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• Saturdays  3:30 - 4:30 pm

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O God of compassion, your people are anxious in this time of pandemic. Send your Holy Spirit among us to dispel our fears.

We cry out to you in our confusion; comfort us in our affliction. Grant our leaders wisdom to guide us.

Strengthen and sustain those who are ill, and be with those who care for them.

Help us to travel this road in solidarity with our neighbors, with our eyes fixed on the salvation promised us through the death and resurrection of your Son, who is Lord forever and ever.

Amen.

St. Lambert Intercessors’ can help pray for you or pray with you. Send your prayer request/s to (kevinpatterson1@comcast.net) or ask Kevin for a phone number if you need to talk or pray with him. 

 
Blessings with affections in Christ, Intercessors of St. Lambert.

You can support St Lambert Parish safely and securely online through GiveCentral.org, just click on the logo below to get started.
(There is a small fee charged to the parish when you utilize this service)

Or, donations can be made by using your bank account as a bill payment. It can be scheduled in advance to occur on a recurring basis or as an individual one time donation. There is no charge to the parish or to you to utilize this service. If you have any questions, please email or call Debbie.
(There is no charge to the parish or to you to utilize this service)

Or, you may continue giving with your checks and offertory envelopes. Just bring them during Mass and drop them in the donation box at church's lobby. May God bless you for your generosity.

Volunteers Needed

From the Archdiocese of Chicago Renew My Church

Bishop Mark Bartosic announced the decision reached by Cardinal Cupich after consultation with the Renew My Church Commission and the Presbyteral Council.

Click HERE or read below the Decision Document

Saint Lambert Parish is a Roman Catholic Parish of the Archdiocese of Chicago. We are located in Skokie, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois.  
     
Thank you for visiting our website. This will give you an idea of our parish family and how we live our faith in "Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord".

We invite you to join us, your Catholic family here in Skokie, IL.

Our parish is open, welcome home. 

To know more about St. Lambert Parish, please view the short video above.

IMPORTANT:

Under the mandate of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archibishop of Chicago, St. Lambert Parish's Liturgical Services remain partly available. Please read below the reopening instructions and other important information. Please also understand that compliance with these instructions is essential for our continued permission to celebrate the Holy Sacraments.

• To sign up for the Holy Masses. CLICK HERE

• Parishioners' Reopening Guide
• St. Lambert Holy Masses
• Receiving Holy Communion Under COVID Restrictions
• Online Holy Masses and Prayer Services
• Giving and Sustaining our Parish During COVID Restrictions
• Contract Tracing Scam Alert

Renew My Chruch Updates:

The Archdiocese of Chicago today announced updates on the Edens Valley and Logan Square/Avondale Renew My Church groupings.

Over the past several months, the groupings’ Feedback and Discernment Teams, made up of representatives from each of the parishes and schools, met to review and discern the future parish, school and church structures for their respective areas. Based on their meetings and discussions with the larger parish communities, they submitted feedback reports to the Archdiocesan Standards and Recommendations Commission, which includes representatives from across the archdiocese. The commission reviewed the feedback reports and other materials and information, including demographic data, financial summaries, and parish and grouping trends.  

Over the course of the past several weeks, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, the archdiocese’s auxiliary bishops and Presbyteral Council discussed the commission’s recommendations. Based on those discussions and prayerful consideration, the following decisions have been made:

The new structure will be:

• Effective July 1, 2021, St. Lambert and St. Peter will unite to form a new parish, with a new name that will be determined later, at two worship sites. Both churches will continue to have a regular schedule of Masses, which may differ from their current schedule.
• Effective July 1, 2021, St. Isaac Jogues and St. Martha will unite to form a new parish, with a new name that will be determined later, at two worship sites. Both churches will continue to have a regular schedule of Masses, which may differ from their current schedule. The Shrine of All Saints at St. Martha will continue to operate as an important ministry.
• The united parishes will evaluate their ability to reduce auxiliary properties via sale or long-term lease.
• St. John Brebeuf Parish and School will continue in their current structures.

Additional information will be forthcoming regarding the assigned pastors. We hope to share this information within the next few weeks.

PRAY TO PROTECT HUMAN LIFE! JANUARY 21-29, 2021

Join thousands of Catholics nationwide in the annual Respect Life Novena, 9 Days for Life, Thursday, January 21 – Friday, January 29.

We celebrate the Baptism of the Lord!

The origin and foundation of Christian Baptism is Jesus. Before starting his public ministry, Jesus submitted himself to the baptism given by John the Baptist. The waters did not purify him; he cleansed the waters. “He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake . . . to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water” (St. Gregory Nazianzen, Liturgy of the Hours, I, 634). Jesus’ immersion in the water is a sign for all human beings of the need to die to themselves to do God’s will. Jesus did not need to be baptized because he was totally faithful to the will of his Father and free from sin. However, he wanted to show his solidarity with human beings in order to reconcile them to the Father. By commanding his disciples to baptize all nations, he established the means by which people would die to sin—Original and actual—and begin to live a new life with God.

Get daily intentions, brief reflections, and more. Sign up at 9daysforlife.com!

Catholic Core Belief:

The Holy Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life" (LG 11, CCC 1324). We, Catholics believe in the Real Presence.

The Holy Eucharist is not a symbol or a reminder. The Holy Eucharist is Christ truly present, his Body under the form of bread, the Blessed Sacrament, and his Blood under the form of wine, the Precious Blood. It is the "Heart of the Heart of God" (Fr. Simon referencing to "heart tissues" in approved Holy Eucharistic miracles). It is the Holy Sacrament in which Our Lord, Jesus is truly present - Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity under the appearances of bread and wine. 

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I once quoted the statistic that only 30% of Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the tabernacle. My hearer said, “Oh no, Father. 100% of Catholics believe in the real presence.” The point being made is that if you don’t believe in the real presence you aren’t a Catholic. Remember, that the word “believe” means “trust”. You may not understand how such a thing can be. You may have a thousand questions, but if you trust what Jesus said, “This is My body and this is My blood”, then you believe. - Rev. Know-it-All

Read more HERE

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Respect for Unborn Human Life: The Church's Constant Teaching

Fact sheet by the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law" (No. 2271).

In response to those who say this teaching has changed or is of recent origin, here are the facts:

• From earliest times, Christians sharply distinguished themselves from surrounding pagan cultures by rejecting abortion and infanticide.  The earliest widely used documents of Christian teaching and practice after the New Testament in the 1st and 2nd centuries, the Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) and Letter of Barnabas, condemned both practices, as did early regional and particular Church councils.  

• To be sure, knowledge of human embryology was very limited until recent times.  Many Christian thinkers accepted the biological theories of their time, based on the writings of Aristotle (4th century BC) and other philosophers.  Aristotle assumed a process was needed over time to turn the matter from a woman's womb into a being that could receive a specifically human form or soul.  The active formative power for this process was thought to come entirely from the man – the existence of the human ovum (egg), like so much of basic biology, was unknown.  

• However, such mistaken biological theories never changed the Church's common conviction that abortion is gravely wrong at every stage.  At the very least, early abortion was seen as attacking a being with a human destiny, being prepared by God to receive an immortal soul (cf. Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you").

• In the 5th century AD this rejection of abortion at every stage was affirmed by the great bishop-theologian St. Augustine.  He knew of theories about the human soul not being present until some weeks into pregnancy.  Because he used the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, he also thought the ancient Israelites had imposed a more severe penalty for accidentally causing a miscarriage if the fetus was "fully formed" (Exodus 21: 22-23), language not found in any known Hebrew version of this passage.  But he also held that human knowledge of biology was very limited, and he wisely warned against misusing such theories to risk committing homicide.  He added that God has the power to make up all human deficiencies or lack of development in the Resurrection, so we cannot assume that the earliest aborted children will be excluded from enjoying eternal life with God. 

• In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas made extensive use of Aristotle's thought, including his theory that the rational human soul is not present in the first few weeks of pregnancy.  But he also rejected abortion as gravely wrong at every stage, observing that it is a sin "against nature" to reject God's gift of a new life.

• During these centuries, theories derived from Aristotle and others influenced the grading of penalties for abortion in Church law.  Some canonical penalties were more severe for a direct abortion after the stage when the human soul was thought to be present.  However, abortion at all stages continued to be seen as a grave moral evil.  

• From the 13th to 19th centuries, some theologians speculated about rare and difficult cases where they thought an abortion before "formation" or "ensoulment" might be morally justified.  But these theories were discussed and then always rejected, as the Church refined and reaffirmed its understanding of abortion as an intrinsically evil act that can never be morally right.

• In 1827, with the discovery of the human ovum, the mistaken biology of Aristotle was discredited. Scientists increasingly understood that the union of sperm and egg at conception produces a new living being that is distinct from both mother and father.  Modern genetics demonstrated that this individual is, at the outset, distinctively human, with the inherent and active potential to mature into a human fetus, infant, child and adult.  From 1869 onward the obsolete distinction between the "ensouled" and "unensouled" fetus was permanently removed from canon law on abortion.

• Secular laws against abortion were being reformed at the same time and in the same way, based on secular medical experts' realization that "no other doctrine appears to be consonant with reason or physiology but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality from the very moment of conception" (American Medical Association, Report on Criminal Abortion, 1871).

• Thus modern science has not changed the Church's constant teaching against abortion, but has underscored how important and reasonable it is, by confirming that the life of each individual of the human species begins with the earliest embryo.

• Given the scientific fact that a human life begins at conception, the only moral norm needed to understand the Church's opposition to abortion is the principle that each and every human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with the respect due to a human person.  This is the foundation for the Church's social doctrine, including its teachings on war, the use of capital punishment, euthanasia, health care, poverty and immigration.  Conversely, to claim that some live human beings do not deserve respect or should not be treated as "persons" (based on changeable factors such as age, condition, location, or lack of mental or physical abilities) is to deny the very idea of inherent human rights.  Such a claim undermines respect for the lives of many vulnerable people before and after birth.

For more information:  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion (1974), nos. 6-7; John R. Connery, S.J., Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (1977); Germain Grisez, Abortion: The Myths, the Realities, and the Arguments (1970), Chapter IV; U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, On Embryonic Stem Cell Research (2008); Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (1995), nos. 61-2.