February 4th, 2007
Dear Father Paul: Thank you for rescuing us from a U.N. camp in Benin over a year ago now. We will be forever grateful to you and the parish of St. Gabriel. Blessings and prayers from my family. Ezechiel, Seraphine, Ange, Pacifique, and Elie Ntgulirwa.
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: $9,107.87
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on February 7th at 10:30AM we will decide on what we want to study next. Please come with your ideas! Everyone welcome. Please contact Mary Landry if you have any questions at: 416-293-3760.
TUESDAY EVENING, February 13 7:30 – 9:00PM Library History of Sunni-Shiite Islamic relations.
We are forming an environmental focus group here at St. Gabriel’s. We will meet once a month on the first Thursday of each month in the Gabriel Room. Everyone is welcome to join us and share your 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.
Thank you to the volunteers who prepared 61 casseroles in January. For February, your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses on the weekend of February 24/25 for delivery to the Centre. More volunteers are encouraged to become active in helping to feed our less fortunate sisters and brothers. If you require more information or would like to get a copy of the recipe and a casserole pan, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
This is the first of a new five year education campaign on the promotion of sustainable human development. The action this year is on Canadian Mining companies operating in the Global South. Next weekend after the Masses, please sign a card asking the Canadian government to
More information is available at www.devp.org under Education Campaign.
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.
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.
| Posted in Bulletin |
January 28th, 2007
The past couple of weeks St. Paul has been telling us about how gifted is our Christian community. Some are called to be leaders, some preachers, some healers; some are even gifted with the gift of tongues. He tells us that all these gifts are for the common good, for building up the body of the church. He compared the church to a human body, Christ is its head and we are its members and no one member can say to another member, “I have no need of you’ we are all one, we are all important for the well being of the body.
Today Paul tells us that the most important gift with which we can be blessed is the gift of love. We can speak in tongues, we can have prophetic powers, we can be blessed with a great mind, with a faith that can toss mountains, we can be as pure as the angels – we can even die a martyr’s death, but if we lack love we have missed the boat.
I can hear today’s second reading in my sleep. It’s read at just about every wedding. It’s usually read by someone who has no experience in public reading, someone who is nervous and wants to get it over with. So they rush though these beautiful words, this powerful message and get back to their pew.
These words about love – a love that is kind, a love that avoids rudeness, a love that is patient, a love that supports the weakness of others, a love that endures, a love that believes and hopes and will not be overcome – these words are so beautiful to hear – and so difficult to live.
How many marriages could have been saved if the husband and wife had been able to keeps these words alive in their relationship instead of giving way to resentments, impatience? How did they come to lose the love that would have helped them live with the human weakness and foibles of their spouse or their children or even themselves?
How many marriages failed to reach their potential because one or other of the spouses insisted on their way or the high way or allowed their relationship to slip into bitterness and resentments?
Again these words of Paul are so beautiful to hear and so difficult to live.
These words on love can be applied to how we deal with our own selves, with our faults and failings, with our own willingness to be patient with ourselves as we struggle to be the kind of person we want to be. So many personal problems come from the lack of self esteem, a good self image. None of us is perfect, faultless. We are all mistake making beings so we need to be patient and kind and understanding and forgiving and supportive of ourselves. We are to love our neighbours as we love ourselves and if self love is lacking our ability to love others is weakened.
This past week I had the experience of loving people. I went to Saint John last Sunday for my brother’s 80th birthday. He was in the hospital but his good wife Sally planned on bringing to his party at least for a bit of time.
Unfortunately on Sunday morning he had a down turn. By the time I got to the hospital he really didn’t know I was there. He died peacefully on Monday evening. During that long vigil I kept saying to him, “come on George, its time to go.” Sally, his wife of 53 years simply said, “George was never one to hurry.” We had a great wake – George and Sally raised a wonderful family. I got to see people – old neighbours, old classmates I haven’t seen in years. People kept coming to the door with food, food and more food – it was a great Maritime time. We buried George at Holy Cross in an area known as Saint’s Rest, right on the Bay of Funday – with the temperature and the wind coming off the Bay it was about 30 below – so I said to George, you may never have been one to hurry but this will be quick.
When you stop to think of it, we are surrounded by good people, good people, who like ourselves are trying to live the love St. Paul praises in our second reading, good people we often take for granted. It’s at times like this past week that we come to realize how blessed we are with family and friends.
We can continue to celebrate this Mass praying for the grace we need to appreciate the good people who bless our lives – asking God for the grace we need no only to hear these words of love – but live these words on love.
| Posted in Homily |
Total: $10,172.90
We are forming an environmental focus group here at St. Gabriel’s. We will meet once a month on the first Thursday of each month beginning on February 1st at 7:30PM in the Gabriel Room. Everyone is welcome to join us and share your ideas. For more information please phone Mary Landry at 416-293-3760.
on January 31st and February 7th at 10:30AM we will decide on what we want to study next. Please come with your ideas! Everyone welcome. Please contact Mary Landry if you have any questions at: 416-293-3760.
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30th 7:30 – 9:00PM Library “How are our Christian life and ethics similar to those of other faith traditions? How are they different?”
Friday, February 2nd at 9:30 AM
Every first Friday of the month from 9:30AM to 12 noon. Please see the time schedule on the table inside the Church.
Saturday, February 3rd at 3:15 PM
We meet in the Library on the first Saturday of every month at 3:15PM. We welcome all who wish to share this time with us. For information please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Sunday, February 4th at 4:00 PM
We are a group of Chinese (Cantonese speaking) who get together the first Sunday of every month at 4:00PM in the Gabriel room. For information please contact Linda Law at 416-918-8029.
Sunday, February 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.
Casseroles for the Good Shepherd Centre collected this weekend help to feed up to 700 people a day. Find out how to participate in this activity from volunteers in the Gathering Space.
A “Come and See” Weekend for single Catholic men and older who are considering a possible call to the Diocesan Priesthood will be held at St. Augustine’s Seminary on Friday, February 2nd to Sunday, February 4th, 2007. To register or for further information, please contact The Office of Vocations at 416-968-0997 or by email at: vocations@vocations.ca
MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2007 from 2:30 – 7:30PM at St. Gabriel’s Church in the Gathering Space. Please help by donating the ‘Gift of Life’.
January 21st, 2007
One of the emphases of our new church, which structurally opens us up to the world around us through our south window, is our connectedness to the rest of God’s good creation.
The newspapers and the TV have been filled with strange weather happenings around the globe – we’ve had a mild December and most of January while Victoria has had snow and cold weather. Governments around the world are facing up to the reality of global warming. We are finally admitting that human consumerism and pollution are taking their toll on the health of the planet. As I’ve said before, the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves – 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. All life systems of the planet are interconnected and interdependent. As individuals and as a species we cannot life in isolation – what we do and how we live affects those around us.
As it is with our life on planet earth, so it is with our life within the church.
This truth is expressed so powerfully in today’s second reading of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and his description of the church, not the building but the people, as the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the body and we, each one of us, are important members of that body we call church. No one member of the body can say to any other member of the body ‘I have no need of you’. The Pope cannot say that to us, nor can we say it to the Pope. Our new Archbishop cannot say that to us, nor can we say that to him. We cannot say that to the person sitting next to us at this Mass. We do need one another.
As St. Paul reminds us, ‘when one member suffers the whole body suffers, when one member is honored all rejoice with it together.’ In the past few years the body of the church has suffered because of the scandals of sexual abuse – we are a wounded church, a wounded body in need of healing. At the same time, we as church can rejoice over the lives and example of good men and women who brought life and holiness to the church – and I’m thinking here of the late Archbishop Tony Meagher of Kingston, who used to be the pastor of Blessed Trinity Parish. He was a good man and a holy man who served the church – the body of Christ – well. The truth of the matter is, the body of Christ is holy if we are holy, and it is wounded when we failed to live our lives as followers of Christ.
As members of the body of Christ each of us can echo the words of Jesus in today’s gospel – the Spirit of the Lord has been given to me – at our baptisms and confirmations – the Lord anointed us – to bring good news to the poor. The good news of God’s love for each of us when God sent His Son into the world to die for us – the good news that Christ is with us no matter what our faults and failings – the good news that no matter how much we may devalue our own self worth, Christ thought enough of us to die for us. Because of our baptisms and confirmation each of us can say, I have been sent to proclaim release to captives – not necessarily people in prison but friends and family members held captive by addictions, by unhealthy relationships, held captive by depression or discouragement. As members of the Body of Christ each of us can offer new sight to the blind – good people blind to their own goodness, good people blind and indifferent to the needs of the poor right in our own neighbourhood, good people blind to God’s concern for them.
Each of us in sent to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor – that the grace and love and power and healing of our loving God is with us always – yesterday, today, tomorrow.
As with planet earth so with the church we are one, we are interconnected, interdependent – we cannot say to any one ‘I have no need of you.’
As we continue to celebrate this Mass on a day on which we begin a week of prayer for the unity of all Christians, we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace and insight we need to see how important each of us is for the well being of the church, the body of Christ – for the church is wounded when we are unfaithful to our call to be Christ-like but the church is holy when we are who we are called to be – the body of Christ – for the Spirit of the Lord has been given to us.
Total: $9,965.11
There are still some envelopes to be picked up in the Gathering Space. Please enter your full name, address with postal code and telephone number on your envelopes. It is important to throw away any envelopes that you may have from previous years, as old numbers are reassigned to new parishioners.
TO RECEIVE AN INCOME TAX RECEIPT, USE THE NUMBER ON YOUR NEW BOX
Every four years, the universal Church gathers to celebrate Jesus living and present in the Eucharist. It is a time of prayer, of reflection and of commitment. The conference will take place in Quebec City, June 15 to 22, 2008.
To help Christians to discover, deepen and celebrate the Eucharistic Mystery as a gift of God for the world, THE ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT was created.
THE ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT, which is travelling across Canada, will be here in Toronto in January 2007. The closest locations are as follows:
For more information, please visit the Diocese website at: www.archtoronto.org
10:30AM to NOON PLACE: Gabriel Room on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24th (repeat of January 17th ) This presentation will also be offered on TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 23rd at 7:30PM.
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.
Dear Fr. Paul and Parishioners,
I want to thank you personally for participating in Good Shepherd Centre’s Christmas food drive.
Your generous participation in the Christmas food drive has helped the Centre fill its pantries, ready to serve more than 260,000 meals and snacks in 2007. Thank you for giving us such a great start to the year.
Your gift of food will help sustain and comfort thousands of individuals who would otherwise go hungry: the homeless and people who live on fixed incomes (seniors, the disabled) who might have to choose between eating and paying the rent.
Thank you for taking the time this holiday season to remember those most in need in our community.
Is a thought-provoking social evening for adults (19 – 39 years) where a speaker provides opportunity for discussion.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007 from 7:00 – 9:00PM at Duke of York Pub
“Dying to Live: Desperate & Dangerous Immigration on the US-Mexico Border”
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