January 14th, 2007
Back in 1835 my great grandfather built a farm house in a place called Barnsville, New Brunswick. The farm house is still there and I have a first cousin living in it. As kids our great summer adventure was to spend a week at the farm helping my uncle hay – I know we weren’t much help but he was gracious about it.
One of the things I remember about the farm, other than the outhouse and the straw mattresses, was a big rain barrel at the kitchen door. This was the water used for washing dishes or clothes. A skunk has fallen in the well that was near the house and ruined its water. There was a spring a good ways away and it was a chore to get the spring water to the house. The rule of the house was the spring water was only used for making tea or drinking. It was special.
The water used in today’s gospel would be like the rain barrel water – run off water, not fresh, water used for washing hands and feet of visitors. Not first choice water, that was too precious for ordinary ablutions. It was this run off water Jesus used in today’s gospel – we could call it the least of the least but through His words of love and life He transformed it into choice wine in order that the wedding celebration of His two friends could continue. Scripture tells us God gave us wine to gladden our hearts and certainly the hearts of this young couple must have been gladdened by this wonderful gift since their own wine had run out.
The second reading is about how the Christian community is blessed with a variety of gifts. Every parish experiences this reality of the Christians of Corinth. Every parish is blessed with men and women gifted with the ability to lead, to plan, to teach, to be involved in issues of social justice or outreach into the neighborhood or to help build a sense of community in a parish. Every parish is blessed with people who have the ability to proclaim the scriptures with intelligence and meaning, people gifted with the ability to make people feel welcome, people with good voices to form choirs, people who are at ease in visiting the sick and shut-ins.
Everyone person here is blessed in one way or another with gifts, talents that are theirs alone but gifts given for the common good, gifts meant to be shared. But how often do we really appreciate those gifts, enjoy those gifts, and share those gifts. How often do we dismiss, devalue these gifts by thinking of them as something like the water in the rain barrel, not worth all that much, not worth sharing with others. How often do we see our lives as bland, without excitement, without zest? Just rain barrel water, just rain barrel lives. Yet today’s gospel shows us how Jesus takes what we consider to be so bland, so boring, so ordinary – so, ‘just there’, and transforms it into choice wine – something rich and exhilarating, something to be shared and enjoyed by ourselves and others.
Maybe there are times when we look at our lives, our jobs, our family life, our relationships and we say, I have no wine, no zest, no enthusiasm, my job is a grind, my family life is dull, and really what have I done with my life? These are all downers; these speak of left over rain water stagnating in a barrel. These thoughts and feelings speak of how we’ve lost our awareness of how our lives have been blessed with gifts that are ours alone. These thoughts say, ‘I have no wine’. We all go through such times, such downers. That’s why we start each Mass trying to be mindful of how are lives are blessed and gifted.
Maybe a gospel like today’s can help us in our down times when we really feel not all that good about ourselves, our lives, our jobs. Maybe we can find the trust to take these very real feelings to Christ and honestly say, “I have no wine”. Maybe we can trust that Christ will grace us as He graced His newly married friends by taking our feelings of being inadequate and grace us with a deeper appreciation of how our lives have been blessed – blessed with health and love and friends and faith and abilities uniquely our own. Maybe we can appreciate in new way how lucky we are. In that sense of appreciation may we take the gifts with which we have been blessed and share those gifts with others.
| Posted in Homily |
Dear Good People of St. Gabriel’s:
I mentioned in my Christmas letter for 2005 that, as we were preparing to move to our new home, we were going to provide a new home for a refugee family from Rwanda.
The Ntigulirwa family came to Canada in December of 2005. Sister Maria Lanthier has been working with the family along with some of our parishioners. She sent me this update as to how the family is doing…
“In the past 12 months, the Ntigulirwa family is quite proud of what they have accomplished with the assistance of the settlement team from St. Gabriel’s and the financial assistance from the parish for their living expenses. Without your generosity, they would never have been in position to do what they are now able to do from this time forward – take care of their own rent, food, utility bills, transportation needs, clothing, medications, etc.
For the last 11 months, Ezechiel worked the late shift at a bakery company. In the mornings he studied to improve his English, to obtain the highest level of forklift driver certificate, to obtain a driver’s licence, to finish a course in handling dangerous packages, and to complete maintenance training course with the Montessori school board. By late November he was ready to apply in several places for a new job, expecting to accept the first company that responded. Within 2 weeks, his own bakery asked him to transfer from the branch where he had been working to their branch in North York to become a forklift driver. This meant a salary raise of $3.50 per hour and a second raise after his initial 3 months of work for the new location. By March 1st, approximately, he will be earning a salary of $14 per hour (with the chance of going even higher after 6 months).
Ange is now in Grade 2 at the Ecole Publique Francais Montessori where she stands near the head of her class (no fees required).
Seraphine, for the first time in 9 months after a painful pregnancy, is only this week back in ESL class with her 3 year old son and the new baby. Ezechiel did well in negotiating with the YWCA to find a place that would accept all three.
It now seems this family from Rwanda will do very well indeed in Canada. They are proud and delighted with the way things turned out, as well as deeply grateful for the role of St. Gabriel’s in its generous response to their dream of one day achieving resettlement in Canada.”
Total: $10,903.14
TIME: 10:30AM to NOON PLACE: Gabriel Room WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17th (repeat on January 24th )
This presentation will also be offered on TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 23rd at 7:30PM.
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30th TIME: 7:30 – 9:00PM PLACE: Library “How are our Christian life and ethics similar to those of other faith traditions? How are they different?”
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
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 2007 BOX.
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
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: a Chest: In this case, the Ark is a seat, as well as a container. It will hold the King, Christ, present under the form of the Eucharistic species exposed in a monstrance. The chest will also contain the Scriptures and the Bible – Christ present through his word.
A Symbolic Boat: The boat brings to mind Noah’s Ark. However, it refers more to the boat of Peter. Ever since the institution of the New Covenant, the boat has been a symbol of the Church, the people of God who are journeying together.
The New and Eternal Covenant: Refers to the New Covenant Jesus signed with the people of the Old Covenant. This new covenant marked by the Pascal Mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection and celebrated in the Eucharist.
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
| Posted in Bulletin |
January 7th, 2007
In today’s gospel we have Matthew’s version of the birth of Christ with the emphasis on a king who would brook no rival and the arrival of these sages from a distant country seeking a new born king. Luke’s telling of the birth of Jesus let us know that this new born king, born in a stable, came for the least of the least. The first to witness the birth of the Savior, were poor shepherds, people who had no standing in society at all. Today we would call them marginalized. These least were the first to see this wonder of wonder, God entering into humanity in the person of His Son, Jesus.
In Matthew’s gospel his take on the birth of Jesus is that Jesus came for everyone – for any person of any nationality who does what is right – these sages from – who knows where, represent all that nations of the earth – all are welcome, all are changed by this wonder of Divinity embracing humanity. Matthew’s gospel which was written long after Paul’s letter to Ephesians is affirming what Paul taught: the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the same promise in Christ Jesus.
Of all the teachings of Paul, this was the hardest one for Jewish Christians to accept, that Gentiles, non Jews, were embraced by God just as they were, that the Gentiles were the new Israel of God. In Christ there was no longer Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free – all were one – all were equally loved by God – all were reconciled, made one with God, through the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. Matthew, who wrote for Jewish Christians, affirms this teaching of Paul in and through the imagery of these strangers, searchers coming from afar and who are welcomed by the Christ.
One of the great problems we face today is that of fundamentalism – not just the Islam extremist who sees anyone who does not agree with them as infidels. Not just the Hindu extremist who would kill anyone who converted to a different faith. We Christians have our own fundamentalist our own extremists too – Catholic and non-Catholic – unless we buy into their narrow, restricted, even distorted beliefs on God, on Jesus, on the church – we are out.
I love that statue of Christ at the entrance of the underground parking – I call it, ‘the welcoming Christ’, arms outstretched to embrace any and all who come to Him burdened with life’s troubles. But there are those who would tie those outstretched arms behind His back, restraining His love and welcome from those who do not believe as they believe, from those who have the maturity to think for themselves, to question and to search as these wise men in the gospel did.
As you know epiphany means manifestation – a eureka experience – an insight into something new and wonderful. That’s what we celebrate today – that awesome insight hidden to former generations but now revealed through God’s Spirit – the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the same promise in Christ Jesus.’ As St. Peter put it: ‘any person of any nationality who does what is right, is acceptable to God.’
As we continue to celebrate this feast of wonder and revelation we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be blessed to have those welcoming arms of the welcoming Christ and rejoice and respect the many ways the grace of God is working in the lives of all people – of all faiths, all denominations, and all nationalities.
THE EPIPHANY OF CHRIST IS A SHINING LIGHT SET AT THE TURNING OF THE YEAR TO ILLUMINATE ALL THAT HAS GONE BEFORE, AND TO GUIDE US THROUGH THE YEAR AHEAD.
With this Feast of the Epiphany we close our celebration of Christmas and we look forward to a Peaceful New Year.
Sincere thanks to all who helped make this Christmas celebration possible: the Organists and Choir, the Cantors, the Lectors, the Ministers of Hospitality, the Ministers of the Eucharist, the Servers, and to those who decorated the Church so beautifully. Thank you to all those who supported the Toy and Food Drives. You are wonderful people!
TIME: 10:30AM to NOON PLACE: Gabriel Room on WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10th (repeat of January 3rd). This presentation will also be offered on TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 9th at 7:30PM.
TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16th TIME: 7:30 – 9:00PM PLACE: Library “How are our Christian life and ethics similar to those of other faith traditions? How are they different?”
Total: $34,656.00
Total: $5,782.00
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul would like to thank the parishioners, St. Gabriel’s Crafters and families of students at St. Gabriel’s School for their generosity throughout the year, but particularly during the Christmas period. This has enabled us to help many of our neighbours in need, in and around the parish, all of whom are very grateful for your practical thoughtfulness.
Thank you to the volunteers who prepared 54 casseroles for December. For January, your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses on the weekend of January 27/28 for delivery. 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 a copy of the recipe and a casserole pan, please contact Irene Albrecht at 416-221-2791.
December 31st, 2006
I went to see the movie ‘The Nativity’. In my opinion it was spared all the excesses of a Hollywood production. When we think back on our memories of movies such as the Ten Commandments, Ben Hur or the Robe with all the extravagance and poetic license they took with Scripture, the Nativity was a breathe of fresh air. It certainly had nothing in common with The Passion of Christ.
The Nativity showed the common yet harsh life of the poor people of the time. The simple homes, the cramped living conditions, the hard labor and yet the sense of community in small villages such as Nazareth. It was a hard life. The movie showed in its own way how Jesus became as we all are, one like us in all things. I think they portrayed Mary as an ordinary young woman of the time – helping with family chores, having friends, helping others. But I liked Joseph the best. A hard working, friendly young man looking for a bride, approaching Mary’s father for her hand – the deal being made with Mary having little if anything to say about it. Poor Joseph is shocked when Mary comes back to Nazareth after her three month visit with her cousin Elizabeth, obviously pregnant. Tongues wag and knowing looks are exchanged when Mary walks through the streets. But as the Gospel tells us Joseph took her as his wife and took away the shame. From then on in different scenes of their journey to Bethlehem Joseph always referred to ‘our child.’
I’ve mentioned on every feast of the Holy Family what a disservice Christian artists have done to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Everything is so serene, so unruffled, they are like porcelain dolls. They’ve taken them out of the realm of reality – especially the harsh reality portrayed in The Nativity. Their’s was not an easy life.
I think today’s gospel story of the loss of the young Jesus in the bustling city of Jerusalem gives points to this truth. Can you imagine if a son or daughter of yours just disappears without a word – you have no idea where they are? Imagine the panic. You are distraught. You call the police, you call friends – does anybody know where he or she is. Then when they do show up you’re caught between relief and anger. You want to take them and shake them, you want to take them and hug them. Mary and Joseph were no different. Joseph lets Mary do the talking, ‘why have you done so to us’ how could you be so thoughtless, so irresponsible’ but Joseph must have had words with Jesus as well.
How many parents have asked a son or daughter – no matter what their age; ‘why have you done so to us?” How could you do such a stupid, thoughtless thing? How could you pick such friends? What were you thinking? The circumstances that cause such questions are endless. They leave you confused and questioning; where did we go wrong? Why didn’t we see this coming?
I say this every year and I mean it. Looking at you good people, good parents, I have to say, ‘ I took the easy way out’ The saints of the church are in the pews of the church, people like yourselves, whether you are in two parent or single parent homes. Good people like yourselves trying to do the best you can as you struggle with trying to keep your own relationship alive, as you worry about keeping a roof over your heads and raise a family. You are the saints.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass on this feast of the Holy Family – a family that knew its own struggles and its own joys, we pray for every family in the parish that they have the faith and strength to face their problems, the insight to appreciate how special is each member of the family and the love to bear one another’s weaknesses, knowing that all of us, as individuals and as family; we are all a work in progress.
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