September 29th, 2009
Professor Raymond Collins, a renowned New Testament scholar, will be giving a three-evening workshop on St. Paul at our parish on October 5 to 7, 2009 (Mon to Wed), from 7:30 to 9 PM each evening.
Until his retirement in 2006, Father Collins was, for more than three decades, professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and then at the Catholic University of America. He is author of numerous books and articles, many focusing on the Pauline epistles. He also writes extensively using his scholarship on the New Testament to help “break the Word” for the homilists as well as the faithful.
Read more »
| Posted in Bulletin |
Last Monday the church celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The epistle of the Mass was from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians in which St. Paul called the Philippians to have that mind in them which was also in Christ Jesus, Who though He was by nature God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient on to the point of death, even death on the cross.
It is this struggle of self emptying, not putting ourselves above others, not asking ‘what’s in this for me’, that Jesus puts before us to today. In last Sunday’s gospel Jesus accepted Peter’s acknowledgement that He was the Christ. But then He went on to tell Peter the full dimension of what being the Christ entails, “the Christ must undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes and eventually be killed. Peter couldn’t get his head around such a possibility and tries to talk Jesus out of it all. Calling Peter ‘Satan’, Jesus tells him, “you are thinking not as God does but as humans do.”
We find this thinking to be true in today’s gospel. Whether they didn’t want to hear it or couldn’t grasp it, the apostles still failed to understand what being the Christ would mean. As they made their way to Capernaum instead of trying to figure out what Jesus was trying to tell them they spent the time arguing about who would be the leader if anything should happen to Jesus. Jesus is telling them about His future death and they’re planning on their future rankings.
The need for power and prestige is part of all of us – we all want to be recognized, appreciated, lead the parade – we want to be number one. Ambition can be a force in our lives. On one occasion Jesus confronted this mentality when He heard the apostles were arguing who was first among them. He had to tell them “the Son of man came to serve, not to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He even had to deal with the mother of James and John who wanted a special place for her sons in his kingdom.
Jesus wanted his apostles to see themselves as leaders who serve instead of seeking to be served, to rid themselves of pride and haughtiness and not to lord their authority over others. In the helpless powerless child the disciples were to find the simplicity that would enable them to see beyond their selfish ambition and understand the manner of life to which Jesus was calling them.
I think at one time or another we’ve all suffered from the abuse of power. Haven’t we been upset when, dealing with a professional person – a doctor, lawyer, a teacher, a priest – we’ve been treated like a moron. Haven’t we been annoyed, even angered when the professional we are seeing thinks himself too busy to take the time to explain our problem. The message is “just take my word for it.”
We’ve seen the abuse of authority in so many areas of life in the recent past; in the church, government, banking and investments, labor and management. In all these areas people have forgotten they are meant to serve, not to be served, not exploit their position.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other, that if we are in a position of authority, be it as priest, parent, or in our place of work, we try to follow the example of Jesus, Who did not exploit His equality with God but emptied Himself becoming as we all are and gave His life in service to all of us.
| Posted in Homily |
If you wish to understand St. Paul better, this is an opportunity not to be missed. For further details, please consult the notice on the bulletin board, or contact Fatima Lee. Please call (416) 221-8866 to register. This will help us with arrangements for the venue.
Our journey of life and journey of faith are meant to converge at an early age. For many of us, however, we tend to grow physically, mentally, psychologically etc., but remain at a childish level of understanding our faith. The following information is for those who wish to keep growing, to be able to enjoy the Good news of God’s love for us as members of God’s Church.
R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) meetings begin on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:00 PM. These evenings are for persons interested in learning about the Catholic Faith. Because the Parish Community itself is considered the official teacher and guide for potential new members, it is important that some parishioners participate by being present and by sharing their Faith in various ways. It is also an opportunity for “Born Catholics” to deepen their understanding of the faith. Adult Catholics who wish to celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist and/or Confirmation are welcome. For more information, please call Mary Landry at 416-221-8866.
In past years, Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings have been devoted to religious topics decided on by those who wish to participate. We have studied and discussed parts of the Bible and Church history, viewed videos, listened to tapes and read short but substantial books about Christ and the Church.
On Tuesday evening, September 22nd at 7:30 PM, we will decide what topics we will study. On Wednesday morning, September 23rd at 10:30 AM, we will have many topics we wish to explore. Come and tell us what you’re interested in learning!
For more information, please contact Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
More than 1,700 people in Ontario are waiting for an organ transplant. In 2008, 81 people died waiting. Take the time to speak to your loved ones and make your wishes known. As Catholics, we are called to share the precious gift of life with those most in need.
Learn more about organ donation, from a Catholic perspective.
A Marriage Preparation Course will take place at St. Gabriel’s Church on the weekend of November 6h to 8th. If you are interested, please contact the Parish Office. at 416-221-8866. Register early as space is limited.
The Children’s Liturgy of the Word, for children 4-10 years old, will begin on Sunday, September 20th at the 10:30 AM Mass.
St. Gabriel’s School is in need of a lunchtime supervisor from 12:00 to 1:00 PM daily. This is a paid position. If you are interested in applying for this position, please contact the School Office at 416-393-5256 as soon as possible.
Your prepared chicken rice casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at all the Masses next weekend, September 26th/27th. More volunteers are encouraged to pick up a copy of the casserole recipe and a pan. Why not give it a try?
For more information, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
The Centre needs
Thank you for your donation. For more information, please contact Rebecca Ferguson at 416-869-3619, Ext. 262.
You may have noticed a new bulletin board in the lower hall leading to the parking garage. This is an employment opportunities board where employers looking for help and individuals looking for work can post their information.
Please bring all notices to the Parish Office for approval.
Total: $7,705.00
The “Pre-Authorized Giving” plan allows parishioners to make their regular offertory donations by automatic monthly bank withdrawal. This system is widely used in the Archdiocese of Toronto and is a safe and convenient method of giving for those interested.
Forms, in a sealed envelope, may be placed in the collection basket or dropped off at the Parish Office.
“Those who sing pray twice!”
We would like to invite new membership to our Senior and Junior Choirs. The Senior Choir practices Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 PM and sings at the 10:30 Mass. The Junior Choir practices Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM and sings at the 12:30 Mass.
We invite all to consider joining this important ministry of music. For more information, please call Marilyn Calderone at 416-618-2041.
The Altar Service is now recruiting new members. If you are in Grade 4 or higher and are interested in becoming an altar server, please leave your name and phone number with the Parish Office at 416-221-8866. The orientation and training for new members will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 2:30 PM to 4:15 PM.
Tuesday, September 22nd 2:00 PM Blessed Trinity Parish Hall
Our fall season begins on Tuesday, September 22nd at 2:00 PM. Peter Ngan will speak on Crime and Punishment.
September 13th, 2009
Mark 8:27-35
The happening at Caesarea Philippi is told in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. It was an important event in the relationship Jesus was developing with the Apostles. Jesus asked them for a bit of feedback: “Who do people say I am?” But more importantly He wanted to know who He was to them. “Who do you say I am?” Peter takes it upon himself to answer for all. “You are the Christ”
In Matthew’s telling of this event he extends Peter’s answer: “You are the Christ the Son of the living God.” Jesus tells Peter ‘flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven.” In other words, Peter you did not come to this understanding of Me on your own; this is a gift from My Father.
Now Jesus goes on to tell the apostles, ‘but there’s more to Me that you have to understand.’ He tries to teach them that His future will involve hatred, hostility, betrayal, suffering and death and then resurrection. Jesus is telling them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about Himself. It was a truth with which Peter could not cope: “This must never happen to you Lord.” In Luke’s gospel Jesus calls Peter, Satan. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus calls Peter the rock on which the church will be built. This is the whole truth about Peter, a rock with fault lines and Jesus accepts the whole Peter, with all his faults and all his strengths just as He wants Peter to accept the whole Jesus.
When Jesus talks about taking up the cross He is not talking about illness or disease, there is nothing particularly Christian about cancer or Alzheimer’s or a broken hip or heart attack. These can happen to anyone. The cross He is referring to is the type of suffering that is likely to befall a person for being His follower, the negative consequences that can happen when a person really tries to live her/his live modeled on Jesus. This cross is the cost of discipleship.
Remember the song, ‘All of me, why not take all of me”? That’s what today’s gospel is all about; we have to take the whole Jesus, the whole Christ; not just the Christ of signs and wonders, the Christ who gave sight to the blind, speech to the speechless, hearing to the deaf. Not just the Christ Who cured lepers and even raised the dead, not just the Christ of the Transfiguration. The whole Christ involves the Christ of Gethsemane, the Christ betrayed and abandoned by His friends, the Christ humiliated before Pilate, the Christ rejected by the crowd, the Christ crucified on Calvary – the Christ glorified in His resurrection.
Jesus invites us to accept the whole of Him in the living of our lives and be willing to pay the cost of discipleship.
I was on a TV program last year and the subject was on “what is happiness” I suggested that if we want to be happy we can pray and live the prayer of St. Francis which captures the teaching of today’s gospel:
Make me a channel of your peace – where there is hatred let me sow love – where there is injury pardon, where there is doubt faith, where there is despair, hope – where there is darkness, light – where there is sadness, joy.
Divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console – to be understood as to understand. – to be loved as to love.
It is in giving we receive, in pardoning we are pardoned and in dying we are born to eternal life.
The gospel and the Prayer of St. Francis call us to place the common good and Christ at the centre of our lives and not our own needs and desires. It is our free choice to live a life imitating as best we can Jesus, Who loved us and gave His life for us.
As we continue to celebrate the Eucharist in which Christ gave Himself totally for us and to us we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be graced to accept and imitate the whole Christ, the Christ Who suffered and the Christ Who is glorified, the Christ Who is with us in all our sorrows and in all our joys.
September 10th, 2009
October 5th – 7th, 2009
GOOD NEWS!
Professor Raymond Collins, STD, a renowned New Testament scholar will be giving a three-evening workshop on St. Paul at our parish on October 5 to 7, 2009 (Monday to Wednesday).
Until his retirement in 2006, Professor Collins, for more than three decades, was professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and then at the Catholic University of America. He is author of numerous books and articles on the New Testament.
If you wish to understand St. Paul better, this is an opportunity not to be missed. For details please refer to the notice on the bulletin board, or contact Fatima Lee. Please call 416-221-8866 to register; this will help us with arrangements for the venue.
The Altar Service is now recruiting new members.
If you are in Grade 4 or higher and are interested in becoming an altar server, please leave your name and phone number with the Parish Office at 416-221-8866.
The orientation and training for new members will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 2:30 PM to 4:15 PM.>
The Children’s Liturgy of the Word, for children 4 – 10 years old, will begin on Sunday, September 20th at the 10:30 AM Mass.
Monday Nights are R.C.I.A. Nights
R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) meetings begin on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 8:00 PM. These evenings are for persons interested in learning about the Catholic Faith. Because the Parish Community itself is considered the official teacher and guide for potential new members, it is important that some parishioners participate by being present and by sharing their Faith in various ways. It is also an opportunity for “Born Catholics” to deepen their understanding of the faith. Adult Catholics who wish to celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist and/or Confirmation are welcome. For more information, please call Mary Landry at 416 – 221 – 8866.
ST. GABRIEL’S CHOIRS
We invite all to consider joining this important ministry of music. For more information, please call Marilyn Calderone at 416 – 618 – 2041.
The Scarboro Missions and the Catholic Missions of Canada would like to express their sincere thanks for your generous response to the annual Shared Collection held recently in the Parish. A total of $3,032.33 was raised. Your support is greatly appreciated.
The next shipment to the Aboriginal Communities of Northern Ontario will be in October, but the collection will continue throughout the year. Most requested items are:
All items should be in good condition – something that you would use yourself.As before, donations can be dropped off between 7:30 AM – 2 PM Monday to Friday at
“Kids Come First” Daycare
40 New Westminster Drive, Thornhill
(at Steeles between Bathurst and Dufferin).
Please enter through the black iron wrought gates.
For more information, please contact Fatima Lee
at 416-221-8866.
MARRIAGE PREPARATION COURSE
November 6th – 8th,, 2009
A Marriage Preparation Course will take place at
St. Gabriel’s Church on the weekend of
November 6th to 8th.
If you are interested, please contact the Parish Office at 416-221-8866.
Register early as space is limited.
Fair trade organic coffees will be on sale after all the Masses next weekend.
Weekend of September 21st / 22nd , 2009
Rosalie Hall is a Centre for teen mothers and other single parents and their children. Amidst their ongoing great struggle and hardship, we depend on you, “the good people of St. Gabes”, to once again consider supporting these young women by feeding them and providing them with adequate clothing, as they strive to parent their children.
Our needs are basic: small bags of rice, pasta, Kraft dinner, breakfast and infant cereals, juice boxes, crackers, canned beans, pasta sauce, canned meats, tuna, canned fruit and diapers.
Teen and Women’s Clothing items such as socks, underwear, hats and mitts, shirts, pants, etc. are most welcome. We will also gratefully accept new and gently used clothing for babies and toddlers up to 14 months old.
Many thanks for your compassion and support as we all strive to be “doers of the word” in our reaching out to others. May you be blessed, as you are blessing.
The Centre is in need of the following items:
Thank you for your donation. Please be reminded that we only accept donations of men’s clothing
For more information, please contact Rebecca Ferguson at 416-869-3619, Ext. 262.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th DAVID SHELDRICK Requested by Teresa Sheldrick
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th PAULA SHELDRICKRequested by The Sheldrick Family
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th MONICA SONG Requested by Insoon Kim
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th MARIA GUIDOLIN TROJETTO Requested by Bruno Trojetto
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th GORDON OATWAY Requested by The Family
The“Pre-Authorized Giving” plan allows parishioners to make their regular offertory donations by automatic monthly bank withdrawal. This system is widely used in the Archdiocese of Toronto and is a safe and convenient method of giving for those interested.
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
