February 25th, 2007
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27th St. Gabriel was a member of the Passionist Community. He was born Frances Possenti on March 1, 1838 in Assisi, and died February 27, 1862 at the age of 24. He had a special devotion to Mary and chose as his religious name Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin. He is remembered for his enthusiasm in life and his extraordinary generosity. Pope John XXIII proclaimed him as a special Patron of Youth.
Friday evenings at 7:30 PM beginning Friday March 9, 2007
Each parish is allowed two “pilgrims” to attend this Congress. The cost is $1675 (double occupancy). If you are interested in representing St. Gabriel’s Parish at this Congress contact the parish office. It would help if you let us know by March 1st. Fr. Paul
Total: $9,339.71
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Friday, March 2nd at 9:30 AM Every first Friday of the month from 9:30 AM to noon. See the time schedule on the table inside the Church.
Saturday, March 3rd at 3:15 PM We meet in the Library on the first Saturday of every month. We welcome all who wish to share this time with us. For information contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Sunday, March 4th at 4:00 PM We are a group of Chinese (Cantonese speaking) who get together the first Sunday of every month in the Gabriel Room. For information contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
will take place at the 12:30 Mass on Sunday, March 4th. Come and celebrate with us.
on Thursday, March 1, 2007 from 7:30 – 9:00 PM in the Gabriel Room. This meeting is for the parents of the children receiving Reconciliation for the first time.
HANNAH HA-RHEE MICHAEL XAVIER BRIA JOHN BENEDICT SALINAS MARCUS PALERMO AVA SIANA MAMMOLITI EMILY SHEILAGH DEUEL HONG DUC CHENG XAVIER TRAN MAXXIMUS TRAN ADAMO NUNZIO MOGDAN KENNETH TYLER SAULNIER-WALTON
Sunday March 4th at 3:00 PM Parishioners Marianne Zin-Orlowski – Soprano Soloist, Joseph Orlowski – TSO Clarinettist, Alex Seredenko – Pianist, and Suzanne Kilgore – Soprano, are offering us “An Afternoon of Song”. Join us for this delightful presentation. Admission $5 at the door (a portion will go to charity).
Sunday, March 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. This guided reflection brings an ecological perspective to the readings.
LIBRARY February 28th at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – BIBLE STUDY – The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ March 7th at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – Vatican II – THEN AND NOW
March 6th 7:30 – 9:00PM Library TOPIC: “THE GREAT SCHISM” – The Roman Catholic/Greek Orthodox split For more information on any of the above topics, contact Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
We are forming an environmental focus group here at St. Gabriel’s. Our next meeting will be on March 8, 2007 at 7:30 PM in the Gabriel Room. Everyone is welcome to join us and share their ideas. We will tour the building with Marilyn Doré as part of our meeting. For more information contact Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
on Tuesday, March 9th at 9:00 AM. Speaker: Msgr Conrad Dachuck, Chaplain – North York Knights of Columbus.
The theme for this years service is “United Under God’s Tent” – written by the women of Paraguay. This celebration, which takes place throughout the world in Christian Churches, will be hosted by FOREST GROVE UNITED CHURCH, 43 Forest Grove Drive on Friday, March 2nd at 2:00 PM. Join us for this ecumenical service.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26th 2:30 – 7:00 PM at St. Gabriel’s Church. Will you help by donating the “Gift of Life”?
Call the parish office at 416-221-8866 if you have a stationary bike that you could loan us for 2 months.
| Posted in Bulletin |
February 18th, 2007
Special Masses will be celebrated at 9:00 AM and 7:30 PM with the distribution of ashes. During Lent, we encourage your attendance at our weekday Masses on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings at 9:00 AM
DAYS OF FAST AND ABSTINENCE DURING LENT ARE ASH WEDNESDAY AND GOOD FRIDAY.
Total: $9,085.39
PLACE: LIBRARY February 28th at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – BIBLE STUDY – The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ February 21st at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – Vatican II – THEN AND NOW
February 20th TIME: 7:30 – 9:00PM PLACE: Library TOPIC: History of Sunni-Shiite Islamic relations. For more information on any of the above topics, please contact Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
We are forming an environmental focus group here at St. Gabriel’s. Our next meeting will be on March 8, 2007 at 7:30 PM in the Gabriel Room. Everyone is welcome to join us and share their ideas. We will tour the building with Marilyn Doré as part of our meeting. For more information please phone Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
You are cordially invited to come and celebrate the Chinese New Year, which will take place on FEBRUARY 25th, after the 12:30 PM MASS, in the Gathering space. This is an event organized for the whole parish community. Please mark your calendars! (Volunteers and donations are welcome. Please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
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.
Sunday March 4th at 3:00 PM Parishioners Marianne Zim-Orlowski – Soprano Soloist, Joseph Orlowski – TSO Clarinettist, Alex Seredenko – Pianist, and Suzanne Kilgore – Soprano, are offering us “An Afternoon of Song”. Please join us for this delightful presentation. Admission $5 at the door (a portion will go to charity).
Thank you to more than 130 people who signed the Action Card for the D & P Action Campaign about Canadian mining companies operating in the Global South. Visit the web site at www.devp.org for more information or for those who missed us and wish to sign on-line.
Tuesday February 20th Mass at 1:00 PM General meeting in the Parish Hall after the Mass. Guest speakers: Sr. Virginia Varley, Morrow Park and Joan Breech, Administrator at Fontbonne Ministries. All are welcome.
at Blessed Trinity Parish on Tuesday, March 9th at 9:00 AM. Speaker: Msgr Conrad Dachuck, Chaplain – North York Knights of Columbus.
The theme for this years service is “United Under God’s Tent” – written by the women of Paraguay. This celebration which takes place throughout the world in Christian Churches, will be hosted by FOREST GROVE UNITED CHURCH, 43 Forest Grove Drive on Friday, March 2nd at 2:00 PM. Please join us for this ecumenical service.
March 2-4, 2007 at Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre. The theme for this retreat is “EXPLORING THE GRACE OF THE CROSS”. The retreat includes delivered talks, private reflection, faith sharing, ritual, an opportunity for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Eucharist on Saturday and Sunday. This retreat is preached by the Centre Team. For reservations or further information please call 905-278-5229.
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 Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend. Upcoming weekend date: March 23 – 25, 2007. For further information or registration please contact David & Lucy Adams 905 – 470 – 9590 or email adams@rogers.com.
February 11th, 2007
On Tuesday when the staff was reflecting on today’s readings someone mentioned that Jeremiah wrote his words about 500 years before Christ and Luke wrote about the year 70, 30 years after the death of Christ – quite a stretch of time, yet Jeremiah’s message resonates with Luke’s; people who put their trust in mere mortals, people who think that riches and position and power are what it’s all about, people who see these as their sufficiency, their security, are in for a surprise. Jeremiah uses a biblical image of what we call tumbleweed – to describe such people. They are rootless and without direction, rolling through the desert, driven by whatever wind that blows.
People who put their trust in God and see their personal relationship with God – which involves a just and loving relationship with others – as something of first importance, they are like trees planted by a running stream – untouched by scorching heat or drought, always bearing fruit.
When Luke recorded what Jesus taught, 500 years after Jeremiah; blessed are the poor, blessed are the oppressed and the distressed – forgive your enemies, pray for those who persecuted them, turn the other cheek – people’s reaction was ‘you got to be kidding’? What do you mean blessed are the poor – the poor are losers – what do you mean ‘woe to you rich’ – we’ve always been taught riches are a sign of God’s favor.
From the beginning of his public life, which began in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus meant to turn mindsets and value systems upside down. God sent Jesus into the world to bring new news, good news to the poor, to give sight to the blind, proclaim liberty to captives, set the downtrodden free. Jesus meant to reverse the mindsets of his time – that the poor were losers, the rich were favored by God.
Things don’t change – 500 years between Jeremiah and Jesus – 2000 years between Jesus and our time and still things are the same. Today there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Then as now the ‘haves’ often have what they have as the expense of the ‘have nots’, the working poor, the undeserving poor, good men and women struggling to get by on an inadequate minimum wage, working at two or three jobs just to get by.
Jeremiah and Jesus didn’t condemn ‘having’. Their concern was, does what you have, have you? Do you own the car, the house, the job, the career, and the investments – or do they own you? Is there any place for God, any place for others, especially men and women who are the ‘have nots’, is there any place for them in your life?
If you’ve been reading the articles on poverty that have been in the Star these past weeks or the articles about the bonuses CEOs have received or the severance packages offered chief executives, doesn’t it boggle your mind?
I’m not into Catholic guilt – but shouldn’t we be bothered at the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, both here and around the world? Shouldn’t we be bothered with the fact that our North American society uses a disproportionate amount of Earth’s energy resources? Shouldn’t we be bothered by wasteful lifestyles? Shouldn’t we be bothered by our failure to live lightly on the Earth? Shouldn’t we be bothered by the truth that very often the clothes we wear, the food we eat come to us from the hard labor of the working poor and the sweat shops of the world? Shouldn’t we be bothered with the pittance that was just added to the minimum wage compared to the increase in salaries that other’s received?
Shouldn’t we be bothered with men and women sleeping on our city streets? Shouldn’t we be bothered with overextended food banks? Shouldn’t we be bothered with families who have no place to live? I don’t have any answers to the great social problems facing our city or the country, but shouldn’t we be bothered?
As we continue to celebrate this Mass maybe we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to be bothered – and being bothered maybe we can do something to change our attitudes to what we have, and change our attitudes towards the ‘have nots’.
| Posted in Homily |
I wish to thank all those who had Masses offered for my brother George. He lived a good life and raised a wonderful family. Fr. Paul
As a family of faith, we welcome Archbishop Thomas Collins to the Archdiocese of Toronto! All are invited to meet the new Archbishop at BLESSED TRINITY PARISH on Thursday, February 15, 2007. Mass will begin at 7:00 PM, with a reception to follow.
Total: $8,126.97
February 14th at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – BIBLE STUDY – The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ February 21st at 10:30 AM – 12 noon – Vatican II and how it is going
TUESDAY EVENING, February 13 7:30 – 9:00PM Library History of Sunni-Shiite Islamic relations. For more information on any of the above topics, please contact Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
We are forming an environmental focus group here at St. Gabriel’s. Our first meeting will be on March 8, 2007 at 7:30 PM in the Gabriel Room. Everyone is welcome to join us and share their ideas. For more information please phone Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
You are cordially invited to come and celebrate the Chinese New Year, which will take place on FEBRUARY 25th, after the 12:30 PM MASS, in the Gathering space. This is an event organized for the whole parish community. Please mark your calendars! (Volunteers and donations are welcome.) Please contact Linda Law at 416 – 918 – 8029.
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
at St. Joseph’s Morrow Park: Is a ministry to help widowed, separated and divorced persons make a NEW BEGINNING in life. There are retreat weekends, monthly meetings and support groups.
To register or for more information, please phone 416-222-1101 ext 107/258.
with Matthew Kelly and the St. Michael’s Choir School on Sunday February 11th and Monday February 12th at 7:15 PM at St. Basil’s Church located at 50 St. Joseph Street in Toronto. “Re-Discovering Catholicism” is a powerful message of inspiration and hope that your whole family should hear. For more information call the National Catholic Broadcasting Council at 905 – 884 – 6899.
is a fundraising project to raise funds for “b.r.a.i.n. Child” which supports research into brain cancer in children and the Meagan Bebenek Endowment Fund at SickKids.
Friday, February 23, 2007 at 6:00PM The Liberty Grand, Governor’s Ballroom 25 British Columbia Drive, Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario $100.00 per person Call 416-239 – 7843 or meganswalk.com
March 2 – 4, 2007 at Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre, Mississauga. The theme for this retreat is “EXPLORING THE GRACE OF THE CROSS”. The retreat includes delivered talks, private reflection, faith sharing, ritual, an opportunity for the sacrament of reconciliation, Eucharist on Saturday and Sunday. This retreat is preached by the centre team. For reservations or further information please call 905 – 278 – 5229.
March 2-4, 2007 at Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre. “Marriage enrichment allows a married couple to rediscover their love that has been buried under years of daily work and household responsibilities”. For information and reservations please call our secretary Kathleen Smith at 905-278-5229.
on March 3, 2007 from 9:15 AM – 2:30 PM. Ever consider the possibility of becoming a lay missioner or a future priest? Scarboro Missions is offering a Mission Information Day at SCARBORO MISSION CENTER 2685 Kingston Road, Scarborough. Come and learn about the witness of faith and service of Scarboro priests and lay missioners in various areas of the world. It may change your life forever! To register, please call John MacInnis (Coordinator) at 416-261-7135 Ext. 213 or email macinnis@scarboromissions.ca. A $10.00 donation is asked for lunch.
February 4th, 2007
For a long time I had trouble with the prayer we pray right before receiving Holy Communion: Lord I’m not worthy to receive you, only say the word and I shall be healed. We all know we are not worthy to receive Christ, the Bread of Life. But we don’t come to communion because we are worthy, we come to communion because we are hungry, frightened, confused, struggling with a problem. Our extended empty hand is a symbol of our neediness, our dependency on God.
In today’s three readings we have people declaring themselves to be ‘unworthy.’ Isaiah is praying in the temple when he is blessed with a religious experience, an awareness of the holiness of God. God’s holiness makes Isaiah deeply aware of how far he is from such holiness and so he speaks the truth, “woe is me, I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips.”
In the second reading, we have Paul reminding the Christian community of Corinth what is of first importance: that Christ Jesus died for our sins was buried and on the third day He was raised from the dead. When Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus he had his own religious experience. In the very depth of his soul Paul was gifted to know Jesus and the transforming wonder of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Changed by this experience Paul would say of himself, ‘I know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ Still Paul would always say of himself, ‘I am not worthy.’ I am the least of the apostles; I persecuted the church of God.
In the gospel we have Peter, disappointed after a night of fruitless fishing now stunned by this bountiful catch of fish, saying to Jesus, ‘Stay away from me of Lord, I am a sinful man.’ In a way Peter was saying, “I don’t know who you are about but you’re way too much for me.” I don’t belong in your company.
Isaiah, Paul and Peter each had an experience, an awareness of the presence and the holiness of God. Each of them was overwhelmed by this experience. This experience helped them put things into perspective. Their experience made them humble.
How often do we think of humility as putting ourselves down, belittling ourselves, seeing nothing but the negatives in our lives. That’s not true humility. The Blessed Mother was being totally humble when she said, “He Who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name. Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Mary recognized her place in God’s reality – God chose her.
Someone wrote of today’s readings, “Isaiah, Paul and Peter were forced to compare themselves directly with the presence of God. When they met the holiness of God head on, they saw their own humanness as full of holes. They were no longer able to pretend that they shone like the stars because they saw the real star bursting with light. Their experience of God let them see they are far, far less than God. And this is not bad, it is good. God will make us holy not our own sense of holiness. We can be proud to be unworthy if God’s love is the result.”
Sunday Mass can become so routine, even boring. Other than the different scripture readings at Sunday Mass things are pretty much the same. In a way we can become dull to the wonder of what we are about. At every Mass God makes present to us what is of first importance – “that Christ died for our sins, was buried and on the third day was raised from the dead.” At every Mass we are touched by Christ’s total giving of Himself for each of us -“this is My Body, this is My blood, and this is my life given for you – unconditionally, no holds barred.” At every Mass, Christ’s message to us is: ‘no matter how little you may think of yourself, no matter how down you may be on yourself – I think enough of you to give my life for you.’
If we could grasp this truth then we would see how far, far less is our love for Christ than is His love for us – how far, far less is our love for Christ as we meet Him in family, friend or stranger – than is His love for us.
Then we would mean what we say when we say, “Lord I am not worthy.” Not a put down but recognition of our own reality. Then we could say, “I am so far away from you, nourish me with your body and blood – for you told us, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me and I live in them, from Your love for me let me draw love for others.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass in which we remember what is of most importance; Christ died for our sins, was buried and on the third day was raised from the dead, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that when we say Lord I am not worthy to receive You we honestly acknowledge our distance from and our need of Christ the living bread. Nourished by this living bread may each of us live as we are meant to live, love as we are meant to love, imitating Jesus, Who loved us and gave His life for 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.
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Companion for the Walk of the Stations of the Cosmic Earth
St. Gabriel’s Garden – Guided Sensory Reflective Walk