December 31st, 2017
This is the season of too many feasts. Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, the gospel event tells of Mary’s purification in the temple forty days after the birth of Jesus. Tomorrow we celebrate the circumcision of Jesus eight days after his birth. Things get out of cynic this time of year.
On a feast like today scripture holds up models of what holds families together. Christian art has done a great disservice to the Holy Family. They were struggling working class people and life could be rough. All we see is a tranquil setting, angels all around, everything is perfect. Not so.
Have you ever watched the TV series ‘Modern Family’? It follows the stories of three families living in the same neighborhood. They are in and out of one another’s homes all the time. One family is a traditional family; mother, father, son and daughter. One family is interracial, made up of a divorced couple and the child of a first marriage and the third couple consists of two gays and their adopted son. A true picture of the complexities found in family life today and far removed from what we’ve always thought of what family life is all about.
These three families have all the joys and stresses of family life. They cope with good times and bad. They deal with stress and misunderstandings. They deal with the conflicts between parents and children. All of them in one way or another have financial worries. For all their differences they have so much in common with all those living the community life of families.
What holds them together is that each family finds a way to be faithful to the teachings we heard in our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians; they face their difficulties trying to be compassionate and kind and patient with one another. They find ways to be forgiving of one another. Harmony is the goal of each family and even after all the blowups and misunderstanding that are found in every family they strive for peace and harmony as they live out their differences.
You’ve probably heard of a letter from Pope Francis titled the Joy of Love. It is the Pope’s reflection on the Synod on the Family held a couple of years ago by bishops from around the world. Pope Francis makes clear that the causes of the family’s distresses are diverse, and that no single response to them will prove a silver bullet. The Pope makes clear that the Church has too often been content “simply decrying present-day evils,” and sought “to impose rules by its sheer authority. Pope Francis tells it like it is.
Francis wants us to In turn away from such attitudes by constantly redirecting our attention to the beauty and joy of married life and the family. He says we’ve been wasting pastoral energy on denouncing a decadent world instead of being proactive in supporting those struggling with the challenges of family life.
Francis makes a crucial point: “The Lord’s presence dwells in real and concrete families, with all their daily troubles and struggles, joys and hopes.” God is with all of us, not only the sinless and so the Church is called to accompany the weak, to discern with them and to integrate them into the life of Church. He calls Bishops and priests to look beyond laws and regulations, important as these may be, and take a more pastoral approach to the complexities of the reality of divorced couples and walk with husbands and wives helping them to find a way back into the life of the church.
On this feast of the Holy Family we pray for all the families in our parish family; the solid, the broken, the struggling and the searching, remembering the words of Pope Francis, “The Lord’s presence dwells in real and concrete families, with all their daily troubles and struggles, joys and hopes.” God is always present to them though they may not be always present to God.
| Posted in Homily |
The greatest blessing you bring to your family is the presence of God in your life. The fragrance of His presence sweetens the atmosphere of your home. The beauty of His presence warms the relationships within its walls. The joy of His presence lightens every heart. The glory of His presence fills all its chambers with rare and precious treasures. “From God’s Heart to Yours” by Roy Leesin
Let us pray for one another. May God bless you and yours throughout this Christmas Season. We wish you a happy and peaceful New Year and always try to remember…
“Holiness is in the ordinary.”
January 2nd – January 6th 2018
TUESDAY – FR. ADRIAN LEE – Requested by Jeanne Robinson WEDNESDAY – FR. DON SANVIDO – Requested by Jeanne Robinson THURSDAY – CELINA DELFIN – Requested by Her Family FRIDAY – SISTERS OF OUR LADY IMMACULATE – Requested by Jeanne Robinson SATURDAY – GUS CALDERONE – Requested by Marie Calderone
REGULAR SUNDAY MASSES
Saturday December 30th Vigil Mass 4:30 PM Sunday, December 31st Feast of the Holy Family 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM
Office Open – 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM
NEW YEAR’S EVE Sunday, December 31st 5:00 PM Mass Vigil for Feast of Mary the Mother of God
NEW YEAR’S DAY Monday, January 1st Feast of Mary the Mother of God
10:30 AM, 12:30 PM
Office Open – 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM
Sunday, January 7th 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. The guided reflection brings an ecological perspective to the readings. All are welcome.
Friday, January 5th from 9:30 AM to 12 Noon
English: Saturday, January 6th at 3:15 PM in the Library Chinese: Sunday, January 7th at 3:30 PM in the Gabriel Room.
For further information, please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Mary treasured all that God had done for her, and pondered these things in her heart. Do you treasure God’s gifts and ponder what He wants from you? You may have a vocation to a life in the Church serving Christ. If you think God is calling you to be a priest, religious, or permanent deacon, call Fr. Chris Lemieux, Vocation Director, Archdiocese of Toronto at 416-968-0997 or email vocations@archtoronto.org.
Wednesday, January 10th at 7:00 PM
St. Timothy’s Parish, 21 Leith Hill Rd., Toronto
The Prayer and Life Workshops are a series of sessions that help you learn and deepen your art of prayer. This learning has a very practical character, like a workshop: by praying we learn to pray. Sessions include prayer methods such as prayerful reading, prayer of surrendering, adoration, and contemplative prayer. In every session, we meditate on readings of the Word and listen to a message from Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga, OFM Cap., our founder. The Workshop consists of 15 weekly sessions of 2 hours each, and a final one-day retreat. Instruction is free and all materials have a total cost of $15. For more information and to pre-register call Chandra at 647-980-6800 or Pablo at 416-346-7580. You can also send an email to: ontario@tovpil.ca or visit them on the web at tovpil.ca/Ontario.
Sunday January 14th at 1:00 PM
Good Shepherd Chaldean Catholic Church, 2 High Meadow Place, North York
The theme announced by His Holiness Pope Francis for the 2018 World Day of Migrants and Refugees is “Welcoming, Protecting, Promoting and Integrating Migrants and Refugees.” In his message, Pope Francis reminds us that “every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age…”
A special Mass commemorating the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refugees will be celebrated on Sunday, January 14th, 2018 at 1:00 PM at the Good Shepherd Chaldean Catholic Cathedral, located at 2 High Meadow Place in North York. Bishop Kirkpatrick will be the homilist for this liturgy. A reception will follow with a number of dignitaries in attendance. All are welcome to attend!
All donations for 2017 must be received in the Parish Office by this Sunday, December 31st, 2017 to be included in your 2017 Tax Receipt.
| Posted in Bulletin |
December 26th, 2017
CHRISTMAS EVE – Sunday, December 24th
Regular Sunday Masses 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM 5:00 PM Family Mass – Carol Singing 9:00 PM Adult Choir – Carol Singing 12:00 AM Midnight Mass – Contemporary Group
CHRISTMAS DAY – Monday, December 25th
10:30 AM 12:30 PM
BOXING DAY – Tuesday, December 26th
Office Closed
No 9:00 AM Mass
NEW YEAR’S EVE – Sunday, December 31st
Regular Masses 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 5:00 PM Mass Vigil for Feast of Mary the Mother of God
NEW YEAR’S DAY – Monday, January 1st
Feast of Mary the Mother of God 10:30 AM 12:30 PM
Office open – 9:30 to 2:00 PM
While parking at ground level is limited to 51 spaces, there is plenty of space in the underground parking lot. Please follow the instructions of the attendants. Do not park in front of the Church since this is a fire route and must be kept clear.
Additional parking is available on the east side of Elkhorn Public School and in the bus loop. Again, please follow the instructions of the attendant. The school requests that we do not park on the grass. Many thanks to Holly Richards, the Principal of Elkhorn Public School, for allowing us the use of the school property.
| Posted in Events |
December 25th, 2017
The most important day of the year for we Christians is the day Jesus was raised from the dead to the glory of God the Father.
Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus, a date we really do not know but a date decided on by the church centuries ago. The Romans had a feast called the feast of the unconquerable sun, celebrating the winter solstice and decided this would be a good time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the unconquerable son of God.
May we be gifted to see beyond the infant lying in a manger and come to appreciate the full meaning of this feast? St. Paul tells us that Christ emptied himself of his divinity and took to himself our humanity, becoming like us in all things, though he did not sin. Jesus’ assuming our humanity has clothed us in his divinity. St. John tells us that ‘before the world began God chose us in Christ to be his adopted sons and daughters.’ John also muses, ‘ this is the wonder, not that we love God but that God first loved us and sent his Son into the world to save us from our sins.
This feast of Christmas has a message we all need to hear. It is a message of our own human dignity. Every one of us is precious to God, every one of us is important to God. If this is true of us it is just as true of every person who comes into our lives regardless of the racial origin, their faith, their sexual orientation, be they rich or poor, woman or man. They are precious to God and the child whose birth we celebrate today died on the cross for each one of them as he died for us.
This being so we really have to take care that we do not be influenced by the negative rhetoric we hear on both sides of the 49th parallel that calls us to be suspicious of men and women who dress differently, look differently, believe differently from ourselves. It’s called xenophobia, the fear of the different, and the stranger. The stranger is dangerous. The stranger is to be watched, avoided. This fear of the stranger, the different is the cause of bigotry, prejudice and intolerance. Negative forces in society and in our lives, negative forces that blind us to the goodness in other peoples of other races and faiths, negative forces that deny we are all sons and daughters of our loving God. An article in the Star told on an increase in vandalism of Synagogues and Mosques. Such acts are totally un-Christian and offensive to God.
There are two images of Jesus that are the most common; one is the image of the infant Jesus holding his arms open looking for our embrace. The other is the open arms of the crucified Jesus, open to embrace us sinful and struggling humans.
These arms are open to us and to every person who comes into our lives. On this great feast of God’s love for each one of us may we be blessed to live lives of open minds, open hearts, open arms, and welcome all our brothers and sisters who come into our lives in all the circumstance of our lives.
A blessed Christmas to you and yours.
December 24th, 2017
I think that by the time this weekend is over Frs. Brando, John, Steve, Bernard and I will be ‘preached out.’ The gospel for this day before Christmas goes back to that moment when eternity was joined to time and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you – the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
Mary was certainly confused and overwhelmed by Gabriel’s message. She was probably 15 years old at the time. She put her trust in the living God and said those words that changed human history – ‘let it be done to me according to your word.’
Mary opened her heart and her life to the will and way of God.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the child Mary conceived by the saying of those words – be it done to me, may we pray for ourselves and for each other that we be blessed with Mary’s faith and trust in God and echo her words as we face the uncertainties and challenges of life – be it done to me according to you will.
God knows it is not an easy thing to say, especially as wait for the results of tests that may determine the months and years ahead of us. It is not an easy thing to say as we deal with the death of someone we love. It is not an easy thing to say as we surrender our lives to the mysteries of our future. It can frighten us, if we stop and think of what we say as we rush through the Our Father, ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’.
Pope Paul VI called Mary ‘she whose life was available to God’. As we celebrate this Mass shortly ending one year and beginning another let us pray for ourselves and for each other that we be blessed with the strength to say, in all the circumstance of our lives, ‘be it done to me according to your word’. Thy will be one on earth as it is in heaven. It ain’t easy.
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.
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