December 25th, 2010
Christmas is a family feast. We are celebrating the birth of a baby, Jesus and the beginning of a family. Christmas is best celebrated with the family. How many of you here have traveled a great distance to be home for Christmas? I know at least one of our parishioners has come all the way from Australia to be home to celebrate this feast with family. Bing Crosby made famous the song ‘I’ll be home for Christmas – if only in my dreams.’ How many people are there just dreaming, imaging being home for Christmas but are sitting in snow bound air ports?
It is good to have you here, home for Christmas, joining us again as family. The church is the family of believers. But as you know families can be funny. We have happy, supportive families. We have conflicted and broken families. The family of the church contains all these elements. Today as a parish family we remember those members of our family who are not with us, not home for Christmas. We all know family members and friends who are alienated, estranged from the family of the church for whatever reason. But they are still family and we are lessened by their absence just as a family Christmas celebration is lessened, the joy is dampened by the absence of loved ones who just can’t make it home, or won’t make it home for Christmas.
In our family celebration of Christmas we remember in our prayers those good people, members of the family who are not with us to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Probably the most asked question these next couple of days will be “what did you get for Christmas?’ So much of the time preparing for Christmas is around the decision of what to give people for Christmas.
I read a very interesting story recently of a person who was over anxious about giving someone the right gift, the perfect gift for Christmas. A friend of his offered this wise advice; ‘You are trying to do someone else’s job. Do your own. Your task is to give the gift. Let them take care of receiving it.”
Today we celebrate the wonder that God took care of His task. He gifted us with His Son Jesus. A gift wrapped in the weakness and fragility of our own humanity. This son would eventually gift us with his very life which he offered on the cross.
Now how are we to do our task? How are we to receive such a gift? We each answer that question in our own way. We answer it in the way we try to live our lives as Christian persons. We answer it in the way we respond to these questions of Jesus, the Father’s gift to us, I was hungry, did you give me food? I was thirsty did you give me drink? I was naked, did you clothe me? I was sick, I was in prison. Did you take the time to visit me? I wronged you. Did you forgive me? As often as you did these things to one of these the least of my brothers and sisters, you did them to me. You received my Father’s gift to you when you received me in any one, in every one who comes into your life.
Our Father’s gift to us comes wrapped in every person we meet whether in our own families, the people with whom we work, or a total stranger. There we meet the Christ, there we love and serve the Christ.
God did His task in giving us His gift. May each of us do our task by receiving his gift in every person who comes into our lives.
| Posted in Homily |
December 19th, 2010
A few years ago there was a movie out; I think it was just called Jesus of Nazareth. It was in black and while and it showed in stark reality of the harsh life people lived in the Nazareth of Jesus’ time.
Read more »
May the Christ whose Birth and Life we celebrate strengthen us all and bless us with the peace and joy of this Holy Season.
| Posted in Bulletin |
December 12th, 2010
In the second reading James is encouraging the Christian community to be patient as they wait for the coming of the Lord. In the early years of the church many thought that Jesus would return to relieve the sufferings of his followers and vindicate their faith in him and all would be well. In time they came to see this was unrealistic and the how and when of Jesus’ coming is known to God alone.
December 13th- December 18th 2010
MONDAY – ROSE MA Requested by Mary & Alec Chan TUESDAY – JANICE DE RUITER Requested by Mary & Alec Chan WEDNESDAY – SPECIAL INTENTION Requested by Alice Michael THURSDAY – AGNES & JAMES LEDDY Requested by Alicia Patenaude FRIDAY – BARRY BRADBURY Requested by Peggy & Family SATURDAY – GUS CALDERONE Requested by Marie Calderone
Dress Rehearsal: Sunday, December 19th 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
S.K. to Grade 5 children are invited to participate in the pageant. Please call Anne Murphy at 416-512-0340.
Wednesday, December 15th at 7:30 PM St. Gabriel’s Church
Will Christmas be difficult to celebrate this year because of the loss of a loved one? St. Gabriel’s, the other Christian Churches in our area and the North York Hospital Chaplaincy are offering a Christmas Service for Those Who Mourn on Wednesday, December 15th at 7:30 PM here at St. Gabriel’s Church. All are welcome to attend.
Sunday, December 19th @ 7:00 PM
The Youth Group, together with Fr. Brando, will hold a concert on Sunday, December 19th @ 7:00 PM here at St. Gabriel’s Church in order to continue to raise funds for a water system for the indigenous people in the Philippines. Free will donations will be accepted.
Rehearsal: Sunday, December 19th 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Each year, young people, Grade 3 and up, form a special choir for the Family Mass on Christmas Eve. Children must be at the Church by 6:00 PM for this Mass. One rehearsal, which is mandatory, will be held on Sunday, December 19th from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Please call Marilyn Calderone at 416-618-2041 for more information.
“Moments of Grace from Dark Days” Sunday, December 21 at 7:30 PM
The annual Advent/Winter Solstice Evening of Reflection will be held on Sunday, December 21 at 7:30 PM in the Gabriel room. Because the feast of Christmas was deliberately timed to coincide with the darkness of the winter’s solstice, there is a link between theological meaning and cosmological setting. Join us for a guided exploration of the relevance of these theological and cosmological connections to today’s ecological challenges. Please contact Dennis O’Hara at dennis.ohara@utoronto.ca or 416-926-1300, ext. 3408 to register or for more information.
Your offertory envelopes are now available in the Gathering Space. Please pick yours up as soon as possible. If the address on your box is incorrect, please inform the Parish Office so that we can update our records. If you do not receive offertory envelopes and would like to do so, please call the office at 416-221-8866 and we will prepare a box for you. The “Pre-Authorized Giving” plan allows parishioners to make their regular offertory donations by automatic monthly bank withdrawal. Forms, (in a sealed envelope please), may be placed in the collection basket or dropped off at the Parish Office.
Our operating expenses average $14,000 per week. Last week’s collection: Loose Change – $ 1, 342 Envelopes (454) – $10,138 Weekly Portion of Pre-Authorized Giving 134 – $2,738 Total – $14,218
Your support is urgently needed! December 12th to 17th
The Society for St. Vincent de Paul is in urgent need of food to help the growing number of families requiring assistance this year. All food collected until December 17th will be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society for distribution. Donations may be left in the designated containers at the doors of the Church until December 17th. Thank you for your support.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul tries to bring help to our neighbours who are in urgent need of assistance. Anyone looking for help should call 416-740-6006 and leave their name and phone number. They will then be contacted in order to determine their needs and arrange a meeting.
We are having a Christmas Toy Drive for the Catholic Children’s Aid Society. Can you help by dropping off an unwrapped new toy for a child 0 to 12 years old? Containers will be set up at the doors of the Church until Sunday, December 19h.
Concert – Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 7:30 PM
The Refugee Sponsorship Committee is having a Fundraising concert on Thursday January 13th, 2011 for the Iraqi family being sponsored by the Parish. The concert will be held at 7:30pm at St. Gabriel’s and will feature musicians and singers from the Parish, as well as special guest DALA. DALA has toured Canada and the US many times, opening for artists such as Jann Arden, Tom Cochrane, Matthew Good, Stuart McLean of the CBC’s Vinyl Café and Chantal Kreviazuk. Tickets will go on sale in the Gathering Space after all Masses December 18th and 19th. Adult tickets: $20, and $10 for children under 12. Tickets can also be purchased from Marilyn Calderone (416-221-8866 ext 225) and Chris Carabine (416-512-9666).
December 18th to January 4th
Your help is urgently needed. The situation is critical! Please help feed the hungry and homeless this Christmas. Make a difference in the lives of those most in need within our community by participating in the Good Shepherd Centre’s annual Christmas Food Drive
Urgently Needed Items:
Donations may be left in the designated containers at the doors of the Church. We thank you for your generous support.
Fair trade organic coffees will be on sale after all the Masses next weekend.
The Catholic Children’s Aid Society is inviting families to assist them in providing some little extras, such as new clothing, new toys, food vouchers and /or gift certificates to bring the joy of the season to one of their families. If you are willing to provide a donation or adopt-a-family, please call 416-395-1634 or email info@hopeforthechildren.ca.
You are invited after all the Masses this weekend to sign an Amnesty International petition and/or send a greeting card to a prisoner of conscience or human rights defender who is under threat.
“Engagement with the world, as demanded by God’s word, makes us look with new eyes at the entire created cosmos, which contains traces of that Word through whom all things were made. (cf. Jn 1:2). As men and women who believe in and proclaim the Gospel, we have a responsibility towards creation.”
Verbum Domini, Benedict XVI, Nov., 2010
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
