Recent News

  • The Elegant Junk Sale!
    30.06.09
    Start cleaning out your cupboards, closets (no clothing or shoes please), garages and storage places. The annual Elegant Junk Sale is sponsored by the Saint James Women’s Guild as a fundraiser to benefit St. James Church.

    What:  The annual Elegant Junk Sale

    Where: St. James school cafeteria (small items); and Rectory garages (large items)

    When: Saturday August...
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  • Newly Baptized
    18.06.09
    †  NEWLY BAPTIZED AT SAINT JAMES †
    We welcome Brody Vincent Condit, son of Kelsey Condit and Dana Clifford who was recently baptized into our community. Our prayers are with this little one....
    Read more...
  • Newly Baptized
    11.06.09
    †  NEWLY BAPTIZED AT SAINT JAMES †
    We welcome Hayden Anthony Stone, son of Christopher and Courtney Stone and Olivia Mae DeGori, daughter of James and Kari DeGori who were recently baptized into our community. Our prayers are with this little one....
    Read more...
  • Saint James Women's Guild Elegant Junk Sale
    10.06.09
    Start cleaning out your cupboards, closets (no clothing or shoes please), garages and storage places. The Annual Elegant Junk Sale sponsored by the Saint James Women’s Guild will take place on Saturday, August 1. Check future bulletins for more information....
    Read more...
  • Young Adults at PNC Park!
    06.06.09
    Sat. June 27th!  Mass at 5 pm St. Mary of Mercy at the Point, Gateway Center, 202 Stanwix St. Tailgate party 6-7! Game is 7:05 Kansas City Royals vs Pirates! Homestead Grays cap giveaway and fireworks night! Tickets are $20. Call Gary Slifkey for registration by June 19th! 412-456-3140...
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  • OC Youth Group News
    05.06.09

    Great fun , friends and faith was experienced this last Saturday night at the OC Pulse Transitions. Over 30 kids and 40 total played some games, had a TON of food and watched an awesome OC video recapping our year! Some 8th graders learned of our plans for a High School Life Teen mass starting after the summer, ( Our Jr. High are invited too!) some 5th graders got too see how fun the OC ...
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  • Newly Baptized
    04.06.09
    †  NEWLY BAPTIZED AT SAINT JAMES †
    We welcome Margaret Ann Watson, daughter of Brent and Rachael Watson who was recently baptized into our community. Our prayers are with this little one....
    Read more...

Prayer Requests

Remember the Sick

In this space each week, we will let you know who is sick in our parish and in need of prayers.

Please remember in your prayers:

  • Eleanor Skapik
  • Eleanor Farbo
  • Frank Wojtarowicz
  • Michael LoBello


...and those who have died

  • Basil Villella
  • Anthony Raso
  • Rose Cicco
  • Frances Muders
  • Emma Serbinski

 

Remember those in the Military

  • Michael Mitchell (Army)
  • Col. Joseph Martin (Army)
  • Lt. Brian Naranjo (Coast Guard)
  • S.A. Melinda "Minny" Mowery
  • Col. Mark VanKooten (Air Force National Guard)
  • Captain Christopher Stepanek (Air Force)
  • Lt. Jaymie Stepanek (Air Force)
 
 

Events

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Financial Summary

As of June 21, 2009
  Last Week July 1 through
Last Week
Collection $13,983 $907,307
Expenses $16,850 $937,369
Over/Under  $-2,867 -$30,063

Local Weather

Sewickley, Pennsylvania
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Home
A Miracle within a Miracle
Today’s Gospel is a miracle within a miracle. Two women, one older and one much younger, are featured. In Jesus’ boundary breaking mission he establishes a kingdom where boundaries are broken: gender, sickness and death. We are all challenged to continue building that kingdom which ends division by tearing down walls and brings forth solidarity and union.
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Last week a special page was devoted to Catholic Social Teaching. This week our feature article is the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
 
Closing of the Year of St. Paul
The year of St. Paul comes to an end on Sunday, June 28. From June of 2008 the Catholic Church commemorated the 2000 anniversary of the birth of St. Paul worldwide. Bishop Zubik has asked every parish to mark the end of the year of St. Paul with Eucharistic Adoration on Sunday afternoon. Our parish will  celebrate Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the 11:30am Mass on June 28. The Blessed Sacrament will be placed in the Monsignor Must Chapel until 3:00pm at which time we will have Benediction and Reposition. During the year we prayed for holy vocations to the single, married, religious and ordained life.
 
The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
(The Thursday after Trinity Sunday (June 11, 2009; transferred, in the dioceses of the United States, to the following Sunday, June 14, 2009) The Feast of Corpus Christi, or the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (as it is often called today), goes back to the 13th century, but it celebrates something far older: the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion at the Last Supper. While Holy Thursday is also a celebration of this mystery, the solemn nature of Holy Week, and the focus on Christ's Passion on Good Friday, overshadows that aspect of Holy Thursday.
 
Thus, in 1246, Bishop Robert de Thorete of the Belgina diocese of Liège, at the suggestion of St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon (also in Belgium), convened a synod and instituted the celebration of the feast. From Liège, the celebration began to spread, and, on September 8, 1264, Pope Urban IV issued the papal bull "Transiturus," which established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church, to be celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday.
 
At the request of Pope Urban IV, St. Thomas Aquinas composed the office (the official prayers of the
Church) for the feast. This office is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the traditional Ro-
man Breviary (the official prayer book of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours), and it is the source of the famous Eucharistic hymns "Pange Lingua Gloriosi" and "Tantum Ergo Sacramentum."
 
Worldwide, the church ponders the significance of the ultimate Sacrament, the living sign of his Presence. His life is given as food to be consumed. Jesus instructions at the Last Supper were simple: Eat
and Drink. In this the mystery transforms our lives as we receive his life in us.
 
Trinity Sunday
The famous icon of the Trinity was “written” around 1410 by Andrei Rublev. It depicts the three angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre—but is often interpreted as an icon of the Trinity. It is sometimes called the icon of the Old Testament Trinity. The image is full of symbolism designed to take the viewer into the Mystery of the Trinity.
 
The three faces are identical... how might this help us to understand the nature of the Trinity? The figures can be enclosed in a circle what might this tell us about the life of the Trinity?
 
All the figures wear a blue garment - the color of the heavens… but each wears something that speaks of Their own identity.
 
- The Father (left) - a figure at rest within Itself.  The blue garment almost hidden by a shimmering, ethereal robe reveals the One who is Creator and cannot be seen by His human creatures. Both hands clasp the staff. All authority in heaven and on earth belong to
the Father. Behind the figure is a house the dwelling place of God. "In my Father's House are many mansions - I go to prepare a place for you...Those who love Me will keep My word and My Father will love them—and we will come to them and make our home with them".
 
- The Christ (center) - The figure wears the blue of divinity. The brown garment speaks of the earth - of His humanity. The gold stripe speaks of kingship.  
 
The Christ figure rests two fingers on the table—laying onto it His divine and His human nature. He points to a cup filled with wine...
 
Behind the figure is a tree. This could be the oak tree at Mamre under which the three angelic visitors rested. The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah was rewarded in the gift of a son. What does this tell us of the importance of hospitality? The tree may also represent the Cross—the tree on which our Savior died. The tree of death which becomes the tree of eternal life—lost to humanity by the disobedience of Adam and Eve restored to us by the obedience of Jesus.
 
- The Spirit (right)- A blue robe speaking of divinity -
- A green robe representing new life—The Spirit touches the table - earthing the divine life of God. Reflect on that touch. Behind the figure is a mountain. Mountains are places where people often encountered God—places where heaven and earth seem to touch. The Spirit inclines - drawing our gaze to the central figure - representing Christ.
 
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