May 27th, 2007
On April 24th Bishop Greco celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with the young people of the parish. This week I visited the school and asked the students what they remembered most about their Confirmation. They all remembered the first words of Bishop Greco’s homily when he spoke about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He told the students, ‘You don’t deserve them. They are gifts and gifts are freely given. We aren’t owed them and we can’t earn them, they are freely given.”
In the fourth Eucharist Prayer used for this feast of Pentecost we pray,” and that we might live no longer for ourselves but for Him, He sent the Holy Spirit from You Father as His first gift to those who believe, to complete His work on earth and bring us to the fullness of grace.”
The presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a gift, something we can’t claim, something we did not earn. The Spirit’s gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, and Awe and Wonder are given to us to help us in our daily struggles to live our Christian lives.
Today people from around the city will be coming to visit our church of St. Gabriel’s. We have been invited to participate in Doors Open Toronto. People will come to see Canada’s first ‘Green Church” Our new church has been given wonderful write-ups in the Globe and in the Star.
But the intention of the Passionists in building our ‘green church’ was that the ‘green church’ would help us become ‘green people’. Our ‘green church’ is meant to sensitize us through our garden, our living wall, and the way the sun light plays on our cement walls, to the wonder of God’s good creation. Our ‘green church’ is meant to help us appreciate our connectedness with all other life systems on the planet. Our ‘green church’ is meant to help us reflect on our own personal life styles, our consciousness as to what we purchase, how we deal with our garbage, our use of chemicals and the impact these all have on the health and beauty of Earth. Our ‘green church’ can make us aware of our need to use the Holy Spirit’s gift of awe and wonder, awe and wonder at God’s beauty manifested in the awesomeness of creation. As the psalm sings,” the heavens proclaim the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims God’s handiwork.”
We can be stunned by the brilliance of a sunrise or a sunset or the stars that brighten the night, but do we have awe and wonder at the intricacy of a spider web or a violet or the smallest of insects? In awe and wonder can we grasp, how fragile are the life systems of the planet?
Because we can’t spray our lawns have you noticed the bumper crop of dandelions in the area? The playground at Elkhorn school is bright with the yellow of the humble dandelion – a flower we’ve declared a weed, a pest, an intrusion into our well kept lawns. Imagine for a second the life communities of Earth declaring the human species, us, as the dandelions of the planet, a pest that spoils the beauty of Earth. A weed run rampant, taking over the space of others, exterminating other life species. In a way that is what we humans have become an intruding force in the balance and well being of the planet.
Our green church is meant to make us more conscious of our need to enter into a more mutually life enhancing relationship with Earth, a relationship that enriches our lives and the life of the planet, a relationship that put us into a win win situation with Earth instead of the lose lose relationship which we now have with Earth.
As we continue to celebrate this feast and Eucharist of Pentecost we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we appreciate and use the Spirit’s gift of awe and wonder as we seek to deepen and heal our relationship with God’s good creation.
| Posted in Homily |
is designed for children from Senior Kindergarten to Grade 8 in our Parish who are attending either private or public school and wish to learn about our Catholic Faith. We are currently accepting new students for the 2007/2008 school year. Registration forms are available at the Parish Office. The deadline for enrollment is June 30, 2007. Volunteers to the program are always welcome. For more information, please call the Parish Office at 416-221-8866.
Tickets will be on sale after all the Masses this weekend. The price of $125 per person includes hors d’oeuvres, a catered dinner with wine, all taxes and gratuities, and contribution to a special birthday gift for Father Paul. Don’t forget to buy your ticket and mark your calendar for Saturday, October 27, 2007 – 6 PM at the All Saints Church Centre, 3215 Bayview Avenue (Bayview south of Finch).
for Children’s Faith will take place on Sunday, June 3 at 2:30PM.
for St. Gabriel’s School will take place on Sunday, June 10 at 2:30PM.
A reminder to the parents of the children making their FIRST COMMUNION this year to call the parish office (416-221-8866) to arrange a short interview with Fr. Paul. The following dates for an appointment are available: May 30 and 31.
Friday, June 1st at 9:30 AM Every first Friday of the month from 9:30 AM to Noon. Please see the schedule on the table inside the Church.
Saturday, June 2nd at 3:15 PM We meet in the Library on the first Saturday of every month at 3:15 PM. We welcome all who wish to share this time with us. For information contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Sunday, June 10th at 3:00 PM We are a group of Chinese (Cantonese speaking) who will meet this month on Sunday, June 10th at 3:00PM in the Library. For information contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Total: $8,937
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396 Spring Garden Ave. SATURDAY, JUNE 2nd 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM $5.00 a wash (Raindate, Sunday, June 3)
The St. Gabriel Grade 8 Grads will be holding their annual Car Wash/BBQ to raise funds for their graduation celebrations. Your support is very much appreciated. A loonie buys you a ticket for your chance to win an authentic TJ Ford Raptors autographed cap. Courtesy of The Raptors and Century 21.
If you are a couple who would be interested in assisting us to deliver this course three weekends a year, then contact the parish office at 416-221-8866.
We have some pamphlets at the back of the Church about WATER. Our next meeting is on Thursday, June 7th at 7:30 PM. Come and discuss your environmental concerns!
St. Gabriel’s Church MOSAIC SOUVENIR PICTURES are available again for purchase. Samples are in the office showcase. These are suitable for gift giving and as a beautiful remembrance of our old church.
From June 15 to 22, 2008, Canada will host the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City. Fifteen thousand participants from our country and abroad are expected to attend this major ecclesial event, in addition to the thousands of others who will take part in public activities surrounding the Congress. A collection, in a special envelope, will be taken up in all the Canadian churches on the weekend of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ on June 9th and 10th, 2007. It goes without saying that the Congress organizers are counting on your generosity to ensure the success of this gathering whose spiritual fruits will most certainly have a positive effect on the life of our Church.
Silent Voice Canada serves deaf children, deaf youth, deaf adults, as well as their families in a sign language environment. Silent Voice is dedicated to improving communication and relationships between the deaf and hearing in families and in our community. Silent Voice is an agency grounded in Catholic values offering services to the whole community. We value and respect the dignity and worth of all people. Next week is SHARELIFE’S THIRD AND FINAL COLLECTION. Remember, when you Recognize, Reflect, and Respond to ShareLife, your gift provides a light of hope!
2006 SHARELIFE TOTAL: $163,159.52 2007 TO DATE: $140,553.10
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is collecting gently used clothing and household linens for those in need, on the weekend of June 16th and 17th. A St. Vincent de Paul truck will be parked on the upper parking lot near the garden. Volunteers will assist with loading before and after each of the Masses on Saturday and Sunday.
in memory of Olivia Barron on June 10, 2007 at East Don River Park. For information contact Gina Lipton at 1-800-563-5483 or visit www.liver.ca/events to register.
| Posted in Bulletin |
May 20th, 2007
Remember the gospel account of the transfiguration? Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain and He was transfigured before them. They had a religious experience of the true person of Jesus. They were allowed a glimpse into the reality of His divinity. In the telling of this experience they had to use human terms – his face shone like the sun, his garments became white as light. They tried to express this awesome insight into Jesus in words that could only limit their experience – remember the saying, ‘there are some things you cannot put into words’?
We have the same thing in today’s readings that try to describe the reality of the Ascension of Jesus.
In his letter to the Corinthians St. Paul tells us that Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity and embraced our humanity – Jesus became one like us in all things. He was obedient even to dying on the cross so that we could be one again with God. Because of this God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and brought Jesus back to the glory Jesus has with the Father from all eternity. This is what Luke in Acts and in the Gospel describes in the symbolic but limited language we have in today’s readings – Jesus is lifted up, a cloud takes Him out of their sight – Luke knew,’ there are some things you just cannot put into words.’
But think on this. By returning to His Father Jesus made a great act of faith in us. Jesus could have stayed with His disciples. He could have continued to preach the good news of God’s love. He could have continued to work miracles, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the speechless. He could have continued to cleanse lepers, call cripples to stand and walk. He could have, but He didn’t. Instead Jesus removed Himself from being physically present to us to make room for us His followers to complete His work on earth. Jesus had enough faith in His Apostles, enough faith in each one of us, to complete His work on earth.
On the mount of the transfiguration Peter blurted out, ‘Lord it is good for us to be here.’ We have a bit of the same in our first reading, the disciples didn’t want to loose the experience of the glory of Jesus. In their own way they said, ‘it is good for us to be here’. They were hooked on the wonderful. Using human terms Luke tells of two men in white intruding into their moment of awe with the words,’ why are you standing here looking up toward heaven?’ You have work to do. You are to complete His work.
We’ve all heard the saying; “I have no hands but yours, no eyes but yours, nor ears but yours, no heart but yours” to complete My work on earth.
The feast of the Ascension is the feast of our commissioning – our being sent out to complete His work on earth. In our own limited ways, in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, in our work places, in our places of play we can, if we want to, bring the love, peace, healing and the forgiveness of Christ to others. In the ordinary living of our ordinary lives we can, if we want to, relieve suffering, end loneliness, heal the wounds that divide us from other, promote understanding and respect for those who think and live differently from ourselves. In the ordinary living of our ordinary lives we can, if we want to, do what we can about the poverty in this city, the homelessness in this city. In the ordinary living of our ordinary lives, we can, if we want to, work toward the healing of the earth by changing our lifestyles so we can live gently on the earth. In the ordinary living of our ordinary lives, we can, if we want to, complete His work on earth.
Maybe we can imagine the feast of the Ascension in this way; Jesus steps aside so as not to get in our way so that we can complete His work on earth.
As we continue to celebrate this feast of the Ascension, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we will be graced to be worthy of the trust Christ has placed in us and in the ordinary living of our ordinary lives realize that Christ’s work must truly be our own.
will take place here on Friday, May 25th at 10AM.
A reminder to the parents of the children making their FIRST COMMUNION this year to call the parish office (416-221-8866) to arrange a short interview with Fr. Paul. The following dates for an appointment are available: May 22, 23, 24, 30 and 31.
We have some pamphlets at the back of the Church about WATER. They are very informative. Our next meeting is on Thursday, June 7th at 7:30 PM. Come and discuss your environmental concerns!
Total: $9,682
Next weekend there will be a collection for the charities chosen by Pope Benedict XVI. Your envelope may be placed in the basket along with the regular collection.
The St. Gabriel Grade 8 Grads will be holding their annual Car Wash/BBQ to raise funds for their graduation celebrations. Your support is very much appreciated. A loonie buys you a ticket for your chance to win an authentic TJ Ford Raptors autographed cap, courtesy of The Raptors and Century 21.
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 contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
The Toronto Archdiocesan Pastoral Mission Fund, funded by ShareLife, was established in 1982. They direct funds to worthy missionary and pastoral programmes in the Third World, especially areas where no other help is available. Some of the priorities of the Pastoral Fund are to support missionaries, catechetics, transportation and the education of seminarians and religious in developing nations. A gift to ShareLife can shine a ray of hope around the world!
2006 SHARELIFE TOTAL: $163,159.52 2007 TO DATE: $136,513.10
SUNDAY MAY 27th following the 9:00AM Mass at the Thornhill Golf and Country Club. Guest speaker: Fr. D. MacDonald, S.J. from St. Joseph’s Morrow Park. Tickets are $18. Please call Kathy Nelson at 905-886-7681 or Ileen Kennedy at 416-221-2786.
Women who search for God. Single women, 18-40, are invited to a retreat weekend on May 25-27, given by a team of Sisters of St. Joseph. For information call Sister Dorothy: 416-934-0042.
Catholic parents of lesbian daughters and gay sons are invited to come to a day of reflection, “SEEING WITH THE HEART”, On Friday, June 1st from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. $40 includes lunch. For information contact John Montague at 416-523-6449.
May 13th, 2007
To put it mildly, the early Church has some start up problems. As you know, the first church was all Jewish. As time when on non-Jewish men and women, impressed by the preaching of the apostles wanted to join this new community of believers. The big question came to be what makes a person a Christian? A very vocal group of believers demanded that non Jews would have to be circumcised – this was a proper rite of initiation into the Jewish faith. “Unless you are circumcised you cannot be saved”. Paul and Barnabas who we instrumental in bringing the Gentiles into the community fought this narrow minded view. As we heard in the first reading, there was “no small dissention and debate” about this matter. It was a hot issue.
To settle the matter Paul and Barnabas took the matter to the top, to the Christian community in Jerusalem. James was the leader of that community and he gathered the leaders together, including Peter, to hammer this matter out. They didn’t relay on themselves, they opened their minds and hearts to the Holy Spirit, to discover what was best for the total community. In this debate Peter reminded those demanding circumcision, “Why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as they will.”
At the end of all the discussion we have those powerful words address to the Gentile Christians: “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials; that you abstain from food sacrificed to idols, consuming blood and strangled animals i.e. those not ritually slaughtered, and incestuous sexual relations.”
This was a great victory for Paul who preached that people are saved, made right with God, by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and by His resurrection.
This Jerusalem decision preserved the unity of the community; it did not guarantee or legislate uniformity of life style because in some areas of the church where the majority was Jewish, Gentiles were still circumcised.
Through the long history of the church there have been great disputes – disputes that threaten to dilute our faith and divide the community. There were disputes and disagreements over the identity of Jesus of Nazareth – was He true God and true man or was He just a man imaging God? It took the community over 300 years of reflection and guidance by the Holy Spirit to clarify the truth that Jesus is true God and true man. But that was just one of many disputes – disputes about Mary, disputes about scripture, disputes about free will, disputes about authority in the church. Every Council of the church, except the Second Vatican Council, was called to settle some dispute, to come to an agreement, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and declare, this is what the community believes. Every Council echoed the words of the first council of Jerusalem – ‘It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us” to teach this as our commonly held truth.
The church is human and the church is divine and because it is human it tends to get messy. In the community of the church we have differences regarding race, age, gender, cultural backgrounds, political preferences, personal opinions and tastes. Any disputes or disagreements in the church today are mostly about non-essential issues. It’s embarrassing to think that just a few years ago girls could not serve Mass, lay women and men could not give out communion. How many can remember going to the States on vacation and going up to communion with your hand held out only to get a scowl and have the host almost pushed into your mouth. These were big issues a few years ago. Now some say the Pope wants us to say Mass in Latin – he doesn’t, the truth of the matter is, most young priests don’t understand Latin. I remember when I was studying philosophy our teacher Fr. Robert O’Hara claimed that the church would never allow Mass in English because it would lead to nationalism. So much for ‘never’. Remember the movie, ‘Never say Never’? Or the saying ‘never is a long time’.
People in the church still take sides on issues such as – married clergy – ordination of women – the importance of certain devotions in the prayer life of the church – more shared responsibility in the community – these are not at the heart of the matter. The creed we pray every Sunday is the heart of the matter – it came to us from the Holy Spirit and the teaching church. What we say in the creed is of most importance. About other issues, it would be wise if we never said this or that will never happen.
Referring to different schools of thought in the church, Pope John XXIII is supposed to have said, “in the essentials let there be unity – in the non essentials, let there be diversity but in all things let there be charity.”
In this Mass we pray; ‘Grant that we, who are nourished by His Body and Blood, may be filled with His Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit in Christ.’
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that, in the living of our Christian lives within our Catholic community we show love and respect for others who don’t see things as we see them. When we do this we will maintain the spirit of unity in that bond of peace the Risen Christ offered all of us.
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