Catholic Schools Week

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As our Church celebrates Catholic Schools Week, I want to thank our Principal, Faculty and Staff who give of themselves so generously to serve the students and parents of our school.  They are an inspiration to me, because they see their work not just as a job, and they don’t do their work just for pay, but they see it as a ministry.  As partners, we aim to help our children develop in mind, body and soul.  And I also want to thank the parents who entrust their most precious possession to us and support us in so many ways.  You, who are parishioners and who may not have children (any longer) in the school, but nonetheless support us through your participation in their events and in their fundraising, thank you for your ongoing love and support for our school, children and staff.  It really does take a village to raise a child and all of you have made St. Brendan’s and wonderful village.

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan

Dear Friends:

This weekend we begin the celebration of Catholic Schools Week, honoring our Catholic Schools as “Communities of Faith, Knowledge and Service.”

Here at St. Brendan School we are privileged to be a part of a vibrant and growing parish community. We so appreciate the support our parishioners give the school not only through Sunday collections and Annual Fund donations, but through your support of our events and the faith you show when you entrust your own children (and grandchildren) to our care. It is a blessing to us to be able to reciprocate by having our students serve as Eucharistic ministers and altar servers, assist with parish events such as teas and pancake breakfasts, help keep the church pews stocked with seasonal missals, and participate in the parish Youth Ministry program. We are honored by this partnership as we work together to educate tomorrow’s citizens and church leaders.

In celebrating Catholic Schools Week, we focus on the key components of Catholic education: faith development, academic excellence and dedication to service. These elements set Catholic schools apart from other educational options. They are why our parish families make the commitment to provide a Catholic education for their children, and are so supportive of everything we do at St. Brendan School.

National Catholic Schools Week is also a time for me to say publicly what I think every single day: I am grateful for the dedication and commitment of our teachers, staff, administrators, parents and parishioners who make our school a success. You make our parish/school community thrive!

We will be having our annual School Open House on Sunday, March 2, from 10:00 am until 12:30 pm. I can’t wait for you to visit our school to enjoy the student displays and learn about the service projects in which they participate. When you come, please bring your friends and neighbors, particularly those who may be thinking about Catholic education for their children. I know you will be as proud as I am of what our children can and do achieve every day, thanks to your support.

With gratitude and love,

Carol Grewal

Principal

News Around the Parish

Congratulations Catechumen! – Last Sunday, January 12 at the 11:30am mass, our parish welcomed five (5) adults as Catechumen of the Church.  The process for an adult to become a Catholic has 4 stages, similar to two people who are courting.  A couple may in the beginning simply go out together to see if there’s a possibility of a relationship.  After they’ve come to know one another, they may decide to go steady.  And after some time, they may even choose to be engaged.  Lastly, when they feel they want to spend the rest of their lives together they enter into marriage.  Similarly, for those interested to learn about the Catholic faith the Church labels this first step as the period of Inquiry, where the candidates ask questions about our faith.  After some time, if they continue to express interest and want to enter into a deeper relationship with Christ and His Church, they become Catechumens.  If they want to pursue this relationship with Christ and His Church even deeper and if they feel God is “calling” them, they become the Elect.  They are called the Elect, because it is not only they themselves who are choosing this relationship with God, but God is also choosing them, “Electing” them to be His own.  And finally, when they feel ready and their teachers and sponsors judge them ready, they are welcomed into the Church through the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation, usually celebrated at the Easter Vigil.  So we welcome Beverly Bloodworth, Ping Ping He, Lucia Marques, Susan Miller, and Yano Rhee as Catechumen of our Church.  Hold them in your prayers that they may come to know God in mind, heart and soul. 

Worldwide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Each year, beginning on January 18 and ending on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, Christians are invited to pray for the Unity of Christ’s Church.  (See www.geii.org) for a history of this prayer that has its origins in the early 1900s).  Although our Churches are still divided, yet we have united to serve God’s people.  Our San Dimas ministry to the teens in Juvenile Hall, for example, is one such area.  We come together as a team and pray and visit with the teens.  As is our Prayers for Homicide Victims throughout the City.  Last Saturday, January 11, the Archdiocese’s Office of Restorative Justice coordinated a Prayer Walk for Peace down in the Mission.  With Bishop Justice, pastors from different faith traditions (Episcopal, Lutheran and non-denominational) we began with a prayer at St. Anthony Church at Ceasar Chavez, did a prayer walk to 24^th and Mission, then to 16^th and Mission, ending at Mission Dolores.  The purpose was to ask God to bless our streets, our youth involved in gangs, and we carried a cross in remembrance of each of the homicide victims (54 in San Francisco, 16 in San Mateo & 2 in Marin Counties).  So though our Churches may still be divided, yet each of us can be an instrument of peace and reconciliation.  If you know a friend or a family member who is a non-Catholic Christian, you may simply say to them, we’re praying this week for you and your church that we may someday be one.

Walk for Life – Another area that Christians have come to work together is in the area of Respect Life.  The goal of Walk for Life is to change the perception that abortion is an answer, when in fact it does violence to women and to their children both physically and emotionally.  Women deserve better than abortion and the organization “Silent No More” seeks to help them find healing.  The Schedule of events for Saturday,

January 25 is as follows:

9:30am – Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral with Archbishop Salvatore and 14 con-celebrating Bishops.

10am – Mass at St. Brendan Church, followed with Continental Breakfast and taking the Muni down to Civic Center.

10:45am to 12:15pm – Silent No More Awareness Campaign at Civic Center Plaza, SF

12:30 to 1:30pm – Walk for Life Main Event Rally (speakers include: Shari Rigby, Grace Dulaney, Monica Snyder and Pastor Clenard Childress)

1:30pm – begin Walk from Civic Center to the Embarcadero (Justin Herman Plaza).

Please feel free to come join us in all or any of these events.

Fr. Dan

My family and I are so touched by the kindness, love and prayers you’ve extended to us at the unexpected death of my father, Antonio Nascimento, on Saturday, December 14. In spite of our loss, we can look at the event with gratitude, that God had so blessed his life. Though he had a difficult start in life, never having known his biological mother and his own father died when he was only 7, yet the Lord always surrounded him with people to mentor and to guide him into adulthood. The Lord provided him with a lovely wife and her own stable family of a father, mother and 6 brothers and sisters quickly became his own.

And although starting life here as an immigrant in his early 50s was difficult, yet he worked hard and with God’s providence, was able to provide for our family and give mom a stable financial future in retirement. As a teen, growing up with my dad was not easy because it was either his way or the highway. But I discovered at his passing, the truth of the words that “Love is stronger than death.” What remained after his death were not the silly arguments or disagreements. They all seemed to evaporate as if they were nothing. What remained in the end was his unconditional love for us.We may have different ways of seeing the world, we may have different ways of expressing our love, but however love is displayed, what remained was his love for us.

So though we’re dealing with the shock of his passing, we’re comforted that in the end, what matters are faith, hope and love. Faith, that helps us believe in a God who loves us unconditionally and wishes to bestow eternal life upon all His children. Hope that we will one day be reunited in the joys of paradise. And love that continues to embrace and accompany us through this life and into the next.

Our family was so surprised at the number of people who showed up at the vigil, the funeral and the number of cards and emails who have offered us their prayers and love. Truly, you were like life preservers that kept us afloat. You were like stars, shining in our moment of darkness. And your kind thoughts and prayers are carrying us through that unimaginable time into a brighter future.Time is a gentle healer. Already, it has become easier to embrace his death. And mom, who had been praying for dad to return, was granted her wish. At the January’s first Friday Charismatic mass that I celebrated at the Cathedral which my mom attended with me, during the singing of “Our Father” she felt someone take and hold her hand. But when she looked around, there was no one beside her, yet she felt a hand heavy upon her own. She believed it was dad who held her hand that night in prayer, as he had done so many other times before.

So God has blessed us even through our loss. God granted him a peaceful death, gave us each other to hold and support us through our darkness and helped us to sharpen our faith in what matters. “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

To all of you who have lost someone recently or in this Season, our family prays and mourns with you. And thank you to all of you for the kindness you have shown us. May the Lord richly bless you in this New Year!

Fr. Dan

Reflections of our Parochial Vocar

It was a fabulous Christmas. What else can we say but to say “Thank you, Lord” for his many multi-dimensional blessings upon us. Have you realized that today is Sunday of the 52^nd week of 2013? Yes it is and so also it’s the last Sunday of the year. May I invite us to look at our journey this year.

Here are a few questions to guide us in a scale of 1 to 10:

* Where was I in my relationship with God?

* What do I need to do to improve on this relationship or to sustain it?

* Did I have time for God? Did I listen to his word?

* Where was I in my social life? My relationship with other persons?

* Where was I in my family?

* Where was I in the society?

* What must I do to sustain or make better this relation?

The Hard facts: many began this year with us on January 2013 but some are not here today because they have passed on, others are confined to hospital wards and other places including solitary confinement -  but we are here today. This is not due to any single effort of ours neither is it by our might and wealth; it is by the special grace of God. So I say congratulations for cooperating with the grace of God and coming this far and looking beyond.

So if we are alive today and healthy, not by our efforts, then we owe a debt of gratitude to the Almighty God through whose grace we are counted among the living and not among the dead. Our gratitude needs to be expressed in an attitude of thanksgiving and the best form of thanksgiving is the Eucharist in which we gather to remember and to give thanks. The psalmists tell us “Never forget the wonders the Lord the Lord has done for us.” and in another place he says “How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The Chalice of salvation I will raise and call on the Lord’s name. “

When we attend Sunday mass, it is not in compliance with the commandments; neither is it to fulfill all righteousness but it is to remember and give thanks to God who is due to receive thanks from us like the psalmist again says “To you our praise is due in Zion O God”, and also it affords us the opportunity to begin our new week with Jesus who lightens our burdens when we our overburdened.

The apostle Peter went fishing and fished all night and caught nothing, because he was alone and worked by his own effort alone but when the Lord joined him, he netted a huge catch that his boat wasn’t enough to

accommodate his huge catch, even though it was an unlikely time of the day to fish.  So as we reflect on 2013, I invite you to make frequent mass attendance your resolution for 2014 so that like Peter we will net a huge catch in our faith, family, and in our jobs.

As we take a cursory look at 2013, we remember with a sense of gratitude all our beloved wonderful and loving sweet parishioners for your support and cooperation through this year. We thank you all immensely. We express our sentiments of gratitude to all our volunteers who are a priceless gift to the parish as we invite you all to a volunteer Thanksgiving Mass on Tuesday 31^st December 2013 at 5pm and a party to follow after the mass. May I also invite all of you to the masses for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God and New Year’s Day Mass on 1^st January 2014 at 7:30 am and 9:30 am. What a sweet way to begin the year. May God bless you all and happy new year.

Fr. Theo Hwande