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

Or, donations can be made online 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. If you have any questions, please email or call Debbie.
(There is no fee/charge to the parish or to you to utilize this service)

Or, you may continue giving with your checks through 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.

Saint Lambert Parish is a Roman Catholic Parish of the Archdiocese of Chicago. We are located in Skokie, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Starting July 1st of this year, the two parishes, St. Lambert and the adjacent St. Peter will be united to become a single parish with new name.
     
Thank you for visiting our website. This will give you an idea of our St. Lambert family and how we live our faith in "Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord".

We invite you to join us, together with St. Peter parisheoners, as we prepare to form a reunited parish family here in Skokie, IL.

Our parish is open, welcome home. 
 

Important:

Under the mandate of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archibishop of Chicago, some of St. Lambert Parish's Liturgical Services, Holy Sacraments and Ministries are partially available and remains under COVID health restrictions. Please read by clicking the links 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

• 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.
• The united parishes will evaluate their ability to reduce auxiliary properties via sale or long-term lease.
• Additional information will be forthcoming regarding the assigned pastors. We hope to share this information within the next few weeks.

As you have heard, St. Peter Parish and St. Lambert Parish have been united. Our communities have a long history together. St. Lambert was created in the early 1950s from territory that had been within the boundaries of St. Peter. Our communities are very similar.

Part of the good news is that both church buildings will remain open for worship. There are challenges ahead, but, with God’s help, we will face them. I again wish to thank the committee members who patiently contributed to this process. We continue to pray for one another. - Fr. Henry  Kricek, Pastor, St. Peter Catholic Church, Skokie, IL (source: St. Peter's Bulletin)

Your request is needed

Parishioners may request a year end statement for their contributions to St. Lambert for the calendar year 2020. Please call the parish office or email Debbie at debbie.stlambert@aol.com. Leave your name, envelope number and address and your statements will be mailed to you.

Please note: No statements will be sent automatically, so we request that you contact us if you would like to receive yours.

Also, Offertory Envelopes will be available for pick up after Holy Masses in Roberts hall. We ask for your patience as we need to keep social distancing.
 

Eucharist is Christ truly present

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. 

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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Lenten Regulations

From February 17, 2021 (Ash Wednesday) to the Paschal Triduum
 

“Lent is ordered to preparing for the celebration of Easter, since the Lenten liturgy prepares for celebration of the Paschal Mystery both catechumens, by the various stages of Christian Initiation, and the faithful, who recall their own Baptism and do penance.” -  Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, #27

Abstinence from meat is to be observed by all Catholics 14 years old and older on Ash Wednesday and on all the Fridays of Lent. Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday by all Catholics who are 18 years of age but not yet 59. Those who are bound by this may take only one full meal. Two smaller meals are permitted if necessary to maintain strength according to one’s needs, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted. The special Paschal fast, as well as abstinence, are prescribed for Good Friday and encouraged for Holy Saturday.
 

By the threefold discipline of fasting, almsgiving and prayer the church keeps Lent from Ash Wednesday until the evening of Holy Thursday. All of the faithful and the catechumens should undertake the serious practice of these three traditions. Failure to observe penitential days totally or a substantial number of such days must be considered serious.

“(On) weekdays of Lent, we strongly recommend participation in daily Mass and self-imposed observances of fasting. In light of grave human needs which weigh on the Christian conscience in all seasons, we urge particularly during Lent, generosity to local, national and world programs of sharing of all things needed to translate our duty to penance into a means of implementing the right of the poor to their part of our abundance.” - (U.S. Bishops statement on penitential observances, 1966.)

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.