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
Office Open – 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM
CHRISTMAS DAY – Monday, December 25th
10:30 AM 12:30 PM
Office Open – 9:30 AM to 2:00 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.
| Posted in Homily |
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.
December 23rd, 2017
My Dear Good People of St. Gabriel’s, With great joy and deep gratitude, I write to express my prayerful best wishes for a holy, peaceful and blessed Christmas.
During this Advent Season, I have been praying that each of you had a great time to ponder and reflect on your own personal faith and relationship with the Incarnate word, the Child Jesus – the reason for the season. Whatever it is that your hearts and souls long for, may you be filled with joy, hope, love and consolation at Christmas.
Christmas is a time of peace and joy, a time to celebrate with family, with friends and loved ones. However, for some, Christmas is a sad time, because they have lost a loved one, or because they are alone and lonely, or overburdened by family problems or for many other reasons. Spare a moment or two to journey with our sisters and brothers who are suffering from one kind of problem or another. Think of those Christian families in Syria, the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. Spare a moment to think of the image of the Child Jesus together with his parents, Mary and Joseph seeking refuge. They found no space in the inn. Jesus was born in a stable. God chose his Son to be born like the rest of us so that we can realize that we are important. If we fail to see the face of Jesus in the poor, then what would our faith in God have become? Would you welcome Jesus in your hearts as He gazes upon you?
Our parish community remains generous and kind as it has always been. You have never failed to see the face of Jesus in the poor and the marginalized. I want to thank you for your generosity this past year as you supported Share Life, St. Vincent De Paul, Good Shepherd Centre, Rosalie Hall and many others.
To the men and women volunteers – those sweating in the Parish gardens, milk bag weavers, casseroles makers, ushers and musicians, lectors and decorators, hospitality and Eucharistic ministers, Good Shepherd Centre volunteers and other centres to serve the homeless and the needy, the youth patrolling the street to console homeless people by preparing and distributing food, planting trees to heal the Earth and the hidden good you’ve all done so the right hand does not know what the left hand has done …For these and for all the good known to you and to God, thank you and may God multiply the good you do immersing it in the joy God brings to our needy world.
As we celebrate the birth of our Saviour and of the coming New Year, I am one with you in asking God to refresh our lives, sustain our love for each other, strengthen our faith, enkindle our bonds with our loved ones and friends and above all, to be sharers of hope to the lost and desperate. Together with our committed and hard-working parish staff, I and Fr. John prayerfully wish you all a Merry Christmas and a bountiful New Year 2018!
Blessings, Fr. Brando, CP
December 27th – December 30th 2017
WEDNESDAY – MICHAEL PALAZZO – Requested by Valentina Palazzo THURSDAY – IN THANKSGIVING – Requested by Agnes Wong FRIDAY – FR. TIMOTHY HIGGINS – Requested by Jeanne Robinson SATURDAY – IN THANKSGIVING – Requested by the Ng Family
Collection – December 30th/31st
Thank you to the volunteers who prepared 48 casseroles for November. Your prepared frozen casseroles will be collected at the Masses next weekend for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre. Please remember to mark the label on the pan lid with the name of the casserole.
More volunteers are urgently needed to become active in helping to feed the needy and homeless in Toronto. Three different recipes are available in the Parish Office or online at the Church website. Casserole pans are also available in the Parish Office.
Please give it a try! If you require more information please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
December 27th from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM
St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish
Canadian Blood Services helps ensure lifesaving blood products are available to hospital patients in need. This organisation hosts monthly blood donor clinics at St. Gabriel’s Parish, and will again host this clinic on Wednesday, December 27th, 2017 from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM. You can take part by making an appointment for this clinic at Give Life https://blood.ca/en/givelife by selecting St. Gabriel’s Parish for December 27th, 2017.
Please note: All donations for 2017 must be received in the Parish Office by Sunday, December 31st, 2017 to be included in your 2017 Tax Receipt.
| Posted in Bulletin |
December 16th, 2017
There is a term Pope Francis often uses when he tries to sensitize us to the blights of poverty and injustices suffered by our brothers and sisters around the world, he calls it ‘global indifference’. These so many nameless people just like the man who fell among thieves on the road to Jericho and was avoided or worse still ignored by other travellers. Finally a Samaritan, himself an outsider to the Jewish community came to the victim’s rescue.
When Jesus told this story to people he ended it by telling them, ‘go thou and do likewise.’ In other words, be there for those who need you as best you can.
When Jesus began his public ministry he came home to Nazareth and like an observant Jew went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He was asked to do a reading and the reading for that day was the same as our first reading at our Mass today.
Making the words of Isaiah his own Jesus read,’ the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And Jesus would say to us today who may be caught up in global indifference, ‘go thou and do likewise.’
Not one of us here is going to head to the refugee camps in Iraq or Turkey or Jordan, of Yemen or Bangladesh or other camps around the world. The best we can do is to send a donation to those agencies that help the people in these areas. Can we hear the words of Isaiah and Jesus as challenges to us to ‘be there’ not only for those in distant lands but for those in our own homes, our relatives, our friends, our co – workers?
There’s a song that sings, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. We can be so caught up in our own concerns, our own projects that we become too dense to appreciate what is going on in our own families or among our friends or co-workers? Questions. Are we willing to aware of and be there for the oppressed, people we know who may be oppressed by financial burdens, oppressed by unfair working conditions, oppressed by depression and discouragements?
Can we be there for the broken hearted; people we know to be grieving for deceased loved ones? Can we support spouses dealing with divorce or marriage breakdown? What can we do for a relative or a friend held captive by his or her addictions?
What about family members who are still brooding over past hurts or slights? Can we make an effort to be for them and encourage them to let the past be past? Are we patient and understanding and supportive of sons and daughters, young adults who are still trying to figure out their uncertain futures? Do we spend the time and listen to mothers and fathers held captive in dementia appreciating that their situations could be our future?
There is a saying, ‘The law works from the feet up’ wherever we are we follow that law. The grace of God works from the feet up as does the mercy of God. We don’t have to go looking for it. The challenges of God work from the feet up. We don’t have to go looking for them – they are where we are.
The question is; are we open to receive God’s love and are we willing to accept the challenge, ‘whatever you do for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you do to me.’
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 »
Companion for the Walk of the Stations of the Cosmic Earth
St. Gabriel’s Garden – Guided Sensory Reflective Walk
