Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

News and Notes:  We are looking for greeters at every weekend Mass in both parishes.  Greeters smile and welcome people as they enter the Church, hand out worship aids, direct people to parish or religious education registration forms, bulletins, etc. and help people get answers to any questions they may have.  Greeters set a tone of warm hospitality that is so important in parish life.  If you would like to serve as a greeter on a regular basis or need more information about this ministry, please contact Donna Delahanty, our Director of Parish Ministries, whose email and phone number are printed on the bulletin cover.  In anticipation of the 42^nd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in our country, we will once again have a Holy Hour for Life, this year at St. Maria Goretti Parish on Wednesday, January 21 beginning at 7PM.  Deacon Tom O’Shea will lead this Eucharistic Adoration service, which will feature Scripture, song and a Litany for Life.  The purpose of this Holy Hour is to give thanks to God for the gift of human life and to pray for the legal protection of unborn children.  The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today. I offer you a prayer from the Roman Missal that we can all pray this week, asking God that the fractures within Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, be healed and that divisions among Christians be resolved through a dialogue conducted in truth and charity.  The prayer goes like this:  Almighty and ever-living God, who gather what is scattered and keep together what you have gathered, look kindly on the flock of your Son, that those whom one Baptism has consecrated may be joined together by integrity of faith and united in the bond of charity.  We make our prayer through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.  Amen.  May we all catch the spirit of ecumenism so that one day we may celebrate and receive the Eucharist together!