayer sign-ups, and blank placemats are available in the narthex. Cookies should come in one gallon zip lock bags containing two dozen each. Please no powdered sugar or raisins in the cookies, and do not include any plates, twist ties, notes, etc. Plastic wrap, brownies, and rice krispy treats are ok.

Cookies and other agape will be collected on the Sundays of March 3 and 10, the final pickup will be Wednesday, March 12. Contact Mark at mark.stockman@uc.edu with any questions.

RANDOM QUOTE

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.   ~Lewis B. Smedes

FOUND ITEM

A silver woven bracelet was found after the Parents Night Out event. If it is yours, please call Sue Antoinette at 745-4224 to claim it.

Volunteers are needed to help serve lunch at Tender Mercies on March 8 and April 12. The time commitment is from 11 AM - 1 PM. This is a great opportunity for a small faith community or group of friends to do a service project together. To volunteer, please call the chapel office at 745-4224.

The participants of one of Xavier University's Alternative Breaks trips are holding a children's book drive. XU students will go to Buffalo, where they will be working with an organization that helps to resettle refugees, including children who need help learning English. Any (gently) used children's books that you can provide would be of great help to the organization. A collection box will be in the chapel vestibule until March 13. Questions? Contact Emily Chambers at chambersea@xavier.edu. Thank you.

RANDOM QUOTE

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.  ~Jan Glidewell

The ceramic pot in the middle aisle is a way for you to unload some of the baggage you want to get rid of during this Lent: resentments, addictions, regrets, anxieties, discouragements. Or you could call it a chance to give over to God, or to our Higher Power, the things you can’t manage alone, where you are ready to surrender to the grace of God’s help. Why not! We pay a lot of attention in Lent to our practice of fasting or prayer or service; in some ways, we desire to make a difference happen for ourselves. We offer these good things: and all along God asks for you to offer only your burdens, your sins, where God will walk with you and heal, and lift the weight from your back.

So the pot is there for you, for all of us. Make the simple gesture of writing down what you want to hand over, and drop it in the pot with the common stuff of our community’s life now. It’s a way of giving it to God. And then on the next couple of Sundays, we’ll pray at the liturgy to be delivered from the fears and hindrances. For the sake of our souls, our inner peace, and for the world’s peace and healing.

Matt Phelps, organist and adjunct faculty in the Xavier department of Music will be presenting an hour long recital of organ music from five different centuries. Concert is free, an hour long, and open to all. Join Matt on Tuesday, March 26, from 6:30 - 8:45 PM.

The Interfaith Hospitality Network provides homeless families emergency shelter and hospitality through interfaith communities. Congregations who are part of IHN host the homeless families several weeks during the year. As of 2008, Bellarmine has committed to being a support congregation within the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN). We will be partnering with Walnut Hills Baptist Church. Walnut Hills Baptist Church on Kemper Lane in Walnut Hills hosts the homeless families four weeks a year at their church. However, they need support to host, feed and chaperone the families.

We have agreed to cover one night of each week that Walnut Hills Baptist is hosting. That means that we provide hosts, dinner for the families, evening activities for the children and a person or persons to sleep there and send the families off to their day center the following morning. The dates that we will be hosting are Friday, March 28; Friday, May 23; Saturday, August 23; and Saturday, October 18.

Today we have a table in the narthex with information about IHN and a sign-up sheet for anyone who would like to take part in this ministry. We are looking for people to sign up for one or more dates and one or more tasks associated with the hosting. This is an excellent opportunity for families who are looking for a family volunteer activity as the IHN families enjoy having other children to play with or families with older children to prepare a craft activity for them. The time frame is from about 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. except for the person spending the night.

Please stop by the table in the narthex, ask questions and sign up for this new but important ministry opportunity.

Thanks to donors at our Alternative Giving Fair Bellarmine Chapel is currently loaning to 25 entrepreneurs through Kiva.org You can follow our loans at www.kiva.org/lender/bellarmine8597. As loans are repaid, we will continue to re-loan the money to continue the cycle of support. To learn more about this program, or to donate to increase Bellarmine’s loans, please contact Liz Keuffer in the chapel office at 745-3398.

Looking for: A young person (18-30) of faith who would like to serve as an intern for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the Catholic Church’s domestic anti-poverty program. Intern will work out of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s Catholic Social Action Office in downtown Cincinnati (100 E 8^th Street).

Responsibilities: Promote the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and its Poverty Awareness Program. Good communication skills required.

Duration: 13 hours per week: Fall 2008 (12 weeks)

Spring 2009 (12 weeks)

Stipend: $10.00/hour

To receive an application or for further information, please contact Tony Stieritz at (513)421-3131 x239 or csacintiintern@catholiccincinnati.org

RETREATS AT MSC

Holy Week Retreat – The Milford Spiritual Center is presenting a 7-day Holy Week Retreat March 16-22. The first four days of the retreat will offer retreatants a silent and individualized experience including Mass and daily meetings with a spiritual director. The final three days will feature the Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies with meditations offered by Father John Ferone, SJ. The retreat will end on Holy Saturday to allow retreatants to participate in their Easter parish celebrations. For information, call the Milford Spiritual Center at (513) 248-3500, ext. 10.

Thomas Merton Retreat – The Milford Spiritual Center is offering a retreat on the writings of Thomas Merton April 4-6, led by Jonathan Montaldo, associate director of the Merton Institute. Mr. Montaldo is also the director of the Bethany Springs Retreat Center and a past president of the International Thomas Merton Society. The JSC retreat will focus on those writing by Merton intended to help with the integration of the spiritual and secular lives. For information, call the Milford Spiritual Center at (513) 248-3500, ext. 10.

Junior and Senior High students and their families are invited to pick up information about upcoming events and trips at the Youth Info Table in the narthex. If you would like to be added to our mailing list contact Sue Antoinette at 745-4224 or antoinette@xu.edu

Jr. High teens get together every other Friday from 7:00 – 9:30 PM in the Parish Center.

Mar. 7 and Apr. 4 - Meet in the Parish Ctr.

April 25 - Jr High Challenge Party at XU’s O’Connor Center – save the date!

Our current schedule:

Feb. 27, March 5 and 12 in the Parish Center

March 19 and 26 No BYG

March 14 - 16: Retreat to Ropp’s Country Cottage and Farm. There is plenty of space to get away from the city and business. Dream by the waterfall, paddle in the pond, talk by the campfire, walk in the woods and much, much more. Come join us for a weekend away. Kristen Barker from IJPC will spend the afternoon with us in an interactive workshop on peace and justice. Flyers have been mailed and more are available at the Youth Info Table. Please let Sue know by March 2 if you’d like to attend.

CSTAT (Catholic Social Teaching Action Team) and the St. Vincent DePaul Society are putting together a Peace and Social Justice Retreat for Friday and Saturday, February 22-23. The retreat will be held at St. Vincent DePaul district headquarters in the West End. You’ll have an opportunity to go on house calls with Bellarmine’s St. Vincent de Paul Society on Saturday morning. $30. Contact Sue Antoinette for more information. 745-4224.

Our next two meetings will be:

Feb. 24 4:00 dinner and meeting, mass at 7 PM

Mar. 9 4:00 dinner and meeting, mass at 7 PM

RANDOM QUOTE

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.   ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Sign-up has begun for the Summer Service Opportunities. We don’t want anyone to miss out on these wonderful opportunities. Because of parish support, we are able to offer these trips for only $250 each. Forms are being mailed out and are also available at the Youth Info Table. Reservations and the $100 deposit are due by Sunday, March 9.

June 15-21 Young Neighbors in Action - Chicago, IL Service opportunity is chosen with input from participants and can range from construction to serving in soup kitchens, tutoring young children, or working in day care or Vacation Bible School. 14 openings

July 6-12 COAP - Harlan, KY COAP mission is to help with building projects for people with low income or poor health that can’t do or afford the work by themselves. Expect projects in new construction, housing repair, roofing, insulation, painting and more. 24 openings

Ireland in Word and Music II will be presented on Sunday, March 2, from 2:00 - 4:15 in the Long Recital Room of Edgecliff Hall (first building on the University Drive). The program will consist of dramatic readings plus authentic Irish music presented by Dottier Davis (piano), Ryan Masterson (tenor), Kerry Moran (fiddle), and for the first time the Celtic group Foley Road (see dougsawan.com on the internet). No admission charge. Attendees are encouraged to make a donation for the work of Father Joe Mulligan in Nicaragua. Checks should be made out to Bellarmine Chapel with the designation "work of Fr. Joe Mulligan." Convenient parking will be available on the University Drive.

There are still a few places left on a pilgrimage to Assisi organized by parishioner Gillian Ahlgren, professor of Theology at XU. The group will spend a week in Assisi with a free day in Rome at the end of the pilgrimage. Graduate and undergraduate academic credit is available for those interested. Application and deposit are due by March 9, 2008. For more information, please contact Gillian at ahlgren@xavier.edu.  Please spread the word!