Bulletin – March 20

In this week’s bulletin, the Parish Lenten Retreat, casseroles for the Good Shepherd Centre, and the Faith Connections movie night.

LENT 4.5

From the desk of Fr. Paul

While Lent and Easter come a little later than usual this year, it is nonetheless fast approaching. This year the parish will be launching a special Lenten program: Lent 4.5.

The Lent 4.5 program is developed by the Passionist Earth & Spirit Centre based in Kentucky, USA. (It is an unusual name, but in time you’ll hear more about it.) Through the program, we approach the Lenten season of purification and repentance with a particular focus on how our lifestyles affect creation, as well as the poor of this world. It gives the traditional Lenten practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving a whole new meaning.

Beginning February 27th, each week during Lent, there will be an additional insert to our Parish Bulletin, covering a variety of themes, such as Christian simplicity, food, energy, water. Each week the particular theme will be explained in the insert, along with what the Church teaches on the subject. There will also be simple actions suggested so that if we decide to, we can make a difference in caring for the poor and for God’s creation.

We encourage you to take a few moments each week, using the insert to ponder and reflect. Hopefully this Lent will be for you a new experience of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

ANNOUNCED MASSES

March 21st – March 26th 2011

MONDAY – RENE LAVERTU Requested by the Lavertu Family
TUESDAY – ROSEMARY FUNG SIU YU Requested by Agnes Wong
WEDNESDAY – ALMA McGUINESS Requested by the Family
THURSDAY – SZE-FAN TO Requested by Mary To & Family
FRIDAY – MICHAEL PANG Requested by Pang Family
SATURDAY – CECILY TURTON Requested by the Family

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross will take place each Friday evening during Lent at 7:30 PM. We also encourage your attendance at our daily Mass throughout Lent.

PARISH LENTEN RETREAT

March 21, 22, 23, 2011
7:30 to 9:00 PM

Where do you find the Sacred? How do you pay attention to God?
During this year’s Lenten parish retreat Finding God in Everyday Places: Sharpening Your Spiritual Vision, we will investigate how to find God in the everyday, ordinary, normal, and even out-of-the-way and places of daily life. We will focus on what it means to embrace the world as a sacred reality.

Father Joseph Mitchell, a Passionist from Louisville, Kentucky, will be directing our Lenten retreat this year. He is the Director of the Earth & Spirit Centre there and the driving force behind the Lent 4.5 program, of which you will hear more throughout this Lenten season.

Our retreat will be held on March 21, 22, and 23 (Mon., Tues., and Wed.), from 7:30 to 9:00 PM.

  • March 21: Touching the Holy Within
  • March 22: Meeting God in our Everyday World
  • March 23: Encountering the Sacred through Our Spiritual Senses

Suggested donation for each evening $10, or whatever your means allows. Please mark your calendars and join us and sharpen your spiritual vision!

FIRST RECONCILIATION

March 26th at St. Gabriel’s Church at 10:00 AM

First Reconciliation for children attending St. Gabriel’s School, those in the Children’s Faith Program and children attending Private Schools will be held at St. Gabriel’s Church on Saturday, March 26th at 10:00 AM.

AN INVITATION TO LEARN!

The Story of the Mass
Tuesday March 22th at 7:30 PM
Wednesday, March 23rd at 10:30 AM

SHARELIFE

Working wonders for the elderly

Gerard Brisebois, was in his mid-70’s when he came to Les Centres d’Accueil Heritage. Abandoned by family, he was living in a downtown shelter – frail, friendless and isolated. At Les Centres, Gerard found a wonderful, nurturing home and a warm, supportive family. When he passed away last year, the man who seemed alone and friendless, brought out a tearful crowd to his farewell mass. Nearly 55,000 seniors in the GTA were involved in the programs and services offered by ShareLife agencies in 2009.

1st ShareLife Sunday – April 3, 2011
Together, we can work WONDERS!

MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS FAMILY CENTRE

Easter Egg Sale
April 2nd /3rd

To raise funds for the Marguerite Bourgeoys Family Centre, the St. Gabriel’s Youth Group will be selling hand-made dark chocolate Easter eggs for $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00 before and after the Masses on April 2nd and 3rd . Your support will help the Centre promote and maintain their service in the Diocese.

CASSEROLES FOR THE GOOD SHEPHERD CENTRE

Your prepared chicken rice casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses on the weekend of March 26th/27th for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre. More volunteers are encouraged to get a copy of the casserole recipe and a pan and give it a try. For more information, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416 221-2791.

COLLECTION

March 19/20th
Our operating expenses average $14,000 per week.

Loose Change – $980
Envelopes (422) – $8,273
Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving (150) – $2,976
Total – $12,229

NATIONAL CATHOLIC MISSION RETURNS TO ST. GABRIEL’S

The Heart of the Matter
April 3 and 4th from 7:15 – 9:00 PM

This year’s National Catholic Mission, “The Heart of the Matter,” will be taped for television at St. Gabriel’s Church on Sunday and Monday evenings, April 3 and 4th from 7:15 -9:00 PM. It will be hosted by Father Jack Lynch from the Scarborough Missions and our speakers will be Fr. Donald Senior and Sr. Melannie Svoboda. They will be joined by Richard Foty, Marilyn Calderone, Carina Sandejas, Mike Nasello, Alesandra Trimmeliti, and some of the Alumni from St. Michael’s Choir School.
Please join us for both evenings or one of the evenings and help us create a special Lenten celebration for the faithful of Canada.

FAITH CONNECTIONS LENTEN MOVIE NIGHT: Gran Torino

Mar 26 2011 – 6:30pm
Newman Centre
89 St. George St
Toronto, ON, M5S 2E8

Faith Connections, the Daughters of St. Paul, and the Newman Centre invite young adults (18-39) to join us for People, Popcorn and Pondering II. A Lenten movie night for young adults.

GREEN CORNER

Highlight from Lent 4.5 Bulletin insert:

It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the lowest level of subsistence. Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness – both individual and collective – are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.

Pope John Paul II, Peace with the Creator,
Peace with All of Creation, 1990