News Around the Parish

Congratulations, Confirmandi – On Thursday, November 21 at 6 pm, Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco, Most Rev. William Justice celebrated Confirmation with our parochial and non-parochial 8^th graders.  Do you remember your own Confirmation?  The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is real and can be life changing.  The challenge is to learn to listen and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we do so, even a little bit, it will change the course of our lives for the better.  Imagine if you’re standing and facing south.  If you change your life by even one degree, at the end of our lives, it would have taken us to a whole different destination.  One book that helped change the course of my life was “The Cross and the Switchblade,” by David Wilkerson.  It is a powerful account of someone who took the risk to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in his life that not only transformed him, but those whom God has called him to serve.  On the occasion of the Parish’s Celebration of our youth accepting the faith for themselves, we give thanks to God for their “Yes,” and we pray that in the days and years ahead, the seed of faith planted at Baptism, will continue to grow and blossom throughout their lives.  And I’d like to thank their teachers, Mr. David Lopez, Sr. Angela Furia, Mrs. Mahgie Murphy, and their parents for helping them in their preparation.  Please remember our Confirmadi in your prayers.

Parish Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration – Each year, we gather as a parish community to celebrate our own Thanksgiving Dinner.  In a sense, we are like an extended family to each other, where both our children and adults encounter friendship, community and support.  And twice a year, at this event and at the feast of St. Brendan (May 16), we recognize and welcome new members who have joined our community.  We’re blessed that our community is still attracting others and I pray that they may experience in us, not only warmth and friendship, but faith to help them deepen their own relationship with God.  I’d like to recognize and thank our Welcome Committee Chairs, Paige Olson and Deborah Nysather, as well as the members of the Welcome Committee for planning, inviting, setting up, hosting and cleaning up for this event.  Their kindness and hard work, reminds us that truly, we have much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving Masses – As Fr. Theo mentioned last week, the word we use for Eucharist, is a Greek word that means Thanksgiving.  So it’s certainly appropriate that we give thanks to God through our prayer at Mass.  We give thanks to God for His Words that give us hope, that guide us and that give us life.  As we bring to each mass our sacrifices, not of blood from animals, but from the efforts of our lives to walk faithfully and humbly with God, God in turn gives us Himself in the Eucharist.  In this holy exchange, we can never out give God as He is far more generous with us than we can ever hope.  So if you’re not travelling and in town, plan to join us. 

                                         Our Thanksgiving Masses are on:

              Wednesday, 11/27 at 11am with the School

                  Thursday, 11/28 at 7:30am & 9:30am

If you’re able, please plan to bring non-perishable food items to Mass as St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) will be collecting for those in need.  At the recommendation of the Liturgy Committee and Parish Advisory Board, the tradition of the parish to provide bread for those who attend the Thanksgiving Mass will be discontinued.  In place, the funds used to purchase the bread ($150) will be donated to SVDP.

Fr. Dan

Reflections of our Parochial Vicar

IN JOYFUL THANKSGIVING

In a letter from “E.W.” (Edward Winslow) to a friend in England, he says: “And God be praised, we had a good increase…. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling that so we might after a special manner rejoice together….” Winslow continues, “These things I thought good to let you understand… that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favorably with us.”

This is the truest attitude of gratitude. An unexpressed gratitude remains a simple mental construct but when expressed it becomes a thanksgiving. This is the dominant spirit as we approach the Christmas Season and the end of this year.

In a couple of weeks, we as Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day which is typically on the last Thursday in November. On this day, we express our gratitude to God, to our families and loved ones for what and who they have been to us in this year. This beautiful family of St. Brendan’s parish also has overwhelming reasons in this year to thank God.

A cursory look will remind us of God’s special gifts to us as individuals and as a community. And so we thank you , our very wonderful family of St. Brendan, for your many generous gifts to the church as we noted in the State of Parish and School Report (FY July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013) that we recorded a net profit and not a deficit.

We also have reason to thank God for our former parochial vicar Fr Mike Quinn, who from among us, was appointed and installed pastor of Star of the Sea Sausalito. In this same year, our pastoral and parish family has been strengthened by the duo of Sr. Angela Furia, FdCC and me , Fr. Theo Hwande, who joined the parish and has since started work. We are also blessed to have a knowledgeable and experienced priest, Fr. Vincent Ring, who has joined us and will be celebrating Sunday masses with us.  Prior to his retirement, he taught at SI and Sacred Heart, and was Pastor of St. Robert’s in San Bruno and St. Denis in Menlo Park. On November 9^th , our seminarian Roger Gustafson was raised to the diaconate at the Ordination Ceremony at St. Pius, which was attended by both Fr. Dan and me. This is an occasion of great joy that God has offered an invitation and there was a” yes” response to it. We ask God to bless Deacon Roger’s resolve to follow him.

We continue to thank God for our very kind, humane, gentle, humble and indefatigable pastor, Fr. Dan Nascimento for his dedication to the spiritual, pastoral and social life of this parish.

The word thanksgiving is from the Greek eukharistia which highlights gratefulness (eukharistos) and so it’s better expressed as communion which in a sense is the coming together of brothers and sisters, and in the early church it was precisely for the breaking of bread, sharing of the cup and the meal (cf. 1cor. 12;17-34). It is therefore ad-rem that as a family of God we should express our thanks to God to reflect these two ecclesial realities and so, we shall gather at the school gym on Saturday November 23^rd 2013 at 6pm for our annual parish thanksgiving dinner. The invitations were in last Sunday’s bulletin insert.

The school is our treasure and the students are the young church and so we join them in a thanksgiving mass on Wednesday November 27^th at 11 am.

And on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 28^th 2013, we shall have masses at 7:30 AM and 9:30 AM. At these masses we shall be collecting non-perishable items for the poor and so we’d like to remind you to bring your gifts.

As we joyfully thank God and one another, I pray that God will multiply our reasons for thanksgiving in the coming year. Amen.

Fr. Theo Hwande

State of the Parish and School Report – Hopefully you’ve seen our Annual State of the Parish and School Report which covers the period of July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.  It was published a few weeks ago and copies of it are still available in the Church.  For those of you who missed it, here’s a brief synopsis of it.  It’s our attempt to be transparent with you so you know how the parish and school are doing.

The report covers the ministry side of our mission, our finances, as well as our facilities report. Working with the Parish Advisory Board, we’ve identified 5 areas to improve in our Strategic Plan.  They are:  Spirituality, Stewardship, Leadership, Service and Hospitality. The report shows ways that we’ve attempted to help our parish grow spiritually by increasing our Religious Education to non-Catholic school students and celebrating our Year of Faith with guest speakers and faith sharing book clubs.  We expanded our Service project to allow adults and teens to serve the community through Habitat for Humanity and building a garden at Catholic Charities’ Center on Treasure Island that serves low income residents.  Fr. Mike and I have also expanded our service to the community beyond Juvenile Hall, to homicide victims in San Francisco, holding prayer services for the victims and their loved ones.

Financially, through your support, you helped turn a deficit of $26.9K from previous year to a gain of $21.7K last year. I want to THANK YOU for responding to my appeal.  Because from 2009-2012, we had a 25% loss in the Sunday collection.  Through the appeal, you not only halted the downward trend, but increased the Sunday collection by 10%.  Although a gain of $21.7K seems like a lot, however, to give you an example, when the school boiler broke down a couple of years ago causing a mini-flood, it took about $50K to replace it.  So it’s good that we do put money aside for those “rainy” days.  We were also fortunate, as the report showed, to have a generous bequest left for the parish for 2 consecutive years.  In 2011 was $41.6K and last year was $238.8K.  The finance committee suggested we set that money aside, with any money left over from the Capital Campaign, and put that into a Building/Maintenance Endowment Fund, where only the interest from the fund will be used and not the capital itself.  This will ensure that we will always have funds for the maintenance of our facilities to serve the mission of the Church and the Gospel.

The School also did very well in her mission.  In our accreditation review last year, by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the Western Catholic Educational Association (WCEA), they gave our school the highest possible rating.  I want to acknowledge Mrs. Carol Grewal, our principal, her faculty and staff for their hard work.  The visiting committee commended the school and parish for creating a community where “everyone is striving to provide a Catholic environment, where quality education is a priority, and where students are filled with the spirit of enthusiasm for learning.”  Our school counselor, Dr. Laura Nusbaum, has been teaching the Second Step curriculum to grades K-5, to help them develop social and emotional skills for social and academic success.  In addition, Spanish is part of our regular curriculum in grades 1-8 and besides sports, band and guitar classes are also offered after school.

Financially, our school also ended the year well.  Without the fundraising activities and your support, the school would operate at a loss of about $173K.  But with your help, the Mother’s Club success and grants, it put the school at a gain of $248.6K.  This enables the school to continually keep up with the pace of technology for our students, update the Science classrooms and bathrooms, as well as consider how to expand the Kindergarten program into a full day program.  Currently, it’s a half-day program.  This gain also helps us to keep tuition cost down.  The current tuition is $6K per student per year, but the actual cost to educate each child is $7,750.  So, thank you for your support to our parish and school.  We hope that you find through this report, that along with the staff and the Finance Committee, we are trying to be good stewards of the gifts you’ve entrusted to us.

Peace,

Fr. Dan

Saints Among Us – At the Saturday vigil Mass and at the Sunday’s 9:30am mass, Saints made their appearance at our Church.  Familiar saints like St. Francis, St. Anthony, St. Therese of the Little Flower and even Mother Mary came.  Lesser known saints like St. Isabella of Portugal, Blessed Kateri Tekawitha and the Archangel Gabriel were also present.  Over 30 students from the 3^rd grade as well as students in our CCD participated and came dressed for our annual parade of saints.  I want to thank the coordinators who have helped us celebrate this wonderful feast in a delightful way, they are:  Marie Detweiler, Stacey Simpson, Michele Armanino, our 3^rd grade teacher, Sr. Catherine Cappello, our Religious Education teacher and coordinator for the public school students, and Dianne Marquez, our Music Coordinator.  And to the parents who made saints out of their little ones, good job!  Hopefully they’ll all one day be true saints.

Pray for our Expectant Fathers – Please keep Bro. Roger Gustafson and his San Francisco classmates, Mark Doherty, Andrew Spyrow and Tony Vallecillo, in your prayers.  On November 9, 2013 @ 10am, they will be ordained as Transitional Deacons at St. Pius Church in Redwood City.  If all goes well, the 4 of them will be ordained as Priests for the Archdiocese of San Francisco on June 7, 2014, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  Bro. Roger was a Lutheran growing up, drifted away from his church as a teen, but became a Catholic after college.  He has a Doctorate degree in Religion & Social Ethics as well as in law.  He practiced employment discrimination law in both Atlanta and San Francisco.  In August 2004, sensing that God was calling him to the priesthood, he discerned the call and after some guidance, applied and was accepted as a seminarian in August 2009.  This year, he is doing his pastoral field assignment with us at St. Brendan, and he has showed himself as an outstanding preacher that is both engaging and inspiring.  But hold him, his classmates studying for other dioceses, as well as all seminarians, that they may stay true to the movement of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and respond with generous hearts as our Blessed Mother did.  “Be it done to me according to your Word.”

San Dimas Ministry – Last 2 Saturdays, San Dimas Ministry held their training in our parish from 8am – 5pm.  Their ministry is to the incarcerated and 13 volunteers participated.  Besides Bro. Roger, our own Sr. Angela Furia and 2 other Seminarians from St. Patrick’s attended.  The coordinator who did the training for this ministry, Julio Escobar, said we had a good group this year.  The teens in Juvenile Hall need some positive good role models, and the volunteers who love them unconditionally give them a little bit of light that can be a ray of hope in their sometimes darkened world.  They can be  unruly and undisciplined during visits, especially the younger ones, but when it comes time to pray, they are among the most sincere and make the most heartfelt appeal to God.  Hold them too in your prayers because as the saying goes, “There, but the grace of God, goes I.”

All Souls – the parish will remember your beloved in a Novena of Masses for the dead.  But remember to hold them in prayer yourselves.  Perhaps you can gather as a family and say a rosary for 9 days for family and friends who have died.  But the prayer that is most effective is the offering of the mass for a loved one.  Whether you ask the priest to include your beloved in the intentions, or you hold the intentions in your own heart when you come to mass, God and our beloved hears our prayers.  St. Augustine wrote, “by the prayers of the Holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve.”  So let us remember the souls of our faithful departed, that they may rest in peace.

With prayers and blessings,
Fr. Dan