Church of The Holy Spirit

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, December 7, 2008

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Dec 7-08

Barring the misfortune of extreme hardship, neglect or abuse, human beings are born into this world with a view of the universe that says everything and everyone revolves around self. Loving parents dote, relatives and friends of the family are similarly attentive, and only as children mature does their focus on self begin to adjust as each realizes that there are others in this world as precious as they.

At times, however, it becomes rather easy to slip back into a self-centred and self-oriented mode of existence. Independent and ambitious as we are accustomed to being, we still tend to think in terms of my wants, my needs, my opinions, my future. Nevertheless, while the world may encourage a decidedly self-centred focus, this holy season and our faith tradition invite us once again to shift our centre from self to God.

John the Baptizer lends his voice to the importance of that shift; in today's Marcan Gospel, he proclaims that Jesus is the focus of his life and all his energies as a human being. He called Jesus "One who is mightier than I" and admitted his unworthiness to "stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals."

John also admitted the temporary nature of his mission and of his own importance, and turned the eyes of his hopeful contemporaries away from himself toward Jesus, toward God. Centring on God in this way is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to maintain, but it enables the believer to cultivate a fresh perspective whereby God is first and last and foremost, and the value of all others and all else takes on new clarity. Focussing on God enables one to appreciate life and its blessings as God does, with reverence. Focussing and centring on God invites a repentance that turns us from self and sin to God, to others and to goodness.

Energies formerly spent on self-satisfaction can then be directed toward proactive efforts for the well-being of others. John had learned the necessity of such a paradigm shift in his life. His example invites similar efforts on our part. Israel also learned the necessity of shifting its centre from self to God. Salvation history testifies to the struggle of our forebears in the faith to maintain this shift.

Voices other than God's voice called out to the Israelites. Tempting and intriguing pagan practices invited the people to worship idols. Other nations and their leaders called for their political loyalties. False prophets lured them with lies, and their own weakness and lack of trust in God finally resulted in a radical shift away from God, away from Judah to exile, away from freedom, away from all they loved and cherished. Just when that shift seemed absolute and permanent, God spoke through Deutero-Isaiah (first reading) the words that continue to encourage us today: "Comfort, comfort my people."

God comes like a gentle shepherd inviting all who have strayed or shifted from their God-centre to repent and return. With an urgency that cannot be ignored, the author of 2 Peter (second reading) moves us to act now, for when the Lord and centre of our lives appears again in Jesus, the time for shifting will have elapsed.

Therefore, says the ancient writer, surrender to grace now and turn to God now. Centre on Jesus and put your spiritual gears into overdrive now, so as to make the paradigm shift of repentance now. Then, even when the day of the Lord comes "like a thief in the night," we will have nothing to fear, for we shall be already be firmly anchored in and fully centred on God.

With God as our ultimate vantage point, our focus and the person through whom all else is perceived, we cannot help but live differently. We cannot help but be kinder, truer and more adamant in our struggle for justice and peace. These differences, which give voice to our faith, will witness to others that redemption is possible, that God is near, that there is every reason not to lose hope!

May all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Dec. 9
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Joseph Lee Nam Kwong

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Albin Dunst

THURSDAY, Dec. 11
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Giuseppe Pierri

FRIDAY, Dec. 12
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Jack Williams

. . . find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven. . . . We pray, O God. . .Thy kingdom come. . .

For the sick, especially for all those who have asked for our prayers . . . for healing for the sick . . . for courage for those in pain . . . for those in hospitals, nursing homes or confined to their homes by illness or infirmity . . . for those who feel forgotten . . . for all care-givers . . . We pray, O God ...Thy kingdom come . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, December 14, 2008

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Dec 14-08

Once again this week the message we hear is one of good news! Isaiah reminds us that this good news is all about healing, freedom, relationships with God and one another, and taking good care of the poor. Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, affirms our belief that the good news of salvation calls for joyousness and confident prayer to God, which is to be translated into lives that reflect the holiness and goodness of our God. John the Baptizer witnesses in the Gospel that Jesus brings light into every darkened corner of mind and heart. That light represents the very life and love of God.

Although this good news is welcome, and while we are eager to hear and assimilate it, the voice of this good news seems to be stifled by a cacophony of bad news. Even as we yearn to carry God's good news in our hearts, we must admit that the bad news has infiltrated every nook and cranny of ourselves. Senseless injustices and the violence of war spill into our living rooms via television and we have been unable to staunch this tide of bad news. With the Internet, bad news can be electronically downloaded anywhere, to anyone, at any time. As a result, the human community is being bombarded with a continuous stream of badness and sadness. On any given day, somewhere in this world, human beings are suffering the effects of ethnic cleansing, territorial disputes, famine, disease, as well as natural and man-made disasters that have altered the topography and demography of this planet.

Just when there seems to be no respite or any solution to these overwhelmingly tragic events, we are reminded that there is good news and we, like Isaiah, Paul and John, are its heralds. Ours are the voices that are charged with the responsibility and the privilege of making this good news known wherever we are and to whomever we encounter. As heralds of good news, we are to deliver our message with joy. Our joy is not silly or naïve or unaware of the gravity of this world's ills; it is fully attuned to all that hurts, all that wounds, all that kills. But we are not defeated by evil. On the contrary, our grip on God and on God's loving goodness is so tight that we can withstand evil. Drawing on the depths of God's mercies, we can find a way to muster a joy so contagious that it will uplift and strengthen those who have lost the cause of their joy.

However, before we can find our own joy and communicate it to the joyless, we must ask ourselves: Do I really believe that the essence of the message that God has spoken into the world through the authors of both biblical testaments is, indeed, good news? Do I believe that this good news can speak with any relevance to a 21st-century human community? Is this good news only for Sundays? Is its message and influence confined to churches, shrines and other sanctuaries? Does this good news in any way speak to my daily life? Can the preaching and teaching and living of this good news have any effect on the immensity of human suffering and need?

If each of us cannot, in truth and in faith, affirm the essential pertinence of the good news and resolve to be its heralds, then that same truth demands that we leave this holy place and this praying assembly, for our presence here constitutes a lie. But if each of us has even the faintest whisper of such faith trying to grow within us, then let us gather ourselves together unto the One whose coming we anticipate. Together, in Christ, in whom we believe, and whose heralds we are, we will find the strength to be the good news that the world needs and longs to hear – the good news that God is, that God is present, that God hears and cares and graces all who reach out. And when these cannot reach out to God for themselves, then it is we who will bring God to them.

In our alertness to every human need, we are good news. In our courage to speak of these needs to others, we become gospel. In our efforts to alleviate the needs of others, to tend their hungers as well as their angers, their wounds as well as their wants, we become evangelists. When we bring the good news of God's love into every strata of the human condition and dare to deal head-on with the evils that plague our brothers and sisters, then we are glad tidings. When we cease being overwhelmed by evil and are more confident that goodness can never be overcome by it, then, by God and by grace, we become good news that begs to be heard by all God's people.

May all our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Dec. 16
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Nancy Fung

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 17
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Henri Richards

THURSDAY, Dec. 18
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Richetta Velocci

FRIDAY, Dec. 19
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Modesta Velocci

. . . find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven. . . . We pray, O God. . .Thy kingdom come. . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, December 21, 2008

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Dec 21k-08

Israel's first holy spaces were places where a human being had experienced God. That encounter could have occurred anywhere, from a mountaintop to a running brook, from an expanse of desert to a verdant forest. Meetings with God were often memorialized by a stone or pile of stones placed on the spot so that subsequent passers-by would realize they were on holy ground and afford that place the reverence it was due. Gradually, holy places became more permanently established, as in the tent of meeting referenced in today's first reading.

Eventually, the movable tent evolved into a stationary temple and was recognized as the holiest place for meeting and communing with God. With the institution of the temple, there were ten degrees of holiness, with the Holy of Holies being holiest of all. Holiness was not determined solely by personal piety or righteousness, but by nearness to the presence of God, who was thought to be enthroned in the Holy of Holies over the Ark of the Covenant.

When the ark was given a permanent place of residence in the temple which Solomon built, God's holiness was thought to fill that place with glory. With the coming of God in Jesus Christ, holiness took up residence in a new location. No longer would humans commune with God solely in the precincts of the temple, with its varying degrees of holiness. Rather, holiness itself had come to live within the parameters of the human condition, and humanity itself became a holy space.

This wonder is celebrated in today's Gospel as Luke tells the story of Mary's conception. Through the power of the Most High and Holy God, the very Spirit of God overshadowed Mary, and she became what the early church was proud to call the living Ark of the Covenant. A holy place, a sacred space by virtue of the child she conceived and carried, Mary is held out to Advent believers as both an example and an inspiration.

Just as Mary welcomed the Spirit and brought forth Jesus, thereby becoming a holy space that God fully occupied, so did Mary become the place where others could come to encounter the God who dwelled within her. In this, she showed herself to be an authentic disciple. Her discipleship continues to teach us how to make room in our lives for God, for Jesus, for the Spirit, and thereby to become the holy places and sacred spaces of which this world is in so much need.

This special role of ours as living sanctuaries where God chooses to dwell and through whom God chooses to be revealed is most poignant during Advent. We who await the Coming One often prepare symbols of welcome: the manger, the crèche, the cave, the inn. But in truth, all these symbols are to be realized in each of us. We are the empty crèche awaiting the presence of God. Individually, and especially together as church, we are the living place made holy by God's presence.

At times, however, we are like the inn of ancient tradition where there was no room and from which Mary and Joseph were turned away. Too many worries, too many projects, too many parties, too much shopping, too many gifts, too many bills – all these can crowd their way into the empty place where God wishes to enter and dwell in divine fullness. Therefore, Advent reminds us to clear a space, to empty the clutter that crowds our lives and to create a welcome for God. Through our praying, through our hoping and through our yearning for the Holy One, we become that quiet silence and ever-widening welcome which God will fill.

But the God who comes to fill us also dares us to relinquish our expectations so as to recognize the divine holiness that comes in everyday faces. Dorothy Day called it "making room for Christ" (Selected Writings, Robert Ellsberg, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y.: 1992). There is no use in saying that we've been born 2,000 years too late to welcome Christ, said Day. "On the contrary, it is with the voices of our contemporaries that he speaks. With the eyes of store clerks and children, he looks at us. With the hands of slum dwellers and suburban housewives, he reaches out. He walks with the feet of the soldier and the tramp. With the heart of all in need, he longs for us to shelter him. And, the giving of shelter or food or welcome to anyone who asks or needs it, is giving to Christ and making room for his holiness to dwell within."

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Dec. 23
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Mary Waychison

and all those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan, that they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, O God . . . Thy kingdom come . . . .

Parish Bulletin for Sunday, December 28, 2008

Feast of The Holy Family
Luke 2:22-40 Dec 28-08

Parents are the primary mentors of their children. They help their children to develop their own personalities, cultivate their social skills and educate their children at every level of their physical, emotional and intellectual development. By word and especially by example, parents also initiate their children into the life of faith.

Good parents in every way, Mary and Joseph saw to the needs of Jesus. In today's Gospel, they are portrayed as handing on the rich traditions of their faith to their son by adhering to the law. Their presence in the temple was required by a statute in Exodus that said that 40 days after his birth, the child should be presented to the Lord and by a statute in Leviticus that required the ritual purification of the new mother.

In addition to affirming the sincere spirituality of Jesus' earthly family, Luke had further reasons to include this narrative in his Gospel. By appearing in the temple to acquiesce to the law, Mary and Joseph set the scene for the actions of Simeon and Anna, both of whom Luke describes as "awaiting the consolation of Israel." Both Simeon and Anna focus the reader's attention on Jesus and on the future that will be profoundly impacted by his presence.

Luke lays the foundations for their respective messages by citing their credentials. Simeon, a righteous and devout man, was endowed with the Holy Spirit and thus was able to recognize Jesus as the long-awaited messiah. Anna, who spent her life in fasting and prayer, was also divinely inspired to thank God for the child, whom she felt blessed to encounter. This unlikely pair of witnesses announced their conviction that Jesus was directly connected to "the consolation of Israel and "the redemption of Jerusalem".

Simeon's pronouncement underscored the universality of the salvation to come through Jesus ("revelation for gentiles, glory for Israel"). Simeon's second pronouncement affirmed the controversial nature of Jesus' role. Jesus was the promised one of David's line; he came to fulfill God's promises. Jesus is the Saviour and the glory of Israel.

But here, a sombre tone is heard as Simeon acknowledges the division that will be prompted by Jesus' words and works. He will be the reason for "the fall and the rise of many." Many scholars regard this text as a hint of the dying and the rising through which Jesus would effect salvation, as well as the dying to self and the rising with Christ that would characterize Jesus' disciples.

Through all the ups and downs, the dying and rising of their life together, Mary, Joseph and Jesus supported one another through their mutual love and shared faith in God. Today they reach out with gentle hands in support of all families who wish to follow their example.

We pray for all of our beloved dead, especially

TUESDAY, Dec. 30
Weekday
8:30 a.m. - † Gina Mastrantoni

and all those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan, that they may find eternal rest and refreshment in the glorious Kingdom of heaven . . . We pray, O God . . . Glory to God in the Highest . . . .

Feast of Mary, Mother of God

January 1 2009

Nowhere does the doctrinal and devotional life of the Catholic Church come together more fiercely than when the discussion is about Mary. We mark New Year's Day by celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, our keynote for world peace and our prayer for the year ahead. Along with her doctrinal feasts of the Annunciation and Assumption, an expanding number of other feasts on the liturgical calendar keep before our eyes Mary's Immaculate Heart, her Most Holy Rosary, her medals and scapulars, octaves and novenas, appearances at Lourdes, Fatima and Mexico City, many of these linked to miracles and, in some more apocalyptic cults, warnings for us to repent or suffer the wrath of God.

Not all Marian devotions appeal to everyone. Ask 10 Catholics of a certain age, and you are likely to get a wide range of tastes in Marian piety, from none to fervent. Yet, if Mary is in fact a central figure in the life of the church and in the spiritual lives of all the baptized, there is good reason to insist that she not be held captive by any one group or one theological approach. Mary models what we all want — the mystical centre and the just life. Without both, we risk making Mary too small. A rich spectrum of biblical and spiritual roles for Mary has always existed in the church that explicitly places Mary on the side of the poor and the oppressed. Recovering a broader, deeper identity for Mary need not challenge the world of rosary rallies and travelling statues, but balances their influence.

Show us Mary of the Magnificat, a fierce advocate who stands with the poor, calling on God to take down the proud and the self-sufficient who create oppression and want.

Give us Mary, protector of unwed mothers, difficult marriages, couples who bear and give birth in poverty, who are displaced by political rivalries, war and violence, who live in refugee camps or are driven into exile by terror and economic desperation.

Give us Mary, patroness of runaway children, immigrants and the homeless, and widows and mothers who watch helplessly as their children are detained, disappeared, tortured and executed.

Show us Mary, model of leadership in family and community, alert to weddings without enough wine, pantries without enough food, the plight of the mentally ill left to fend for themselves on the streets, social lepers and other outcasts, women forced into the sex trade, women destroyed by gossip, bigotry and discrimination.

Give us Marian devotion that leads us beyond ourselves to action and solidarity with all people. We pray with Mary at Pentecost, her mystery shared expansively, ecumenically and globally, in every spoken language.

Give us Mary who urges us all to say our own "Yes" to the Holy Spirit, conceive and give birth to God in the world. This Mary is for all of us. I acclaim the greatness of the Lord,
I delight in God my saviour,
who regarded my humble state …
The mighty arm of God
scatters the proud in their conceit,
pulls tyrants from their thrones,
and raises up the humble.
The Lord fills the starving
and lets the rich go hungry.