September 26th, 2020
September 28th to October 4th
MONDAY – GUILLERMO ACOSTA – Requested by Mirian Fabra TUESDAY – LOZANO ACOSTA – Requested by Mirian Fabra WEDNESDAY – SOULS IN PURGATORY – Requested by Mirian Fabra THURSDAY – CARL LEFEBOUR – Requested by Yvonne Lefebour FRIDAY – THOMAS OWEN & JESSE PETER JOSEPH MILLER – Requested by their Family SATURDAY – GUS & MARIE CALDERONE – Requested by their Family SUNDAY – 10:30 AM – DOREEN YOUNG – Requested by Noreen Chen SUNDAY – 12:30 PM – LAUDELINA DESOUZA MOREIRA – Requested by Humberto Holanda
Interviews for children who were prepared to receive their First Communion last May are now being scheduled.
Interviews began on Tuesday, September 15th and will continue until Thursday, October 1st. They are scheduled every 15 minutes from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Please call the Parish Office at 416-221-8866-to book your appointment with Fr. Brando as soon as possible.
Meetings in preparation for the R.C.I.A. (Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults) will begin in October. These meetings are normally in person but, due to Covid 19, they will probably be online. They are for persons interested in learning more about the Catholic Faith. The exploration may lead the candidate to seek baptism, and become a member of the Catholic Christian community; or for Christians already baptized into another Christian denomination, the reception into the Catholic Church.
Adult Catholics who have not received the sacrament of Confirmation but who wish to do so are also encouraged to attend these sessions.
As well, these meetings may be an opportunity for “Born Catholics” to deepen their understanding of our faith. Very often, especially for those of us who received our religious instruction at an early age, we tend to grow physically, mentally, psychologically etc., but the understanding of our faith does not grow correspondingly. The RCIA may serve as a good opportunity for us to ask questions and to develop a more adult understanding of our faith.
If you are interested in joining the RCIA meetings or if you would like to have more information about it, please contact Sr. Maria Lucia at 416-221-8866.
We are discerning how the program will be delivered in these times. More information will be forthcoming, so stay tuned.
This Sunday, September 27th at 10:00 AM.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented some unique challenges for the Church, as well as for our efforts to plan for this year’s World Day of Migrants & Refugees. In response, our office arranged for this year’s World Day of Migrants & Refugees, which will take place this Sunday, September 27th to be celebrated virtually. On Sunday, Cardinal Collins will be the celebrant and homilist at the 10:00 AM Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. The Mass will be livestreamed. Following the livestream, the Mass along with pre-recorded videos from several guest speakers will be made available on ORAT’s website and Facebook page. These are intended to draw our attention to the plight of so many who have been displaced from their homes and homelands.
Registration is now open for the 2020-21 Catechist Formation Program. The program runs from Sunday, October 18th, 2020 to Saturday, June 19th, 2021. It consists of a combination of online courses, seminars, retreat morning, as well as a Mass and blessing of catechists by Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, at St. Augustine’s Seminary. There is a $250 deposit, refundable upon program completion, and the cost of books.
For more information see the brochure at http://bit.ly/OCFP-Brochure2020 or contact Connie Price at: cprice@archtoronto.org or 416-934-3400, ext. 513.
You can make a difference in the lives of the hungry and homeless this Thanksgiving by participating in the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.
Good Shepherd provides hot meals and shelter for the homeless in our city as well as a chance to start again through the Resettlement or DARE Programs.
Rosalie Hall assists young parents and their children to realize their potential through the provision of a wide range of child development, community, residential and educational services.
Urgently needed items include: rice pasta and pasta sauces, cereal curry& garlic powder salad dressing hot chocolate powdered milk tea bags granola/protein bars chocolate bars cookies and crackers, hard candy sugar coffee canned tuna, soups, stews, corned beef, fruits and vegetables
Please check the expiry date as we cannot pass on expired foods. Please no fresh or frozen foods.
We thank you for your generous support!
For Families of Parishioners
The Archdiocese Office for Refugees has a program to assist parishioners who would like to sponsor a family member that is in need of refugee sponsorship. This program is intended to assist parishioners only. If you are a parishioner, and would like to sponsor a family member, please contact the parish office to schedule a meeting with the pastor prior to November 15th. The Office for Refugees will look to the sponsoring family to provide the necessary funds for sponsorship.
The Process
Step 1: The Program is Announced at Parish by October 20th, 2020. Step 2: The Parishioner Meets with the Pastor – Interested parishioners are to arrange a meeting with the pastor by November 15th, 2020 Step 3: The Pastor Sends Request to ORAT by November 29th, 2020 Step 4: ORAT Invites Parishioner to an Information Session – Following the receipt of the request from the pastor, ORAT will extend an invitation to the parishioner, inviting them to attend the Introduction to Resettlement Information Session. This is a mandatory session for the parishioner. The session will take place on or before Saturday, December 12th, 2020.
For the foreseeable future, we are stopping the collection of milk bags. There are no workshops being scheduled at this time and Sharon has many more than she can use. We will let you know when we can begin collecting them once more.
Monday, September 28th at 7:00 PM
Join Faith Connections on Monday, September 28th at 7:00 PM for a virtual evening of theology and reflection for young adults, ages 18-39! We welcome Rev. Leigh Kern, Hon. B.A., M.Div., for a discussion on “Colonization and Confinement: From Assimilation to Liberation,” which will examine the theological roots of our current judicial, policing and prison system, and their impact on Indigenous communities. For more information and to join us via Zoom, please visit the events section of Faith Connections Facebook page: www.facebook.com/FaithConnections/events. It’s sure to be a great night!
Please contact Faith Connections at faithconnections@csj-to.ca or phone WEBSITE: faithconnections.ca
When you see Garden Ministry members in the garden, you rightly assume we are its caretakers. What you might not see is the garden taking care of us. Its rich, earthy scents soothe anxiety; birdsongs lift a troubled soul out of shadows; soft breezes swishing through grasses calm an overactive mind; colours pique curiosity and loneliness fades as we are drawn closer to the myriad creatures that make the garden their home. In that quiet space, awaits the listening ear of our Creator. Our garden is there for all of us.
For more information on St. Gabriel’s gardens visit the Garden Ministry web-page on the parish website. If you would like to participate in caring for our gardens, please email heathermjb@gmail.com.
| Posted in Bulletin |
September 20th, 2020
September 21st to 27th
MONDAY – FIORENTINO GIANNOTTA – Requested by Lina Giannotta TUESDAY – SOULS IN PURGATORY – Requested by Mirian Fabra WEDNESDAY – GERRY, MIKE & EDNA HATCH – Requested by their Family THURSDAY – AURITA FERNANDES – Requested by Tony Fernandes FRIDAY – FABRA LEYTON – Requested by Mirian Fabra SATURDAY – JOHN POWELL – Requested by Kathleen Olden-Powell SUNDAY – 10:30 AM – RENATO BELLISARI – Requested by Chiara SUNDAY – 12:30 PM – INTENTIONS OF MIRIAN FABRA – Requested by Mirian Fabra
Interviews for children who have been preparing to receive their First Communion are now being scheduled. Interviews began on Tuesday, September 15th and will continue until Thursday, October 1st. They are scheduled every 15 minutes from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
This Sunday, September 20th
Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, has announced the institution of Stewardship Sunday across the archdiocese on the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The first Stewardship Sunday will take place this Sunday, September 20th. To mark the occasion, Cardinal Collins has authored a homily on stewardship (which is also available in a video format). You may read the Cardinal’s homily or view it on video at www.archtoronto.org
Sunday, September 27th at 10:00 AM.
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented some unique challenges for the Church, as well as for our efforts to plan for this year’s World Day of Migrants & Refugees. In response, our office arranged for this year’s World Day of Migrants & Refugees, which will take place on Sunday, September 27th to be celebrated virtually. On that day, Cardinal Collins will be the celebrant and homilist at the 10:00 AM Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. The Mass will be livestreamed. Following the livestream, the Mass along with pre-recorded videos from several guest speakers will be made available on ORAT’s website and Facebook page. These are intended to draw our attention to the plight of so many who have been displaced from their homes and homelands.
This Weekend, September 19th/20th
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is collecting gently used clothing, shoes and linens to support our neighbors in need or to be sold to help support their special works in the community this weekend, September 19th/20th.
They cannot accept books, dishes, furniture, appliances, mattresses, construction materials or videos and cassettes. Please bring your donations and help others in your community.
The truck will be open: Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM Sunday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
Volunteers will be there to assist with loading before and after Mass.
Your prepared casseroles (frozen please) will be collected at the Masses next weekend. Each month, the casseroles are picked up early on Monday morning for delivery to the Good Shepherd Centre.
More volunteers are needed to help feed the hungry in our city. We encourage you to pick up a copy of a casserole recipe and a pan and give it a try. Three recipes are available on St. Gabriel’s web site. Printed copies of the recipes are also available in the Parish Office. For more information, you may contact Irene Albrecht at 416 221-2791.
As you are aware, St. Gabriel’s has always collected food for Rosalie Hall and the Good Shepherd Centre.
During the pandemic, there was no food collection and shelves were depleted so these organizations are desperate.
Please help if you can by bringing non-perishable foods such as rice, canned goods, powdered milk, coffee, tea sugar, cereal, peanut butter, jam, pasta and sauces. You may place them in the large bin in the Gathering Space.
Thank you to all the parishioners who heeded the announcement and already brought food. Your response has been awesome!
September sees the waning of most flowering plants in the south garden, but there is one wonderful exception: Smooth Blue Aster. It’s profusion of small, blue-pink blossoms remind us of the gentle, spring garden shades overtaken in summer by more raucous colours like the extravagant magenta of Hairy Beardtongue, which has just finished flowering or the boisterous yellow of Smooth Oxeye, which is still blooming. Take a stroll and enjoy the scene before the inevitable frost.
Since March of this year our lives have been turned upside down. A virus, a plague has spread around the world with lightning speed. We are helpless before it. Scientists around the world are co-operating to find a cure. As of now they have not been successful.
Think of how this virus has affected us personally. Right here right now we have to sign in to come to this Mass. We have to wear masks, sit a certain distance apart, we’re not allowed to sing our hymns, there’s no choir and then we are restricted in our greeting of peace. We receive Holy Communion in a well ordered way. There is no spontaneity – we have to be careful. We can no longer take our time after Mass to greet and talk with one another.
There’s no more social life. We live in our own bubbles. No parties, no picnics, no fun.
The saddest and the hardest of all is the reality of seniors dying alone in nursing homes, no love ones allowed to hold and comfort them.There are no wakes, no hugging, no words of sympathy and encouragement. No funerals.
Weddings and their reception are cancelled; Thanksgiving and Christmas family gathering and dinners are discouraged. Snow birds are grounded.
Think of the numbers of small businesses that are gone. The financial impact of this virus has been disastrous for so many people.
This devious virus has touched us all in one way or another.
But think on this. We, the human family have become a virus to Earth. By our lifestyles, our consumerism, our wastefulness, our exploitation of Earth’s limited resources, our pollution of Earth’s oceans and lakes and rivers, our part in the extinction our so many species of plants, animals and birds and insects all these plus the climate change we’ve caused by our irresponsible human activity we’ve have caused a virus that damages and diminishes the health of Earth. What we do to Earth we do to ourselves.
We have no idea when our lives will get back to normal but scientist tells us the healing of Earth will be a long, long process.
Think on this. If we change our attitudes on our relationship with Earth, if we learn to respect the fragility of the life systems of Earth, if we appreciate the limits of Earth’s resources and live within them, if we are willing to live a simple life style, if we control our use of fossil fuel and harvest the energy of the sun and the winds, if we are willing to control the ways we harvest the seas and the land; then we will go a long way to developing an antivirus to the virus with which we’ve inflicted Earth and go a long way toward the healing of Earth.
A healthy Earth will be the antivirus we’re looking for and we can put behind us these difficult and tragic times in which we live.
Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Constantinople have asked that these days, until Oct. 4th the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi be known as the Season of Creation – days on which we see our place in God’s good creation.
Will we, during the Season of Creation, take the time to wonder at the beauty of creation, especially during this Fall season and take the time to examine our own life styles and by changing them make our own effort to work toward the healing of Earth and the healing of ourselves?
| Posted in Homily |
September 16th, 2020
Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, has announced the institution of Stewardship Sunday across the archdiocese on the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The first Stewardship Sunday will take place on September 20, 2020. To mark the occasion, Cardinal Collins, authored the below homily on stewardship (which is also available in a video format). Click on the link to view the video or read the homily.
Read more – and see the video – on the Archdiocese web site
| Posted in Notice |
Dear brothers and sisters,
Every year ShareLife gives us the opportunity to reach out with the hands of Christ to care for those who are most in need. This is what we’re called to do as His disciples: to be with those at the side of the road who are suffering, just as the Good Samaritan did. This is what it means to be a Christian.
At this time especially, in the midst of this pandemic, so many people are suffering greatly. There are people who are in great need of help for them as they struggle mentally and psychologically. ShareLife helps in that.
For people lonely, isolated, for seniors who need help, ShareLife reaches out to them.
There is a great deal of domestic violence and the ShareLife agencies are there at this time of great need to bring the loving hand of Christ into the midst of situations of such suffering.
In ShareLife we find the presence of Christ in the midst of those who suffer. We are there with them because He is with us, sending us out to be with those who are in need. That’s the purpose of ShareLife.
Especially in this time of such great need in the midst of this pandemic, I ask you to, in a very particular way, be generous in supporting those in need during the ShareLife Sunday collection.
May God bless you as you serve Our Lord by serving those who are in need.
Cardinal Thomas Collins Archbishop of Toronto
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