Tuesday, December 14th, 2021
Dear Saint Charles Borromeo family,
If you would like to read "Rejoice: Let’s Prepare for Christmas!", my article in Sunday's bulletin, please click HERE.
If you would like to read "Rejoice: Let’s Prepare for Christmas!", my article in Sunday's bulletin, please click HERE.
Additionally, we have many activities coming up this week. Be sure to read about them below and mark your calendars!
This Week's Activities:
Join us Tonight!
Tuesday, December 14th
Tuesday, December 14th
Topic: "What is the Incarnation"
Join Our Zoom Meeting at 6:30 pm:
Meeting ID: 871 5013 5359
Passcode: Jesus2021
The Come and See group at St. Charles invites you to attend our next meeting. Currently, our group meets every Tuesday evening at 6:30 on Zoom.
We look forward to seeing you! Participation in previous meetings is not required. Feel free to share this link with someone you think would like to join us.
Winter Session will begin on
Tuesday, January 4th.
Tuesday, January 4th.
Regards,
- COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic - Sunday's vaccination clinic was a huge success! Thank you to the health ministry for their assistance during both of the clinic sessions at St. Charles. Over 43 shots were given during the 3 1/2 hour clinic on Sunday, December 12th. A big thank you to Darlene Murphy for assisting in getting this scheduled for the parishioners of St. Charles!
- Parish Office Closed - The Parish Office will be closed from December 27th through January 2nd. If you have an emergency, please call 447-4549 and press option 9.
- Catechists Needed - A lead teacher for our Tuesday evening third-grade Faith Formation class is needed. If this position is of interest to you, please contact Diane for more information.
- Adult Bible Study - Fr. Kwame's "Meet Lady Wisdom" session will resume on Zoom at 7:00 pm on Thursday, January 20, 2022. Additional information will be provided in future flocknotes.
- Donate 2021 Christmas Cards - Donate your Christmas cards for recycling into Giving Tree gift tags for 2022. You may drop off cards to either the Parish office (during Business Hours – Mon-Thurs 9-4) or in the Chapel. Look for the decorated boxes available in both locations. Your donation is appreciated! For more information contact Phyllis Clearwater at 925-337-4299
- Christmas Mass Schedule and Liturgy Highlights Below:
Christmas Mass Schedule
and Liturgy Highlights
- Friday, December 24th & Saturday, December 25th: Christmas Masses
4 PM Children’s Mass
8 PM Youth Mass
11:15 PM Cantata Reprise
12 AM Midnight Mass
10:30 AM Christmas Day Mass
NO 5 PM Mass - Sunday, December 26th: Feast of the Holy Family
7:30 AM Mass
9:30 AM Mass
11:30 AM Mass - Saturday, January 1st: Solemnity of Mary
10:30 AM Mass
NO 5:00 PM Mass - Sunday, January 2nd: Epiphany
7:30 AM Mass
9:30 AM Mass
11:30 AM Mass
CHRISTMAS CANTATA!
Presented by: St. Charles Borromeo
Featuring our St. Charles Adult Choir accompanied by piano
and small orchestra.
and small orchestra.
Friday, December 24th at 11:15 pm
(Before Midnight Mass)
(Before Midnight Mass)
Christian Meditation
Learn about the three essential elements of Christian Meditation:
Silence, Stillness, and Simplicity
Join Christian Meditation in the Ignatius room Mondays between 5:30-6:30 pm.
Silence, Stillness, and Simplicity
Join Christian Meditation in the Ignatius room Mondays between 5:30-6:30 pm.
Read an article by Fr. Lawrence Freeman, OSB
outlining the three essential elements click HERE.
outlining the three essential elements click HERE.
We look forward to seeing you!
“Can you hear me now?”
“Yes, I can hear you, but I can’t understand what you are saying.”
Are you “hearing challenged”? You are when you can hear the spoken word when it is directed toward you and you are able to see the speaker’s face and lips. But – when the speaker is wearing a mask, or there are others in the room with other conversations going on, or the speaker is speaking so fast you have difficulty processing the words then you are hearing challenged!
Hearing is a complex process that allows the sound waves created by speech to be collected (ear canals), translated into nervous transmission (tympanic membrane, ossicular bones & auditory nerves) that are translated and understood by the brain to be something meaningful.
The older you get the harder your brain has to work to process what you are hearing, especially when the speech is very fast, soft, accented, or muffled.
The “hearing challenged” have to work hard to understand what they are hearing. On the surface, no one ‘looks’ disabled or hearing impaired, but there are more and more people who have difficulty understanding what is being said. If you have ever been in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language very well, you know the feeling; you just nod your head and smile.
There are a number of reasons people have difficulty understanding what is being said. The first one is that many people speak too fast for the words to be understood. Your voice is heard, but the words come so fast that it is impossible to process all of them, so only a few words are understood, and then the person has to make an educated guess as to what the conversation is about.
We never realized how important seeing the speaker’s mouth and lips is to understand what is being said until we started wearing masks. This is especially true if the speaker has an accent that the hearer is not familiar with.
“Ambient noise” aka background noise, or simultaneous conversations, make it difficult to distinguish sounds and understand what is being said. The hearer has to work extra hard to understand what the speaker is saying. And when the speaker turns to the side or away from the hearer, the sound gets lost and the hearer is unable to get visual clues from the speaker about the conversation.
Mumbling...Nobody mumbles. Right? Unfortunately, there are people who drop their voice at the end of a sentence and the hearer has no idea what the ending is. There are also people who for one reason or another do not enunciate clearly some of their words. (Example: what is said and what is “heard”/understood)
You are in a meeting, on zoom. Inevitably someone will put their hand in front of their mouth. This does two things: one – the speech sound is muffled and hard to understand and two – the hearer is unable to read the lips of the speaker. Moral here: keep your hands away from your face. This is a good idea on many levels.
Think about the difficulty hearing on the phone presents. Consonants that sound similar. (b-v, f-p, come immediately to mind). Facetime, Skype, Zoom, etc. were developed in part so that the hearer would be able to see the speaker and better understand what is being said.
Issues for the hearing challenged:
- Speech too fast
- Talk behind a mask or hand in front of the face
- Accents, foreign language tempo of speech
- Speaker in another room
- Speaker who mumbles
- Telephone conversations - being able to understand what is being said
What you can do to make your speech understandable:
- Speak slower; make a conscious effort to slow your speech
- Take your mask down when speaking
- Keep hands away from the face
- Attempt to enunciate better, but don’t exaggerate your words.
- Keep your speech in a “normal” range. Shouting only distorts what is being said and the hearer may perceive anger at not being able to understand what is said.
- Address the hearer by name when starting a conversation. This alerts the hearer to focus on the speaker.
- Face hearer directly; not from another room or from a distance.
- Hearing aids - the purpose is to enable sound transmission to the auditory nerve in the ear. Not everyone has the same type or amount of hearing loss. Proper evaluation of hearing loss and fitting of the type of hearing aid that will benefit the hearer best is important for the hearer to get the most benefit from the hearing aid and be able to enjoy conversation without too much struggle to understand what is being said.
Further information:
Note: For the hearing challenged, headphones are available in our church. Contact Jim Oliver to reserve yours today. In addition, sitting under the ceiling speakers was suggested.
Joanne Berven
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Community
1315 Lomitas Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
"Not a Place Where...But a People Who"
