September 4th, 2016
Welcome back to all our parishioners who have been away on holidays. We hope you have had an enjoyable summer. For those young people who are off to university, we wish you every success as you begin a new stage of your life. For those students and teachers returning to elementary and secondary school, we wish you a very positive and rewarding year.
On behalf of the St. Gabriel’s Parish Community I would like to welcome Fr. John Muthengi, CP who is now our new Associate.
The Parish Family of St. Gabriel’s would like to welcome:
Patrick Ross Hood Chloe Joan Krause Chloe Wing Lim Ah Ken Jasper Wang-Caijun Mansker Jet Wang-Caijie Mansker Lucas Anthony Piazzese Xavier Crispin Prillo-Homer Lily Isabel Subramanian Cassandra Megan Varillas Ryan Martin Young
All received the Sacrament of Baptism during the months of July and August. Congratulations!
September 5th to September 10th, 2016
MONDAY – LABOUR DAY – No 9:00 AM Mass TUESDAY – DAWN & CLAIRE BURKE – Requested by their Family WEDNESDAY – SR. LAURA GATIEN IBVM – Requested by Margaret Anne Leckie THURSDAY – HARRY LEUNG – Requested by John Chan FRIDAY – GUS CALDERONE – Requested by Marie Calderone SATURDAY – RENATO BELLISARI – Requested by Family and Friends
Sunday, October 2nd at 11:30 AM in the Gabriel Room
St Gabriel’s has a long tradition of hosting the Eco-Sabbath every first Sunday of the month. This year, the tradition will continue. The first meeting of this year after the summer break will be held on October 2nd, at 11:30 AM. All are invited.
The Children’s Faith Program for children attending private or public schools will begin on Sunday, September 11th at 10:00 AM. Classes are held at St. Gabriel’s School. Registration forms may be picked up in the Parish Office.
Please note that a separate Sacramental registration form is required if your child will receive the sacraments of First Communion, Reconciliation or Confirmation during the 2016/17 year. These forms are also available in the Parish Office.
Meetings in preparation for the R.C.I.A. (Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults) will begin soon. These meetings are for persons interested in learning more about the Catholic Faith. The exploration may lead the candidate to seek baptism, and become a member of the Catholic Christian community; or for Christians already baptized into another Christian denomination, the reception into the Catholic Church.
Adult Catholics who have not received the sacrament of Confirmation but who wish to do so are also encouraged to attend these sessions.
As well, these meetings may be an opportunity for “Born Catholics” to deepen their understanding of our faith. Very often, especially for those of us who received our religious instruction at an early age, we tend to grow physically, mentally, psychologically etc., but the understanding of our faith does not grow correspondingly. The RCIA may serve as a good opportunity for us to ask questions and to develop a more adult understanding of our faith.
If you are interested in joining the RCIA meetings or if you would like to have more information about it, please call Fatima Lee at the Parish Office, 416-221-8866, ext. 228.
If you have, or know of, school age children (ages 7 to 14) who wish to prepare for Baptism, please contact the Parish Office, or Fatima Lee directly, at (416) 221-8866, ext. 228. Classes for them will begin after Thanksgiving.
“Those who sing pray twice.”
Our senior choir practices on Tuesday evenings, from 7:30 to 9:00 P.M. and leads community song at the 10:30 AM Sunday Mass.
Our junior choir practices on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM and leads the music at the 12:30 PM Mass.
We always welcome new voices and hope you will consider joining us! For more information, please contact the choir director after any of the Masses.
Thank you to the volunteers who prepared 31 casseroles for July and 30 casseroles for August.. For September, your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses on the weekend of September 24th/25th for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre.
More volunteers are encouraged to become active in helping to feed our less fortunate sisters and brothers. Three different recipes are available in the Parish Office or online at the Church website.
If you require more information or would like to get a copy of a recipe and a casserole pan, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
You can make a difference in the lives of the hungry and homeless this Thanksgiving by participating in the annual Good Shepherd Ministries Thanksgiving Food Drive.
Good Shepherd provides hot meals and shelter for the homeless in our city as well as a chance to start again through the Resettlement or DARE Programs.
Urgently needed items include: rice, pasta and pasta sauces, peanut butter, jam oatmeal pancake mix teabags ground or instant coffee, sugar cookies and crackers, canned tuna, soups, stews, meats, fruits and vegetables.
Please no fresh or frozen foods.
We thank you for your generous support!
Each month the food we collect is sent to Rosalie Hall. Rosalie Hall assists young parents and their children to realize their potential through the provision of a wide range of child development, community, residential and educational services.
With everyone struggling at this time, these donations are more important than ever. Please check the expiry dates before donating since we cannot pass on food that has expired. Thank you for your generous support.
This Weekend, September 3rd/4th
Spring Cleaning Year Round!
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is collecting gently used clothing for men women and children, shoes, household goods, linens, draperies and toys to support the needy this weekend, September 3rd/4th They cannot accept books, baby furniture, appliances or mattresses.
Please bring your donations and help others in your community. They will donate or sell these donations to support their outreach efforts.
The truck will be open Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Sunday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Volunteers will be there to assist with loading before and after each Mass.
Saturday, September 24th 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Join other young adults (18-39) on a scavenger hunt race around the city and learn more about the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto!
Prizes include a dinner for 4 at Vino Rosso (995 Bay Street), and 4 tickets to the Hockey Hall of Fame. We’ll start at Mustard Seed, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto at 791 Queen Street East, and end with a dinner to celebrate a new decade of Faith Connections at the formation house of the Sisters of St. Joseph on Palmerston Boulevard.
The cost is $20 (if a concern, please contact us.) with proceeds to go to charity. You can register as a team of up to 4 together, or you can be placed on a team if you don’t have one.
Registration is required by September 12th. Please call Vanessa Nicholas-Schmidt at 416-467-2645 or e-mail faithconnections@csj-to.ca.
Weekly Offertory Our operating expenses average $14,550 per week.
Collection for last weekend: Envelopes 340 $ 6,688 Loose Change 1,037 Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving 163 3,002 Total 503 $ 10,727
| Posted in Bulletin |
August 28th, 2016
I once read that another word for pride is ‘ego enhancement.’ We can imagine ourselves to be more handsome, more talented, more intelligent and more popular than we really are. These can be our ways of our presuming to take the place of honor among our friends and acquaintances.
My doctor wants me to use a cane in case I have a fall. I told him I didn’t want to and he asked me why. I told him I was too proud, in other words I didn’t want to appear to be dependent on a cane or other people. He asked me, ’and what is it that come before the fall?’ Pride, the first of the deadly sins. I have the problem of ego enhancement; I don’t like to be dependent on other people.
A number of years ago I received a letter from a young man who was interested in joining the Passionists. He signed his letter, the Lord’s humble doormat. I wrote back and told me that our community was not into accepting doormats. I imagine he was trying to impress me with his humility
We can have very distorted ideas of humility. We may see ourselves as of no value or as failures. We fail to acknowledge the gifts with which we have been bless or we may squander them. We put ourselves down; we think of ourselves as something like door mats and think we are humble.
Jesus tells us that those who humble themselves will be exalted. We are truly humble when we have a conscious awareness that we are gifted men or women. We are humble when we recognize the truth that before the world began God chose us in Christ to be God’s adopted sons and daughters. We are humble when we become aware of and accept the natural and supernatural gifts with which God blessed us. Humility is that gift of God by which we acknowledge our status before God which is, we are sons and daughters of God, not doormats, never doormats.
The blessed mother was being totally humble when she told her cousin Elizabeth, ‘henceforth all generations will call me blessed because he who is mighty has done great things for me.’ We are being humble when we acknowledge, he who is mighty has done great things for me. We are humble when we develop a personal attitude of gratitude, always grateful for the gifts with which we have been blessed. This can be our true ‘ego enhancement’ proud of whom we are before God, his beloved son or daughter.
May the Lord bless us and give us peace and keep us humble.
| Posted in Homily |
August 21st, 2016
Have you ever been asked that annoying question, ‘are you saved’? I wonder who asked Jesus that question as he travelled through their town, ’will only a few be saved?’ Always remember that Jesus our Christ did not come to earth and die on that shameful cross to send any of us to hell. He died to save us, to bring us to God. By his wounds we are healed. By his death we are all invited into eternal life with God. We are all invited into that banquet of life Christ has prepared for all of us. It is up to us to accept that invitation and, we might say, the dress code our invitation to life entails.
The dress code can be found in the teachings of Jesus and they can be very demanding. Love one another as I’ve loved you. Forgive others as I’ve forgiven you. Be there for your brothers and sisters in need as I am here for you. What you do for others you do for me.
This dress code requires discipline, self -control. It takes discipline, self –control to rein in our tendency to gossip or pass on a juicy bit of gossip. It takes self -control to determine what we watch on the internet and the amount of time we spend watching it. We all need discipline to restrain our tendency to racism or sexism or homophobia. Any doctor we visit reminds us how we have to watch, control what we eat and drink. How many of us have a discipline that sets a time for reading scripture or saying the rosary or setting a time to be quiet in private prayer? It takes discipline to come to celebrate the Eucharist with the parish family every week. It takes discipline to decide what our value system will be in the living of our lives; what is of first importance.
This evening many of you will be watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. The men and women who stood on the podium to receive medals of gold, silver or bronze climbed that podium because of their determination to succeed and that determination required discipline.
St. Paul reminds us they struggle to achieve a perishable crown whereas we struggle to achieve the imperishable crown of eternal life.
Lord, will only a few be saved? Are you saved? We are all saved because Jesus our Christ died on the cross for us. But will we know our salvation; will we know the glory of the daughters and sons of God? That depends on another question, are we willing to accept the dress code that came with our invitation to live the abundant life Christ offers each of us.
Maybe we should hear again the words of the opening prayer of this Mass; grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that amid the uncertainties of this world our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found. That takes discipline fortified by grace.
August 15th, 2016
| Posted in Events |
August 7th, 2016
I read a story of a young seminarian who took a leave of absence and went to work with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. He needed time to sort things out. He wasn’t sure he had a vocation. One morning after Mass he asked Mother Teresa to pray for him. She asked him ‘what do you want me to pray for?’ He told her ‘pray that I have clarity’. Mother Teresa told him she would do not such thing. He was shocked. He asked why she wouldn’t pray that he had clarity about his vocation. He said to her you always had clarity, you always knew what you were going to do. Mother Teresa told him, ‘I never had clarity; what I’ve always had was trust. So I will pray that you trust.
Personally when I use the word faith I really me trust. Trust means believing in someone even though circumstances at the time might tempt one to question my trust. St. Paul calls Abraham our father in faith. Abraham trusted God and God’s promises even when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of his old age. He trusted God would keep his promise that he would be the father of a mighty people.
On his way to the cross Jesus trusted his Father’s love for him, even when called out, ‘my God, my God why have you abandoned me. He trusted that in the end all would be well. He trusted that the hatred and contempt that swirled around as he hung on his cross would not prevail. He trusted that his love for each of us would prevail.
At this Mass, at every Mass we make present the death of Jesus. We place the sign of death, separated body and blood. We remember and celebrate the love Jesus has for each one of us as he gave his life for us. St. Paul reminds us that it is difficult to give one’s life for a good person but what proves Christ’s love for us is that even while we were sinners, even when we were estranged from God, Christ died for us.
Every day of life we are challenged to trust, trust the love of the crucified Christ for each of us even though there are days when we don’t even trust ourselves, days when we find it hard to trust that even though we are mistake making beings, even though we may be so disappointed in ourselves, Jesus Christ loves us and will always love us.
Recently Victor Frankl died. He was a survivor of the death camps where he lost his whole family. He wrote a book titled, Man’s Search for Meaning. He was reflecting on how he survived the horror and the cruelty he witnessed during his years in the camps. Basically he said that a person can survive any ‘what’ so long as they have a ‘why’. His why was the conviction that he would see his wife again. For this to happen he must survive, he must live.
Our ‘why’ our reason for living and loving, our reason for putting up with our weaknesses and failures, our reason for not giving up on ourselves, our reason for giving thanks for the blessings and the people that enrich our lives is the truth and the wonder that God chose us before the world began to be his adopted sons and daughters. No matter what the ‘what’ of our lives may, illness, discouragement, lost love, lost job, the ‘why’ of our lives is the awesome truth that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us. As we celebrate this Eucharist together and are nourished by the Bread of Life we pray we live our daily lives in the conviction of our ‘why’ for living and loving and never giving up, that Jesus Christ loves us and gave his life for us on the gibbet of the cross.
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