Archive for the ‘Homily’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Homily – December 22, 2013

Sunday, December 22nd, 2013

In Luke’s account of the Annunciation we are told that after Mary gave her consent to the angel’s message she went in haste to be with her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant in her old age. When Mary came home to Nazareth after a few months away she was showing her pregnancy. Because they had never been intimate this shocked and distressed Joseph. Rather than cause Mary and her family any shame or hurt he made up his mind to call off the marriage. I’m sure he didn’t come to this decision easily but his mind was made up until he dreamed a dream and Joseph did as the angel commanded him; he took Mary as his wife.

Matthew makes it sound so easy – Joseph did as the angel said. But Joseph had to be confused, embarrassed and hurt by Mary’s condition. Can you imagine what a frightening thing this must have been for Joseph? He and Mary were probably in their mid-teens when all this happened. We are in wonder at the faith and trust both of them showed when God intruded into their lives and swept them up in this mystery of Mary giving birth to God’s Son. It is because Mary and Joseph opened their lives to God’s will that all enjoy the reality of Emmanuel – God with us – every day of our lives.

Matthew ends this part of the gospel claiming all this was a fulfillment of a prophecy made centuries ago, ’the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel – God with us. But quote goes back to Isaiah and deals with a totally different situation. Isaiah was trying to convince King Ahaz not to capitulate with the Assyrian armies that besieged Jerusalem. He offers the King a sign, the sign of a young woman conceiving and having a child. It is probable that the young woman in question was the wife of the king, and the son to be born was Hezekiah. This is to be a sign that Ahaz’s dynasty would continue because God was with God’s people. Matthew uses this ancient text and gives it a whole new meaning; God is with us in Jesus, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, one like us in all things but sin.

Joseph did as the angel said; he took Mary as his wife. Joseph and Mary were young people of deep faith and they trusted that God worked God’s will in the ordinary lives of ordinary people. They’d seen so many examples of this in the scriptures on which they had been raised.

Joseph and Mary reached out and took hold of this mystery and made it their own. They would face their unknown future trusting they were doing God’s will and God would be with them. Not as easy thing to do.

There can be times in our lives when we too are invited into the mysterious ways of God. Things happen in our lives that we really don’t want to happen, things that totally upset the way we want things to be. We ask why, maybe we scream why.

Why us, why this, why now? When these bad, sad, challenging things happen in our live, by the same grace of God that sustained Joseph and Mary we too can reach out and grasp these realities of our lives. They come in many different ways; medical tests results that tell us troubled days and nights are ahead. We resist and resent when we hear we can no longer drive our car. We find it so difficult to face the fact that we can no longer live alone in a house that has been our home for years. We are angry and feel victimized when are told the company is downsizing or moving to another place. We are totally frustrated when after all our years of study and preparing for a career there is nothing there for us. Our marriage is on the rocks, our children have no interest in the faith in which we raised them, a spouse or a lifelong friend has died. These shocks and so many other things can take our breath away.

Today’s gospel and its young hero Joseph has so much to say to us. He didn’t simply bow his head and humbly accept what God asked of him. Joseph reached out and grasped the mystery and made it his own. Whatever all this meant, whatever was asked of him he would accept, he would work through it for he trusted God was with him and God would see him through it until his task was done.

As we prepare ourselves for the coming feast of the birth of Jesus, we pray that when circumstances call us to face hard times and hard choices we will have courage of the young Joseph who with fear and trembling opened his life to the mysterious ways of God.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – December 22, 2013

Homily – December 15, 2013

Sunday, December 15th, 2013

I think an image we may have on John the Baptist might be that of a severe, intense man, a man committed to a mission. He comes in from his life in the desert, dishevelled in his camel robe tied with leather belt. He calls people to return to the ways of God from which many of them had wandered. His message was clear for all to hear, repent and change your ways. John was not intimidated by anyone, not even the king. He told King Herod it was not lawful to be married to his brother’s wife and this landed him in prison and cost him his life.

It was only after John’s arrest that Jesus, who John knew to be someone special, began his own mission echoing the message of John but in a different way. John’s disciples kept him up to date on what this new preacher was about. Jesus seemed to lack the intensity of John’s preaching. Maybe John and his followers felt Jesus was watering down the call to repentance. So in today’s gospel we have their interesting question for Jesus, ‘are you he who is to come or should we look for another’?

Jesus sends these good men back to John to tell John about Jesus and his works. The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, even the dead are raised and most important of all the poor, the little people of the land have the good news of God’s loved brought to them through the teachings and the works of Jesus. These words of Jesus echo the words of Isaiah who saw such works as a sign of Messianic times.

Are you he who is to come or should be look to another? The teaching of Jesus regarding love and justice, peace and reconciliation fall on deaf ears these days, even within the church itself. We breathe in the air that surrounds us, an atmosphere on wanting and having more – especially during the buying frenzy that happens at this time of the year. We know we are a wasteful, disposable society. We trash things and we trash people, we trash relationships. We allow ourselves to weary of the cry of the poor and feel we have no obligation to those who have less than ourselves. So we do look for another to fulfill our idea of the good life, the fulfilled life.

As Pope Francis wrote recently, This “culture of waste” tends to become the common mentality that infects everyone. Human life, the person is no longer perceived as a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if poor or disabled, if not yet useful – such as the unborn child – or no longer needed – such as the elderly. This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition.

But there is another side to the reality of our times. There is goodness in this world of ours, in this country of ours, in this parish of ours. With a sense of justice and charity good people reach out to others in need, not just at Christmas but throughout the year. By their deeds of kindness, their generosity towards those who have less, by their efforts to bring about fairness and justice in places of work, by people taking the time to visit the sick and shut-ins, people mentoring students who have difficulty learning, by showing respect to people of other faiths, cultures and life styles – through all these good works by good men and women other people who were blind come to see the goodness in others, other people open their ears to the cries of the poor, the homeless, the over worked and under paid. Because of the good works of good people, other people crushed by the unjust policies of governments or corporations find the strength to stand up and speak out for change. Just as an example, our social ministry in Honduras and Jamaica would not be possible were it not for the generosity and social awareness of college students who volunteer for two years to work with us in these places.

With our eyes of faith fixed on Jesus, listening to his words and imitating his works we need not look for another. We can make a difference in our world, our church, our parish as we struggle every day to be the kind of person Christ calls us to be, people who love as we’ve been loved, heal as we’ve been healed, forgive as we’ve been forgiven. Being true to the example and teachings of Jesus we need not look for another.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – December 15, 2013

Homily – December 8, 2013

Sunday, December 8th, 2013

The sprout of Jesse is rising in all our lives.

Just a few words on the image we are given in the first words of our reading from Isaiah; a shoot shall come out of the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.’ When Isaiah wrote these words the people of Israel were at a low point in their history. Our merciful God sent his servant Isaiah to a people burdened by confusion and hopelessness with the promise that things will get better. Don’t give up.

How many good people in the world today live in such desperate situations? We can’t imagine what the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jorden are going through. How desperate and hopeless their lives must be. We think of the good people of the Philippines who lost everything in the latest typhoon.

Closer to home, we know people or we may be experiencing it ourselves who hear the news of a tumor or growth in our body. We may be grieving over the death of a spouse or family member. Maybe we are dealing with a son or daughter trapped in addiction to drugs. Maybe we are part of a downsizing in our place of work and face the possibility of being jobless. Maybe we are dealing with the breakup of our marriage or the ending of a long term friendship. Maybe we have a job we hate and know we are under paid. So many of these realities convince us our world is ending, falling down around us and we have nowhere to go.

It was to such people as us, a people who saw themselves as helpless, powerless, with hope that God send Isaiah with his powerful vision of hope.

Isaiah uses the image of a stump of a once mighty tree that had been cut down and yet from that stump came new life, new growth, and a new future. From that stump came the promise of time of peace and justice – total opposites living in harmony; the wolf and lamb, the leopard and kid, the calf and the lion, the cow and the bear.

There can be times when we feel we’ve been cut down, we have nothing left. We feel that all our efforts to be good and loving, to be fair just don’t bear fruit. We struggle with our daily realty that the good we want to do, we do not do and the evil we would not do, we still do. We struggle every day to be loving and forgiving men and woman. We try to be accepting of men and women who believe and live differently than we do. We try to be more aware of and sensitive to the needs of our neighbours. And when the sun goes down we know we haven’t lived and loved anyway near the image of harmony Isaiah offers in today’s scripture.We try to love others with the same generosity with which God has loved us.

We wish the imagery of the gospel might be true in our lives, our crooked ways made straight, our rough ways smooth, our high opinions of ourselves brought low so that nothing in our daily living could hinder the coming of God’s kingdom into that part of our lives which has yet to be redeemed.

As someone once wrote, ’Advent is about glimpsing God’s intimate love for every hair on our heart.’ Advent in trusting the truth that God’s grace can bring new life and transformation out of the stumps of our lives because with God all things are possible. We wait on and work with God’s grace. As one of the saints said,’ all shall be well and all shall be well and every manner of things shall be well.’

May we all have the faith to believe that the shoot of Jesse is sprouting in all our lives.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – December 8, 2013

Bulletin – December 1, 2013

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

A MESSAGE FROM FR. PAUL

Good People,
As I mentioned at the 10:30 Mass, I will be spending the next 5 months in Florida. I am going to be working at our retreat house in North Palm Beach until after Easter. I’ll be home sometime in early May.

The retreat house is called Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center. It is at 1300 US Highway 1, North Palm Beach, Fl. 33408. The phone number is 1-561-626-1300. I suggest you look it up on the internet. It is a beautiful place.

Remember me in your prayers and I will do the same for you. Many thanks for many kindnesses.
Fr. Paul

AN ADVENT EVENING OF REFLECTION

“Advent: New beginnings”
Wednesday, December 4th from 7:30 to 8:30 P.M.

To prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas, the parish will once again be hosting an Advent Evening of Reflection on Wednesday, December 4th, from 7:30 to 8:30 P.M. This year, our theme will be “Advent: New beginnings”. Father Jack Lynch sfm will be leading us in prayer and reflection.

Father Lynch is a member of the Scarboro Foreign Missions. He was first missioned to Peru. Later he served as Director of a regional formation Center for 10 years in Central America. From 1997 to 2012, Father Lynch was Superior General of the Scarboro Missions. He is presently engaged in retreat work; and he continues with his involvement with the televised masses on Vision TV and Salt and Light TV.

With the Christmas season fast approaching, and as the pressure for us to shop, entertain, and decorate keeps mounting, this evening will be a great opportunity to pause, listen, and look deeply into our lives to find room to appreciate the meaning of “God with us”.

Please mark your calendar, and reserve the time for some quietude, so that we can remain anchored amidst the busyness of the season.

GIFTS FOR ROSALIE HALL

For many years, St Gabriel’s has had a close relationship with Rosalie Hall. At this time of the year, we are thinking of the young mothers and babies in need of assistance. If you wish, to help, you may choose a “Christmas Stocking” from the Christmas tree in the Gathering Space to purchase pyjamas or undershirts, for babies ages 6, 9 or 12 months. If you wish to buy a toy, please take a” Gingerbread Boy” tag.

Unwrapped Items with the original tag attached can be left in the box provided near the Giving Tree no later than December 12th.

For the Moms, we are suggesting gift cards from Shoppers Drug Mart, Tim Horton’s, Walmart or MacDonald’s. These can be placed in the envelopes provided and brought to the Parish Office. Thank you for your ongoing support of Rosalie Hall.

Christmas Schedule 2013

INDIVIDUAL ADVENT CONFESSIONS
Wednesday – December 11th
3:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.

MASSES

CHRISTMAS EVE – Tuesday, December 24th
No 9:00 A.M. Mass
7:00 P.M. – Family Mass – Carol Singing
9:00 P.M. – Adult Choir – Carol Singing
12:00 A.M. – Midnight Mass – Contemporary Group

Office Open 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. only

CHRISTMAS DAY – Wednesday, December 25th
10:30 A.M.
12:30 P.M.
Office Closed

BOXING DAY – Thursday, December 26th
No 9:00 A.M. Mass, Office Closed

NEW YEAR’S EVE – Tuesday, December 31st
No 9:00 A.M. Mass
Mass at 5:00 P.M. for the Feast of Mary the Mother of God
Office Open 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. only

NEW YEAR’S DAY – Wednesday, January 1st
FEAST OF MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD
10:30 A.M.
12:30 P.M.
Office Closed

ANNOUNCED MASSES

December 2nd to December 7th, 2013

MONDAY – JOSEPH MATTHEW FERNANDES – Requested by the Fernandes Family
TUESDAY – PATRICIA KEATING – Requested by Tom Keane
WEDNESDAY – JOSEPH LUAN NGUYEN – Requested by the Family
THURSDAY – MARIA DI DIODATO – Requested by the Family
FRIDAY – POONA JOSEPH – Requested by the Family
SATURDAY – MIKE PALAZZO & CHRISTOPHER DI LALLO – Requested by the Family

DAY OF CONFESSION

Wednesday, December 11th from 3:00 to 6:00 P.M.

On Wednesday, December 11th, we will all have the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation during the Archdiocesan Day of Confessions. This week, let us make the journey into the heart of our relationship with God. Take a long, loving look at the ways God calls us to grow. Take this challenge and hold it in readiness for the rich blessing that is manifest in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In our parish, confessions will be heard on Wednesday, December 11th from 3:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M.

MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER COLLECTION

December 7th/8th

Next Sunday, there will be a special collection in all parishes across the Diocese in support of Aboriginal people in Canada. The Moving Forward Together Campaign collection will fund local and national healing and education programs to help build a brighter future with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. If we are to truly live Jesus’ fundamental command to “love one another” (John 15:12), it becomes a challenge for all of us to embrace. Special Moving Forward Together Campaign envelopes are available. You can also give online at: movingforwardtogether.ca.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

December 7th/8th

You are invited after all the Masses on December 7th/8th to sign an Amnesty International petition and/or send a greeting card to a prisoner of conscience or human rights defender who is under threat. Human Rights Day is officially December 10th commemorating the adoption of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

PHILIPPINES TYPHOON HAIYAN HUMANITARIAN RELIEF

If you wish to assist the relief efforts for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, you can make an online donation

  • Online through the Archdiocese of Toronto website: www.archtoronto.org
  • By phone through the Development Office – 416-934-3411
  • Through the parish, making cheques payable to: St. Gabriel’s Parish – Philippines Earthquake – Humanitarian Relief

The Canadian government has announced it will match donations to the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund made by Canadians between November 9th and December 9th. Contributions made to the Archdiocese of Toronto for this relief effort will be eligible for the matching program.

We offer our prayers for the victims of this natural disaster and those who have been displaced. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to help those in crisis.

Philippines Typhoon Haiyan relief Fund to Date: $9,385

THE GIVING TREE

During Advent, the Society of St Vincent de Paul will have a Giving Tree in the Gathering Space. The tree will be decorated with gift tags. Each tag will have the gender and age of a child. We invite you to take a tag, buy a gift of about $25.00 for that child and return the unwrapped gift, with the tag attached, to the box provided in the Gathering Space.If you are a knitter, there will be mitten tags. Please take one and return mitts to the box in the Gathering Space. Thank you for your generous support.

CHRISTMAS TOY DRIVE

We are having a Christmas Toy Drive for the Catholic Children’s Aid Society and Rosalie Hall. Can you help by dropping off an unwrapped new toy for a child 0 to 12 years old? Containers will be set up at the doors of the Church until Sunday, December 15th.

GOOD SHEPHERD CASSEROLES

Thank you to the volunteers who prepared 38 casseroles for November. For December, your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses on the weekend of December 28th/29th for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre. More volunteers are needed to help feed the needy. If you require more information please contact Irene Albrecht at 416 221-2791.

“WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS” CONCERT

St. Bonaventure’s Parish
Friday, December 6th at 8:00 P.M.

Born out of 76 years of choral excellence from the prestigious St. Michael’s Choir School, Seraphim has assembled the finest Alumni chorus to perform We Need a Little Christmas at St. Bonaventure Parish (1300 Leslie St. just south of Lawrence) on Friday, December 6th starting at 8:00 P.M. Suggested Donation: $10 per person or $30 per family

FINANCE CORNER

Our operating expenses average $14,550 per week.
Collection for November 24th, 2013

Envelopes 418 $10,406
Loose Change $1,081
Weekly Portion of PAG 182 $3,519 (Pre-Authorized Giving)
Total $15,006

Please remember to print your full name on your Offertory envelope and then seal it.

OFFERTORY DONATION USING VISA, MASTERCARD OR AMERICAN EXPRESS CREDIT CARD

PRE-AUTHORIZED GIVING OPTION

You can now use your credit card to make your recurring or one-time Offertory donations to St. Gabriel’s. Your donations may earn you valuable points, travel miles or cash back! A classic case of giving and receiving! Simply log on to the Archdiocese of Toronto website (www.archtoronto.org) select “Donate Now”, “Our Parish”, “Toronto East”, then pick “St. Gabriel Catholic Parish” under Parish in the Donation Information section. Complete all required information. Remember that your tax receipt for a recurring offertory donation will be issued to you by the Archdiocese at the end of the year. For a one-time gift, your tax receipt is emailed to you immediately.

OFFERTORY ENVELOPES FOR 2014

The 2014 Offertory Boxed Envelopes are available in the Gathering Space. Please inform the Parish Office if you have recently moved or are new to the Parish so that we may update our records. If you are on the Pre- Authorized Giving Plan, you will still receive a smaller green box of envelopes since these include Initial, New Year’s, Christmas, Easter and Maintenance envelopes. You may contact the Parish Office if you do not have envelopes but would like a box for 2014.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Bulletin – December 1, 2013

Homily – November 24, 2013

Sunday, November 24th, 2013

Have you ever been at a lecture and at the end of the lecture the speaker says, ‘now to sum it all up’ and he tries to tie everything together and make some sense of what he said?

This is the last Sunday of our liturgical year and in a way the church is saying to us, ‘well to sum it all up the truth of the matter is this, Christ is King.’ Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords.’

This feast was instituted by Pope Pius 11th in 1925. It was at a time when many of the royal families of Europe were being replaced by other forms of government. It was a time of growing nationalism and secularism and the truths of our faith were being pushed out of public life. So Pope Pius brought us back to a basic truth that Christ is the King to whom we owe loyalty before all others.

Hearing today’s gospel, remembering Jesus nailed to the cross, wearing his mock crown of thorns, taunted with that last temptation ‘if you are the king of the Jews come down from the cross and we will believe – or the words of the thief, ‘save yourself and us’ Jesus remains faithful to his life’s mission – to bear witness to the love of the Father for all of us. Jesus preached his last sermon from his cross telling us that God so loved the world he sent his son to the world, not to condemn us but to bring us closer to our loving God.

As one author wrote,’ He is the king who serves the other. He is the king who dies for the other. He is the king who is ridiculed, scorned, and mocked. Most insufferable, most repugnant of all, is the fact that he is a powerless sovereign. Dying on his cross-throne, Jesus is thrice taunted for the fact that he does not save himself. “You a savior?” they jeer. “Then save yourself.” Soldiers with their sour wine chide, “Aren’t you a real king? Save yourself.” Even a criminal scolds: “I thought you were supposed to be a Messiah. Prove it.”

This is all so out of step with our notion of kingship. As St. Paul wrote – to the Greeks this was foolish, to the Jews this was a stumbling block. But to those who believe Christ the King is the power of God, the wisdom of God.

What has all this to do with us? We say we are the followers of Christ and as such we are called, each in our own way, in how we live and how we love and serve to bring about Christ’s kingdom in our day, in our homes, in our workplace, in our parish, in our community, in our world.

In the preface for this feast we hear that Christ wants each one of us to establish an eternal and universal kingdom – a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace. The reality of our lives is so far removed from such a kingdom. The reality of our lives is social injustice and the exploitation of the poor, job insecurities, strident political divisions. The reality of our lives is in knowing that we are helpless to stop the civil wars that blight the human family. Life is unfair to so many men, women and children around the world especially those driven from their homes by civil wars. The teaching of Christ, ‘love one another as I have loved you’ falls on too many deaf ears. At the same time Christ’s love is alive in people’s generous response to needs of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines. Christ’s love will be seen in people’s generous response to the food and toy drives for this coming Christmas. There is good in this world or ours, there is love and healing in this troubled world or ours. But we have a long way to go before we realize Christ the King’s kingdom of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice love and peace. But we must never stop trying. Remember the song, ‘let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me – let there be truth and life, holiness and grace, justice love and peace – and let it begin with me in the daily living of my life.

May the Bread of Life we receive at this Eucharist strength each of us to let Christ’s kingdom begin in me and with me.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – November 24, 2013

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »