January 19th, 2014
Have you ever had the feeling of a big letdown after coming home from a vacation or after a great Thanksgiving or Christmas celebration? The party’s over and we’re back to the ordinary, boring day after boring day with its routine, regularity and its predictability. We’re back to the ordinary living of our ordinary lives. Gone are the carefree days of vacation when we could just sit back, relax and enjoy. Gone are busy and exciting days of preparing and anticipating some fun and celebration. We are back in the land of ‘blah’. Same old, same old.
As church, as the people of God we’ve just finished a rash of festivities. In the past weeks we celebrated Christmas, New Year’s, the feast of Mary, the mother of God, the feast of the Epiphany and finally the feast of the Baptism of Jesus. We are all ‘feasted’ out. Now we settle down to what the church calls ‘ordinary’ time.
But ordinary time can be anything but ordinary. It can be a time filled with possibilities. We have time, a quiet time to ponder the teachings of Jesus when we hear the gospels Sunday after Sunday tells us of the daily doings and teachings of Jesus. We can see how Jesus reached out and touched and changed the humdrum lives of so many men and women. In this ordinary time we can find the time to question ourselves as to how faithfully we follow the lessons Jesus taught and the example Jesus gave us.
There is a teaching about the importance of the grace of the present moment. That’s what ordinary time is all about, being aware of God’s presence, love and life in whatever we are doing right here, right now. If we are open to what lies hidden in the ordinary, our ordinary can be far from being ordinary. Think of these ordinary things we do each day and what they can teach us.
Being grateful that we can get out of bed in the morning knowing that there are other men and women can’t, brings us to a deeper appreciation of our own good health. Grateful we can eat a hearty breakfast can remind us of the harsh truth that so many men, women and children begin the day and live the day hungry. Deciding what we will wear could make us conscious of the fact that so many people have nothing to wear but the clothes on their backs. Going off to work or school we might think of the many men and women in the country who can’t find work and that education is for the privileged in many places. We take for granted that at the end of the day we can come home to a roof over our heads and that might make us more aware of the fact this is a far off dream for so many of our brothers and sisters around the world, especially those displaced by the civil wars destroying countries in the Middle East.
If sickness or the stress of being out of work, if struggling with the limitations of mind and body that old age brings our way, all these can be occasions of our own personal growth by trusting that accepting these realities and working through them makes us one with the suffering Christ who was one like us in all things and suffered and died for each one of us.
In this ordinary, down time in our live Jesus wants each of us to reach out to a friend, to a stranger, to someone we like, to someone we’d like to ignore and touch them with a kind word, an encouraging word, loving word to show them they are loved and cared for.
When we travel to another country we are bound by the laws of that country. We may protest,’ that’s not the way it is where I come from’. It doesn’t matter. The law works from the feet up. It is the same with the grace of God. God’s grace, love and life work from the feet up. They are available where ever we are and they are to be shared where ever we are. Some people find their spiritual life is deepened by a pilgrimage to a shrine. God’s grace and love and life are there, surely. But it is back home, where live and work and love, where we rub shoulders with people we know, people we don’t know that we are given the grace to make the best of this ordinary time.
May God give us the grace to see and realise the possibilities that are ours in this ordinary time, living our ordinary lives.
| Posted in Homily |
January 20th – January 25th, 2014
MONDAY – LOUIS & MARIE FUNG – Requested by the Family TUESDAY – MARY LAM – Requested by the Family WEDNESDAY – HUGH KELLY – Requested by Carol & Hugh Mackenzie THURSDAY – RAYMOND PAUL LANDRY – Requested by Staff of St. Gabriel’s Parish FRIDAY – ANGELA ROSE UMBRIO – Requested by Marisse Roco SATURDAY – VIOLET PREVIDSA – Requested by Steve Previdsa
Your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses next weekend for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre. More volunteers are needed to help feed the hungry in our city. Please get a copy of a casserole recipe and a pan and give it a try. Three recipes are available on St. Gabriel’s web site. Printed copies of the recipes are also available in the Parish Office. Please remember to mark the label on the pan lid with the name of the casserole. For more information, you may contact Irene Albrecht at 416 221-2791.
Sunday, January 26th is World Leprosy Day. Leprosy affects the nervous system deadening the body to pain. As a result, cuts and burns go unnoticed and neglected leading to severe infections. Such conditions can lead to loss of function in the limbs and even result in amputation. Please take a few moments to remember the children, women and men living with leprosy. Please remember to bring us your used postage stamps. These are passed on to the Leprosy Mission of Canada helping them work towards the day when leprosy is eradicated. They are happy to accept any and all trimmed stamps, leaving no less than ¼ inch and no more than ½ inch paper border. Stamps may be deposited in the basket on the cabinet just outside the Parish Office. EVENTS
This Sunday, January 19th at 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Basilica, 83 Power Street, Toronto
Did you know that 160 parishes in the Archdiocese of Toronto are involved in sponsoring refugees to resettle in Canada? Join us for a Mass to celebrate the many individuals and families who have escaped turmoil to resettle in Canada and to pray for those still seeking to leave areas of war and strife. Bishop McGrattan will preside. The Mass is hosted by the Mission of the Vietnamese Martyrs. A special invitation is extended to those who have been involved in refugee sponsorship across the Archdiocese. For more information, visit www.archtoronto.org. All are welcome.
Saturday, January 25th at 9:00 P.M. Newman Centre, 89 St George St, Toronto
Faith Connections and the Newman Young Adult Ministry invite young adults (18-39) to a New Year’s Dance Social and charity fundraiser! Tickets: $10. Snacks and refreshments provided. For more information, e-mail nyamtoronto@gmail.com or call Vanessa Nicholas-Schmidt at 416-467-2645.
Saturday, January 25th from 9:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M St. Augustine’s Seminary 2661 Kingston Road, Scarborough
The workshop will include: Bioethics in the Headlines
Session One: Beginning of Life Issues at 9:40 A.M. What does the Church teach about recent developments in some of the “new reproductive technologies”?
Mass at 11:30 A.M followed by lunch.
Session Two: End of Life Issues at 1:00 P.M. How should Catholics respond to the call for physician-assisted suicide today? What does truly compassionate and dignified “end of life” care involve? The cost is $40 including lunch.
Please register by emailing ioftsas@rogers.com or by calling 416-261-7207, Ext 235
Sunday, January 26th at 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Basilica, 83 Power Street, Toronto
Come and join us in prayer with His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Anglican Archbishop Colin Johnson, Slovak Catholic Bishop John Pazak, Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald and other city-wide religious leaders on Sunday, January 26th at 3:00 P.M. at St. Paul’s Basilica, 83 Power Street (1 block East of Queen and Parliament Streets.) Homilist: Anglican Bishop Right Rev. Mark MacDonald (Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop)
Parking is available. Refreshments will follow in the parish hall. For further information, please contact the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs at 416-934-3400, Ext. 344 or Ext. 527 or vkwok@archtoronto.org.
February 2nd at 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Basilica
On Sunday, February 2nd, the Church celebrates the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. The purpose of this day is “to help the entire Church to esteem ever more greatly the witness of those persons who have chosen to follow Christ by means of the practice of the evangelical counsels” as well as “to be a suitable occasion for consecrated persons to renew their commitment and rekindle the fervor which should inspire their offering of themselves to the Lord.” – Blessed Pope John Paul II, 1997 message.
In the Archdiocese of Toronto, we are blessed to have living and serving among us more than 1,000 religious men and women of over 100 different religious congregations. This World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life is a wonderful opportunity for us to thank God for the gifts of these religious sisters, brothers and priests and to pray for God’s blessing upon them in their efforts to faithfully live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. On Sunday, February 2nd at 3:00 P.M. at St. Paul’s Basilica, there will be a special Mass in celebration of the vocation and witness of these special men and women religious who are such a vital and important part of the life and ministry of the Church in our Archdiocese. All are welcome to attend.
February 7th to 9th Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre, Mississauga
The theme is “entering the soul through stories.” Call 905-278-5229 to register.
Friday, February 7th at 7:00 P.M. Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
This question will be explored at the inaugural event of the Chesterton Debate Series, sponsored by the Office of Catholic Youth and the Archdiocese of Toronto. The debate takes place on Friday, February 7th at 7:00 P.M. at the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West).
Fr. Philip Cleevely, CO, an Oxford and Cambridge educated philosophy professor at St. Philip’s Seminary, will argue the Catholic position. Representing the atheist position is Justin Trottier, the founder of the Centre for Inquiry Canada and one of the country’s foremost advocates of secularism and skeptical inquiry. Stephen LeDrew, longtime host and commentator of CP24, will moderate the debate.
The debate series is inspired by G.K. Chesterton, an English Catholic who is widely regarded as one of the most gifted writers and orators of the 20th Century. The initiative reflects one of the core goals of the Pastoral Plan of the Archdiocese of Toronto, which challenges believers to “ensure the voice of faith is heard in the public square.”
Tickets cost $10. Sales begin January 10th through online registration at www.ocytoronto.org.
Our operating expenses average $14,550 per week.
Collection for January 12th, 2014
Envelopes 474 $9,743 Loose Change $1,047 Weekly Portion of PAG 180 $3,461 (Pre-Authorized Giving) Total $14,251
Please pick up your 2014 Offertory Boxed Envelopes as soon as possible. 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.
We would like to remind you not to use envelopes from previous years as this number may have been reassigned to another family.
| Posted in Bulletin |
January 12th, 2014
How many of us remember our baptism? If we were baptised as infants we wouldn’t remember a thing. But it was a great day and we were the center of attention. Our proud parents brought to the parish church along with our godparents, grandparents, siblings and a lot of other family friends. After our baptism there was a party and we received gifts and were passed around for everyone to hold.
St. Paul tells us that before the world began, scientists tell us our beautiful, vast universe is over 13 billion years old, but before that, God chose each of us to be God’s adopted son or daughter. That gracious choice was made real the day of our baptism. By the use of life giving water and the speaking of life giving words – I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – we became sons and daughters of God and the Spirit of God was poured into our very being giving us the boldness to call the almighty, the immense God – the intimate name, Father, papa, daddy, and we became members of the Body of Christ, the church.
Of course we had nothing to do with all this. Our parents wanted to see their own faith passed on to us.
Economists identify us as consumers, and our purpose in life is to buy. The entertainment industry identifies us as spectators, and our role is to “tune in.” Our baptism identifies us as God’s beloved children, and calls us to remain faithful to our identity and live out, as best we can with our new relationship with God. This is my son, my daughter, in whom I am well pleased – these words are true of us in the innocence of our infancy. May they be said of us today with our own personal histories of sins and failures as we struggle to live Christ-like lives, as we struggle every day to grow to full maturity in Christ, as we struggle to put on Christ and be as Christ like as possible. Some days we win, some days we lose.
Every day of life God our Father tells us ‘listen to him’, listen to my son as Christ challenges us to see him in every person who will come into our lives this day. We meet Christ every day in our spouses, our children, our parents, our neighbours, the people with whom we work, the street person who asks for money, the homeless, the addicted, we meet him in the over-worked, unpaid undocumented workers in the area.
I asked the students in our school, what do you have to do if want to see Jesus? They all knew the answer – look at the person next to me. That’s where Jesus is to us, in the man or woman of child that we see standing in front of us. How we accept and respect that person, how we reach out and help or heal or forgive that person, as they are, not as we would want them to be, will determine whether not the Father says of us, this is my beloved son or daughter in whom I am well pleased.
This feast of the Baptism of the Lord calls us back to our own baptisms and the possibilities and responsibilities of our baptism. Are we trying to be more like Christ in our relationships? Do we bring the love of Christ, the acceptance of Christ, for forgiving and healing of Christ to every person we meet. Are we even aware that this is what our baptism demands of us? Think about it.
We continue this Mass praying for ourselves and each other that our Father God can looking into our hearts and lives and say of us what he said of Jesus – this is my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.
January 13th – January 18th, 2014
MONDAY – ANDREW PARK – Requested by Julia Choi TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY – JOHN ROSENITSCH – Requested by Mary Ann & Fergus O’Connell THURSDAY – MAGDALENE LAM – Requested by John Chan FRIDAY – MAURICE MICHAEL – Requested by Charmaine Michael SATURDAY – THOMAS DONAGHY – Requested by the Family
Fair trade organic coffees will be on sale after all the Masses next weekend.
Regular ground coffee: $5.50 Decaffeinated: $6 Whole Beans: $5.50 Chocolate Bars: $4 incl. Taxes Hot Chocolate and Cocoa: $4.75 Teas: $4.25
Sunday, January 26th is World Leprosy Day. Leprosy affects the nervous system deadening the body to pain. As a result, cuts and burns go unnoticed and neglected leading to severe infections. Such conditions can lead to loss of function in the limbs and even result in amputation. Please take a few moments to remember the children, women and men living with leprosy. Please remember to bring us your used postage stamps. These are passed on to the Leprosy Mission of Canada helping them work towards the day when leprosy is eradicated. They are happy to accept any and all trimmed stamps, leaving no less than ¼ inch and no more than ½ inch paper border. Stamps may be deposited in the basket on the cabinet just outside the Parish Office.
Wednesday, January 15th at 7:00 P.M. St. Padre Pio Church 5500 Major Mackenzie Drive, Kleinburg
St. Padre Pio Church is hosting a Mass of Comfort and Light on Wednesday, January 15th at 7:00 P.M. This liturgy is offered in support of those who have suffered the loss of a loved one through the death of a family member or a friend. All are welcome. For more information please contact St. Padre Pio Parish at 905-893-7879 or email Deacon Curtis and Joanne Boone at newbeginnings.stpadrepiochurch@gmail.com.
Sunday, January 19th – 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Basilica 83 Power Street, Toronto
Did you know that 160 parishes in the Archdiocese of Toronto are involved in sponsoring refugees to resettle in Canada? Join us for a Mass to celebrate the many individuals and families who have escaped turmoil to resettle in Canada and to pray for those still seeking to leave areas of war and strife. Bishop McGrattan will preside. The Mass is hosted by the Mission of the Vietnamese Martyrs. A special invitation is extended to those who have been involved in refugee sponsorship across the archdiocese. For more information, visit www.archtoronto.org. All are welcome.
Saturday, January 25th from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. 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, followed by a dance social! Tickets: $30 (if a concern, contact us). Registrants will be divided into age groups. Registration is required by January 17th. Please contact Vanessa Nicholas-Schmidt by e-mail at faithconnections@csj-to.ca or phone at 416-467-2645.
This workshop will include: Bioethics in the Headlines
Session Two: End of Life Issues at 1:00 P.M. How should Catholics respond to the call for physician-assisted suicide today? What does truly compassionate and dignified “end of life” care involve?
The cost is $40 including lunch. Please register by emailing ioftsas@rogers.com or by calling 416-261-7207, Ext 235.
Sunday, January 26th at 3:00 P.M. St. Paul’s Basilica, 83 Power Street
Come and join us in prayer with His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Anglican Archbishop Colin Johnson, Slovak Catholic Bishop John Pazak, Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald and other city-wide religious leaders on: Sunday, January 26th at 3:00 P.M. at St. Paul’s Basilica, 83 Power Street (1 block East of Queen and Parliament Streets.)
Homilist: Anglican Bishop Right Rev. Mark MacDonald (Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop)
Parking is available. Refreshments will follow in parish hall.
For further information, please contact the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs at 416-934-3400, Ext. 344 or Ext. 527 or vkwok@archtoronto.org.
St. Augustine’s Seminary January 31st to February 2nd
“The love of Christ urges us on” to radically respond to His call to follow Him whole-heartedly. Jesus is inviting you to spend time with Him so that you may discover His call.
This is an opportunity for young men of 18 years or older to spend a weekend for time of prayer, reflection and information on the process of becoming one of Christ’s disciples through the Catholic priesthood.
For more information please contact the Office of Vocations at vocations@vocations.ca or 416-968-0997, or visit www.vocationstoronto.ca.
In the Archdiocese of Toronto, we are blessed to have living and serving among us more than 1,000 religious men and women of over 100 different religious congregations. This World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life is a wonderful opportunity for us to thank God for the gifts of these religious sisters, brothers and priests and to pray for God’s blessing upon them in their efforts to faithfully live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.
On Sunday, February 2nd at 3:00 P.M. at St. Paul’s Basilica, there will be a special Mass in celebration of the vocation and witness of these special men and women religious who are such a vital and important part of the life and ministry of the Church in our Archdiocese. All are welcome to attend.
Collection for January 5th, 2014
Envelopes 476 $9,692 Loose Change $970 Weekly Portion of PAG 180 $3,461 (Pre-Authorized Giving) Total $14,123
OFFERTORY ENVELOPES FOR 2014
Please pick up your 2014 Offertory Boxed Envelopes as soon as possible. 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. We would like to remind you not to use envelopes from previous years as this number may have been reassigned to another family.
January 5th, 2014
Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. We use this word epiphany to describe a moment when we have a sudden insight, a moment of enlightenment that gives us a deeper appreciation of something that was very ordinary in our lives. A husband or wife might come to a deeper appreciation of what they mean to one another because of the way he or she handles a crisis in their lives or how he or she was there for the other when test results let them know there will rough times ahead. Parents have an epiphany when they suddenly see how hard it is for a son or daughter to cope with the frustration of not being able to find work no matter what degrees they have, no matter how many years they’ve spent in school or when they appreciate in a deeper way the courage and determination of a son or daughter struggling with their addictions. A person may have an epiphany when realise how much comfort and strength they receive from attendance at Mass or following their favorite devotions.
People often have an epiphany when they are caught up in the beauty of a sun rise or the delicate beauty of an ordinary flower or watch in amazement as a spider spins its web. These and many more events that intrude into our ordinary lives give us a glimpse at the deeper wonder of all creation or the wonder of the goodness of those who are part and parcel of our daily lives are epiphanies – moments of wonder and awe. They may be surprises or they may come to us after years of prayer and searching.
Today’s gospel teaches us of the epiphany of the early church when it took to its heart the words of St. Peter after his encounter with the Roman Centurion, Cornelius – the truth I have come to understand is this, that any person of any nationality who does what is right is acceptable to God’
Peter and Paul both shared this epiphany that God’s love and the saving power of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection are open to people of all times who seek to do what is right according to their own lights. Peter and Paul confronted and opposed Jewish Christians who demanded the any Gentile who became a follower of Jesus must observe the laws and customs of Judaism.
So we have this beautiful gospel of wise men, non-Jews, coming from far away, searching for the truth, a truth they find in an infant lying in a manger. We hear they went home by a way they did not come, their lives transformed by the wonder they had experienced.
I believe we are experiencing a new epiphany in our time – if we are open to it. This epiphany is in the words and actions of Pope Francis. He stands before us all with open and welcoming arms. Not for him the pointing finger of condemnation and scolding. He welcomes all to come together – those of our faith, those with faiths different from our own, those with no faith at all to work together to undo the grave social and economic injustices of our time. Pope Francis call us of faith, calls those of different faith, calls those of no faith to work together to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give a roof to the homeless, provide clean drinking water to those who have no such luxury, give a homeland to the migrants, give hope to the hopeless of our own neighbourhood, our own country.
Listen to what Francis said at St. Peter’s on New Year’s Day;
We are all children of one heavenly father, we belong to the same human family and we share a common destiny,” “This brings a responsibility for each to work so that the world becomes a community of brothers who respect each other, accept each other in one’s diversity, and takes care of one another,”
The Holy Father invites us into this Epiphany – seeing in a deeper way, a more challenging way the truth that we are brothers and sisters to one another and we are our sisters and brothers keeper. May we be graced to hear and live these words of Jesus – love one another as I have loved you – as often as you do these things to others you do them 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