Continued Appreciation for St. Brendan Parish Community and Experience

Greetings from Sausalito!!  As I began my new assignment, I have renewed and improved appreciation for every aspect of my St. Brendan's Assignment experience. On my very first day, I called Fr. Dan and asked if he would mind dropping by so that I could reflect upon initial impressions with him. I missed my buddy and mentor!!!

Fr. Dan came right away, and I will be always grateful for that act of generosity.

As you might expect, it is a much smaller parish , serving 425 families with about 180 attendance at the weekend Masses.  As with St. Brendan's, the people are the finest aspect of the assignment.  Some people from St. Brendan's have been a surprising and welcome sight at Masses so far. I have yet to take up residence in the rectory, owing to my allergy of pet dander and the late July reassignment of the retired priest’s two dogs. Fr. Parenti left with his dog, Dante, on 6/30/2013.

Since it is a smaller parish there are fewer office staff and I confess to missing Flora and Michelle who knew my peculiarities and are such a well-functioning administrative effort at St. Brendan's. I have been blessed by visits from teachers from the school. I expect to prepare the rectory for living by mid- August. Fr. Dan has again been most generous allowing me to stay at St. Brendan's during the BART strike, ( thereby reducing my commute to 25 minutes one-way versus 1.0- 1.75 hours from Novato during that period).

I have also finally ended the "Victory Tour" of offered dinners from generous St. Brendan parishioners and have announced that I will make a contribution to the Star of the Sea parish AAA at the rate of $5.00 per pound lost, having already contributed to St. Brendan.  I could become the biggest contributor in the new parish !!!

Thanks to all who made my St. Brendan experience so wonderful and to Fr. Dan and staff who are great!

  Fr. Mike, aka "“the old guy"

Farewell Sr. Herminia – There comes a time in all of our lives when the active part of our service comes to an end.  Even then, however, St. Paul says that we continue to belong to God and we continue to serve Him, except in a different capacity (Rom 14:7-8).  Sr. Herminia Cosico, who has been with us for only a year, is retiring.  And being the humble person that she is, she does not wish a fanfare, but nonetheless, we have to acknowledge all the good she has done, and the service she’s given to God and to His people.  Here’s a brief biography of her life:

Born the 3^rd of 7 children in the Philippines, she read about St. Teresa, the Little Flower, and wished to make Jesus known.

At the age of 10, she desired to be a missionary.

She entered the Canossian sisters at the age of 18 and made her final vows at 23.

She studied nursing in England and throughout her years of ministry, she served not only as a nurse, but also as a hospital chaplain and a teacher.

She has worked in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Milan, Sicily, Vancouver, Albuquerque and San Francisco.

At St. Brendan, besides working with Sr. Catherine in children’s catechesis, adult faith formation programs and visiting the homebound, she also helped around the office.  She was always kind to those she met and her gentle friendly presence reflected the gentleness and kindness of God.

 She will be greatly missed.  Although she experienced the sudden loss of her brother earlier in the year, yet her faith in God’s goodness and mercy remains constant.  In her retirement, she will be living in Vancouver, Canada.  Fare thee well, Sr. Herminia.  And thank you for your “Yes” to God and for your love and service to us. 

Thank you Sr. Sharon – Although Sr. Sharon Brannen will continue to live in the Convent and help us at Sunday liturgies, however, she has a full time job now at St. Ignatius High School in their Campus Ministry Department.  We were able to have her briefly in the past year to help us improve the use of technology in our parish, so working with other technology professionals, she put us on Facebook.  She also helped us develop one of our Strategic Goals of service to the community.  After exploring the different needs in the community with St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Charities and Habitat for Humanity, she led “build days” at Habitat and last month, with other adults and teens, helped create an organic vegetable garden in Treasure Island for low income residents there.  Although she won’t be working at our office, and I’ll miss her energy and humor, but she promised to lead us on “build days” at Habitat and any event that requires the use of power tools.  And she’ll continue to use her musical talents at our Sunday liturgies.  So thank you Sr. Sharon for your energetic spirit throughout the past year and we wish you every blessing as you begin a new ministry at St. Ignatius High School.

Welcome Sr. Angela – Sr. Angela Furia was originally from the Diocese of Verona in Italy.  She has both a degree in Teaching and in Pastoral Theology.  She also has a brother who is a Salesian priest.  She first came to the United States in 1971 and worked in pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Sacramento.  Afterwards, she served in Mexico for 20 years, developing outreach programs for the poor and the youth.  She will be joining our staff and will assist us not only in Catechesis for our public school students, but also in our Strategic goal of serving the community.  Welcome Sr. Angela!

With love and prayers,

Fr. Dan.

 

Have you read any good books lately that lift the heart and soul?  Would you like to share them with fellow parishioners?  Let me know what you’ve found uplifting and I’ll share them with others in the coming weeks.  Earlier in the year, our Faith Sharing book club read:

“Full of Grace” by Christine Watkins.  We found this book heartwarming and hopeful, that God continues to be at work in miraculous and ordinary ways in our world.

“Rediscovering Catholicism.”  We found this book inspirational as it helped us to relook at the faith, many of us might have taken for granted.  It’s both a spiritual and an educational book.

I also recommend:

“Tattoos on the Heart,” by Fr. Peter Boyle.  He works with teens involved with gangs down in LA.  His warmth, humor and the lives he’s able to touch and change simply because he loves and accepts them from where they’re at, is a wonderful lesson of how to live out the gospel in our times.

“Catholicism” by Fr. Robert Barron is also another faith filled book for our times.  Available also in video and shown on PBS, it revisits God’s love for humanity, his self-revelation and the Church he left behind.

For younger and older readers, Fr. Joseph Girzone wrote a series of “Joshua” books.  In it, the author reimagines what it would be like, if Jesus returned and walked in our streets.  How would he deal with the different faiths, inner city life, tensions in the Middle East, etc?  Some “Joshua” titles are:

Joshua: A Parable for Today (1995) -Joshua in the Holy Land (1995)

Joshua and the City (1996)-Joshua in a Troubled World (2006)

For the serious reader, Pope Benedict invites Catholics in the Year of Faith to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the documents of Vatican II (they can be found on http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V2ALL.HTM).  Last year we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the start of the 2^nd Vatican Council.  It brought about such a change in the Church, not just in how we celebrate Mass, but also in how we view the world, other faiths, Mother Mary and the Bible.  It was quite revolutionary.  Some of the documents of Vatican II include:

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 1963

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 1964

Decree on Ecumenism, 1964

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 1965

Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 1965

Relevant books addressing current topics include:

“What is Marriage?  Man and Woman: A Defense,” by Girgis, Anderson & George

“Getting the Marriage Conversation Right: a guide for effective Dialogue,” by May

What books have stretched your mind and lifted your soul?  Share them with us.  You can let me know by writing to me at frdan@stbrendanparish.org.  Happy reading.

Fr. Dan

Lending a Hand, Living the Call

What a joy to be part of this summer's St. Brendan Work Camp! Twenty-three St. Brendan youth and twelve adults truly did live the call to serve others by building a vegetable garden on Treasure Island for the Catholic Charities Child Development Center. This is a project that has been in the works for months, and countless members of our faith community have contributed to making it a reality through planning, fundraising, organizing, volunteering, and praying. Thanks especially to Beth O'Leary for such a great job organizing the troops for each day, to Paul Eggert for his building expertise and supervision, to the staff at CCCYO -TI for welcoming us so warmly, and to Fr. Dan for his support and visit! (He did manage to time his trip to TI to coincide with our lunch break....:))

As this project winds down, so does my time as a Pastoral Associate at St. Brendan Parish. I look forward to working directly with many from our faith community as I begin Campus Ministry at St. Ignatius Preparatory College. And you'll still see me around at liturgies, in the knitting group (my mother is so proud of me for that!), and wherever a parish activity requires the use of power tools. (Stay tuned for future project updates and opportunities.)

Have  a great and blessed summer!

Sr. Sharon

Farewell to St. Brendan’s!

It is a bittersweet moment that I bid farewell to St. Brendan’s as my spiritual home and the community I have truly grown to love these last few years. I would like to share with you wonderful moments that have touched my heart.

 St. Brendan’s schoolchildren prepared BOTH birthday cards and farewell cards for me this year, treasures forever. ( I have already re-read the birthday cards a few times.  As a team, the St. Brendan’s staff and volunteer organizations helped us to restore the parish to the wonderful physical and financial status I remember as a child, ( my grandmother lived further up Rockaway and my aunt and uncle and cousins lived less than a block away on Ulloa St.). I remember throughout my life referring to St. Brendan’s parish community and facilities as the “Crown jewels of the Archdiocese”.

I will miss the shouts from very young children as I both proceeded into Church or recessed out, asking for a “high five”. Some of the smallest children had quite a whack! I will miss the school boys and girls playing on the lawn and the tree in front of Church, alternatively referred to as the “boy tree” or the “girl tree” depending upon who was highest in the branches. (It was never called the Fr. Mike tree!).

I will miss the impressive results of both the St. Brendan’s Mothers’ Club and the St. Brendan’s Men’s Club. They have very different styles. I still believe the Mothers’ club could end world hunger! I remain impressed at the cheerful sense of community and camaraderie that are ever present in the Men’s Club as they work to edify the St. Brendan community in visible and behind-the – scenes service jobs, always with cheerful enthusiasm and success.

I will miss a community with whom I have shared many joys, seasons and even sorrows as we have collaboratively worked to keep God in our lives and keep our faith strong. I will miss the joyful shouts of the kindergarten children as they receive a retrieved ball that has fallen outside the fence and I toss it back. You’d think they were made of gold!

I will miss the very intimate moments of being invited into people’s lives in moments of illness or hospitalization and even sharing the last precious minutes of a person’s life. Believe it or not, I remember each of these special moments. I will miss the opportunity to promote Riordan High School, although if one were to ask the children I always thank a Catholic School child/ high-schooler for “wearing their colors”. I believe it means more than the colors; it speaks of pride in faith! I will miss being invited to special moments with families. But most of all, I WILL MISS EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU! Please consider St. Mary, Star of the Sea another “home”. My cell phone number is 415-246-5535 and personal email address is frmquinn@gmail.com.  Feel free to contact me.

Thank you for the best years of my life.

With All my Love,    
Fr. Mike Quinn

 

P.S. Thank you, Fr. Dan, and all the volunteers for a wonderful send-off.

 

“Now , indeed I know you are a person from God!”

Last Friday was the last day of school for 2012-2013. On Friday, 5/31/2013 our eighth graders graduated from, for most, 9 years of education at St. Brendan’s.  As they reflected upon their time here, they were full of gratitude for the education and athletic achievements allowed from the experience.  They were full of gratitude for their parents, their teachers and each other.  As I sat there with Archbishop Niederauer, Principal Carol Grewal and Father Dan, Pastor, watching and hearing their remarks, I felt as though I was sitting in the wrong place. I felt that I should have been with the grateful graduates who so clearly articulated their feelings of achievement and gratitude  at their matriculation through St. Brendan School. I am certain these remarks will have been echoed by our school-children as they close out the 2012-2013 school year.

 

When we are invited to an undertaking, we are at first full of hope and concern. As we are in the middle of the project, our confidence builds and we become increasingly confident as we encounter hurdles and best them and continue to progress. Such is not only the way of school, but it is the way of life.  Imagine the people present for our First Reading and Gospel- invited to believe and follow God as they literally saw the dead raised to new life. Perhaps spiritually, we are not confident. But we do have core values. We begin with where we are, just as our school children have done. What gifts we possess quickly become evident as we try to build upon them with learning efforts.  What challenges us and requires more work than perhaps our peers, also becomes evident. We are then faced with a choice-the first is to accept our gifts with grace and accept our weaknesses as well with the resolve to put in needed extra work. The alternative is to stay in our rut and trumpet our victories while bemoaning our failures. The latter is the way of the world where responsibility is not embraced.

 

     We are called to victory over our weaknesses, over worldly allure by our faith. Believing in God and living the sacramental life will relieve us and enliven us with spiritual life and belief as it did the characters present in our Scripture readings today. Just as at graduation there are proud people who love us glad for the effort that allowed achievement for our graduates and school-children, we are called to do so in faith. From the proud and loving looks of parents, one could not determine grades achieved, but I saw pride in the trying.

     Personally, I relate to this call to believe. I am being called to serve another parish but doing so involves cost, the greatest is that of leaving the people I have come to love deeply as if you were all of my own blood, the people of St. Brendan parish. To those I must leave, you will never leave my heart and my prayer for you is to embrace my replacement just as you did me. For it was in that act of Christian love that my belief in Christ was edified. I know that you and your families are all people through whom God works. I know indeed that “You are persons from God!”  May God bless you always, wherever your travels take you!  

 

    Fr. Mike

 

Welcome Scouts – The first Sunday in June, at the 9:30am mass, is our annual Scout Sunday Mass.  At St. Brendan, we have not only scouting for boys but also for girls, as many of you are aware when they sell their delicious cookies.  But more than just fundraising, our scouts are also involved in many activities from fun recreational activities to service projects.  Scouting helps our youth to try new things, build self-confidence and learn habits for healthy living, while serving the community and fulfilling their duty to God.  “Do a good turn daily” is a core scouting precept.  So today we recognize them for their achievements and their service to the community, and pray that God will continue to bless the work of their hands, so that they in turn may bless many others through their service. 

 

A Busy Time for our 8^th Graders – This past week was a busy time for our graduates.  Beginning on Tues., May 28, they had a friendly volleyball game against the Faculty.  Surprisingly, the Faculty has had dominance over the 8^th graders the past few years.  Then on Wednesday night, they had their dinner dance.  The Class Dinner was held in the school library at 6:30pm.  Afterwards, at 8pm, they met up with their parents, who were waiting outside the Church Hall, and escorted them into the Hall for an evening of dancing and delight.  On Thursday, they and the 7^th grade Altar Servers were treated to a day off at Raging Waters Amusement Park in San Jose.  This was a parish treat for our Altar Servers who serve throughout the year at daily and Sunday masses.  Finally, on Friday, May 31, our 8^th graders graduated from Elementary School.  There was a mass for them and their parents with the school in the morning at 8:15am, followed with the graduation ceremony in the evening at 5 p.m.  Their commencement speaker was Archbishop Emeritus, George Niederauer.  So although it was a busy time for them, but it was also a fun time filled with laughter and memories for years to come.  God Bless you, Class of 2013.  We’ll miss you, but don’t be a stranger.  See you at mass.

 

A Movie about Medjugorje – As part of the Year of Faith (YOF), the YOF Committee recommended a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a place where the Blessed Mother is reported to continue to appear to seers.  The Pilgrimage will be from September 26 – October 5, but reservations need to be in by June 15.  A documentary about Medjugorje will be shown on Sunday June 9, from 1-2:30pm, in the Church Hall. 

If you’re thinking about going on such a pilgrimage with fellow parishioners and me, I invite you to come and see it.  In this Year of Faith, we’re encouraged to do something to help us deepen and grow in faith.  This might be what is needed for you and for your family and friends, to have a closer encounter with the God who so desires to show us the depth of His love.  For more information about the pilgrimage, contact the parish office at 415-681-4225 or parishioner, Mrs. Zdenka Bodisco at 415-681-4100.  The cost is $2,650 per person and it is organized by Trinity Pilgrimage at, www.trinitypilgrimage.com.  Their contact person is Jim Benzow at 408-443-3912. 

 

Fr. Dan