Saints Peter and Paul Church

Announcements

• New Pastor Announced

  Bishop Joseph Bambera announces a new pastor for SSPP Parish  - Towanda

   

  His Excellency, Bishop Joseph C. Bambera, announces the following appointments,

  effective as indicated:

   

  Reverend Jose Joseph Kuriappilly,

   

  from Assistant Pastor, Epiphany Parish, Sayre, to Pastor, SS Peter and Paul Parish, Towanda, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Wyalusing, effective July 26, 2022.

   

  Everyone in the parish knows Fr. Jose from his visits here to SSPP, and we welcome him to his new home.  At some point in the future, a welcoming gathering will be organized for him.  Fr. Joseph will also be pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Wyalusing.

   

• June 26: Parish Feast Day Celebration

  While the Feast Day of Saints Peter & Paul is on June 29, the Parish celebration will begin Sunday after 11 AM Mass.

  To be held at St. Agnes School JFK Hall, we will enjoy a variety of fun activities, music, & dancing.  Oh yes, and Food!

• June 26: Honoring Father Ed

  * * *  Honoring Father Ed * * *

   

   

               During our Parish Feast Day  Celebration on Sunday, June 26, we will be honoring Fr. Ed for his dedicated service to our parish and community over the past ten+ years.  As he prepares to retire at the end of July, we recognize the many ways he has transformed and positively impacted our parish. There will be a dinner at JFK Hall following the 11:00 A.M. Mass, for families including children, and following dinner, our program to honor & thank Fr. Ed.  Please plan to attend as we express our appreciation for his work here at Saint Peter and Paul Parish  and also PLEASE  SIGN  UP  IN  ADVANCE  SO  WE  CAN  PLAN  FOR  the  FOOD.

  If you attend the dinner, you may express your well-wishes in the sign-in book and/or drop a "card" in the designated retirement bag as you enter JFK Hall. Per Father's wishes, he asks for   NO  gifts , but a monetary donation may be made to the parish's Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund (check made out to SS Peter & Paul Cemetery) with “P.C. Fund” written on the memo line.  Direct questions to Chris Sullivan at 570-265-8354.

   

• June 26-30 - Vacation Bible School

  Sunday through Thursday evening 6:00-8:30 pm at the Wysox Presbyterian Church, it's a positive and enjoyable experience each summer for our kids.  

• Jul 24: Parish Family Softball Game

  On Sunday July 24, 2022 the parish will host a Softball Game and Picnic.  Details will be forthcoming, but in the meantime mark your calendars.  All are welcome and this will be a great opportunity to mingle, mix and make merry.

   

• Oct 8: Catholic Men's Conference

  “Be A Catholic Man” 2022 Event The 7th annual Catholic Men’s Conference, is planned for Saturday, October 8, 2022, at Holy Redeemer Hight School, 159 S. Pennsylvania Blvd, Wilkes-Barre. From 8 am to 3 pm. Registration details will soon be available, so mark your calendar now, and watch for further information about registration later on.

   

• Mar 25: Solemn Act of Consecration of Humanity, And Russia and Ukraine in particular, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

  12:15 pm EDST  Mass at Scranton Cathedral televised on CTV and Diocesan website dioceseofscranton.org

  Timed to coincide with the Mass of Consecration at St. Peter's in Rome by Pope Francis.

  SSPP Parish Consecration will take place at the 8:30 am Mass on Friday, Mar. 25

• March 25, 2022: Act of Consecration / and Prayer

  Act of Consecration

  to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

  Basilica of Saint Peter

  25 March 2022

            O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.  As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you.  Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence!  You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

            Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.  We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.  We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations.  We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.  We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.  We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.  We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home.  We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.  We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.  Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

            Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.  He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.  By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

            We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.  We are your beloved children.  In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.  At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.  Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”  You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.  In you we place our trust.  We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

            That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs.  To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).  Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded.  We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace.  We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness.  How greatly we need your maternal help!

            Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

  Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.

  Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.

  Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

  Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.

  Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.

  Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.

  Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.

  Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

            O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.  May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.  Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.  May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.  May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land.  May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

            Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26).  In this way he entrusted each of us to you.  To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27).  Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.  At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ.  The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

            Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

            Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen.

• 2021-2023 SYNOD OF BISHOPS

  Let the Church hear your voice.

  Instructions included in bulletin for Dec. 5, 2021, pages 5-6.

  Paper copies of Synod Survey are in the rear of the church.

• March update on Covid Precautions from Bishop Bambera

  To Mask or Un-Mask might be a good question. A Message from Bishop Bambera

  As you are likely aware, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) made changes to its COVID-19 community transmission levels on Friday, February 25, 2022. Counties are now classified as having either a low, medium or high COVID-19 community level based on looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. Right now, a majority of the 11 counties of the Diocese of Scranton are in either the low or moderate category levels, which does not call for masking indoors in public.

  Due to the new guidelines released Friday, we will now transition to a “Mask Recommended,” not required, policy for all of our parish faith formation programs effective Thursday, March 3, 2022.

  This date is now earlier than Monday, March 14, which was previously announced. As we have explained since the beginning of the pandemic nearly two years ago, guidelines are subject to change with little notice, and this is one of those “positive” changes we can share with you, as more of our activities continue to return to normal.

   

  Even after faith formation programs transition to masks being recommended, there will still be times when an individual might still be required to wear a mask. This would include an individual who is within ten days of a positive diagnosis or an individual who is identified as a close contact to a COVID case, but does not have to quarantine because she/he is either fully vaccinated or had a lab confirmed case of COVID in the last 90 days.

  Please understand and appreciate that students, catechists and other staff may still choose to mask at any time. We encourage families to discuss expectations regarding masking with their children. I know that all parishes will continue to respect the decisions of individual families as this masking transition takes place in our parish faith formation programs.

• WHERE IS MY BULLETIN ?

  We are providing a limited number of paper bulletins for those coming to church who do not have email.

  If you so receive an emailed bulletin, please do not take a paper copy from church. 

  If you do not receive the bulletin in your email, please notify the office stppp@yahoo.com or call 570-265-2113 so we can update our email lists.

  Thank you !