Stewardship and Outreach

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 

He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."  

MT 22:34-40

You can support St Lambert Parish safely and securely through GiveCentral.org, just click on the logo below to get started.

The St. Vincent De Paul Society (SVDP) is the oldest charity in Chicago. The Society’s primary purpose is to serve those in need. The website for the Society in Chicago is: www.svdpchicago.org.

 
The SVDP of Skokie (compromising of St. Peter, St.  Joan of Arc and St. Lambert) serves needy families and individuals in a variety of ways. This includes short term material assistance such as help with rent and utilities, limited help with groceries or urgently needed clothing: and referrals to other local organizations for temporary support.
 

• If you need assistance in Skokie, please leave a message at 847-604-1222.

• For furniture donations to SVDP, please call 773-779-6700 to schedule a pick up.  Thank you.

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"The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist." - Pope St. Gregory the Great

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The Journey of Stewardship and Giving

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• How much should I give to the parish? My indispensable and crucial role in supporting my parish's material needs. Please Click HERE

 

• On-line giving thru Give Central, Please click HERE

 

• On-line giving thru Bank Account as bill payment, Call or email Debbie at 847-673-5090 or at saintlambert@aol.com, respectively.

 

• Using the Offertory Envelopes. Placing of envelopes in the collection basket teaches our children the importance of supporting our parish and the Church. We encourage you to continue giving envelopes during offertory even if you are donating on-line. Envelopes are the best, and sometimes the only way to know your participation in our parish. If you are giving electronically, please check the “I give electronically” on the envelope before dropping them into the collection basket.

 

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"The heart of stewardship is to ask the Lord what He would have me give and how He would have me use His gifts."- Fr. Richard Simon ​  

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Ministry of Care

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The Women's Center

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• Our St. Lambert Parish family supports the volunteer works in the Women's Center itself and its Fund Campaigns such as Mother's Day Flower Sale, Christmas Wreaths, Baby Bottles and Life Banquets among others.

Cleaning baby bottles for the Women's Center Fund Raising

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Pro-Life and Respect Life Activites

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• Our St. Lambert Parish family believes in the sacredness of life. Volunteer works, marchers and prayer groups in support with the Pro-Life, Respect Life and 40 Days for Life Programs among others.

 
Photos courtesy of the Gomez Family
Left:The Gomez Family during the March for Life in Washington, DC, Right: Fr. Simon and Pablo Montero during the 2016 March for Life Chicago
 

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.

 

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St. Lambert Community Outreach

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• Our St. Lambert parishioners conduct regular outreach program like Christmas "Make a Wish" Gift giving, as well as provisional or "as-needed" projects, like the Typhoon Hiayan Relief project, among others.

• Our St. Lambert parishioners support St. Thomas Parish's Outeach Programs and  through their volunteer works, food and clothing drive and fund raising campaign.   

• ​​​​​​Our St. Lambert parishioners also support St. Vincent De Paul Society (SVDP). SVPD is the oldest charity in Chicago. The Society’s primary purpose is to serve those in need. The website for the Society in Chicago is: www.svdpchicago.org. 

• The SVDP of Skokie, are the Parishes of St. Lambert, St. Peter, and St. Joan of Arc, serves needy families and individuals in a variety of ways. This includes short term material assistance such as help with rent and utilities, limited help with groceries or urgently needed clothing: and referrals to other local organizations for temporary support.
  • If you need assistance in Skokie, please leave a message at 847-604-1222.
  • For furniture donations to SVDP, please call 773-779-6700 to schedule a pick up.  Thank you.

 

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​​​​​Inviting Others

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Returning to, New or Curious about the Catholic Faith

• There are certain things that we all long for in life —happiness, love, truth, goodness, beauty, and healing. We challenge you to consider the possibility that you can experience these things most fully as a disciple of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church he founded.  Your St. Lambert Parish Family is always ready to welcome you home.  CHECK HERE

• You can start coming home with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Confession Schedule: Saturdays after the 8:00 am Mass. ​Any other time, please call the rectory to schedule an appointment.

Volunteer Program and Oppotunities
 

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What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. -  James 2:14-17

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• St. Lambert Parish gives us so many opportunities to practice both the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.  Put your Faith into Action! Join us, your St. Lambert Parish family and support our Ministries.

 

• For Inquiry  about volunteer opportunities, participation and support for these outreach programs and parish ministries, please email directly the person in-charge of the program HERE or call St. Lambert rectory at 1-847-677-5135.

 

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