Catholic Churches of NCC includes: Saint Patrick Parish Seneca WI; Saint Philip Parish Rolling Ground WI; Saint Mary Parish Gays Mills WI; St James Cemetery Rising Sun WI; Kneeland Cemetery Seneca WI catholicchurchesofncc.com

Sunday, April 12^th, 2026  -  Divine Mercy Sunday

St. Mary, St. Patrick, St. Philip Parishes

Mailing address for all three parishes:  PO Box 35, Seneca WI 54654

Website:  https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com

Confessions: Normally, 30 minutes before  every Mass and by appointment.

Normal Monthly Eucharistic Adoration:

St. Patrick: First Friday after the 8:30 AM Mass

St. Philip: First Sunday after the 10:30 AM Mass

Mass Intentions This Week

Pastor: Fr. Tom Huff – Rectory 608-734-3252 Email: frtomhuff@gmail.com

Bookkeeper, Bulletin, Mass Intentions, Membership: Kevin Murray 608-391-0434 or 608-734-3931

email: secretary@ncc.diolcparish.org

New Bulletin Information Deadline: Mondays at 6:00 PM. Bulletin is posted Saturday on our website.

UPCOMING PARISH EVENTS

Tri-Parish Adult Faith Study

The upcoming Adult Faith Session will be at St. Mary’s on Wednesday, April 8 at 7:00 PM. After this session, all future sessions will be held weekly on Tuesday evenings.

St. Philip Announcements:

St. Philip Candles: Contact Bonnie Murphy. The cost is $5 per candle.

Food Pantry items are needed. Please leave any gift at the rear of the Church.

St. Mary Announcements:

Rosary – 30 minutes before Mass

First Sunday Potluck Brunch after Mass each first Sunday of the month. All are welcome, dish to share is appreciated, but not required. Next potluck is Sunday, May 2^nd.

Saint Mary’s is open 7:00am – 7:00pm daily. Please feel free to come and pray and light a candle if you would like.

Food Pantry Donations can be left in the basket in the rear of the Church.

St. Mary's Service Group will meet on Tue., Apr. 14 at 5:00 PM in the church basement. Agenda items include a cleaning workday/week, planning for upcoming events such as Corpus Christi, election of positions, church needs, review of Stations of the Cross and Soup Suppers, and how we are doing as a parish. All men and women of the parish are welcome and encouraged to attend.

St. Patrick Announcements:

The St Patrick's PCCW will be participating in Rummage on the River, Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16 - 8 am - 4 pm each day. Start organizing your donations and bring them to the hall beginning in May (after CCD is finished). We will request free will donations for items purchased. Please sign up to work during setup and throughout the days of the sale (forms are located in the back of church). Contact Susie Garfoot at 608-317-0515 with any questions or suggestions.

Tri-Parish Announcements:

The Weekly Bulletin is available on our parishes website, this is the link to the bulletin page, updated every Friday: https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com/bulletins

Other Announcements:

Old palms may be brought to the church to be burned for the ashes used next Ash Wednesday.

DIVINE MERCY IN MY SOUL - Jesus tells St. Faustina (Diary 699) That on Divine Mercy Sunday, I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. All we need to do is receive Holy Communion in a state of grace, whether your last confession was 10, 20, or even more days before Divine Mercy Sunday, as long as you do not have unconfessed mortal sin on your soul, then you are spiritually alive in Christ and can receive His special graces from Holy Communion on this great Feast Day. Divine Mercy Sunday could just as easily be termed, “Divine Generosity Sunday” when we see how little Our Lord requires from us in order that we may be able to receive the extraordinary outpouring of His love.

From the Priest’s Corner: What to Doubt and What not to Doubt

For some people, no amount of evidence would ever convince them to believe in God and in the resurrection of Jesus. However, the disbelief of the apostle Thomas reflects the doubts of someone who would very much like to believe in in the resurrection of Jesus, but finds it too astonishing to accept. We need to realized just how astonishing the resurrection is. Not since the dawn of creation has anything so significant happened. When Jesus rose from the dead, He rose with a glorified body. He still had the same body, a body which still bore the marks of His cruel death, but now His body was fundamentally transformed into a body that would never die. This same reality is promised to those who strive to faithfully follow Jesus in this life. The resurrection of Jesus is truly astonishing, and it changes everything.

Even though Thomas struggled to believe in the Resurrection, Our Lord didn’t abandon him, for in His great mercy, our Lord transformed Thomas’ disbelief into an act of faith that went beyond what any of the other apostles said. For when Thomas finally met the risen Lord, he not only accepted that He had risen, but proclaimed Jesus to be his Lord and God. He was admitting that Jesus Christ is truly divine. No amount of empirical evidence can make you believe Jesus is truly God. It’s only by the gift of faith that anyone can believe in this truth. Saint Gregory the Great said: The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened.

For some people doubt is not something to be avoided, but rather it is to be embraced. While there is virtue to doubting somethings, this doesn’t mean it is good to doubt everything. Rather it means knowing when to doubt and when not to doubt. A person who doubts the wrong things can easily become mentally and emotionally unhealthy. They can destroy relationships with others, the ability to drive a car or even destroy the peace of mind when eating. There needs to be a degree of trust if we are to relate properly to others and life in general.

There is also virtue in knowing when to put doubts aside. Imagine a spouse always checking up on their wife or husband throughout the day so as to have physical evidence that they were not being unfaithful to them. Image a person unwilling to drive their car unless a mechanic first checks out their car. Imagine a person unwilling to eat food placed before them unless someone else tastes it to make sure it wasn't harmful.

Some truths have to be accepted in the light of human faith if we want to live a normal healthy life. Other truths, such as the Resurrection of Jesus, have to be accepted in the light of a God-given faith. This gift of faith is a supernatural grace that enables a believer to accept the truths God has revealed, even when this is difficult. Jesus Christ has given us everything we need in order to believe in Him and His teachings and to love Him. Through His infinite patience and mercy, we can embrace the astonishing reality of His resurrection, and like Thomas, be transformed by it.

Income from Last Week

Tri-Parish Prayer List – We want to pray for the ill and others in our parishes who need ongoing prayer. To be placed on or to place someone on our prayer list, please call: Sue Peterson 608-735-4865, Bonnie Murphy 608-386-4954, or Ica Boylen 608-734-3287.

What Artificial Intelligence Can’t Replace by Geofrey Douglas (April 6, 2026)

The risk is not that AI will become human. It is that people will begin treating it as though it were.

PART 1

The question artificial intelligence raises is not primarily about machines. At its core, it is a question about humanity itself: what it means to bear God’s image and steward the world He has made — and even how we direct our most impressive technologies toward love of God and neighbor. For that reason, thoughtful engagement with AI is not a minor ethical issue. It is part of what faithfulness looks like now.

Many people today assume that technology is morally neutral, a set of instruments that simply carry out the intentions of their users. But this misses something important. Technologies do not merely serve human purposes. Over time, they shape our habits and attention, and, eventually, even our communities. Technology critic Neil Postman once observed that every tool carries a built-in bias. Each one encourages us to see the world, and act in it, in particular ways. It describes something Scripture itself already prepares us to expect: the things we make inevitably shape us in return.

The opening chapters of Genesis explain why this matters so much. God created human beings in His image and appointed them as His representatives on the earth. They were called to care for the world He made and develop it for His glory and the good of others. Being made in God’s image is not simply a description of human abilities. It is a calling: to reflect God’s character and act responsibly within His creation. Technology, on this view, can be a legitimate expression of this cultural mandate. Every significant invention, from the printing press to the microprocessor, can be received as part of humanity’s vocation to cultivate creation under God’s authority. When rightly ordered, these tools can serve as instruments of common grace, reflecting God’s providential care. When misused — or adopted carelessly — they represent a failure of that same responsibility.

The smartphone offers a concrete example. By emphasizing speed and constant, algorithm-driven stimulation, it quietly erodes the habits of attention and reflection that life requires. Ideas that once demanded sustained thought are now compressed into a headline or an image, delivered before we’ve finished the previous one. Recognizing this is not technophobia. Instead, it invites Christians to practice discernment. The real question isn’t just whether a tool is useful. It’s what kind of life it encourages — and whether that life is consistent with the love of God and neighbor that Christ taught to be the heart of the law. . . . TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT BULLETIN