March 30th, 2008
We are all familiar with this resurrection story of the doubting Thomas who refused to believe Jesus was alive until he could put his finger into the wounds in Jesus’ hands and put his hand into the wound on Jesus’ side. This gospel ends praising people like us who have not seen with our eyes nor touched with our hands but still believe – Jesus is raised, Jesus lives.
This is another lesson this gospel teaches. We hear that the doors to the room where the disciples were, were locked for fear of the authorities. This is probably true. But those doors may have been locked because the disciples were ashamed to appear in public. They were mortified by the way they deserted and denied Jesus in His time of trial. How could they look family and friends in the face?
But Jesus passed through their door of humiliation and shame and stood before them. He showed them the wounds by which we are all healed. Instead of tearing a strip off them for their cowardly behavior Jesus spoke only words of peace and forgiveness. Peace be with you – He showed them the wounds in His hands and side, the price of this peace. Jesus would not be burdened by resentment or bitterness toward these men. He wanted to move on. He had wanted them to carry on His work of proclaiming the kingdom. “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” I send you to be messengers of peace.
St. Paul tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and calls us to be reconciled to God. But we are reconciled to God only when we are reconciled to one another. Remember the words of Jesus about a person who had a gift to offer at the altar and then remembered he had a grievance against another person? Jesus taught us to leave the gift where it is and go and make peace and then come back to offer our gift.
Could it be that this powerful resurrection story is asking us whether or not we have locked ourselves behind doors of resentment and bitterness? Have we isolated ourselves behind doors of painful, hurtful memories of which we won’t let go? Have we locked ourselves into a dark room full of grudges? If we have then we are the losers.
Remember the story of the pathologist Dr. Charles Smith who destroyed people’s lives with his wrong testimony? One such a person spent years in jail because of this doctor’s mistake. Getting out of jail he forgave the doctor for the wrong done to him. But Jim Coyle had a beautiful reflection in the Star about this. This man forgave the doctor not for the doctor’s sake but for his own sake. He made up his mind not to spend the rest of his life brooding on the injustice done him. Coyle wrote that the word ‘resentment’ comes from a Latin word that means to ‘re-think’, really to brood, relive a hurt over and over again. Coyle claims the only one resentment hurts is the person who resents, the person who rehashes the hurt, the wrong. The person who wallows in that rethinking.
Christ has every reason to resent the way His friends treated Him on Good Friday, every reason to resent their betrayal, denial and desertion. He passed through that door. He would not let it keep Him locked in lifeless darkness. He passed through the door of embarrassment and shame behind which His friends hid and called them out of that dark room to the light and love of His peace and mission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” What reconciliation, what restoration, what peace!
With this facet of our beautiful resurrection story before us can we have the courage to look at our own lives, our own relationships and ask ourselves whether or not we locked ourselves behind doors of brooding and resentment over past hurts and broken relationships and unfulfilled dreams? Do we need to look into the wounds of the risen Christ, wounds that healed us and find in them the example and the strength we need to let go of our resentment, our brooding – and forgive those who trespassed against us – if not for their sake, then for our own, if not for their peace then for our peace. If we can do this then we too can be embraced by the peace the Risen Christ brings to us through His Passion, Death and Resurrection.
| Posted in Homily |
Thank you to one and all who made our Holy Week and Easter such a beautiful and uplifting time; those in the Music Ministry, our Lectors and Altar Servers, our Ministers of the Eucharist, our Ministers of Hospitality, those responsible for decorating the Church and the members of the Pastoral Team. To you, the good people of the Parish, your attendance and participation in the ceremonies helped to make this a truly Holy Week and Easter. Fr. Paul
The parish of St. Gabriel’s welcomes into our family the following people who were received into the church at our Easter Vigil with the celebration of Baptism, Communion and Confirmation.
Mark Anthony, Estelle Bene, Winnie Lee, Ronald Monk, Anastasia Nicolor, Patricia Ning, Chad Smith, Sylvia Rhee, Kewen Zhu
On Wednesday April 2 at 7:30 PM., Rabbi David Seed from the congregation Adath Israel and Father Paul will be moderators for the second part of a presentation on Jewish/Christian relations. The discussion deals with mending relationships and mending the world.
April 2, 7:30 PM at St Gabriel’s Church 670 Sheppard Avenue East
This program is sponsored by the National Council of Synagogues and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Please make every effort to attend this very interesting evening.
Friday, April 4 from 9:30 AM – 12 Noon Please see the time schedule on the table inside the Church.
Saturday, April 5 at 3:15 PM in the Library For information, please contact Linda Law at 416 -918-8029.
Sunday, April 6 at 3:30 PM in the Gabriel Room For information, please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Sunday, April 6 at 11:30 AM in the Gabriel Room On the first Sunday of each month, the Passionist Centre for Ecology and Spirituality facilitates a 30 minute reflection and discussion prompted by the readings for that Sunday’s liturgy. This guided reflection brings an ecological perspective to the readings.
Sunday, April 6 at the 12:30 PM Mass
Tuesday evening, April 8 at 7:30 PM Topic: Catholics in Nazi Germany
Wednesday morning, April 9 at 10:30 AM Topic: St. Paul – Pastor and Theologian
Total: $19,582.26
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The 2008 Ching Ming Remembrance Mass will be held in the Holy Family Mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in Thornhill on April 5, 2008 at 2:00 PM. The Mass, which is held in Chinese, is organized by Catholic Cemeteries – Archdiocese of Toronto with the support of the four Chinese parishes. For further details, please see the poster in the foyer.
Monday, April 14 from 7:30 to 10:00 PM St. Bonaventure’s Parish Centre, 1300 Leslie Street, Don Mills
Sandwiches, Desserts, & Refreshments Door prizes and 50/50 Draw Please bring your own deck of cards.
Tickets; $60 per table, ($15 per person) For further information, please contact Joanne Franey at 416 – 441 – 3349
Four Winds Boys’ camp, previously known as Columbus Boys’ camp, has been operating since 1929. The overwhelming majority of boys registered are from single parent families (72.1%). In 2007, 392 boys registered for camp and 369 boys attended. It is anticipated that in 2008, with increased publicity, 450 boys will attend four Winds Boys’ Camp. Some of the organizations and agencies that provide the referrals are: Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Knights of Columbus, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Children’s Aid Society and the School Boards.
A gift to ShareLife is a sign of our Stewardship, giving back to God in thanksgiving for all that we have received
ShareLife 2008 To Date: $54,070
With the snow we’ve been having, we are all, especially golphers, wondering when will there be spring. I pass these words of wisdom along:
They say golf is like life. Don’t believe them. Golf is more complicated than that.
If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt!
Bishop Fulton Sheen said “Man blames fate for all other accidents but feels personally responsible when he makes a hole in one.”
Billy Graham said “The only time my prayers are not answered is when I’m playing golf.”
| Posted in Bulletin |
March 27th, 2008
All those newly baptized or newly received into the Church, taken with Father Paul. From left to right: Sylvia Rhee, Chad Smith, Pricilla Ning, Kewen Zhu, Father Paul, Anastasia Nicolor, Estelle Bene, Winnie Lee, Ronald Monk. Confirmation candidate Mark Anthony is not in the picture.
| Posted in Events |
March 23rd, 2008
This evening Estelle Bene, Winnie Lee, Ronald Monk, Priscilla Ning, Kewen Zhu and Anastasia Nicolov will be baptized and Sylvia Rhee, Chad Smith and Mark Anthony will be received into the Catholic community. Since last September these good people have working with Mary Landry, Fatima Lee and Bonnie O’Brien, learning more and more about our Catholic/Christian faith. They’ve decided, through their study and prayer that they wanted to join the church.
In the early church this was the night new Christians were baptized. St. Paul uses the powerful imagery of Christ’s burial and resurrection to describe this sacrament of baptism. As Christ was buried in the tomb and then rose gloriously from the tomb to new life, so the newly baptized immersed in water, as in a tomb came from that tomb to new life in Christ. Paul explains his symbolism saying, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too have been raised in him to live a new life for God.” By water and by word we who are baptized are freed from sin and we enter into a whole new relationship the Father, the Father Who chose us in Christ before the world began to be His adopted daughters and sons.
At every Easter Mass we are asked to renounce Satan and the works of Satan – to profess our faith in Jesus Christ and commit ourselves again to do our best at living Christ like lives, living out our adoption, our being chosen by God before the world began.
This is the feast of life over death, love over hatred, holiness over sin. This feast is the foundation stone of our Christian life and faith. As St. Paul puts it so bluntly “if Christ be not raised then we are still in our sins” – the pain and shame and death on Good Friday was for nothing. But we believe the good news brought to Peter and the apostles on first Easter morning by Mary Magdalene and passed on to Christian people through the centuries – Christ lives.
Jesus was raised, not as a reward for a good life well spent, but to untomb us from our tombs of our sins, our anger, prejudice, self centeredness. Christ rose from the dead to empower us, His sisters and brothers to overcome all those death dealing situations in our lives, be they found in lifestyles, attitudes or in relationships that can dominate and control our lives and are really unworthy of our dignity as daughters and sons of God and deprive us of the life and love that are ours through the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.
Easter, in a special way, is a day and celebration that calls us to live our lives for God and this we do by living our lives for others following the example of Christ Who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
As we continue to celebrate our Easter Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we live our lives in such a way that they manifest the good news, the life giving news Mary Magdalene brought to the Apostles – Christ is risen and lives in us, in the lives we live, the work we do, the service give and the prayers we pray – outside these walls.
This Easter Sunday we celebrate the joy of the risen Christ. ShareLife continues to help those in our community through agencies like Silent Voice, one of 34 agencies receiving funding from ShareLife. Silent Voice provides service to deaf children, adults and families. The agency works to create better communication between deaf and hearing members in families and in our community. Silent Voice also has a Sign Language Summer Program, a day camp in American Sign Language (ASL) for deaf children and hearing children who have deaf parents, sisters or brothers. In this program, children improve their ASL, meet other children who sign and have fun! The program is structured for children age 6 to 14 with all signing abilities.
March 24, the Office Closed
On Wednesday, March 25 and Wednesday April 2 at 7:30 PM., Rabbi David Seed from the congregation Adath Israel and Father Paul will be moderators for a presentation on Jewish/Christian relations. These discussions deal with mending relationships and mending the world.
March 25, 7:30 PM at Adath Israel, 37 Southborne Avenue, one block north of Wilson Avenue off Bathurst Street April 2, 7:30 PM at St Gabriel’s, 670 Sheppard Avenue East
This program is sponsored by the National Council of Synagogues and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Please make every effort to attend these very interesting evenings.
Total: $11,018.44
Tuesday evening, March 25 at 7:30 PM Topic: Catholics in Nazi Germany
Wednesday morning, March 26 at 10:30 AM Topic: St. Paul – Pastor and Theologian
Good Shepherd Centre, a multi-service charitable agency providing services to homeless and disadvantaged individuals, needs your help!
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Good Shepherd Centre is in need of the following items:
Volunteer Opportunity
Thursday morning (6:30 – 7:30 AM) Kitchen volunteer to help set up and serve breakfast For more information, please contact Kanwaljeet Biln at 416 – 869 – 3619, Ext. 262. Good Shepherd Centre is located at 412 Queen Street East, Toronto, Ontario. M5A 1T3 Phone: 416 – 869-3619 Fax: 416 – 869-0510
Your prepared chicken rice casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses next weekend for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre. More volunteers are encouraged to get a copy of the casserole recipe and a pan and give it a try. For more information, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416 221 – 2791.
Earth Hour is a world movement intending to reinforce a powerful message about the need for action on global warming. Those participating will turn off their lights from 8:00 to 9:00 PM on Saturday, March 29, 2008 as a symbol of their support for action.
As parishioners of Canada’s first green Church, we urge your participation in this event. During that time, we will also be celebrating Earth Hour together here in our Church. We will gather at 7:45PM. There will be storytelling, music, reflection, prayer and conversations. Light refreshments will also be served. Please join us if you can!
Married couples: You deserve a weekend to celebrate being together; to rediscover each other and focus on ways to make your relationship even better. A Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend offers this opportunity. Consider giving each other or another couple that you know the gift of a weekend away from daily pressures; time to be with each other and with God on a Marriage Encounter Weekend.
Upcoming Weekend date: April 4 – 6, 2008 For further information, please contact David & Lucy Adams at 905 – 470 – 9590 or email adams@rogers.com
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