Author Archive

bulletin – May 25

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

ShareLife

LES CENTRES D’ ACCUEIL HERITAGE

In 1988, Les Centre D’Acueil Heritage began receiving funding from ShareLife. This agency not only provides residential services but also provides home help and social interventions. Les Centres D’Acueil is the only Francophone agency supported by ShareLife funding. They house residents who are ill, immigrants and people who have a great need of the social services provided. Because you give… ShareLife is able to provide the centres with the funds they require to help those in need.

Next week is ShareLife’s third and final collection. Remember, your gift to ShareLife can provide hope and make a difference to those in need!

For more information about the 34 Agencies funded by ShareLife visit our website at www.sharelife.org

2007 ShareLife Total: $164,652.60
2008 ShareLife to Date: $128,633.00

ANNOUNCED MASSES

Date Time Intentions
May 20 9:00AM MARCELINO FERNANDES Requested by Tita and family
May 22 9:00AM THOMAS DONAGHY Requested by Frank & Sylvia Leaver
May 23 9:00AM ANTHONY ARRIGO Requested by Anne and Family
May 24 4:30PM QUIRINO BERNARDINI Requested by Mario Bernardini

SUNDAY COLLECTION: May 17/18, 2008

Total: $11,006.74

–>

4:30 8:30 10:30 12:30
Loose
Env. $
Total $2,098 $5,155 $2,234 $2,189
# of Env. 111 91 145 109

Welcome

The parish of St. Gabriel’s would like to welcome Darrin Nesmerak who was baptized on Sunday, May 18, 2008.

ECO-SABBATH

Sunday, June 1 at 11:30 AM in the Gabriel Room

On the first Sunday of each month, the Passionist Centre for Ecology and Spirituality facilitates a 30 minute reflection and discussion prompted by the readings for that Sunday’s liturgy. This guided reflection brings an ecological perspective to the readings.

WEDNESDAY MORNINGS ARE LEARNING TIMES

Wednesday morning, June 4 at 10:30 AM
Topic: St. Paul – Pastor and Theologian

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION

Friday, June 6 from 9:30 AM – 12 Noon
Please see the time schedule on the table inside the Church.

ENGLISH ROSARY GROUP

Saturday, June 7 at 3:15 PM in the Library
For information, please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.

EXTREME CLERGY DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Vision TV – Monday, May 26 at 3:30 PM

Extreme Clergy is a new documentary series which premiered on May 16 on Vision TV. Filmed in hotspots around the world, the series offers a rare glimpse of challenges faced and met by spiritual people struggling to better the lives of the poor, the embattled and the desperate.

In each half hour episode, you will meet a member of the clergy with extreme dedication to helping people in extraordinary and often dangerous circumstances.

For a list of episodes visit: www.extremeclergy.com

HUMANITARIAN RELIEF – CHINA, MYANMAR

The Sharelife Office will be accepting donations to support humanitarian relief efforts underway in China, assisting in the care for those injured or displaced from their homes. All contributions received by ShareLife will be forwarded to the appropriate relief partners. Please note that ShareLife does not apply administrative fees to humanitarian relief contributions – 100% of the funds collected go directly to the agencies involved.

As announced last week, please note that ShareLife continues to receive contributions for the ongoing relief efforts in Myanmar, Burma following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis on May 3 in that country.
Those wishing to help may do so in the following ways:

  • Online through ShareLife’s website: www.sharelife.org
  • By phone through the ShareLife office – 1-800-263-2595 or 416-934-3411
  • Through the parish, making cheques payable to:
    ShareLife – St Gabriel’s – Chinese Earthquake Relief or
    ShareLife – St Gabriel’s – Cyclone Nargis relief

We offer our prayers for the thousands of families affected by these natural disasters. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to serve those in crisis around the world.

RAFFLE FOR KENYA

Two of our young parishioners, high school students Robin Ivory and Colleen Shea, will be traveling to Kenya this summer as part of a volunteer group organized by the Toronto Catholic District School Board in conjunction with Free the Children. They will be helping to build and supply a school in a remote tribal area, and are selling raffle tickets for a variety of great prizes to help offset the cost of materials. Robin and Colleen and their families have been active parishioners of St. Gabriel’s for many years, and we encourage you to support their efforts. Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25 and will be available after all the Masses on May31/June 1.

ST. GABRIEL’S CAR WASH AND BBQ

Saturday, May 31,
10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
396 Spring Garden Avenue
(Raindate Sunday, June 1)
$5.00 a wash
The St. Gabriel’s Grade 8 Grads will be holding their annual Car Wash/BBQ to raise funds for their graduation celebrations. Your support is very much appreciated.

MARYGROVE CAMP

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul operates Marygrove camp for disadvantaged girls ages 5 to 13. Over 1,100 children attend camp each summer. There will be a second collection for Marygrove Camp on June 15/16.

BUTTERFLY 5K WALK AND RUN

LIVERight and join our local community
Butterfly 5K Run/Walk in the East Don River Park in memory of Olivia Barron. Join the fun and help raise awareness and funds for children’s liver disease research on Sunday, June 8. Register at www.runningroom.com. If you would like to contact us or pledge Olivia’s brother, please call 416-490-0134 or email us at p.barron@sympatico.ca.

BUNDLE UP WEEKEND

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul will be collecting gently used clothing and household linens for those in need on the weekend of June 14Th and 15Th. There is a particular need for textiles and footwear. A St. Vincent de Paul truck will be parked on the upper parking lot opposite the garden. Volunteers will assist with loading before and after each of the Masses on Saturday and Sunday.

IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH!

Fred Speed, a long-time parishioner, is offering to teach English to small groups of new immigrant women. The groups will be between four and six persons. It is anticipated that classes, with an initial focus on conversational English, will be offered one afternoon a week here at the parish. They will be targeted to immigrants with a beginner level of English. Details about the classes may be found on the bulletin boards.
Those interested, please contact Fatima Lee at (416) 221-8866, Ext. 228 for further information and/or to register.

VOCATIONS RETREAT

May 30 to June 1, 2008

Have you ever wondered seriously if you have a vocation to be a sister, brother, deacon or priest? Are you looking for an opportunity to get away for quiet prayer and reflection to explore this more seriously? Set aside a weekend for yourself and make a discernment retreat arranged specifically for this purpose. The retreat, intended for persons ages 18 to 35, will take place at the Scarboro Mission Centre, 2685 Kingston Road from May 30 to June 1. It is sponsored by the Toronto Area Vocation Directors Association.

For more Information, contact:
Sr. Agnes Roger DJC
416-0536-5313
Email: srmagnes@bellnet.ca

Fr. Len Altilia S.J.
416-962-4500
Email: vocations@jesuits.ca

Sr. Kateri Beaudry CPS
416-558-5718
Email: srkatericps@hotmail.com



homily – May 18

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

John 3:16-18

Today we celebrate the basic mystery of our Christian faith, the mystery of the Trinity. Every time we make the sign of the cross we express our belief in the Blessed Trinity. After the Our Father and the Hail Mary our most common prayer is “glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.” We begin every Mass with the greeting Paul used in his letter to the Corinthians, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.” These are all expressions of our faith in this great mystery. In dealing with any of the mysteries of our faith we have to remember that a mystery is not something of which can know nothing, a mystery is something of which we cannot know everything. Even when we see God face to face we will still not be able to comprehend God. The lesser cannot contain the greater.

In the teachings of Jesus we come to know that the inner life of God is a life of relationships. The Father loves the Son and the love that binds them together is the Holy Spirit.

In our first reading God told Moses how he wanted to be known, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God proved that steadfast love when God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn us but to embrace us and bring us to everlasting life. Last week we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us all, a Spirit who would teach us the truths of God and keep us faithful to God.

All our lives we are involved in relationships. We are made in the image and likeness of God in that we are able to enter into loving and life giving relationship. In the beginning God said ‘it is not good for you to be alone’. As St. Paul reminds us, “the life and death of each of us has its influence on others.” We cannot go through life untouched or untouching. We are conceived in a relationship of love, we enjoy an intimate nine month relationship with our mother, we are born into a family, we grow up making and losing friends, we have neighbours and co-workers; we chose a life long friend and companion in the sacrament of marriage.

We are in relationship with all those who share our Christian Catholic faith. As we pray at Mass, “May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.”

As we all know relationships can be tricky things. There are loving and life giving relationships and there are manipulative and abusive relationships. There are relationships that help us grow and mature and relationships that can make us submissive and dependent.

The quality and health of our relationship with others determines the quality and health of our relationship with God. Love one another as I have loved you… by this all will know that you are mine, if you have love one for the other. As often as you did these things to one of these the least of my brothers and sisters you did it to me.

In recent times we come to have a deeper appreciation of the relationship we have with the rest of God’s good creation. We are a strand in the web of life that makes up the life systems of our home the Earth. We did not weave this web we are a strand in it and what we do to the web we do to ourselves. Slowly we are beginning to realize that we are family with the rest of life on earth, slowly we are beginning to realize the negative impact we are having on the life systems of the planet, and slowly we are beginning to realize the need we have to heal that relationship.

God made us to be relational as God is relational. As we celebrate this mystery of the Trinity we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we blessed to appreciate the mystery and the possibilities of our own relationships, with God, with the family of the church, with friends and strangers and with the family of life that vitalizes planet Earth. We pray that in all these relationships we will be sources of life, love, growth and healing.



bulletin – May 18

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

ShareLife

COVENANT HOUSE

Covenant House is the country’s largest emergency shelter for street kids. With your support of ShareLife, 2224 young people were reached through Covenant House in 2007, providing food, clothing, counseling and recreation programs.

With your support, 22 people graduated from the long-term housing program at Covenant house, with 4 moving on to University and 18 moving into independent or supportive housing. For more information about the 34 Agencies funded by ShareLife visit our website at www.sharelife.org

2007 ShareLife Total: $164,652.60
2008 ShareLife to Date: $128,633.00

ANNOUNCED MASSES

Date Time Intentions
May 20 9:00AM REINE ELIZABETH Requested by Fernand & Susan Elizabeth
May 22 9:00AM DANICA PETRANOVIC Requested by the Petranovic Family
May 23 9:00AM THOMAS DONAGHY Requested by the St Vincent de Paul Society of St. Edward’s Church
May 24 4:30PM FU-SAI WEN Requested by Mary To

TUESDAY NIGHTS AND WEDNESDAY MORNINGS ARE LEARNING TIMES

Tuesday evening, May 20 at 7:30 PM
Topic: Catholics in Nazi Germany

Wednesday morning, May 21 at 10:30 AM
Topic: St. Paul – Pastor and Theologian

Victoria Day

On Monday, May 19, the Parish Office will be closed for Victoria Day.

FROM THE DESK OF FATHER PAUL

This coming week, Fr. Bernard, Fr. Steve and I will be in Hartford Conn. attending a very important meeting of the Passionist Community. Like every religious community, the Passionists are faced with aging members and aging buildings and must make decisions as regards both. Please pray for the Passionists as they meet this coming week.
Fr. Paul

COLLECTION FOR PAPAL CHARITIES

Thank you for your generosity to the Collection for the Pope’s Pastoral Works. $2,474.74 has been collected
and will be used wherever the Pope feels it is most needed.

SUNDAY COLLECTION: May 10/11, 2008

Total: $7,425.61

–>

4:30 8:30 10:30 12:30
Loose
Env. $
Total $1,849 $2,081 $2,748 $1,447
# of Env. 112 106 154 82

DOORS OPEN TORONTO

St Gabriel’s Parish will again be taking part in this year’s Doors Open Toronto on Sunday, May 25th from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. For more information, please call the Parish Office.

CATHOLIC FAMILIES GOLF CLASSIC

HELPING FAMILIES IN TORONTO

Our new activities kick off on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 with a day of golf for all parishioners at the glorious Glen Eagle Golf Club. Individual players as well as foursomes are welcome and we have a great mix of both men and women players. The event is open to both casual and competitive golfers and is followed by a magnificent Dinner and Awards Banquet.

Catholic Family Services are looking for volunteers to help with fundraising events and to serve on the Board of Directors. For more information, please contact Mark Evans at Catholic Family Services by phone at 416-921-1163 or by email at mevans@cfsofto.org.

CYCLONE NARGIS RELIEF – MYANMAR, BURMA

As news reports continue to filter out of Myanmar (Burma) following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis on May 3, more than 20,000 people are already confirmed dead. More than 40,000 more are reported missing and as many as 1 million people have been left homeless, according to the World Food Program.

The ShareLife office will be accepting donations to support humanitarian relief efforts underway in Myanmar, assisting in the provision of food, shelter, clean water, and medical assistance. The Catholic Church’s official relief body, Caritas Internationalis, is coordinating the efforts for its 162 national members, working with staff in the region. As has been the case in the past, contributions will be channelled through the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development & Peace, the Caritas representative organization in Canada.
Those wishing to help may do so in the following ways:

  • Online through ShareLife’s website: www.sharelife.org
  • By phone through the ShareLife office – 1-800-263-2595 or 416-934-3411
  • Through the parish, making cheques payable to:
    ShareLife – Name of Parish – Cyclone Nargis Relief

We offer our prayers for the thousands of families affected by this natural disaster. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to serve the poor and marginalized both here at home and around the world.

Be assured that ShareLife does not apply any administrative fees to humanitarian relief contributions, ensuring as much money as possible is directed toward assistance of those in crisis.

Archbishop Collins
Auxiliary Bishops
Mr. John McGrath

RAFFLE FOR KENYA

Two of our young parishioners, high school students Robin Ivory and Colleen Shea, will be traveling to Kenya this summer as part of a volunteer group organized by the Toronto Catholic District School Board in conjunction with Free the Children. They will be helping to build and supply a school in a remote tribal area, and are selling raffle tickets for a variety of great prizes to help offset the cost of materials. Robin and Colleen and their families have been active parishioners of St. Gabriel’s for many years, and we encourage you to support their efforts.

Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25 and will be available after all the Masses May 24/25 and May31/June 1.

CASSEROLES – GOOD SHEPHERD CENTRE

Your prepared chicken rice casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses next weekend 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.

INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS COLLECTION

Every four years, Catholic faithful from around the world are invited to gather together to reflect on and celebrate the great mystery of the Eucharist during the International Eucharistic Congress. From June 15-22, 2008, it is expected that between 12,000 to 15,000 bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay people will gather in Quebec City to come to a deeper appreciation of “the eucharist, gift of God for the life of the world,” the theme of this 49th Congress. There will be a special collection for this Congress on May 24/25. Envelopes are in the pews.

BUTTERFLY 5K WALK AND RUN

LIVERight and join our local community Butterfly 5K Run/Walk in the East Don River Park in memory of Olivia Barron. Join the fun and help raise awareness and funds for children’s liver disease research on Sunday, June 8. Register at www.runningroom.com. If you would like to contact us or pledge Olivia’s brother, please call 416 – 490 – 0134 or email us at p.barron@sympatico.ca.

BUNDLE UP WEEKEND

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul will be collecting gently used clothing and household linens for those in need on the weekend of June 14Th and 15Th. There is a particular need for textiles and footwear. A St. Vincent de Paul truck will be parked on the upper parking lot opposite the garden. Volunteers will assist with loading before and after each of the Masses on Saturday and Sunday.

MARYGROVE CAMP

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul operates Marygrove camp for disadvantaged girls ages 5 to 13. Over 1,100 children attend camp each summer. There will be a second collection for Marygrove Camp on June 15/16.

IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH!

Fred Speed, a long-time parishioner, is offering to teach English to small groups of new immigrant women. The groups will be between four and six persons. It is anticipated that classes, with an initial focus on conversational English, will be offered one afternoon a week here at the parish. They will be targeted to immigrants with a beginner level of English. Details about the classes may be found on the bulletin boards.
Those interested, please contact Fatima Lee at (416) 221 – 8866, Ext. 228 for further information and/or to register.



Student Visit to Temple Har Zion

Monday, May 12th, 2008

On May 6, 2008, some of the classes from St. Gabriel’s school visited the Jaffari Islamic Centre and Temple Har Zion in Thornhill. They had an enjoyable time with the Iman and Rabbi Cory Weiss. Temple Har Zion had its beginnings at St. Gabriel’s lower church back in 1997 and St. Gabriel’s and Har Zion have had an ongoing relationship ever since.

homily – May 11

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

John 20:19-23

Many of the thoughts in this sermon come from an article by Fr. Ron Rolheiser published recently in the Register.

Can you remember what life in the church was like about 50 years ago? We were a pretty cohesive community. If you are new comers to Canada, remember how your faith community back home was like. If you come from a country where Catholics were a minority, you pretty well stuck together and supported one another in your faith.

But here in Canada – in the good old days – we lived in a culture within which faith and religion were part of the very fabric of our lives and by and large the culture helped carry the faith. No matter what your denomination, everyone went to church on Sunday. Sunday shopping wasn’t part of the scene. You had to be pretty brave and bold not to go to Mass or Sunday service on a Sunday. I went through school with a kid named Gordon Henderson – he was different. First of all he called his parents by their first names – not done. In Lent were we all expected to give up candy and movies. Not Gordon. He never missed a Saturday at the Mayfair theatre on Waterloo Street. We all waited for him to be struck dead. He never was.

But in those days confession on Saturday, Mass on Sunday, fish on Friday, family rosary, daily Mass and fasting in Lent, these were things we just did. Everyone else was doing them too.

We all know things are quite different today. Have you ever seen a Catholic friend give you a strange look when they find out you go to Mass quite regularly? In the past it took a lot of guts to miss Mass on Sunday – it would be noticed. Today it takes a strong inner-anchored act of faith to come to Mass on a Sunday. God bless you for being here.

The truth of the matter is, all that moral support that sustained us in years past is gone. Our culture no longer carries the faith and the church and the teachings of the church, especially as regards the dignity and sanctity of life in all it stages. The days and the times are gone when we lived in a community where most believed, went to church and shared the same moral values. This is now true of Catholics and other Christian denominations. Without that community support there are times when we can feel like the ‘lonely little petunia in the onion patch.’ Maybe in those good old days we never gave much thought to what we did or why we did it. We just went with the flow. But there was a sense of security in that flow.

Rita MacNeil has a great song, “You’re flying on your own.” That’s pretty much where we are these days, as individuals and as a community. We have to rely on our own resources, our own sense of commitment.

Our resources are bolstered by our main resource – the Holy Spirit, whose feast we celebrate today. Without the Spirit the early church could never have survived. The first followers of Jesus were ostracized by their families and faith communities, they were seen as betrayers of their traditions, suspected of strange beliefs and weird rituals. Because of their faith in Jesus they had nothing in common with the values and morals of the times. They certainly were flying on their own, but the wind beneath their wings was the ‘gusting’ of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gave them the courage and fortitude to profess and live their new found faith even to the point of death. The Spirit gave them the wisdom not to second guess their commitment to the Risen Christ. The Spirit gave them the understanding and counsel to discern how to live their Christian lives among people who could not comprehend their beliefs and way of life.

It is that same Spirit who offers us an inner strength and meaning that is rooted in something beyond what the world thinks and what the majority is doing. The Spirit will help us hold on to the conviction that right is right if no one is doing it, and wrong is wrong if everyone is doing it.

As Fr. Rolheiser says, “To be committed believers today – to have faith truly inform our lives requires finding an inner anchor beyond the support and security we find in being part of the believing majority wherein we have the comfort of knowing that, since everyone else is doing this, it probably makes sense. Many of us now live in situations where to believe in God and church is to find ourselves without support of the majority and at times without the support of those closest to us – family friends and collogues”. Can you relate to his observation? I can.

In our personal struggles to live our lives as Christians we need the support of one another. It is the Holy Spirit who binds us together, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us that attitude of gratitude which makes us grateful for all the gifts with which our lives are blessed, it is the Holy Spirit who brings us together today to praise and thank God for the blessings of our lives, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the conviction and courage to live as fully as we can the life to which we are called even when we may feel we are flying on or own.

As we continue to celebrate this feast of the Holy Spirit we pray for ourselves and for each other that every day our lives we keep our minds and hearts open to the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit forms us into the likeness of Christ.