News Around the Parish

       Back to School – On Monday, August 20, our school faculty and

     staff came back to work and began a new semester with a Retreat. 

     The theme was “Nurturing Yourself and Your Vocation.” 

     Presented by Bret Allen, Associate Superintendent of Catholic

     Schools, the retreat was very well received by the faculty. 

     Then on Wednesday, August 22, the much anticipated first

     day of school finally arrived.  I heard from many Kindergarten

     parents that their children were looking forward to this day. 

     Having purchased new uniforms, backpacks and school supplies,

     they were eager to begin their first day of school at St. Brendan. 

     And many incoming first graders were both looking forward and

     nervous about starting school in the BIG school.  To all our new

     and returning students and their parents, welcome back. 

      It will be a great year!!!

Maintenance Around Our Facility – As many of you who were

around during the Summer have noticed, we have done some
maintenance work around our campus.  The big tree between the
school and the gym had to be, regrettably, cut down.  In an
inspection around our parish facility done by the Archdiocese’s
Real Property Support Corporation (RPSC), they noticed that
the tree was damaging the foundation of the school building and
gym’s retaining wall.  So their advice was to have the tree removed. 
We also had to repair the sidewalks around the school, church
and rectory, as people passing through our facility had reported
tripping and falling. A flat roof over the rectory was fixed as
water would drip into my living room during a rain storm. 
Over at the gym, we had to close the gym for maintenance. 
Normally, Legarza Basketball Camp would operate into
mid-August, but this year we informed them that we
needed to refinish the gym floor. We took this opportunity
to also address some leaks.  Steve Kalpakoff from the
Archdiocese’s RPSC had a roofer check on the condition of
the roof.  It was fine, but Steve recommended that the entire
building be painted with elastomeric paint that fills cracks and
holes and makes the structure waterproof.  No work has
begun on the tiled roofs yet, which was part of the Capital
Campaign project.  As the tiled roofs seem to be holding
out the rain, we will wait for the pledges to come in so we

won’t have to take out a loan.

Back to Work – I returned back to work on Saturday,
August 18.  I enjoyed my time away and felt a deepening
of my relationships with family, friends and with our Lord. 
On my first day of my time away, I was down in Carmel
at a Chinese restaurant and read a fortune cookie saying
that “Soon, I will have a new best friend.”  I chuckled at it,
but 3 days later, as I found myself drawn closer to the Lord,
I thought to myself that my new best friend is the Lord. 
I was delighted.  During my vacation, I stayed mostly
local in the Bay Area,ending my last week with a
classmate who has a parish near South Lake Tahoe. 
I enjoyed hiking, taking my nephews and niece on
bicycle rides, rafting and other outings with my family. 
I’ve grown to enjoy my friendship with my parents. 
I pray that you had a good and refreshing Summer too.

Fr. Dan

Be Filled with the Spirit and Partake

of the Bread of Life!

    Summer has almost come to an end. Of course, the term “summer”

    in San Francisco might  cause us to recall the words of Mark Twain

    when he stated - “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in

   San Francisco.” Yet the end of summer signals a time to take

   whatever increase in energy we have achieved  by resting to

   continue on into the year. For school-aged ones, this means

   a return to school and academic pursuits, for college-aged ,

   perhaps it is the end of a wonderful time spent with family.

   For those families that are getting ready for the adjustments

   and the new demands of the coming seasons, they are busy

   in these last days of summer concluding one season and

   preparing for another.

   One can tell from the advertising that the stores are running

   sales now. It is all about getting ready to go back to school.

   Soon the stores will be prepared for the holidays of fall and

   then comes Christmas, the end of another year as a new one

   begins and soon the Church will be calling all to celebrate the

   new life of  Easter which was accomplished by the Paschal

   Sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We seem always

   to be so busy in preparing for the next season that perhaps

   we lose a certain respect for the current moment. We lose

  the ability to live in the present.. One can tell a person that

  has lost/ is losing this ability by a certain distractedness

  as we attempt to talk to them or a sense that they would

  rather dismiss us than dialogue. It is a sad casualty of

  our time and culture.

  In today’s first reading, we are encouraged to forsake

  foolishness and perishable values and embrace 

 wisdom and understanding. This is more than simply

 reading a text message written in code. It is a call

 for us to embrace the message of offered life with

our whole being and let the choice determine all

other choices in life. It is radical and salvific.

In  the second reading, we are encouraged to

beware that our time is finite and to utilize our

wisdom  in selecting wisely a way of life.

St. Paul was trying to be gentle, yet firm in

encouraging others to seek God.

In our Gospel reading, we are encourage to

seek the life-giving food that comes from

following Christ. To make this choice of God,

we have had three weeks of effectively the

same “advertising” in our Sunday readings

exhorting us to choose the food that endures,

to choose life through Jesus. Let us respond to

that invitation (“advertising” as it were), received

from God with greater attention and deliberate

choice. Our lives with God depend upon this choice!

  Fr. Mike

Reflections of Our Parochial Vicar

Choosing the Living Bread That Came

Down from Heaven

   At various periods in my life I have tried to take an assessment of where I have been and where I am going. We all do this exercise, knowingly or unknowingly. We evaluate our choices and we either deem the good choices or poor choices. We do this at every age. As children, we sometimes rebel/rebelled at having to do homework or prepare for tests. Using short-term thinking, we would try to avoid the prescribed effort to learn properly and we would be disappointed at our choice of avoiding quite attainable work when we received grades that were less than we would have desired. This had the effect of us resolving to do better next time and to restore our grades- which would happen if we kept our resolve.

   As young adults, we are suddenly confronted with such freedoms!

   Many of these freedoms we believe we have been entitled to,

   (always watch out for what follows the word “entitled”). I remember

   that when I had a home of my own, I initially looked forward to all

   of the fun times that I would have playing music and spending time

   with friends. Before, my dreams of unbridled revelry could be

   put into effect, I stopped and reflected upon the responsibilities

  of maintaining one’s own home. I had to keep a good job to pay

  for my lifestyle, and  to clean and take care of what I had looked

  forward to having as my own for so long. Not one of my blessings

  was without responsibility. When my brother and I had a boat and

  would venture out to the San Francisco Bay, I realized that I spent

  more time performing maintenance work and earning enough resource

  to pay for the boat and larger maintenance and insurance than I did 

  using the boat. All of my examples so far are ones that though worthy

  by earthly standards are without  significance as enduring in the sight of

  God.

   As an adult, I went through the occasional exercise of evaluating choices. 

   I concluded that though my choices to date haven’t been bad, I was not

   dedicating the proper effort in –in proportion to all of my time, to

   relationship with God.  This one poor choice was fatal to my

   chance of salvation, despite all other choices!  I decided to change

   this situation. We must seek God- not simply pass God by on the 

   street with a casual “Hello”.   So I decided to seek him with

   a greater sense of being called, as we all are.This effort was

   has been rewarded more than any earthly endeavor could

   provide The boat has come and gone, the home living has

   been replaced by rectory living, but the choice of God has

   endured and  sustained me. I share this personal journey of

   faith with you, my parish family, hoping that you will learn

   what took me too long to discover and is this Sunday’s

   Gospel message. In this “Year of Faith” proclaimed by

   Pope Benedict, the purpose is for us to seek Christ and

   right relationship with him.

   We are to seek Christ as the one who gave His life that

   we might have life. Doesn’t that effort deserve more than

   just a passing greeting as we seem preoccupied with earthly

   concerns? It begins with our  definitive choice to follow Christ!!!

   Fr. Mike

Celebrating the Ordinary

 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

  It is so good to be back at St. Brendan’s in San Francisco!!!!  I want you

  all to know that you were missed  by me, and as I reflected upon this fact, I 

  decided to take the Christian approach and to pray for you daily.  I further

  reflected that many of us, including myself, grow accustomed to the 

  wonderful people in our lives and perhaps become slower to

  appreciate them and to communicate this sense of  gratitude for 

  seemingly ordinary tasks, but when done in a spirit of brotherhood/

  sisterhood enrich us far beyond the apparent.

  In this Sunday’s Gospel the message is that the Lord nourishes and

  strengthens us, guiding us in right paths and exhorts a sense of peace

  between ourselves and the rest of humanity. We can achieve this

  peace by developing a greater aptitude to appreciate the present

  moment in our busy lives. We can further enhance this sense by actually

  thanking people for the seemingly mundane tasks they perform. 

  There are countless things to be thankful for and we must be sure

  to include God on our list of individuals we wish to begin a relationship

  with marked with ever greater gratitude.

  I believe we can even be grateful for accurate and well written Church

  bulletin announcements. I’d like to share portions of fractured

  announcements we do not receive because people make the extra effort

  to be careful that I received via email.

  These sentences (with all the BLOOPERS) actually appeared in church

  bulletins, NOT St. Brendan’s, or were announced in church services:

· The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

· The A.M. sermon: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'

· Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

· Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

· Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

· Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24th in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

· At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to

      our choir practice.

· Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM . Please use the back door.

Fr. Mike

News Around the Parish

 Coming Soon to St. Brendan – an excellent spiritual resource.  Lighthouse Catholic Media makes available, in audio CDs and booklets, materials to help us grow in faith.  During the Easter break, I was down at Santa Cruz and dropped in at St. Joseph’s Church and gift shop.  There, I encountered these excellent materials.  As I drove back up along Highway 1, I began listening to a CD I had purchased and listened to Dr. Scott Hahn’s conversion story.  He was a Presbyterian pastor and militant anti-Catholic, who in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the Bible, found God leading him into the Catholic Church.  I soon discovered other titles and authors and was touched by their stories and teachings.  Pope Benedict has called upon the worldwide Church to make the coming year, beginning in October 2012, the Year of Faith.  A year where we will take the time to re-examine what many of us, perhaps, have taken for granted.  A time where we might seek to learn more about our spiritual treasure.  So I encourage you to try this for yourself.  As Lighthouse Media seeks to make this as available to as wide an audience as possible, the CDs are relatively inexpensive, only $3 each.  And they can be purchased in a bundle of 5 for $15.  They can be played on our CD players in the car or at home and I have found them uplifting in my own spiritual journey.  We have the material on order and hope to be able to kick it off in early August.  Look for it.  It will be worth your while. 

Welcome, Sr. Quiche Le – Sr. Le is Vietnamese and a member of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Cross.  They are a Vietnamese religious community founded in 1670.  They are both a contemplative order and an apostolic community, meaning they serve as both Martha and Mary.  They are at the same time attentive, sitting at the feet of Jesus and go about meeting the needs of the poor and less fortunate.  Although Sr. Le’s father was not Catholic, but her mother was and had her baptized when she was a baby.  And although Vietnam is a Communist country and the Church’s freedom is limited, however, the faith there is vibrant.  She wanted to love and serve Jesus, so she joined this community of religious women.  She was sent to France to learn theology so she could return and teach.  She has spent 6 years already in France studying Fundamental Theology and has 2 more years to go before she completes her study in Spirituality.  She is here on vacation from July 3 – September 3, and hopes to learn some English.  I, on the other hand, have had a refresher course in French, thanks to her and Google Translate.  So if you see a stranger around the convent and wish to practice your French, you can say hello to her. Welcome, Sr. Le.

Gone Fishing – As Fr. Mike returns from vacation, I will also take some time off before school starts.  I will be away from July 16 to August 17.  Where the sheep go, the shepherd must follow.  So I will take some time off to visit a priest friend up near Lake Tahoe and will also take some time off to be with family and friends.  See you next month.

Fr. Dan

News Around the Parish

Changes in Assignment – There was a rumor out there that I was being transferred and that is not true.  And neither is Fr. Mike.  A pastor’s term is 6 years with the possibility of being renewed a 2^nd term, making that a total of 12 years.  An Associate Pastor, like Fr. Mike, in order to give them more experience in different parish settings and working with different communities and staff before becoming pastors themselves, is assigned usually a term of between 3-5 years.  But the good news is, we are both staying and have not been asked to move.  July 1 is usually when changes in priest assignments become effective, simply because it is a quieter time in the rhythm of the parish.  The Associate Pastors in our neighboring parishes, St. Anne, St. Gabriel and Holy Name have been reassigned.

Closer to home, as you know, Sr. Rita has retired and it became effective June 30.  Sr. Elizabeth Johnson of their community, who also lived in our convent and worked as a chaplain at Laguna Honda Hospital, is also being transferred.  In their place, Sr. Herminia Cosico and Sr. Sharon Brannen have been assigned here.  Sr. Herminia is from the Philippines.  She is the first in her family to enter the convent.  Afterwards, her two other sisters followed and entered the same religious community and a brother also became a priest.  She studied nursing in England and returned to serve in the Philippines.  In 1995, she studied at UCSF’s Hospital Chaplaincy program.  Afterwards, she served at Holy Name parish.  She will take over Sr. Rita’s responsibility and serve as the RCIA (Rite of

Christian Initiation of Adults) and Children’s baptism coordinator. 

Sr. Sharon is a native of Boston.  She entered the Canossian community in 1990.  She has a degree in music, theology and Administration.  She has been a missionary in Chihuahua, Mexico, and helped build a community center there.  The missionary center there provides education for the youth, work for women and care for the sick.  Although her responsibilities will not be here at the parish, she is currently interviewing for a position at one of our local universities, but she will nonetheless be part of our community. 

Sr. Sharon is currently here in the summer, but along with Sr. Herminia, they will not be officially assigned here until September 1st.  Their community in the U.S. gathers every year for a retreat in July at Albuquerque, NM.  So we bid Sr. Elizabeth godspeed in her future assignment and we welcome to our community, Sr. Herminia and Sr. Sharon.  “Mi casa es su casa.” 

Fr. Dan

: )

News Around the Parish

Farewell Celebration for Sr. Rita – The thanksgiving celebration last Sunday for Sr. Rita’s retirement was very nice.  In attendance were not only parishioners of St. Brendan and her family members, but also parishioners from Holy Name and St. Cecilia Churches where she had ministered before.  At both the 9:30 and 11:30am masses, she shared about how much she enjoyed ministering here among us.  Even though she had been a principal in a prestigious Catholic school in Hong Kong of 1,300 students, she said, it could not compare with what she found here.  She said, teaching the faith to adult inquirers “re-evangelized” her and gave her a deeper appreciation for the gift of faith.  For those of you who were away and could not be there, she too wanted you to know of her gratitude and privilege for the opportunity to serve here.  On Thursday, June 28, she will return to Hong Kong.  Already, several families who will be travelling there this Summer said they‘d be going to visit her.  Together as a community, we prayed for her and wished her God’s blessing as she continues the next chapter of her life of service to the Lord.

Missionary Speaker, Fr. Lee Havey – After preaching at all our Sunday masses last week, Fr. Lee stayed an extra day and got to see more of our fair city in perfect weather.  As I showed him around, I learned that prior to becoming a Passionist Order priest, he had worked in an interesting business sector.  His office was the liaison between foreign governments, US corporations and interacted with State Department, White House, Think Tanks, Defense Department, Humanitarian organizations to promote trade and cooperation with Southeast Asian Nations.  After High School, he thought about becoming an attorney.  However, in College, he discovered that that was the last thing he wanted to be.  So he graduated with a degree in English.  Not sure what he wanted to do still, he took a year off to travel around the world.  He began in New York, and after a year, returned back to New York.  The Australian Aborigines, he said, had a term called the walkabout, in order to discover yourself.  And this “little” walkabout he did around the world, landed him in the perfect position as the liaison between foreign governments, US corporations and our own government.  He describes that it is like diplomatic work.  He also could not see himself doing this for the rest of his life, as it was high stress work.  In his travels, however, he had met a priest in Rome, Msgr. Charles Elmer, who saw something in him and asked him to consider the priesthood.  Nothing happened until 8 years later.  Then, when he shared his decision to become a priest with his family and friends, they all said they saw it coming.  He shared that the journey towards priesthood was not a sudden decision he had made, but one that was gradual and that was a part of his life for many years.  He was surprised himself, as he thought he would marry one day and settle and live somewhere with his wife in Asia.  However, the Lord had other plans.  He became a Passionist priest in 2004.  He has done 2 years of retreat work, 3 years as a parish priest, and the last couple of years, he has been an itinerant preacher, offering missions to different parishes around the U.S.  I inquired about his availability to do a parish mission for us during Lent, and he said that he is booked until 2015.  So he is a much sought after speaker.  We certainly wish him well and thank him for saying “Yes” to God.  Hopefully we will still be able to have him come out and do a parish mission for us someday soon.

Fr. Dan