May 2015 - Mary Immaculate Catholic Church

May 2015
Mary Immaculate Herald
Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish Newsletter
MIS Student Becomes Catholic
This Easter season Mary Immaculate welcomes 6th
grade student, Cavan Saravanakumar, son of Meka and
Pandian Saravanakumar, into the Catholic Church.
Cavan received the sacraments of Baptism and First
Communion at the school Mass on Friday, April 10,
2015.
Inside this issue:
MIS Student Becomes Catholic 1
Missionary Sisters of Charity
2
And Then There Were Three
3
Devotion To Our Blessed
Mother
4
Why Go To Church?
5
Dynamic Duo/ 50 Years of
Service to the Church
6
Service With A Smile
7
YA Serving At Austin Street
Center
8
Cavan is a new student at Mary Immaculate School. During this school year, Cavan
became interested in the Catholic Church and has been eager to learn more about it.
The entire school and church community has welcomed him with open arms into the
Catholic Church, especially his 6th grade class. His classmates are so excited for Cavan,
and they have encouraged and supported him along his journey to become a Catholic.
When asked why Cavan wanted to join the Catholic Church, he said, “Because the people around me seemed to be having a lot of fun and I kept missing out on certain activities because I was not Catholic and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Cavan’s faith has grown tremendously throughout this process and will continue to
deepen. Cavan said that being a Catholic means “that I am a Son of God and a believer.” He is very excited about the Catholic faith and is eager to continue learning about
it here at school, in Religion class, through the sacraments, and with his peers.
Written By: Kassi Vander-Heiden
Anointing with the Oils of Catechumens
Receiving 1st Holy Communion
Page 2
Missionary Sisters of Charity
On Wednesday, March 11th, the MIC Staff took a bus ride to the Missionary Sisters
of Charity in south Dallas for their Lenten Staff Retreat. It was exciting to take a bus
down together and help the sisters to feed the poor, both physically and spiritually.
Some of the men and women helped in their garden pulling weeds and prepping the
soil before they would plant seeds in April. The other men and women scooped
beans and rice into plastic bags for the poor. We organized the donations that the sisters had received and helped pack 100 sacks. Each sack had onions, beans, oil, rice,
potatoes, bread and tortillas.
After that we joined the sisters in the chapel for Mass with Msgr. Mario Magbanua
from St. James parish. It was a beautiful time of prayer!! Written by Caroline Schultz
Going to the Missionaries of Charity was such a rewarding experience for me, one that I will cherish. It was
so nice to give back to the community and help the people that are in need. I grew up in this neighborhood
and at St. James Catholic Church because my grandmother lived a few houses down from where the Sisters
live. So when we would visit my grandmother or go to church we would always see the Sisters walking. It
made me feel really good helping doing gardening work, cleaning and filling up the bags with food. It still
makes me sad that we have so much poverty in our community and so many people in need. This experience
has taught me that I need to volunteer more and give back to the community where I grew up.
Written by Alicia Gallardo
Page 3
And Then There Were Three
On January 17, 2015, the very same day that thousands marched through downtown Dallas to pray and rally for
an end to abortion and to remember the anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion
in all 50 states, Abortion Advantage on Record Crossing in Dallas, known as “Robinson’s “, was torn to the
ground. Karen Garnett, the Executive Director of the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas, drove past
the rubble at the end of the day and noted that “it wasn’t a sense at all of celebration…It was just that remembrance of what those broken bricks represented – all the brokenness, the bloodshed, the hurt – for so many years
in those bricks.”
Robinson’s clinic opened for business in 1999 by Dr. Lamar Robinson and was one of the 17 abortion facilities
in Dallas at the time, down from 13 clinics in January of 1990, when our own Bishop Grahmann first started
praying a 2nd Saturday rosary for an end to abortion.
Texas’ pro-life law HB2, signed into law in 2013, has led to the closing of numerous abortion facilities throughout the state. Robinson’s clinic was forced to close its doors in November of 2014 due to Dr. Robinson’s inability to secure admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic, one requirement of the HB2 law.
Routh Street Women’s Clinic, one of Dallas’ three remaining facilities, is expected to close next year.
From the opening of Robinson’s, prayer warriors from Mary Immaculate traveled to Record Crossing to pray
for an end to abortion and for all of the pregnant women who entered the facility, for a change of heart and for
mercy. Still today, a group of parishioners drive to Dallas every Saturday morning after the 8:00 Mass to pray
outside of the Southwest Women’s Center. The prayers will continue until abortion is no more!
Written by Sarah Clemmons
“Give us the grace…when the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, to stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority
to destroy unborn life.” – Saint John Paul ll
Page 4
Devotion to Our Blessed Mother
Maybe you have seen this beautiful
shrine to Our Blessed Mother in the
alcove of the Narthex next to the statue
of St. Therese, and wondered what it
was. Recently we moved her to the
Bride’s Room, where our Rosary
groups are more likely to gather each
day. Mary Immaculate will begin a
new rosary campaign that you can do
in your own home. Before we tell you
about the campaign, let us tell you
about our Shrine.
formation through the Pilgrim MTA
shrine. Groups of 5-10 families circulate the wooden icon during the course
of each month. In Texas it started in
August of 1987. The shrine offers us
a home and a place of transformation
where the Blessed Mother shows herself to be a powerful Mother. In addition to the Original Shrine in Germany,
there are more than 180 daughter
shrines around the world, each an exact
replica of the original shrine. In Texas,
we have 3 daughter shrines: in Lamar
The Shrine of Our Blessed Mother is
by Corpus Christi, San Antonio and
called the “MTA Shrine.” That stands Austin. There are also Wayside Shrines
for “Mother Thrice Admirable”, Queen dedicated to our Schoenstatt Mother
and Victress of Schoenstatt. She is
and queen. Presently in North Texas,
Three Times Admirable as Mother of there are five Wayside Shrines located
God, Mother of the Redeemer, and
at St. Frances in Grapevine, St. Ann
Mother of the Redeemed. In this pic- in Coppell, All Saints in Dallas, St.
ture, she brings Jesus, her Son, and
Elizabeth Ann Seaton in Keller, and
invites us to take his place, close to
St. Marks in Plano.
her. Mother Thrice Admirable is a title
of Mary recited in the Litany of Mary. The Pilgrim Shrine is part of the
The legend goes that a Schoenstatt
Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign, and
priest who had a great devotion to
originated in Brazil in 1950 by John
Mary and who prayed the Litany con- Pozzobon. For 35 years, he took the
stantly, asked our Blessed Mother to
MTA shrine visiting families in towns
reveal to him which of the hundreds of and rural villages, carrying this replica.
titles she preferred. When they came
He walked more than 85,000 miles,
to the place in the Litany where they
bringing the pilgrimage graces to all.
recited “Mother Thrice Admirable,”
He prayed the Rosary in homes,
the holy priest levitated. Having reschools, hospitals and prisons. Today,
ceived his answer, he began devotion families all across the world receive
to this title. Schoenstatt is a Catholic
the little shrine into their homes.
lay movement that strives to live the
gospel of Jesus Christ through the ex- When the Blessed Virgin Mary went to
ample and guidance of Mary. It was
visit her cousin, Elizabeth, her presfounded on October 18, 1914 by Father ence brought many blessings. Not only
Joseph Kentenich in the little Schoen- did Mary serve Elizabeth’s physical
statt valley in the Rhine region of west- needs, she brought the Lord with her
central Germany. The word
into Elizabeth’s house. She filled the
“Schoenstatt” comes from the German atmosphere in the home with praises of
for “beautiful “ (schon) and
God, prompted joy, inspired prophecy,
“Place” (statt).
and prepared the way for the miracle of
Zecharia’s cure. (cf Luke 1:39-56)
The Schoenstatt Rosary Campaign
Mary wants to carry Jesus into our
(SRC) is an Apostolate within the In- homes, serve our needs, and intercede
ternational Schoenstatt Movement. It
for miracles in our lives. She knows
initiates prayer, evangelization, and
that we cannot travel easily to the great
pilgrimage places like Lourdes in
France, Fatima in Portugal, Schoenstatt
in Germany, and more. Her motherly
concern for us and her devotion to
Christ urge her to come to us. She
wants to make our homes, rooms and
offices holy places, islands of grace,
and sanctuaries in the midst of the
world. She wants to spread the Kingdom of God by bringing Christ anew to
the world through us.
Would you like to receive the Pilgrim
Shrine of the Blessed Mother and the
graces she brings to your home?
Mary Immaculate is starting a rosary
campaign of its own. We have volunteers who will bring the small replica
of the shrine to your home for a week.
They will leave you with information
and prayers to pray while the shrine is
with you, and arrange to pick up the
shrine when your time is over. If you
have questions about the MTA Shrine
or the Rosary campaign, please call
Beth in the parish office at 97224307104 ext. 46
Written by Beth Crouch
Page 5
Why Go To Church??
If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!
If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it.
If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope!
A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no
sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time
I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single
one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the
editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals.
But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do
know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my
wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not
gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
When you are DOWN to nothing, God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the
incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment! News and Faith.com
When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "
"
Jesus, could you get that for me?"
Page 6
The Dynamic Duo
Father Michael leaning on Msgr. Andy
but not for much longer!
_____________________________________
In April, Tom Grossman was featured on EWTN’s
“The Journey Home.” Follow the link below to watch
video.
http://www.ewtn.com/tv/live/journeyhome.asp
50 Years of Service To The Church
Page 7
Service With A Smile
“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright
as noon.” Isaiah 58:10
“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your
light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness
around you will be as bright as noon.” Isaiah 58:10
On March 21st and April 18th, about a dozen young
adults from several parishes around the DFW area (St.
Maria Goretti in Arlington, St. Francis in Frisco, St.
Ann’s in Coppell and Mary Immaculate) joined together to volunteer at the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas.
This group meets the third Saturday of every month and
volunteers from 1-3:30 at the food bank.
“We feel that this is an important part of living out our
Catholic faith- volunteering to help those in need,”
Jennifer Swegler, one of the volunteers, said.
The young adults do things like sort non-perishable food items and snacks into boxes and weigh them and examine and
bag produce. There are many different jobs to do here and many ways to volunteer. The North Texas Food Bank is a
top ranked non-profit relief organization and the largest charity in North Texas. Every day, they provide access to
170,000 meals for hungry children, seniors and families. Every dollar donated to the NTFB provides three meals to
hungry north Texans and 94 cents out of every dollar donated goes directly to hunger relief programs.
If you are interested in volunteering with MIYA (Mary Immaculate Young Adults) at the food bank, please contact
Monica Thorpe at [email protected]. They also need volunteers at other times as well. To learn more about
the North Texas Food bank, to volunteer at other times, or to make a donation,
please visit their website at www.ntfb.org.
Written by Monica Thorpe
Page 8
YA Serving at Austin Street Center
On April 11, 2015 a group of ten young
adults came to help out at the Austin
Street Center. Ms. Laude, the volunteer
coordinator, showed us around. The
shelter expects about 300 to 400 homeless to house and feed each day. The
homeless take an active role in the
shelter as greeters, cleaning and cooking.
Our role that day was to stuff envelopes
for a gala that they were having. However, other times they need volunteers to
sort out donations and work the kitchen.
We had a wonderful time serving Austin
Street Center. Like the Facebook group
Mary Immaculate Young Adults for
upcoming service opportunities.
Written by Mercedes Matute
We would love to see you there!
www.maryimmaculatechurch.org