May 7th, 2016
To all the Mothers, Single Mothers, Grandmothers and Stepmothers, we wish you a very happy Mother’s day. May you be blessed with the graces you need, with courage, compassion, patience and peace.
The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated on Sunday, May 15th for students in Grades 7, 9, 10 and 11 and on Sunday June 5th for students in Grade 8 at 7:30 PM at St. Gabriel’s Church. In preparation for this Sacrament, a Confirmation Retreat will be held on Saturday, May 14th from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at St. Gabriel’s Church. All candidates must attend. Candidates are reminded to bring a signed letter from the service coordinator or a parent stating the completion or anticipated date of completion of volunteer service hours.
Registration forms for the Children’s Faith Program are now available in the parish office. This program is for children of the Parish who attend public or private schools. Classes are held at St. Gabriel’s School every second Sunday beginning September 11th, 2016.
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.
May 9th to May 14th, 2016
MONDAY – VICTOR ATHAIDE – Requested by Sylvia & Family TUESDAY – BERNARD LUK – Requested by Marie & Michael Gennaro WEDNESDAY – RICHARD CHUCHRA – Requested by Wanda & Jack THURSDAY – PAULINE LAM – Requested by Charlotte Yeung FRIDAY – JOHN C.K. YEUNG – Requested by Agnes Wong SATURDAY – EDNA & GERRY HATCH – Requested by their Family
It is important for you to know that to be hired to teach in any Catholic School Board in Ontario, as part of your application for employment, there must be a letter of reference from your pastor. If you are planning to apply to teach in a Catholic School, a contact with the pastor is highly recommended. Please plan to have a conversation with your Pastor early in the process, well before applications are to be submitted.
This Weekend, May 7th/8th
The Society for St. Vincent de Paul is holding their annual Bundle Up Collection this weekend, May 7th/8th. Bring your gently used clothing, household linens, shoes and small household goods to share with others. Appliances, furniture and books cannot be accepted.
A St. Vincent de Paul truck will be in the Church parking lot to receive donations. The truck will be open in the parking lot on Saturday, May 7th from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday, May 8th until 1:00 PM Volunteers will assist with the loading before and after each Mass. The Society will donate, exchange for vouchers or sell these donations to support their outreach efforts. Thank you for your continued support.
Tuesday May 17th from 1:00 to 3:00 PM
Gabriel Room
Hello fellow parishioners, I have booked the St. Gabriel’s Room for Tues. May 17th for our next weaving event. We will try to weave from 1:00 to 3:00 or 4ish as long as our energy and supplies last….
Thank you to those that took bags home to cut…. I have already received some back!! Hope to see you next month and feel free to bring a friend. Sharon Gusz
Each month the food we collect is sent to Rosalie Hall or the Good Shepherd Centre. 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 ongoing support.
Working wonders for boys with a unique camping experience…
Having completed his teaching degree, Francis is still involved at Camp Ozanam, where he is presently the Director of Counselors. “I still love working here – most of my best friends have come from this community and it’s great to introduce my students to Ozanam and see them falling in love with it the way I did. As a former camper and staff member, I feel like I have a complete picture of the camp, and try to make sure today’s campers and staff enjoy the same formative experiences that I went through.” Last year, ShareLife-supported Camp Ozanam provided a unique camping experience for 600 boys from underprivileged homes in the GTA.
ShareLife to date: $106,712
Next ShareLife Sunday is May 29th. Please give generously. You can work wonders!
An urgent appeal for help has been launched by the Canadian Red Cross following the devastating fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta this week. Over 88,000 people have been evacuated from Fort McMurray and surrounding areas. Thousands have lost their homes and belongings as the fire continues to rage.
Donations can be made through: o The Parish making cheques payable to St. Gabriel’s Parish – Fort McMurray o The Canadian Red Cross directly at www.redcross.ca or by calling 1-800-418-1111.
The Archdiocese of Toronto is accepting financial contributions for humanitarian relief following the disastrous effects of a serious earthquake on April 16th.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershocks have devastated huge areas of Ecuador, with nearly 600 people reported dead, another 5,700 injured and 24,000 families left homeless.
Those wishing to help may do so in the following ways: o Online through the Archdiocese of Toronto website: www.archtoronto.org o By phone through the Development Office – 416-934-3411 o Through the parish, making cheques payable to: St. Gabriel’s Parish – Ecuador Earthquake – Humanitarian Relief
Our operating expenses average $14,550 per week.
Collection for May 1st, 2016:
Envelopes 381 $ 8,235 Loose Change 1,132 Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving 166 3,022 Total 547 $ 12,389 Papal Charities: $3,378
Please inform the Parish Office if you have changed your address or are moving out of the Parish so that we may update our records.
If you have prior year’s offertory envelopes, please do not use them! Each year we go through the unused envelopes for which no donations have been received and may reassign that number to another parishioner.
May 12th to 15th Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre
A Women’s ACTS Retreat Weekend will be held on the weekend of May 12th to 15th at the Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre in Mississauga. This is a powerful new retreat experience based on adoration, community, theology, service with women ministering to women.
To register or for more information please call Queen of Apostles at 905-278-5229.
May 16th at 7:30 PM
St. Luke’s Church, 39 Green Lane, Thornhill
Mosaic Interfaith invites you to attend the next presentation in their series “From Abraham Three Faiths” to take place at St. Luke’s Catholic Parish, 39 Green Lane, Thornhill on Monday May 16th at 7.30 PM.
The subject is “Everyone Wants to go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die” exploring the meaning of death and the kind of faith which disarms death from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives.
Panellists are Rev. Canon John Hill, Rabbi Michael Stroh and Dr. Liyakat Takim from Christianity, Judaism and Islam respectively.
Please see the flyer on the bulletin boards. For more information or to RSVP call Nora at 416-218 0680.
Wednesday, May 18th at 7:00 PM
Holy Cross Catholic Funeral Home & Cemetery, Thornhill
Catholic Cemeteries and the Archdiocese estate planning team will share information about: How to protect your loved ones with a proper will How to ensure your wishes are legally protected Powers of Attorney The advantage of pre-arranging funeral, burial and cremation The cost savings of making an estate plan Finding lawyers and estate planning advisor Our Catholic traditions around wills, burials and funerals.
An estate planning kit will be provided at no cost. Refreshments will be provided.
RSVP to Frank Jannetta, Catholic Cemeteries at 416.733-8544 ext. 2023 or fjannetta@cc-fs.ca.
Monday, May 16th at 7:00 PM
Boston Pizza, 400 Progress Avenue, Scarborough
The OCY and Faith Connections, along with representatives from your local parishes invite all young adults (ages 19 +) to join them for Theology on Tap on May 16th at 7:00 PM at Boston Pizza in Scarborough. The topic is My Unique Personal Vocation.
So much anxiety!
Am I getting the right education? Will I be able to get a decent job? Is he/she the right person for me in marriage? Religious life? Singlehood? What is my baptismal call???
Join Patricia Murphy, Professor of Moral Theology at St. Augustine’s Seminary, as she discusses the discernment of our own unique, personal vocations.
St. Gabriel’s Parish Weekend of September 23rd to 25th, 2016 A Marriage Preparation course will be offered here at St. Gabriel’s the weekend of September 23rd to 25th, 2016.
The course will be held Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Saturday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM. For a registration package please email Marie Deans at deansm@sympatico.ca.
Note that this course usually fills up quickly and spaces are limited.
| Posted in Bulletin |
In his letter to the Philippines St. Paul tells us that Jesus did not consider his equality with God as something to be grasped at but he emptied himself of his divinity and took to himself our humanity, becoming as we all are. Jesus became an obedient slave, living an obedience that brought him to his shameful, humiliating death on the cross. But this is not the end of the story.
Paul goes on to say because of Jesus’ great act of obedience God the Father exalted the diminished and humiliated Jesus in and through his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. This feast of the Ascension we celebrate today is all part the final vindication and exaltation of the crucified Christ. In the resurrection and ascension the Father gives Jesus a name that is above all other names to that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess the Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It is depressing to read about or watch on TV the uprooted lives of millions of men, women and children as they seek refuge from civil war in their homelands. It’s discouraging when we know of the human trafficking that destroys the lives of young children. We wonder where is God when find out about the exploitation of men, women and children’s labor in the sweat shops of Asia and even in Canada. The working poor are part of the social fabric of our country.
These examples of man’s inhumanity to man must never blind us from seeing all the good and generous people who reach out to help their brothers and sisters. The response of European countries, the response of Canada to open our borders and welcome these good people who have lost so much is an expression of the resurrection of Jesus. Professional and volunteer men and women who go to poverty stricken or disease stricken area of the world are witnessing to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus even though they may not know it. Men and women involved in environmental and ecological issues trying to sensitize us to the damage we are doing to the life systems of Earth witness to the resurrection and ascension of the Lord. We are surrounded by countless examples of the goodness and the generosity of good people as they respond to the needs of men, women and children whose lives have been turned upside down by civil strife, religious persecution or natural disasters. Just look at Fort McMurray.
We need great faith in the love of God to see that the passion, death, the resurrection and ascension are all part of the truth that love is stronger that hatred, that justice will prevail over injustice, that the violence wreaked by terrorists and religious fanatics will not prevail and that our own personal tragedies will be overcome as we find within ourselves a strength and resilience we never knew we had.
I don’t intend to sugar coat people’s reality but as we continue to celebrate this Mass in which make present the passion and death of Jesus and celebrate his vindication celebrating his resurrection and ascension may we all be blessed with a strong conviction that no matter how bad things are in the world or in our personal life the presence and love of God conquers all things and in the end, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.
| Posted in Homily |
May 1st, 2016
In the very early years in the life of the church a very serious problem arose. Peter and Paul and the other apostles preached in the synagogues the teachings of Jesus and told about his death and resurrection to their Jewish co-religious. Then something unexpected happened. Non-Jews, the Gentiles were attracted to this new faith and wanted to join this new community. An important question came up; how to integrate these new Christians coming from pagan religions into this new religion made up of Jewish men and women who believed Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth was the long awaited Messiah?
For centuries Jewish people were guided by the Law and the Prophets. For centuries they were taught, unless you were circumcised according to the Law of Moses you cannot be saved. Many were convinced that these new comers must be told they are to keep the Law of Moses, especially the law of circumcision.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that at a special meeting in Jerusalem there was no small discussion and debate about all this and some questioned why those who wanted to put the yoke of Jewish laws on the Gentiles when the Jews themselves found them unable to bear.
Down through the ages people have been convinced that certain practises can never be changed because they are expressions of the will of God. A big section of the early Jewish Christian community felt this way about circumcision. They forgot that circumcision was the ritual by which a Jewish boy child was initiated into the Jewish people, it had nothing to do with that child’s relationship with God, with that boy’s salvation.
The Apostles taught that our relationship with God, our salvation came about through our belief in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. For the Apostles this was of first importance. Circumcision was not an issue.
As one church historian observed, ‘One of the most seductive temptations of the believer is to identify the will of God with the will of the believer, and not the other way around. God’s will has been squeezed into patriotism, leftism, capitalism, feminism, the hierarchy, ecclesiastical tradition. Things have been given an importance they did not deserve. How often have we heard that certain practises must never change because they are the will of God? When I was in the seminary a professor spent a whole class pontificating that the Mass will never be celebrated in the language of the people because it could lead to nationalism. Seven years later he was celebrating the Mass in English.
Our first reading tells us about what has been called the First Council of Jerusalem. It remind us that our Christian Catholic faith entails the remarkable belief that the Spirit of God continues to work through the very human processes of decision-making in our Church best happens when we take seriously both our religious experience and our tradition, trusting that the Spirit of God works even through endless debate, exhausting meetings, and hesitant leadership helping us to bring about clarifications and resolve conflicts.
We had a recent example of this in our own time. Pope Francis called for a Synod of Bishops to discuss the pastoral needs of the modern day family. He called together 279 bishops from around the world. Seventeen married couples were also invited. The Synod was held over a two year period and Pope Francis was at most of the meetings. He began the Synod by encouraging all present to speak their minds and not hold back for fear of repercussions.
The main concerns of the bishops as they gathered for the Synod were. ‘How can we heal the wounds of a broken culture? How do we best support families, given the challenges of modern life? What is truly merciful? If the family is central to both society and the Church, how do we best express the truth of its importance? What to do about co-habitation. The divorced and civilly remarried and other matters. The bishops discussed how the early Church addressed issues of marriage and separation, and reviewed the history of Church practice and discipline on marriage. They also explore how contemporary moral attitudes have shaped modern perceptions of marriage and divorce, and how the Church can offer pastoral guidance in this area. Some bishops were determined to hold the line on the disciplines of the past while others called for new pastoral ways of looking at the stresses that challenge the modern family.
The synod issues that garnered the most headlines revolved around the question of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, as well as Catholic attitudes toward homosexuality.
In his own pastoral reflections on all the reports from the Synod Pope Francis took a very pastoral stance as opposed to a canon law stance.
He was adamant when he wrote, “In no way must the church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God’s plan in all its grandeur,”
He disappointed many when he stated with the synod’s insistence that the church cannot consider same-sex unions to be a marriage as it has been understood for centuries but Francis also insisted, “Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity.”
Pope Francis wrote that he understood those “who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But he said ‘I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street.”
The Holy Father also said ‘The worst way of watering down the Gospel is when we put so many conditions on mercy that we empty it of its concrete meaning and real significance.
As always Pope Francis does not judge but he meets people where they are and wants to walk with them, encouraging them to be where God would want them to be in their journey toward God.
As we continue to celebrate our Mass may be pray for all the families in our parish family. We pray that solid families be stronger, that troubled families be healed, that single mothers or fathers be strengthened to not give up, that those divorced and civilly married know they are welcome here and may we all remember the advice of Pope Francis that Holy Communion is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.
April 30th, 2016
Tuesday May 17th from 1:00 to 3:00 PM Gabriel Room
Hello fellow parishioners,I have booked the St. Gabriel’s Room for Tues. May 17th for our next weaving event. We will try to weave from 1:00 – 3:00 or 4ish as long as our energy and supplies last.
Thank you to those that took bags home to cut…. I have already received some back!! Hope to see you next month and feel free to bring a friend.
Sharon Gusz
May 2nd to May 7th, 2016
MONDAY – MARY ANNE OLDEN – Requested by Kathleen Olden Powell TUESDAY – JOHN HONG – Requested by his Family WEDNESDAY – MARY T.C. LIU – Requested by Agnes Wong THURSDAY – MAURICE MICHAEL – Requested by Charmaine Michael FRIDAY – GUS CALDERONE – Requested by Marie Calderone SATURDAY – JUSTIN MCCARTHY – Requested by Bill & Carolyn Markle
Chinese: Sunday, May 1st at 3:30 PM in the Gabriel Room. English: Saturday, May 7th at 3:15 PM in the Gabriel Room.
For information, please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Friday, May 6th from 9:30 AM to 12 Noon
Catholic Education Week 2016 begins this Sunday, May 1. You are invited to discover what celebrations are happening in your children’s school to celebrate the ongoing gift of publicly-funded Catholic education and if possible, attend. Publicly-funded Catholic education has existed in Ontario since 1841 and its graduates have served Ontario and Canada very well. The current generation of students in our publicly-funded Catholic schools serve with the same spirit and generosity as their previous generations.
Pope Francis has declared 2016 a “Holy Year of Mercy” as a way for the Catholic church to “make more evident, its mission to be a witness of mercy”. The Holy Year began on December 8, 2015 and will be celebrated until November 20, 2016. Throughout the year, there will be a series of jubilee celebrations on the theme of mercy for teenagers, deacons, the sick and disabled, prisoners, catechists and clergy.
As well, Pope Francis opened the Vatican’s Holy Door on December 8th. The Holy Door is opened to evoke the concept of forgiveness which is the main focus of a Holy Year. The theme God’s mercy is illustrated in fifteen of the sixteen bronze panels that make up the Vatican Door. There are seven such Holy Doors in the world, including one in Quebec City.
Catholic Education Week 2016 combines both the theme of mercy and the act of opening doors of reconciliation, mercy and forgiveness to all around us.
It is important for you to know that to be hired to teach in any Catholic School Board in Ontario, as part of your application for employment, there must be a letter of reference from your pastor. If you are planning to apply to teach in a Catholic School, a contact with the pastor is highly recommended. Please plan to have a conversation with your Pastor early in the process, well before applications are to be submitted
Weekend of May 7th/8th
The Society for St. Vincent de Paul will hold their annual Bundle Up Collection next weekend, May 7th/8th. Bring your gently used clothing, household linens, shoes and small household goods to share with others. Appliances, furniture and books cannot be accepted.
A St. Vincent de Paul truck will be in the Church parking lot to receive donations. The truck will be open in the parking lot on Saturday, May 7th from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. and Sunday, May 8th until 1:00 P.M.
Volunteers will assist with the loading before and after each Mass. The Society will donate, exchange for vouchers or sell these donations to support their outreach efforts. Thank you for your continued support.
Each month food we collect is sent to Rosalie Hall and the Good Shepherd Centre. Your donations are very much needed and appreciated.
Thank you for your generous support.
Working wonders for the elderly…
Elva is a client in her late 70’s who spent her life overcoming the challenges of Spine Bifida. Despite her physical disabilities, Elva travelled the world as a music teacher and pianist for the national Ballet in Canada. Wheelchair- bound for the last 25 years, Elva gradually found herself less able to continue playing the piano and doing the things she enjoyed. Last year, the Society of Sharing matched Elva with a friendly visitor, Adam a young university student, with whom she can converse with as though there were no age difference. Adam is seen as an encouraging and familiar friend and someone to share ideas with as well as assist her with her cell phone, computer and printer. With his help, Elva is able to go to out to the movies or see local sights. Because of Adam, Elva’s world has opened up and she is now reconnected to her community and able to share her incredible gifts of wit, intelligence, and positive attitude, giving her a renewed sense of meaning and purpose. This year, our support for ShareLife will help to expand this volunteer model into the Peel Region to assist seniors in this area. Last year ShareLife-supported agencies provided outreach programs that met the needs of over 2,200 seniors. This year, with your support, we can do more to help the elderly within our archdiocese.
ShareLife to date: $104,662 Next ShareLife Sunday is May 29th. Please give generously. You can work wonders!
5km Fundraising Walk and Hug Saturday, May 7th, 2016 Registration from 8:30 to 9:30 AM at Fort York 10:00 A.M. Walk to SickKids
On Saturday, May 7th, the fifteenth annual Meagan’s Walk: -Creating a Circle of Hope will take place. Registration opens at 8:30 A.M. at Fort York, followed by family activities and entertainment. The Walk begins at 10:00 AM. and concludes at SickKids with the “Hug”.
Proceeds from this event will be shared between the Meagan Bebenek Endowment Fund and awareness, research and treatment of paediatric brain tumours at SickKids.
A Catholic Young Adult Seminar Saturday, May 7th, from 8:30 AM to 4:15 PM. Gabriel Room, St. Gabriel’s Church
You are invited to attend a Catholic young adult seminar, “Faith, Finance and Self- Knowledge” being held here at St. Gabriel’s on Saturday May 7th from 8:30 AM to 4:15 PM.
Guest speakers include Fr. Brando Recana CP, Quentin Schesnik and Rose Heron. The cost of $15 includes lunch. Space is limited. To register, please contact Pauline at pauline.susanto@gmail.com.
May 16th at 7:30 PM St. Luke’s Church, 39 Green Lane, Thornhill
Mosaic Interfaith invites you to attend the next presentation in their series “From Abraham Three Faiths” to take place at St. Luke’s Catholic Parish, 39 Green Lane, Thornhill on Monday May 16th at 7.30 PM. The subject is “Everyone Wants to go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die” exploring the meaning of death and the kind of faith which disarms death from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives. Panellists are Rev. Canon John Hill, Rabbi Michael Stroh and Dr. Liyakat Takim from Christianity, Judaism and Islam respectively.
Saturday, May 14th from 6:30 PM. to 9:00 PM Newman Centre, 89 St George St, Toronto
Faith Connections and the Newman Young Adult Ministry invite single young adults (18-39) to a Catholic Speed Dating evening! Tickets are $35. Those registered will be divided into age groups. ID will be required. This event will be followed by a Celtic Ceilidh Dance Social!
Space is limited. Registration is required by May 8th. To register, call Vanessa Nicholas-Schmidt at 416-467-2645 or visit www.faithconnections.ca – a ministry of Fontbonne Ministries, Sisters of St. Joseph, Toronto.
Wednesday, May 18th at 7:00 PM Holy Cross Catholic Funeral Home & Cemetery, Thornhill
Catholic Cemeteries and the Archdiocese estate planning team will share information about: How to protect your loved ones with a proper will How to ensure your wishes are legally protected Powers of Attorney The advantage of pre-arranging funeral, burial and cremation The cost savings of making an estate plan Finding lawyers and estate planning advisors Our Catholic traditions around wills, burials and funerals.
Collection for April 10th, 2016: Envelopes 431 $ 8,380 Loose Change 969 Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving 165 3,034 Total 596 $ 12,383
April 24th, 2016
Most religious communities treasure the accounts of the final days of their founders. It was during those last days of life the foundress or founder would leave her or his legacy to the community that meant so much to them. St. Paul of the Cross’ legacy to we Passionists was, ‘I place my trust in God. The Congregation is his; the lights he gave me for founding it were his. He will take care of its progress. My hope is in God.
When someone in the family dies the family comes together to say their last goodbyes and the dying person has the chance to do the same. It is an important time for all. In the Hebrew scriptures we read of the death of Isaac and his final words to his sons Esau and Jacob,’ Be loving of your brothers as a man loves himself, with each man seeking for his brother what is good for him….loving each other as themselves.’ We remember the great commandment of loving God with all our mind and heart and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves.
In his farewell Jesus challenges his disciples to keep a new commandment, ‘love one another as I have loved you.’ In the past our neighbour was limited to the family members of the clan not to total strangers. Christ’s love is a universal love, no limits allowed. We are to be there in love for people we don’t know, men and women who are hungry, homeless, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. These are the friends and neighbours and strangers who come into our lives sometimes at the most inconvenient of times challenging us to listen to their stories and love them with that same totality with which Christ loved us.
How did Christ love us? St. Paul tells us that Jesus did not consider his equality to the Father as something to be kept to himself. He emptied himself of his divinity and took on the fullness of our humanity and sharing in our humanity he took to himself the reality of a slave, an obedient slave, an obedience that brought him to his shameful painful death on the cross.
Paul tells us something we already know that can be times when a generous person will die for the sake of a friend – there is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for a friend – but what shows how great was Christ’s love for us is that while we were still sinners – still estranged from God – Christ died for us so that we could be one again with God.
Christ died for us knowing our sinfulness, knowing our selfishness, knowing how we exploit others for our own pleasure, knowing our propensity for violence toward others, knowing how we exclude other people from our lives. Knowing all these things about he was willing to die on the cross for us.
For Christ we were not tiny speck in the mass of humanity, he died for each of us as a person he loved – even unto death.
Love one another as I have loved you. Impossible! We are so caught up in our own little worlds, our needs, our wants we have so little time for others. That’s not always true. Think of the love you share with your spouse, think of the love you pour out on your children as you work through the struggles and stresses of marriage and parenthood. Think of the number of times you’ve been there for friends and neighbours, think of the many times you’ve been asked from this pulpit to be there through your generosity for men, women and children you will never know.
Love one another as I’ve loved you; accept one another as I accept with all your faults. Respect one another as you fight the good fight against racism, sexism, bigotry just as I respect you for how you were born, where you were born, when you were born.
We all know the difference between loving people and liking people. There a some people we will never like because of personality clashes and personal histories. To love people is to accept and respect them as they are knowing they are our brothers and sister, sons and daughters of God – loved by God with the same intensity with which God loves every one of us.
May we be graced every day to love others as we have been loved – totally, unconditionally.
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