November 11th, 2007
Some parishioners are concerned about the coming of the Flu season and our practice of shaking hands for the Greeting of Peace. If someone does not offer their hand to you, please do not take it personally, they may not want to pass their cold onto you.
Today marks the 55th anniversary of the execution of Passionist Bishop Eugene Bossilkov by the Communists. The Passionists have been ministering in northern Bulgaria since the 1700s. Eugene joined the Passionists in 1920 and eventually was ordained bishop of Nicopolis in 1947. Bulgaria joined the Axis during the Second World War and was eventually invaded by the Russians who established a Communist government in the country. Bishop Bossilkov refused to work with the government to establish a ‘national’ church free of the influence of Rome. He was arrested and tried for treason and was executed on this day in 1952 and was buried in a common grave. Bishop Eugene was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 15, 1998.
Fr. Paul
Total: $9,920
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The Shepherds’ Trust is an archdiocesan retirement program that provides elderly and infirm priests with the financial support they require to lead a dignified life after their many years of service to us. This collection will take place in our parish the weekend of November 17th/18th. The contributions received from our parish plus other ‘religious order’ parishes will be allocated to each order’s retirement fund. Please note that all contributions are tax-deductible. Thank you for caring for those who always cared for us!
There will be a book of Remembrance placed on the altar for the month of November. You are invited to write the names of your deceased relatives and friends in this book. They will be remembered at all the Masses celebrated in November.
The topics we have chosen are varied – a mixture of church history, church teachings and scripture. You are welcome to join us whenever you can. For further information call Mary Landry at 416-221-8866 ext 224. Next meetings: Tuesday evening, November 13th at 7:30 PM Wednesday morning, November 14th at 10:30 AM.
The parish is looking to establish a new ministry to serve elderly parishioners and others with special needs who might require transportation to and from Church on Saturdays/Sundays, and to medical appointments. First we would like to ascertain the need of the community in this regard. At the same time, we are seeking volunteers who would like to participate in this ministry. Any parishioners who would like to avail themselves of such a service OR who can volunteer to help, please contact Fatima Lee at 416 221-8866 ext 228.
Have questions regarding end of life issues: euthanasia, pain and suffering surrounding death, palliative care, withdrawal of treatment or dignity of the dying?
Please join us for a lecture series presented by the Canadian Catholic bioethics Institute (CCBI) here at our parish. The lectures are scheduled for four consecutive Wednesdays beginning on November 14th from 7:30 to 9:30 PM.
The topics are: Nov. 14th – What is Bioethics and what are the issues? Nov. 21st – Advanced Directives, Power of Attorney and Ethical issues at the End of Life Nov. 28th – Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide, Palliative Care and Spiritual Issues Dec. 5th – A Christian Spirituality of Suffering and Death
Guest speakers will be Dr. Moira McQueen, the Director of the CCBI, and Dr. Barry Brown. At the end of each lecture, there will also be an opportunity for questions and discussion. Suggested donation is $40 for the series; or $10 per lecture; or whatever your means allow. For further information and to register, please call the parish office at (416) 221-8866.
Fair trade organic coffees will be on sale after all the Masses next weekend.
Regular ground coffee: $5 Decaffeinated: $6 Whole Beans: $5 Chocolate Bars: $4 incl. taxes Hot Chocolate and Cocoa: $4.50 Teas: $3.25 to $4 by variety
Fair trade products are appreciated as Christmas presents. Please let us know of your Christmas order at next week’s sale so that we can have sufficient quantities for the December sale.
The Catholic Office of Religious Education and Liturgy is sponsoring two workshops that may be of interest to you.
Saturday, November 17, 2007 Praying With Children St. Rose of Lima Parish 3216 Lawrence Ave. East Scarborough, ON (416) 438-6729
Saturday, November 24, 2007 The Church’s Teaching on Marriage St. Luke’s Parish 39 Green Lane Thornhill, ON (905) 881-2786
has begun a new outreach program of talks throughout the Archdiocese of Toronto to bring the message of joy and hope to the laity, especially families. On November 17, 2007 at 10:00 AM, Prof. Donald DeMarco will talk about The Architects of the Culture of Death. All the lectures, which are free of charge, will be held at St. Bernard de Clairvaux Hall located at 1795 Lawrence Ave. West, Toronto. For more information, you may call the station at (416) 245-0200 or email at info@hmwn.net.
on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at Scarboro Missions, 2685 Kingston Rd., Scarborough. We welcome those who feel they may be called by God to be a priest or lay missioner. We invite you to walk with us…it may change your life forever! To register please contact us at (416) 261-7135 or lmo@scarbormissions.ca
| Posted in Bulletin |
November 4th, 2007
A couple of weeks ago someone sent me an e mail with an attachment titled,” A Fascinating Zoom In”. It was produced by NASA and we are invited to travel with NASA from the biggest to the smallest distances in the universe.
Our journey starts 10 million light years away in vast expanse of space. We work our way down through the light years into our own galaxy of the Milky Way. We journey 100 light years, then 10 light years and finally at 1 light year we catch sight of our sun. At 100 billion km we begin to see our solar system, at 10 billion km we see our solar system and at 100,000 km we see planet earth, much at the first astronaughts saw it. At 1000 km we zero in on Florida, at 10 km we can make out streets and lakes – and golf courses – at 100 km we can see what we might see from a helicopter – at 10 cm we see leaves on a tree – at 1 cm we see the structure of a leaf – at 100 microns we see the cells that make up the leaf and at 1 micron we can see the cell itself. We continue the journey, at 1000 angstroms we see the chromosomes of the cell and at 100 angstroms we see the DNA chain of the leaf. At 1 nanometre we see the atom of carbon, the basis of all life and at 10 picometres we see the atom orbit of the electrons and at 100 fermi we see the inner anaton. At one Fermi we see the surface of the neutron and our journey which started in the outer reaches of space ends at 100 atom metres where we see the quark.
To tell you the truth I don’t understand any of these terms and in a way the whole things sounds like the Negro spiritual, ‘your toe bone’s connected to your foot bone and your foot bone’s connected to your ankle bone’… and so on.
To watch this ‘fascinating zoom in’ is awesome. The author of our first reading had no such insight into cosmology as we have today but he could still look to an unpolluted sky and marvel at it all. Yet he knew that compared to the awesomeness of God the wonder before his eyes was like a speck that tips the scales, like a drop of morning dew that falls to the ground. He would say this not to belittle creation but just to keep things in perspective.
In the 4th century the church condemned a heresy called Manichaeism which taught that creation was divided into good and evil, light and darkness and the material creation was evil. In condemning this world view the church echoed the words of today’s first reading, “Lord you love all things that exist and detest none of the things you have made.” In other words all creation is good and all creation from the quark to the galaxy is loved by God.
Today we’ve come to know that all creation is connected, inter-related. No being, especially the human being stands alone, apart from other human beings apart from the rest of God’s good creation. We are one living body and when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. We can see this as we witness the diminishment of planet earth. As I’ve mentioned before, we did not weave the web of life, we are a strand in the web and what we do to the web we do to ourselves. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
There’s not a day goes by that we don’t hear of some weather disaster or environmental crisis, glaciers melting, deserts spreading. It’s depressing. We can’t pray for a healing of the earth, we are the healers. In our own little way we can make a difference as we examine our own life styles, our consumerism, our buying habits, our trashing.
Planet earth will survive. This is not the first crisis it has had to deal with in its 5 billion years of existence and we will survive as well if we can just catch the truth of our first reading -Lord, you love all things that exist, you spare all things for they are yours, you who love the living.
As we continue to celebrate this Eucharist we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be blessed with a deeper reverence and respect for all God’s creation, that we celebrate its wonder and appreciate its fragility.
| Posted in Homily |
Thanks to the great people of our Youth Group who provided the children of the parish with their annual ‘Haunted house’. They put a lot of work into this and provided the children with a great treat!
I promise this will be the last you hear of my birthday!!!! Thanks, thanks, thanks to those who arranged the reception after the 12:30 Mass on Sunday the 23rd of September. Many, many thanks to those who worked so hard to pull off a wonderful party this past Saturday evening. What a wonderful turn out of people – some I have not seen in years. Thank you for the cruise and the new ‘senior’ golf clubs. Thank you also for the many personal gifts from so many people.
God bless you all Fr. Paul
For many years St. Gabriel’s Parish has participated in the annual Holocaust Education week. On Wednesday evening, November 8th at 7:30 PM there will be a showing of a documentary ” A Debt to Honor”, narrated by Alan Alda, describing how 30,000 Jewish men, women and children evaded the Nazis with the help of Italian citizens. Our guest speaker will be Ms. Esther Bem who was sheltered by an Italian family. We hope that the Italian Counsel General will be with us to speak on the same subject.
Total: $9,898
will be held on SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11TH AT 12:30 PM MASS During the 12:30 PM Mass all confirmation candidates will be acknowledged at the altar. All confirmants who attend St. Gabriel’s School, the Children’s Faith Program and Private Schools are invited to attend. Please note that registrations for Confirmation will not be accepted on or after this date.
The parish is looking to establish a new ministry to serve elderly parishioners and others with special needs who might require transportation to and from Church on Saturdays/Sundays, and to medical appointments. First we would like to ascertain the need of the community in this regard. At the same time, we are seeking volunteers who would like to participate in this ministry. Any parishioners who would like to avail themselves of such a service OR who can volunteer to help, please contact Fatima Lee at 416 221-8866.
The topics we have chosen are varied – a mixture of church history, church teachings and scripture. You are welcome to join us whenever you can. For further information call Mary Landry at 416-221-8866 ext. 224. Next meetings: Tuesday evening, October 30th at 7:30 PM Wednesday morning, October 31st at 10:30 AM.
Dear Good People;
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for generously participating in our 2007 Thanksgiving Food Drive. We had an overwhelming response this year with over 70 schools and parishes participating.
With your help we were able to fill our storage area with non-perishable food items that will allow us to prepare hot and nutritious meals for Toronto’s homeless and hungry. Your thoughtful donations will help our meal program to serve upward of 750 meals and snacks daily.
Your ongoing support makes a real difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. You enable us to convey our values of respect, faith, dignity, integrity, recognition, empathy, compassion, acceptance, trust and hospitality to everyone we serve. Alone, we cannot provide a solution to homelessness; together we are able to make great strides to help people find their way.
Thank you for your care and concern for the homeless and disadvantaged. Wishing you all the best throughout the year ahead.
Sincerely, Leanne Tanaka Fundraiser, Events and Resources
October 28th, 2007
Just a few words on the first reading of today’s Mass, centering on the words of Wisdom; “the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds and will not rest until it reaches its goal.”
It is easy to see who is the truly humble person in the parable Jesus offers in today’s gospel. The tax collector stood at the back of the temple, would not raise his eyes to God while repeating his truthful, humble prayer. “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.”
The word ‘humble’ is often very misunderstood and has messed up a lot of people. I was taught a great lesson in humility a number of years ago. We’d just come in from Mass and one of the ministers of the Eucharist said to me, “that was a wonderful sermon; I got a lot out of it.” My ‘humble’ response was, “my mother wrote it”. That did not go down well. She saw that I had dismissed her compliment and she was not amused. She asked me a very stinging question, ‘when are you going to be mature enough to accept a compliment graciously and get over this phony humility’? To say the least I was chastened and had to think about what she said. Have you ever refused a compliment under the illusion that to accept would be a sign of pride? I think it is an all too common fault because we have this distorted notion of humility.
So often we imagine we are being humble when we belittle ourselves, put ourselves down, and see little of good in ourselves. This is not humility, it is self deprecation. Humility is truth. Humility is accepting who we are and what we are. Humility is recognizing the gifts with which we’ve been blessed. The Blessed Mother was being humble when she said of herself, “He Who is mighty has done great things for me, holy is His name.” Mary accepted the truth of herself, she was blessed and chosen by God and she rejoiced in that truth.
Everyone at this Mass can echo the words of Mary, “He Who is mighty has done great things for me” No matter what our faults and failings, no matter the sins of which we may be conscious there is a truth beyond them. “Before the world began God chose us in Christ to be God’s adopted sons and daughters”. No matter what we may think of our own worth as we think about our sins and failings there is a truth beyond them, no matter how often we put ourselves down, are disappointed, maybe even disgusted with ourselves, there is a truth beyond, Jesus Christ thought enough of each one of us He was willing to die on the cross for us and as St. Paul reminds us “nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible is Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In the parable we have the example of the truthful, humble tax collector. He was a sinner. He probably defrauded and extorted any number of people. He admits his sins. Jesus is blessing the truth but obviously not the sin.
Our distorted version of humility can cause us to deny or belittle the gifts with which we’ve been blessed. We are humble when we admit, recognize and celebrate these gifts. The gift of our generosity and sensitivity to the needs of others, the gift of compassion, the gift of our being willing to be there for others, the gift of patience and perseverance as we care for aging parents or spouses, the gift of perseverance as you stayed in and grown through the better or worse of married life, the gift of understanding and patience as you parent your children through the madness of adolescence.
We are humble when admit to God the truth. “against you alone have I sinned, what is evil in your sight I have done.” We are humble when we admit the truth, “we are good people” and He Who is mighty has done great things for us.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass together, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be blessed with the gift of true humility, the truth to be recognize of faults and failing, the truth to recognize and celebrate the wonderful humbling truth, “He Who is mighty has done great things for me – holy is His name.”
Total: $12,344
ALIYA NATALINA MENDES BARRETT JOHN COFFEY ROBERT PETER COFFEY ISABEL ELIZABETH JANTHUR ERIK MARTIN JARVENPAA
Friday, November 2nd 9:30 AM – 12 NOON Please see the time schedule on the table inside the Church.
Saturday, November 3rd at 3:15 PM in the Library We welcome all who wish to share this time with us. For information contact Linda Law at 416 – 918 – 8029.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th at 3:30 PM in the Gabriel Room For information contact Linda Law at 416 – 918 – 8029.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th 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. The guided reflection brings an ecological perspective to the readings. All are welcome.
Is this something that has crossed your mind or stirred your curiosity? If so, come join us for an informative and reflective Overnight Retreat starting on Friday evening November 9th and concluding with supper on Saturday, November 10th at Scarboro Missions, 2685 Kingston Road, Scarborough, ON. If you feel you might be called by God to be a missionary priest or lay missioner, we invite you to walk with us…it may change your life forever! To register contact us at 416 261-7135 ext 265 or ext 213 or email us at lmo@scarboromissions.ca
The Office of Admissions of St. Michael’s College School is now considering applications for September 2008. Open Houses for interested parents and their sons will be held on the following evenings: Thursday, October 25th and Tuesday, October 30th commencing at 7:30 PM and concluding at approximately 9:00 PM. Location: St. Michael’s College School, 1515 Bathurst St. (at St. Clair Ave. W.) While St. Michael’s is a private school, we offer academic scholarships and financial aid to qualified students.
offers an intensive program in the Arts and a rigorous academic program grounded in our Catholic tradition to students of the Toronto Catholic District School Board in Grades 7 – 12. For further information please attend our Open House on November 1st at 7:00 PM in the school Theatre at 36 Greenfield Ave. or call the school at 416 393 – 5556.
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