From the desk of Fr. Phil…

>>click here to view Bulletin January 29, 2012

Do you believe that God’s word has power to set you free and to transform your life? When Jesus taught he spoke with authority. He spoke the word of God as no one had spoken it before. When the Rabbis taught they supported their statements with quotes from other authorities. The prophets spoke with delegated authority – “Thus says the Lord.”When Jesus spoke he needed no authorities to back his statements. He was authority incarnate – the Word of God made flesh. When he spoke, God spoke. When he commanded even the demons obeyed.

Scripture tells us that true faith works through love (Galatians 5:6) and abounds in hope (Romans 15:13). Our faith is made perfect in love because love orients us to the supreme good which is God himself as well as the good of our neighbor who is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26,27). Hope anchors our faith in the promises of God and purifies our desires for the things which will last for eternity. That is why the word of Christ has power to set us free from all that would keep us bound in sin, deception, and despair. Faith is both a free gift of God and the free assent of our will to the whole truth that God has revealed. To live, grow, and persevere in the faith to the end, we must nourish it with the word of God. The Lord gives us his Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds that we may grow in his truth and in the knowledge of his great love for each of us. If we approach God’s word submissively, with an eagerness to do everything the Lord desires, we are in a much better position to learn what God wants to teach us through his word.

I hope you all have a good week.             

Fr. Phil 

From the desk of Fr. Noel…

>>click here to view Bulletin January 22, 2012

ARCHBISHOP THOMAS COLINS TO BECOME CARDINAL – Pope Benedict has appointed our Archbishop Thomas Collins to be a Cardinal.  We offer our congratulations and our prayers to our Archbishop on receiving this prestigious honor in the Catholic Church.  The Consistory (ceremony to create cardinals) will be held at St. Peter’s on Saturday, February 18th, 2012.  Cardinals official function is to elect popes. There will be two departures, February 13-21 – 8 nights and February 16-21 – 5 nights and if you are interested in attending please call Bethesda Travel at 1-888-752-1622 or the Office of Public Relations & Communications at 416-934-3400 X563.   

From the desk of Fr. Noel…

>>click here to view Bulletin January 15, 2012

ARCHBISHOP THOMAS COLINS TO BECOME CARDINAL – Pope Benedict has appointed our Archbishop Thomas Collins to be a Cardinal.  We offer our congratulations and our prayers to our Archbishop on receiving this prestigious honor in the Catholic Church.  The Consistory (ceremony to create cardinals) will be held at St. Peter’s on Saturday, February 18th, 2012.  Cardinals official function is to elect popes.

ANNUAL PRE-MARRIAGE COURSE – On the weekends of Friday evening and Saturday throughout the day, January 20/21 and January 27/28, the course is for couples to be married at St. Dominic’s in 2012.  This is an important time for our couples and they need the prayerful support of the whole parish.  Please pray that all our couples will be filled with love and wisdom as they prepare themselves for the sacrament of marriage.

THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY -  We are having an ecumenical Service for Christian Unity as St. Dominic’s on Wednesday, January 25th at 7:30 pm, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  All our parishioners are kindly invited to welcome our friends from other local Christian Churches and to pray together for Christian Unity.  Fellowship to continue with light refreshments in the parish hall.

From the desk of Fr. Phil…

>>click here to view Bulletin January 8, 2012

I hope you all enjoyed the festivities and celebrations of Advent and Christmas. I would like to thank all those who made these celebrations so meaningful. At this time too, I would like to thank you for your good wishes, Christmas cards and gifts. All are very much appreciated.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany and the great Gospel story of the visit of the Magi. We are familiar with the term Magi, although it is more common to refer to them as the 3 wise men, or the 3 kings.

As people of faith, do we know the names of these important visitors? They are: Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior. The three wise men were called to come and give worship to the child Jesus. They were called by the powerful light of a star and by careful study of Old Testament Scripture. As scholars of non-Jewish heritage, they realized that the messiah has come to visit his people.

The Feast of the Epiphany is the celebration of the manifestation of Jesus the Lord to the Gentiles. And this manifestation is represented by these mysterious kings from the Far East. The visit of these kings will make clear that the King of King came to save all people of every nation. This is the manifestation of the New Covenant. This is the beginning of the universality of Christ’s church; that universality we call Catholic.

The Magi journeyed far and for quite some time to pay homage to Jesus. This would not be an easy journey. Yet their faith in the promise of new hope motivated them to press on. They did not have the advantage of witnessing Christ’s miracles, reading the stories of Jesus in the New Testament, they hardly could know of the passion, crucifixion, death and resurrection that were to come. Still their faith was enough.

And they came not to say hello, here we are. No, they came to pay Christ worship and to bring him their finest gifts. And these gifts we all know so well; gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is the most precious of all earth’s metals, frankincense is the incense that is burned in churches down through the centuries to make a pleasing offering to God and myrrh is a byproduct that is used in the holy oils for anointing. These precious gifts represent all that the life of Jesus, sent to us through the Virgin to save us, is all about; for He is our priest, our prophet and our King.

What does all of this mean for us today?  These men gave their all and sacrificed much to be able to do so? We can ask ourselves what kind of time to we devote to giving ourselves to Jesus? If we truly reflect on a typical day or a typical week in our lives what would we discover about our faith commitment to Christ?

Today, we can ponder the example of the 3 wise men, these mysterious Kings from the Far East known as the Magi. God called them, as He calls us, by name.

I hope you all have a good week!

Fr. Phil

From the desk of Fr. Phil…

>>click here to view Bulletin January 1, 2012

Before we reach Christ's birth in Luke's gospel we are already well aware of how special Mary is. The angel Gabriel calls her "most highly favored" and her cousin Elizabeth exclaims how she is "most blessed". She is the one in whom the blessings spoken of by God to Moses are to be fulfilled. Yet she has no claims to greatness. She is a maiden betrothed to a man named Joseph in an insignificant village in the unimportant region of Galilee. Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus through his foster-father, Joseph. Mary herself, in her great hymn of praise on her visit to Elizabeth, will speak of her own lowliness and marvel at how God has chosen the weak and poor to confound the rich and powerful.

In this sense the shepherds are Mary's natural companions. They too are looked down upon. Mary is great not through any social connections or natural talents but because God has blessed her and chosen her. She becomes the model for the many characters in Luke's gospel who will turn social expectations upside down: the Good Samaritan, the woman who was a sinner, Zacchaeus and the Prodigal Son, to name but a few. She is the one who, with the Spirit living in her heart, is able to cry "Abba, Father". She becomes the first of those freed from slavery, the first heir among the children of God.

How she accepts God's blessing and choice is important. In a phrase Luke will repeat, Mary is reported as treasuring all these things and pondering them in her heart. She is the model of prayerful reflection, the one who allows the Spirit to speak and inspire. The result of her reflection is in this case transposed onto the shepherds. They go back glorifying and praising God for all they have heard and seen. In the Magnificat it is Mary herself who glorifies and praises God for all he has done.

Mary is a wonderful model for us as we begin this New Year. I wish you every blessing, happiness and health throughout 2012. May our parish and parishioners continue to be blessed!

Fr. Phil

Prayer for the New Year

Give us the kindness to hear with compassion,

to offer support,

loving comfort and care.

Give us the courage to do what is needed,

the wisdom to choose

what is right and most fair.

Give us the vision to see what is possible.

Give us the faith

that will help pave the way

for a present that’s hopeful,

a future that’s peaceful---

give us the heart to bring joy each day.

CHRISTMAS is a time for thanks.

  >>click here to Bulletin December 25, 2011

Thanks to Anthony Bastianon and the SATB choir, to Mark Linsao and the Folk Choir for all their beautiful music at Christmas and throughout the year.  We are blessed with music at every Mass each weekend and we thank all the people engaged in Music ministry.  Thanks to all who volunteer at St. Dominic’s – our Lectors – who proclaim the Scriptures every week, the Ministers of Eucharist who are charged with the responsibility of distribution Holy Communion each week and  thanks to those extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion who take the sacrament to our parishioners at home or in hospitals or  institutions  ; Thanks to the Ministers of Hospitality who welcome  us each week, to those responsible for coffee after the 10:00 am Mass, to our Altar Servers who help the priest at Mass. Thanks to all who bring us “The Ministry of the Word for  Children”, a very important aspect at some of our Sunday liturgy, to the Catechists who bring the knowledge of God to our children attending public school we says thanks;  to the catechists Involved in First Communion, First Reconciliation and those involved in Confirmation we thank you for your participation.  Thanks to the many dedicated people who are involved in our baptisms and weddings. To all married couples who produce our pre-marriage course we say thank you. 

Thanks to Knights and the many volunteers who helped decorate the church during this Christmas season and on other special occasions throughout the year.

Thanks to the youth group with the assistance of some adults who hosted “Encounter with Santa Clause on Sunday, December 18th.  It was a lot of fun for all the children.  It was a lot of fun for all the children, parents and grandparents who attended.  Thanks to Jennifer Van de Coevering who organized the Christmas Eve’s children’s mass.  We were blessed with so many angels and shepherds, even some wise men.  Thanks to Parish Social Ministry and St. Vincent de Paul for bringing the Caring & Sharing outreach initiative to the people in our community who are in need at Christmas. We would also like to thank them for their ministry to the needy all year long.  We would also like to thank you, our generous parishioners who support these programs all year long. Thanks to our team of handymen who quietly and diligently do the task of repairing pews, doors and answer to the call when the need arises. Thanks to Anne Abbott and her team who each year co-ordinates the Parish Skating Party. To all of you who volunteer for some ministry in Church especially those of you we may have forgotten we say a very big “thank you”.  We really do appreciate all you do for the parish and the community of St. Dominic’s.