Catholic Church Bingo Near Me

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NATIONAL MARRIAGE WEEK

Sunday Mass 8:15AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00NOON, 5:00PM. Sunday, 8:15 AM. Sunday Mass 8:15AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00NOON, 5:00PM Time: Sunday, 8:15 AM Location: Outdoor - Church. Saturday: 4:00 PM English English EN Sacred Heart Church 6:00 PM English English EN St. Mary's Church; Sunday: 8:00 AM English English EN St. Mary's Church 9:30 AM English English EN Sacred Heart Church 11:00 AM English English EN St. Mary's Church; Monday: 12:05 PM English English EN Sacred Heart Church; Tuesday: 5:30 PM English English EN St.

For more information, visit https://catholiccurrent.org/

SUPPORT OUR SEMINARIANS

Our seminarians have been in a quarantine 'bubble' at seminary since March of 2020, when not home on summer break. Their quarterly breaks were cancelled in order to keep them safe and healthy, so they were away from family, friends and their parish homes for an extended period of time.

Please consider supporting our seminarians through prayer, letters and cards of encouragement, care packages, or however you would like. They will appreciate it very much!

For an updated list of our current seminarians, please click here.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Church Sanitizers after the 4:00 Saturday Vigil Mass: Please stay behind to help our sacristan, Norberto, sanitize the church after the 4:00 pm Saturday Mass. We need at least three more volunteers.

Keepers of the Cross Volunteers Every Other Friday: Please lend a hand as we have only three volunteers (Helen, Shirley, and Dinah) who clean the entire church every other week. We need at least three more volunteers who can help out on a regular basis. The next cleaning date will be Friday, February 19, from 1:00 pm until finished.

None of these tasks will be completed without generous volunteers, so thank you in advance for your help.

FORMED.ORG WEEKLY WATCH LIST!

This week’s FORMED watchlist is Lourdes: Story of Faith, Science & Miracles, a film about the workings of divine providence in the lives of three unrelated people. Click here to watch this inspiring movie for free on FORMED.org!

JOIN OUR CONSECRATION TO ST. JOSEPH

Join us for a book study and consecration to Saint Joseph! We will begin on Thursday, February 11, and will meet every Thursday from 10:00 - 11:00 am in the Small Hall, ending with a consecration to Saint Joseph on March 18 (the Feast of Saint Joseph). The option for independent study will also be available. To register and purchase the book (group discount), please contact Laura McKenna at [email protected] or 813-340-9305.

YEAR OF SAINT JOSEPH

Pope Francis has announced that 2021 will be the Year of Saint Joseph! Look out for our weekly bulletin which will feature a page dedicated to the life and devotion to this great saint. For more information about the pope's announcement, please click here. St. Joseph, pray for us!

USCCB LETTER - COVID VACCINE

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement on the new COVID-19 vaccines. Do these new vaccines align or conflict with the Church’s teaching on life? Were they developed using aborted fetal cells? It’s a complicated issue but this statement provides guidance for the faithful.

Read the full text here https://www.usccb.org/moral-considerations-covid-vaccines

FAITH FORMATION NEWS

Religious Education

A Happy & Blessed New Year from the Faith Formation Team!

Our 2021 Faith Formation Classes will begin as follows:

K-7th Grade and RCIA, start back up on Sunday, January 10th and meet every Sunday 11:15 – 12:15 in their respective classrooms.

Confirmation Class will begin on Saturday, January 9th, 10:00 AM – Noon in Classroom #1.

Faith Formation Director: Julie Sneddon at 727-546-3315.

YOU'RE INVITED

Please join us for the following!

• Rosary: every Monday through Saturday, beginning at 7:30 am
• Rosary for Priests: every Thursday, beginning at 11:30 am
• Chaplet of Divine Mercy: every Friday, beginning at 11:45 am

PARISHIONER THANK YOUS

Some notes from parishioners that we wanted to share! Thank you for your feedback!

'Just wanted you to know, [my husband] and I have visited 2 other churches since covid, and Holy Cross is by far the cleanest and most beautifully marked off for pews and communion line. Thank you.'

'I would like to compliment you and your staff on the way the church has been arranged to deal with the Covid 19 situation. It looks very dignified and functional. Much better than blue painter's tape that I've seen elsewhere.'

Mass Times

Office Hours

For instructions on how to sign up, please click here

PRAYER LINE

If you or a family member are in need of prayer, please call the parish office at 727-546-3315, giving the person’s name and the reason for prayers.

Please pray for the following

José, Rose, Andrew, Sonny, Allison, Ann Marie, Marty, Roia, Rose, Jim, John, Carol, Anna, Virgil, Gus, Dianne, Rebecca, Barbara Lilly, Elaine, Jacob, Donald, Mitchell, Faith, Mary, Meghan, Paul, Edith, Peggy Anne, Sylvia, Jean Ann, Felicitas, Adolfo, Jesus, Ileane, William, Jacob, Jeremy, Miranda, Susan, Lydia, Annette, Angela, Cecelia, Christine, Jill, Finnley, Jim, Lupita, Jeremiah, Jared, Phyllis, Natalie, Virginia, Jenn, Joe, Rick, Bud, Donna, Maryann, Susan. Donna, Susan, Denise, George, Carmelita, Margaret, Gianna, Tina, Laura, John, Edward, Gail, Karon, Beth Anne, Joe, Bev, Bob, Evelyn, Gerry, Ben, Mr. & Mrs. Verstappen, Victor, Karen, Rose Marie, John, Maureen, Colin, Paul, John, Joseph, Peggy, Kami, Katie, Rosemary, Anne-Marie, Simo, Josephine, Terry, Bill, Maria, Edward H., Holly, Mary Ann, Doris, Zima, Craig, Sharon, Mike, Robert, Phyllis, Elaine, Jodi, Carly, Ann, Sharon, Beverly, Emily, Lynn, Mary Lou, Catherine, Roger, Maria, Alfredo, Eleanor, Dayana, Janet, Marilyn, Mary Ann, Bobby, Charlie, Christina, Peggy H., Mark, Renee, Glenn, Mary, Lynn, Sandra, Sally, Nick, Frank, Ed M., Paulette, Frank, Bozana, Mary Ellen, Sharon, Patty, Carlos, Maria Julia, Paula, Pam, Catherine, Amanda, Pat, Dennis, the Hughes, Lauren, Grace, Heidi, Scott, Lisa, Dawn Marie, Declan, Miguel, Nick, Sharon, Frankie, Kathy, Lisa, Pam, Frank, New Family, Meg

Souper Bowl Food Drive

Painting Project

FACE MASKS MANDATORY

Face masks continue to be mandatory and not optional. At the direction of the Pastor, please leave your face mask on during Mass.

BISHOP PARKES PODCAST

For more information, please click here!

Blog Summary

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Spanish) - February 7, 2021

Posted in Fr. Emery's Blog on 02/04/21

Queridos amigos,

Espero que, como yo, muchos de ustedes ya hayan recibido la carta ... Read More »

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - February 7, 2021

Posted in Fr. Emery's Blog on 02/04/21

Dear friends,

I hope that like me, many of you have already received the ... Read More »

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Spanish) - January 31, 2021

Posted in Fr. Emery's Blog on 01/28/21

Queridos amigos,

Siempre he estado luchando con la interpretación de la segunda lectura de ... Read More »

WEEKLY MASS READINGS

Weekly reading

Weekly reading

Readings for the week of February 7, 2021

• Sunday: Jb 7:1-4, 6-7 / Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 [cf. 3a] / 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23 / Mk 1:29-39
• Monday: Gn 1:1-19 / Ps 104:1-2a, 5-6, 10 and 12, 24 and 35c [31b] / Mk 6:53-56
• Tuesday: Gn 1:20—2:4a / Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 [2ab] / Mk 7:1-13
• Wednesday: Gn 2:4b-9, 15-17 / Ps 104:1-2a, 27-28, 29bc-30 [1a] / Mk 7:14-23
• Thursday: Gn 2:18-25 / Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5 [cf. 1a] / Mk 7:24-30
• Friday: Gn 3:1-8 / Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7 [1a] / Mk 7:31-37
• Saturday: Gn 3:9-24 / Ps 90:2, 3-4abc, 5-6, 12-13 [1] / Mk 8:1-10
• Next Sunday: Lv 13:1-2, 44-46 / Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11 [7] / 1 Cor 10:31—11:1 / Mk 1:40-45

© Liturgical Publications Inc

PARISHIONER REGISTRATION & UPDATE FORM

Beside the active support and involvement that the registration enables, the parish registration is also a mandatory condition for sacraments such as baptism and matrimony.

It is therefore important to register at your parish as soon as you start attending Mass there regularly. Here’s why:

1. You may receive verification letters to sponsor individuals for sacraments, receive sacraments yourself or your child (i.e. baptism, confirmation, matrimony)
2. You will have the opportunity to establish easy online giving and receive end of year tax contribution statements
3. You will receive important communications from the parish that non-registered parishioners won’t receive
4. The parish will know the demographics and respond to needs. Further, the Diocese will know that our parish has a healthy base of registered, active parishioners

Please click herefor our form, and be sure to answer each item so that our records for you are complete!

MEALS ON WHEELS

Do you have challenges getting out of your home to buy groceries and prepare meals? Meals On Wheels of Tampa may be able to help. Serving the Tampa area for 45 years, a caring volunteer will deliver freshly cooked meals to your doorstep. The cost of the meals depends on your situation. They will work with you to find a price that fits your budget. If this might help you or someone you know, please call their office at 813-238-MEAL to learn more about this important mission.

REMEMBER TO REACH OUT

If you know someone who is alone during this difficult time, please remember to reach out to them with a phone call. It makes all the difference in the world to someone who is lonely, anxious or afraid!

I'm a Catholic, but there's one time-honored Catholic tradition I don't believe in: bingo night at the parish hall. No one has called me a heretic, but I have been called a killjoy by other Catholics I know.
“What's your problem?” they ask. “It's just harmless fun for the oldsters, and you couldn't run some parishes without it.'
I think it's time to challenge these assumptions.
Bingo is not harmless
A 2004 study by the Texas Lottery Commission noted that the typical church bingo player is a white woman in her 60s who earns $24,000 a year at most but spends $101 per bingo night—not exactly chump change.
The study confirms what your own eyes will tell you if you look around your parish hall on bingo night: a sea of older ladies who are by no means expensively dressed. So you've got to wonder: Are these retirees and widows living on fixed incomes really the people your parish wants to feed off? When the average parish family with a member or two in the workforce contributes less than $10 per week to the collection basket?
And for some of these old folks, bingo isn't just entertainment; it's an addiction. As one church bingo regular told the Santa Fe New Mexican last year, 'If you've got a gambling problem, what better place to be but dollar bingo? And I'd sooner see people donate that money [to the church] than go to the casino.'

Never mind that a compulsive gambler’s family might actually wish that he or she would go to a 12-step program. Furthermore, the operators of parish bingo games may not always be able to spot the players who shouldn't be at the table. (Hint: As the granddaughter of a compulsive gambler, I can tell you that the gambling addict is usually the one sitting in the corner by himself craving the adrenaline rushes afforded by big wins and losses—it doesn’t matter which—and thinking up ways to raise a stake for the next game by, say, selling all of grandma’s clothes.)
And now that bingo has come to broadcast television via ABC's National Bingo Night, an 'interactive' show in which viewers can download bingo cards on their computers and play for prizes at home, I'm even more perturbed. Although (unlike church bingo) National Bingo Night doesn't charge to play, it could whet addicts' appetite for the highs and lows of bingo elsewhere. Gambling regulators in many states, including the Michigan State Gaming Board in my own state, do not require charitable bingo operators to have any special training in spotting or helping compulsive gamblers.
Besides harming people, parish-sponsored bingo also harms the reputation of the Catholic Church, especially among other Christians who regard any form of gambling as a serious sin and can be scandalized by the church's indulgent attitude toward bingo. When the news broke that William Bennett, the Reagan administration drug czar and author of numerous books promoting virtue, had lost an estimated $8 million in high-stakes gambling, Bennett, a lifelong Catholic, told the Washington Post that his habit had started with 'church bingo.' That revelation prompted articles like this one in the Baptist Standard :
'Bennett's gambling incident reveals a distinction between most Roman Catholics and millions of other people of faith. Bennett grew up around gambling in Catholic bingo halls and never looked at it as a 'moral issue,' he [Bennett] explained..Most Baptists and other conservative Christians view it as a moral evil.'
How much fun is bingo, really?
A beloved and recently deceased neighbor of mine, who would have been 75 this month, played bingo at our parish now and then.

“I don’t care about it really,” she’d say, “I just buy a few cards and run up there to talk with the gals I don’t see very often.'
What my neighbor really liked to do was share her energy and warmth with other people. She knitted lap robes for a nursing home, made cookies for the library’s summer reading program, kept a big garden whose bounty she shared, and always had a cup of coffee ready if you needed a break in your day.
All of these activities could have been translated by our parish into organized programs for our members. But no—we have no time for that kind of thing. We have a bingo operation to run. I can only imagine how vibrant our parish might be were energy like that of my neighbor to be tapped instead of zapped with bingo.
Parishes don't need bingo
Anybody involved with a church bingo operation knows it requires a fair amount time and energy to start up. And once created, bingo does not sit quietly in a corner making money for parish needs.

Bingo sits in at meetings of the parish finance committee pointing out the sudden need for more restroom supplies and maintenance (the inevitable result of having a hall full of people drinking coffee for several hours while they play). Bingo demands outdoor ashtrays for players who aren't allowed to smoke indoors. Bingo scolds parishioners via reminders in the weekly bulletin that not enough of them are volunteering to help out on bingo night. Bingo bullies critics by claiming that it provides a social outlet for neglected elderly people—and is thus a kind of ministry. But mostly, bingo insists at every turn, 'The parish can't survive without me.'

In fact, parish bingo makes noise about everything except how much money it makes. The 'bingo finder' on the Michigan Gaming Control Board’s website indicates that about 20 percent of the parishes in my own diocese sponsor bingo nights. The online newsletters for most of these parishes list the amounts received weekly from the Sunday collection. How many list the take from bingo?
None.
That might be because, as my Nexis search of news stories about bingo in Catholic churches revealed, the average net take to the parishes was typically five to eight cents on the dollar. That’s a pretty poor return for the effort of putting the games together, and it's income that could be surely raised in other ways.

Catholic Church Bingo Near Me

The future does not look bright for Catholic bingo, and I can't say I'm sorry. According to the news stories I've read, the crowds at church bingo games are thinning. The reasons: competition from casinos, bans on smoking in public places that can make bingo no fun, and the simple fact that fewer and fewer young people are interested in bingo.
Some bishops, notably Frederick Henry, bishop of Calgary, have realized the moral danger of gambling and simply shut down parish bingo operations, despite widespread protests from the parishes themselves. Bishop Henry said, “It is morally wrong for a Catholic institution to formally cooperate in an industry that exploits the weak and vulnerable.'

So Catholic parishes that sponsor bingo nights—or are thinking about starting them—ought to ask themselves these questions:

Are such operations legal and properly licensed? Getting busted for running an illegal bingo game is a scandal the church doesn’t need.

How much does (or would) bingo cost the parish each year? How much does it bring in? What does it pay for? Are those amounts clearly communicated to parishioners in the bulletin or annual report? Do most of the parishioners support bingo?

Catholic Church Bingo Halls

Who plays bingo on bingo night in your parish? Have the crowds increased or decreased recently? Do you see a mix of younger and older players? If not, you should think about how to attract younger players if you want your operation to survive. Think about whether your parish offers players anything else besides a chance to win a cash prize, such as a sense of community.

Catholic Churches That Have Bingo Near Me

If your parish regards bingo as an outreach ministry for the elderly and lonely, are the volunteer workers friendly and welcoming? Do they get to know the players? Would they know how to help them in other ways, such as with a food pantry or a referral to counseling?

Where To Play Bingo Near Me

Finally, are your parish's bingo workers trained to spot those who might have a gambling problem? Would they intervene if they thought someone appeared to be a compulsive gambler? Is the phone number for Gamblers Anonymous available in the bingo hall?
Maybe if we as Catholics looked at these issues more closely, we’d all be lucky winners—because bingo is a form of recreation that has the potential to do much harm without accomplishing much good in return.