In this week’s bulletin, the Parish Lenten Retreat, the World Day of Prayer, and Recovering a Sacred Balance.
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.
March 7th – March 12th 2011
MONDAY – ALEC CHAN Requested by Mary Chan TUESDAY – BILL KOVACS Requested by the Family WEDNESDAY – PATRICIA SWEENEY Requested by the Sweeney Family THURSDAY – MICHAEL MILKO Requested by Betty & Tom Higgins FRIDAY – MARIA NGUYEN Requested by the Family SATURDAY – GORDON OATWAY Requested by the Family
March 9th, 2011
March 9th is Ash Wednesday. Special Masses will be celebrated at 12:00 Noon and 7:30 PM with the distribution of ashes. There will be no 9:00 AM Mass that day. During Lent, we encourage your attendance at our daily weekday Masses at 9:00 AM.
During Lent there are two days of Fast and Abstinence, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Abstinence means to abstain from eating meat. Fasting means that your two smaller meals combined should not be larger than your main meal. There is no eating between meals. This applies to healthy people between the ages of 16 and 75.
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.
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.
Suggested donation for each evening $10, or whatever your means allows.
Please mark your calendars and join us and sharpen your spiritual vision! Please call 416-221-8866 or email fatimalee@bellnet.ca to register.
St. John’s York Mills Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge Avenue Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 1:30 PM
The theme for this year’s service is “How Many Loaves Have You?” written by the women of Chile. This celebration which takes place throughout the world in Christian Churches, will be hosted by St. John’s York Mills Anglican Church, 19 Don Ridge Avenue, on Friday, March 11th at 1:30 PM. All are welcome.
The Story of the Mass Tuesday March 8th at 7:30 PM Wednesday, March 9th at 10:30 AM
A Saturday Workshop March 19, 2011 from 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM
We live in a vibrant world of deep interconnections. Yet we can easily find ourselves weary and estranged from the world in which we live. Often, it seems, we are too busy to enjoy the gift of life and the simple abundance of the Earth. We have created a dangerous imbalance.
Join Father Joseph Mitchell, C.P., to explore how we arrived at this point in our human journey, how a modern mindset has created a sense of alienation, and how we can achieve peace of mind, by embracing the world in which we live. We have much to learn from our Catholic faith to bring about a human presence on this planet that is socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling. It is about recovering a sacred balance.
The multi-media workshop will be held on March 19, 2011, from 9 am to 2:30 pm in the Gabriel Room. Bring a simple lunch. Beverage and dessert will be provided. Please join us for what promises to be a lively and enlightening workshop!
Please call 416-221-8866 or email fatimalee@bellnet.ca to register.
We are pleased to report that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has accepted our application to sponsor our Iraqi refugee family. Processing time is expected to be from 6 to 14 months. Our parish has raised $21,800.00 towards our target of $35,000.00 needed to support this family of 4 adults and 1 child for a year. Thank you for your continued support!
Thank you for the 54 casseroles which were prepared for the Good Shepherd Centre for the month of February. Please pick up a copy of the casserole recipe and a pan at the Parish Office. Your prepared chicken rice casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at all the Masses on the weekend of March 26th/27th. For more information, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
Daylight Savings Time begins next weekend. Please remember to set your clocks forward 1 hour on Saturday evening.
Sunday March 6th, 2011 from 2:30 – 5:00 PM St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish 670 Sheppard Ave. E. Toronto.
The first in a series of three information sessions offered by MOSAIC on the rites of passage of different religions will be held this Sunday. This event will cover birth through teen years, with Father Paul speaking on behalf of Christianity. Other speakers will discuss Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism. See poster on bulletin boards.
Please RSVP to lifebydesign@vitaeest.com. by March 1, 2011.
February 26th/27th Our operating expenses average $14,000 per week.
Loose Change – $1,027 Envelopes (396) – $7,857 Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving (146) – $2,950 Total – $11,834
A highlight from this week’s Lent 4.5 Bulletin insert
Fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live… By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger… This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.
Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2009
This Bulletin entry was posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2011.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
Learn about Passionists and our insignia »
Listen to the audio
Watch Fr. Paul Cusack’s Funeral Mass (video)
Companion for the Walk of the Stations of the Cosmic Earth
St. Gabriel’s Garden – Guided Sensory Reflective Walk