St. Lambert Parish

St. Lambert Parish
Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord
March 15, 2009
Rectory
8148 N Karlov Avenue
Skokie, IL 60076
Phone: (847) 673-5090
Fax: (847) 677-5135
E-mail:
saintlambert@aol.com
Website:
www.StLambert.org
Pastor:
Rev. Richard Simon
Associate Pastor:
Rev. Ron Plomillo
Resident:
Rev. James Heyd
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the
temple area, "Take these out of
here, and stop making my
Father's house a marketplace."
Jn: 2 14-16
Deacon:
Mr. Chick O’Leary
Music Director:
Mr. Steven Folkers
Religious Education
Director:
Mrs. Liz Frake
(847) 329-1201
Ministry of Care:
Mrs. Carol Glueckert
(847) 674-6456
Office Staff:
Ms. Debbie Morales
Mr. George Mohrlein
Sunday Masses:
(5:00 PM Saturday) 8am,
10:00 am, 12:00 noon
Weekdays:
6:30 & 8:00 am (Mon-Fri).
8:00 am on Sat.
Confessions:
Saturdays at 4:30 pm
Weddings:
Arrangements must be made 6
months in advance.
Baptisms:
Sundays at 1:30 pm.
Baptismal Preparation Class
the first Tuesday of each
month at 7:00 pm in the
rectory. Please phone the
rectory to register.

Page Two St. Lambert Parish Third Sunday of Lent
Masses of the Week
Saturday, March 14
5:00 † Sergio Lacsamana
Sunday, March 15, Third Sunday of Lent
8:00 People of St. Lambert
10:00 Ricky Bentivenga and
† Rachelle Martinez Bentivenga
12:00 † James Cerceo
Monday, March 16
6:30 For an End to Abortion
8:00 † Millie Mills
Tuesday, March 17
6:30 † Dscd. Members of Garcia & Martinez
Families
8:00 Special Intention of Margarita Garcia
Wednesday, March 18
6:30 Thanksgiving St. Joseph
8:00 † Josefino Balot
Thursday, March 19
6:30 † Frank Schleffendorf
8:00 † Josephine Genovaldi
Friday, March 20
6:30 † Hajduk & Cunningham Families
8:00 † Thomas & Mary O’Kane
Saturday, March 21
8:00 Mary Higgins Birthday
5:00 For success of the Illinois Catholic
Prayer Breakfast
Sunday, March 22
8:00 People of St. Lambert
10:00 † Theis & Faber Families
12:00 † Herb Raef
Sunday Offertory Collection
Feb 28/ March 1, 2009
Envelopes: $ 7,443.00
Loose: 1,016.52
Total: $ 8,459.52
Budgeted: $ 8,500.00
Third Sunday of Lent
March 15, 2009
I, the LORD, am your God . . .
You shall not have other gods besides me.
— Exodus 20:2a, 3
THIS WEEK’S CALENDAR
Monday, March 16
7:00 pm Great Adventure Bible Class 103
Wednesday, March 18
9:30 am Fr Welsh Bible Class RH
7:00 pm Fr Welsh Bible Class R
7:30 pm Choir Rehearsal
Thursday, March 20
7:00 pm Rosary C
Friday, March 20
7:00 pm Stations of the Cross C
Sunday, March 22
1:30 pm Movie “Passion of the Christ”
w/ presentation and discussion by
Rabbi Lefkowitz & Fr. Simon TH
TH= Trainor Hall RH= Roberts Hall C=Church R=Rectory
READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday: 2 Kgs 5:1-15b; Lk 4:24-30
Tuesday: Dn 3:25, 34-43; Mt. 18:21-35
Wednesday: Dt 4:1, 5-9; Mt 5:17-19
Thursday:
2 Sm 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16; Ps 89; Rom
4:13, 16-18, 22; Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a or
Lk 2:41-51a
Friday: Hos 14:2-10; Mk 12:28-34
Saturday: Hos 6:1-6; Lk 18:9-14
Sunday: 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23; Ps 137; Eph 2:4-
10; Jn 3:14-21
Alternate readings (Year A):1 Sm 16:1b,
6-7, 10-13a; Ps 23;Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
[1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38]
GOD UPHOLDS ME
I take for my sureties: The power of God to guide
me, the might of God to uphold me, the wisdom of God to
teach me, the eye of God to watch over me, the ear of
God to hear me, the word of God to give me speech, the
hand of God to protect me, the way of God to go before
me, the shield of God to shelter me.
—St. Patrick

March 1, 15, 2009 St. Lambert St. Lambert Parish Parish Page Three
Coffee Hour will be hosted next week, March 22nd, by
Group #8. The contact person is
Marilyn Sala and her phone no. is, 847-675-5103.
Donations will be greatly appreciated.

Page Four St. Lambert Parish Third First Sunday of of Lent
The Reverend Know-it-all
“What I don’t know…
I can always make up!”
Continued from last week….
Dear Homer,
As I was saying last week,
(examining the voting records of
our Catholic congressional
representatives, both House and
Senate, and for that matter, the life
styles of American Catholics) ....to
be a Catholic seems to make no
difference. If it does make a
difference it should be banished from the public
forum. Thus has it been in the Anglo Saxon world
since the days of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, the
founders of our republic. In what sense are Henry
VIII and Ann Boleyn the founders of our republic?
The republic? They are the founders of the modern
world. Let me tell you the story.
Henry the VIII, king of England lived from 1491 to
1547 and was crowned king in 1509. That makes
him the contemporary of Martin Luther (1483-1546)
At first Henry, being a “devout” Catholic, fought the
Protestant revolution and Luther, but then a woman
came along named Ann (or Anne) Boleyn (1507?-
1536) and all bets were off . Henry was married to
Catherine, a Spanish princess, and aunt of the king of
Spain, Emperor Charles, then the most powerful man
in Europe. Henry petitioned the pope for an
annulment of his marriage to Catherine but the pope
refused, more out of fear of Charles than any
religious conviction. Ann was a woman of strong
temperament and stronger will. Henry, like most
powerful people had mistresses, and even a son by
one of them, but Ann was not going to be anyone’s
mistress. She was going to be queen of England or
nothing. Henry was madly in love with her and at
wit’s end. He could not marry Ann as long as
Catherine was still his wife. Ann had a clever
solution. She was an early follower of Martin Luther
who thought the pope was worse than useless. Henry
could declare that he was the head of the English
Church and, in effect, give himself an annulment,
which he then did. Ann got pregnant, married, and
then crowned queen of England in that order. Henry
was overjoyed! He was going to have a son who
would be king of England after him. His Spanish
wife had only given him a daughter. Unfortunately,
Ann produced another daughter and then had two
miscarriages, one of them the longed for son.
Henry’s had enough. He didn’t bother to divorce
Ann. He accused her of adultery and cut off her
head. He did that a lot. All told, he had six wives.
Two he divorced, two he murdered, one died in
childbirth. The last one outlived him, but it was Ann
who began the divorce between England and its
Catholic faith.
That divorce was momentous. Henry realized that,
being the new head of the Church in England came
with perks. The English Church, particularly the
monasteries, owned perhaps one third, yes 1/3, of the
land in England. Shocking! Shameful! How dare the
Church be so rich! Henry closed the monasteries,
threw out the priests and took the land! Hurrah!
Hold on a minute. The monasteries had been given
the land by grateful noblemen. The land was farmed
out to poor landless peasants who made up the bulk
of the English population. Many English clergymen
were corrupt, but many were devout. They
maintained hospitals and other charities for the poor.
They rented the land at very low rates to poor
farmers. England was a country in love with its faith.
It was a land of saints’ days and church bells,
processions and beautiful churches, art that was not
just for the rich, but for all to see and enjoy. The
Holy Days and Sabbaths gave the overworked
peasants a little time off and vacations at Christmas
and Easter. Henry changed all that. The monasteries
were looted and their land and treasure given by
Henry to his friends in exchange for their political
support. The land was enclosed for the raising of
sheep, wool being where the money was at the time.
The peasants were thrown off their farms and
became the mobs of starving urban poor that Dickens
portrayed in “Oliver Twist” and “A Christmas
Carol”.
The peasants were so angry at the dissolution of the
monasteries and the loss of their beloved old faith
that they rose up in 1536, the same year that Ann
was having a really thorough haircut, all the way
down to the shoulders. Their movement was called
(Continued on page 5)

March 1, 15, 2009 St. Lambert St. Lambert Parish Parish Page Five
the Pilgrimage of Grace. They wanted the nuns and
monks back. It was better than the government
bureaucrats who were taking their land in the name
of religious reform. Henry finally made a truce with
them but after they had disbanded he went back on
his word and started the executions. He had already
executed anyone who wouldn’t agree to his new title
of “Head of the Church” St. Thomas More was one
of the first executed. You can learn his story in the
movie, “Man for All Seasons.” It’s really good, and a
true story. After the Pilgrimage of Grace, Henry
really started lopping heads off in earnest. Holinshed,
an historian of that era claims that Henry executed
72,000 people. I find that hard to believe. I bet that
Henry didn’t even mange to decapitate 10,000. Ah,
Merry Old England and religious reform!
Well that’s the story, but in what sense are Henry
and Ann the founders of the United States and the
modern world? This is a simple idea. Pay attention.
This country was founded by English Protestants.
They came with an idea that they learned from Henry
who learned it from Ann who learned it from Luther.
If the pope doesn’t agree with me, then I will have
no pope. Better still, I will be my own pope. Maybe
that’s true of Henry but Luther? I really can’t go into
it here, but there is one little bit of gossip that I can’t
resist.
Philip the First, Duke of Hesse in Germany, was a
great sponsor of Luther and his reformation.
Politicians loved the reformation because that meant
they could take over Church property and make it
look virtuous. Power to the people! (Provided the
people are aristocrats, or, in this country, incumbent
office holders.) Philip had a problem, a wife who
was none too attractive and drunk much of the time.
Philip was advised by Luther’s friends that if the
patriarchs of the Old Testament could have more
than one wife at a time, why couldn’t a 16 th century
Duke? Luther finally agreed, and gave his consent
(though secretly.) This, from a man who disputed the
pope’s right to give dispensations but ended up
giving a dispensation, not from Church regulations
but from divine law so that a wealthy prince could
feed his appetites! The wonder of it all!
So you see, Homer, the Protestant Reformation was
all about sex and money. The newly liberated culture
of America is all about sex and money. Don’t you
see a connection? We are a protestant country. Why
should you be alarmed or amazed when we bring the
reformation to its logical conclusion?
Well, you may counter, the popes weren’t all that
innocent either. Yes, there were few bad papal apples
in the bunch, though most took the job seriously.
You’re missing the point. The few bad popes of the
Renaissance never changed one iota of Church
teaching. They were sinners and they new it. Henry,
Ann, Philip, Luther and that crowd did as they
pleased and said that God had changed His mind.
The Puritans brought the concept of “every man his
own pope” to these shores where it has taken root
and now invades even the Catholic Church. Fawning
politicians who claim to be Catholic bow before the
popular will and try to give them what they want.
Henry and Philip and all the aristocrats who profited
so mightily form the Reformation said that the King
could better determine God’s will than the pope. The
English came to these shores believing this, but with
a variation learned from the guillotines of the French
Revolution. The citizen is king in revolutionary
republics like ours. It is King Citizen who determines
the will of God. The mob at Pilate’s palace shouted,
“We have no king but Caesar.” The mob in this
country shouts, “We have no king but our own
desires.” The true Catholic says in answer, “I have
no king, but Christ. Viva Cristo Rey! Long live
Christ the King!” In America we have replaced the
tyranny of kings with the tyranny of narcissism and
God help the pope, the bishop or the priest who
would tell us, “no.” The power of desire and wealth
tore Europe apart in the centuries after Luther in
wars of acquisition followed by wars of colonialism.
Untold millions died and still the violence continues,
unrestrained even by the Gospel. In the middle ages,
the law of Christ preached by the Church held back
the violence natural to fallen man. Canon law forbad
war in Lent, war in Advent war at Eastertide and war
at Christmas. The nobility could not make war on
non combatants. A peasant’s marriage was a sacred
as a king’s and what God had joined together could
not be split asunder. The aristocracy did their best to
ignore the law of God and His church, but at least
there was some voice for the oppressed. Some force
that held back the passions of the powerful.
Freud, despite his strangeness, understood that sex
(Continued on page 6)

Page Six St. Lambert Parish Third First Sunday of Lent
(Continued from page 5)
and aggression were the most powerful forces in the
world. If channeled they give life. If uncontrolled
they bring misery and death. We want a world
without restraint, thinking that is freedom. It is the
worst kind of slavery. Let this country go its own
way, but let me go mine. I would much rather be part
of a Church founded on the rock of Peter than the
whims of Henry the Eighth!
Sincerely,
the Rev. Know it all
"THE WEAKNESS OF GOD IS STRONGER
THAN HUMAN STRENGTH."
Today's second reading advises us not to rely on our
own strength. Marriage can be so very difficult to
sustain in today's society. Come and tap into the
graces that are available to you on a Worldwide
Marriage Encounter Weekend. The next Weekend
dates will be May 1–3, June 5– 7, September 11-13,
November 6-8, or December 4-6. Please consult
www.wwmechicago-gary.org or call Kris and Jim at
1-800-442-3554. For Spanish weekends, call Oscar
& Luz at 847-675-2119.

March 1, 15, 2009 St. Lambert Parish Page Seven
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