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 3rd 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 3rd 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
