Faithful Disciple

Looking for graduates of St. Thomas More School Class of 1970. Join your former classmates for a 40th Reunion celebration at Gaelic Park on November 27, 2010. Please contact Irene Ahern Smith , 708-952-9722 or John Tunney, 312-607-2014 for more information and to give us your contact information.

The Great Adventure Bible Class


The Great Adventure is the journey through the Bible to find the story of salvation. Jeff Cavins leads us through video lessons to find the great story of God’s family in the Old and New Testaments. Join us Tuesdays at 7:00 PM starting on May 11th for the 24 sessions. We read and study the Bible together in the rectory!

What is the proper disposal of ashes from cremation?
The Church allows cremation because it does not mean the rejection of the resurrection of the body as it did previously. Nonetheless the ashes must be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. It is not right to keep ashes in your home or worse to spread over the water or other place. Both the corpses and the ashes must wait in holy ground for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world!


You have a quesion?
Send an e-mail to info@stthomasmorechicago.org

What is the Abomination of Desolation?
The term refers back to the Old Testament and Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. It represents evil and the punishment from God. No matter how much evil, God always wins! He will punish those that oppose Him!

Since it is true that if we do not go forward in the spiritual life, we fall backward (according to Saint Catherine of Siena’s book “Dialogue”), how do we grow in holiness? There are many fine books written on this point but one common point is that holiness is doing the Will of God. We should ask ourselves often if we are doing what God wants. We can check our daily duty as Our Lady of Fatima called it. We should try to work our duty with the idea that I am serving God in this work and that I also want to offer the work for a special intention of mine. We can have a continuous Presence of God through small aspirations so that we keep a constant conversation going with our Father God. Check the new Spiritual Library for some of those good books.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet Starts on Good Friday,
April 2, 2010 at 2:30 p.m.


What is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy?

In the 1930s, Sister Faustina received from the Lord a message of mercy that she was told to spread throughout the world. She was asked to become the apostle and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others, and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world.

The message of mercy that Sister Faustina received is now being spread throughout the world; she has been recognized by the Church as a "Saint"; and her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, has become the handbook for devotion to The Divine Mercy. She would not have been surprised, for she had been told that the message of God's mercy would spread through her writings for the great benefit of souls.

Through Saint Faustina, Jesus also revealed special ways to live out the response to His mercy–one of which is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, as both a novena and a prayer for the three o'clock hour–the hour of His death.

How to Recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The Chaplet of Mercy is recited using ordinary rosary beads of five decades. At the National Shrine of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts the Chaplet is preceded by two opening prayers from the Diary of Saint Faustina and followed by a closing prayer.

Optional Opening Prayers

You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.

O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fountain of Mercy for us, I trust in You!

Begin with the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Apostle's Creed.

Then, on the large bead before each decade:

Eternal Father,
I offer you the Body and Blood,
Soul and Divinity,
of Your Dearly Beloved Son,
Our Lord, Jesus Christ,
in atonement for our sins
and those of the whole world.

On the ten small beads of each decade, say:

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion,
have mercy on us and on the whole world.



Conclude with (Say 3 Times):

Holy God,
Holy Mighty One,
Holy Immortal One,
have mercy on us
and on the whole world.

Optional Closing Prayer

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

Our Lord said to Saint Faustina:

Encourage souls to say the Chaplet which I have given you ... Whoever will recite it will receive great mercy at the hour of death ... When they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between my Father and the dying person, not as the Just Judge but as the Merciful Savior ... Priests will recommend it to sinners as their last hope of salvation. Even if there were a sinner most hardened, if he were to recite this chaplet only once, he would receive grace from my infinite mercy. I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy ... Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will.



The different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are:

DAY 1 (Good Friday)  - All mankind, especially sinners

DAY  2 (Holy Saturday) - The souls of priests and religious

DAY 3 (Easter Sunday)  - All devout and faithful souls

DAY 4 (Easter Monday) - Those who do not believe in Jesus and those who do not yet know Him

DAY  5 (Easter Tuesday) - The souls of separated brethren

DAY  6 (Easter Wednesday) - The meek and humble souls and the souls of children

DAY  7 (Easter Thursday) - The souls who especially venerate and glorify Jesus' mercy

DAY  8 (Easter Friday) - The souls who are detained in purgatory;

DAY  9 (Easter Saturday) - The souls who have become lukewarm.

3:00 p.m. – Divine Mercy Sunday Chaplet Holy Hour at STM. Plenary indulgence is available if you go to Mass and Communion today; Confession within 8 days, and pray the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy during the Holy Hour.

This is the holiest week of the year! It is the time to consider and relive Christ’s Passion and Death and Resurrection. The priests will be going to the Chrism Mass to get the holy oils that we use yearlong to anoint the sick, children at their Baptism and those for Confirmation.

The Mass on Holy Thursday recounts the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and of the Holy Priesthood. The washing of the feet reminds us of Christ’s example of charity for His Apostles. On the bus to other churches, we pray the seven penitential psalms and recall Jesus in His Agony and Imprisonment.
Good Friday begins with Stations of the Cross at Noon and the Tre Ore, made famous by Bishop Sheen at St. Agnes in New York. Father Behnke will present meditations on the seven last words of Christ. There is no Mass on Good Friday but we do gather to listen to the Passion and pray and venerate the Cross and receive Holy Communion.
Holy Saturday is always at night to remind us of the darkness before Christ. The fire and the lighting of candles show how Jesus enters the world with His truth and life. The Baptisms and Entrance into Full Communion will bring the freshness of Faith right here in our own parish. We get seven weeks to celebrate the joy of Easter!
What will we do after Lent? Do we really want to return back to sins of laziness, gluttony and temptation? Try to keep your Lenten penances going as long as possible and keep your new life!


Holy Week 2010 Schedule

Dearest Brethren in Christ,

Later today a series of meetings and discussions are to take place about the future of our parish Saint Thomas More. There has been much confusion, anger, and sorrow surrounding the issue of Rev. Charles Fanelli being transferred at the end of his six year term, on July 1st, 2010. Let me start out by saying this, while the diocese may not have given what we would consider adequate reasons for transferring Father Fanelli, they are well within their canonical rights to transfer any priest at the end of their six year term. The fact of the matter is, pastors leave, priest move, and we as a parish community have to accept this fact, and Father Fanelli was destined to leave or retire at some point just as we move from place to place and retire.

Regarding any feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, they are all justified feelings and no one disputes this. The way this transfer is happening is beyond comprehension, but we must respond with prayer and most of all dignity. We are members of one Church, and as a Church father once said “where the BISHOP is there is the Catholic Church” and we must be obedient to the decisions of our Vicar! At the meeting tonight at 7PM for the parish and 6PM for those on the Parish Council and Finance Committee, representatives of the Archbishop of Chicago, namely Bishop Garcia-Siller, vicariate V auxiliary, the dean of our area Father Conde, pastor of Christ the King, and one or more members of the priest placement board will be present. They are meeting with is to discus the future of our parish and what type of characteristics we want in a new pastor. It is probably more than appropriate to respectfully show support for Father Fanelli and to let them know that we as a community would like to see Father Fanelli remain for another six years, but be respectful and also let them know that if it is not possible for our current pastor to remain then we have some qualities in mind. This meeting is not a time to tell the Bishop that we feel persecuted or “picked on” or to be undignified because as I said before, priests are transferred and in addition we will only make the situation worse for Father Fanelli and for ourselves.

We as a parish have a golden opportunity to make the best out of this situation. This is a time of regeneration for our parish and any new pastor we get we MUST show him respect and honor for he is a vicar of Christ just as Father Fanelli and Father Brankin before him are vicars of Christ. Let is invoke our Blessed Mother for protection over all God’s holy priests and let us call on the Holy Spirit to guide us into the Light of Christ!

Be blessed!