Message from the Pastor

                                 "WELCOME"

In many instances of dealing with people, we use the word WELCOME in two different contexts. First, we use it to express that we receive with pleasure someone who is NEW and we show initial hospitality to this arriving visitor. The words: “You are welcome to join us” gives the receiver a pleasant feeling of ACCEPTANCE permitting one to “BE A PART”. Meaning, a person agrees or permits or admits the other to incorporate or to connect. Secondly, it is used as an expression as in “You are welcome” to acknowledge an expression of gratitude (after someone said: ‘Thank You’).

The word “Welcome” to receive someone warmly is almost present in many cultural languages. In my Filipino tongue, it would be, “MALIGAYANG PAGDATING” and in Spanish, it would BIENVENIDO! And so for this weekend, I would like to say to our new parishioners, “WELCOME!”.

There was an old story told by a pastor in a parish that once there was a person who just moved in within the location of his parish. This person visited the church and commented like this to the pastor, “Father, you have such a nice ‘church’, wonderful stained glass windows, awesome flower arrangements, enticing church bell sounds and many more. I think I would like to belong to your parish”. The pastor replied, “Well, that is just our church building; wait till you see the REAL Church this weekend…”

The pastor must be referring here to the COMMUNAL Church (the people) and not more of the church as structure, building or edifice. Of course everything starts with simple beginnings and later develops. Like in our GOSPEL for this Sunday, we are asked to be productive by using one’s ability to MULTIPLY good things or resources. In a way, it is an INVESTMENT!

When two or more people encounter each other, the factor of OPENNESS has to be there. Even when one welcomes the other, it would mean opening your DOOR or your LIFE to that person. But speaking of welcoming a person, there was an incident when I was in New Guinea, not aware that a priest who is to visit us was formerly assigned in that location, my “WELCOME, here Father”, was responded by: “I WAS HERE BEFORE YOU!”…(Oooppss…Sorry). Although it was sarcastically done by the person, the positive side of it is that, this priest still “considers” himself as connected to the place even after many years have passed.

In Jesus’ ministry, we can recall that not all the villages he visited were WELCOMING to him. It is part of life that we cannot please/convince everybody! But to our new parishioners joining us, make St Brendan you home of you faith…

If Jesus has said: “I don’t call you slaves no longer, but I now call you friends”; we can put it in line with this as to say to our new parishioners: “You are visitors  or guests no longer, you are now members of this parish.” Consider yourself as one of us or belonging to us. And responding further to our Gospel, develop your faith by taking some ministries you are comfortable doing to serve others.

Let your talents grow and multiply…. YOU ARE NOW MEMBERS of this PARISH!

WELCOME

 Fr. Ted

MESSAGE FROM OUR PAROCHIAL VICAR

The Mother of All Churches

Today we celebrate the solemn feast of the dedication of the Basilica of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in Lateran, otherwise called St. John Lateran Basilica. The land upon which this Basilica is built was given to Emperor Constantine by the Laterani family. When Constantine made Christianity the state religion he built a papal palace on this land and gave it to the Church. So for many years John Lateran served as the Apostolic palace until the captivity of the papacy and relocation of the Papal palace to Avignon. Upon the return of the Papacy to Rome, they found this palace in ruins and therefore the Pope had to establish a new palace in Vatican just within St. Peter’s Basilica.

Because of this many people think that the head of the Churches or the mother Church is the Basilica of St. Peter but its not. The mother Church is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is by default the cathedral of the diocese of Rome whose bishop is the Pope.

The pope is first and foremost a bishop; he is the bishop of Rome. He is the “Primus inter pares” the first among equals and so, being the bishop of Rome makes him the successor of St. Peter who was the first bishop of Rome, and therefore he becomes the universal pastor hence Pope.

So the celebration today brings out two very powerful points:

1. It highlights the unity and universality of the church. The Bishop of Rome becomes the Vicar of Christ and the visible sign of the unity of the church and his cathedral the mother of all the churches. He is also the universal Pastor. According to canon law, the Bishop of Rome has immediate and universal power over the whole church. This means as Parishioners in St. Brendan, we are united to the Pope not through our Archbishop but we are united with him in an immediate and direct way because of the universal power that he exercises over the universal church.

2. The Basilica we celebrate is the first church. The building has gone through all kinds of attack ranging from war to earthquakes but it has survived. This shows how the church as the mystical body of Christ has also survived and would survive all attacks remembering and holding unto the promise of Jesus that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the church.

So as we celebrate today, let us pray that God will preserve the unity of the Church against all satanic and devilish attacks.

Today too we round up our vocation week, which we started Monday. Vocation is from the Latin “voca – vocare- vocati – vocatum”  (vocatio) which means to call. In Christian parlance, vocation is an invitation by God to you and I, first to the fundamental vocation, which is the Christian Vocation – the call to holiness of life. Then the vocation to Christian family life, from where we get the vocation to the priesthood and religious life.

I consider it a blessing to be called by God to serve him and as a person I have not regretted following God even though I leave with the pain of being separated from my mum, family and home but God who leads continues to be faithful in all his ways to those who follow him. Today I pray that more men and women will be willing to step forward and embrace the priesthood and religious life. In the past you sent missionaries and to us supported them and we are grateful. Our coming over here for mission is not a pay-back but a response to God’s invitation, a response to God’s call, it’s living out our vocation.

I also pray God to bless all families, the nursery bed from where we find the vocation to the priesthood and religious life. God bless you all.

Peace.

Fr. Theo.

Message from the pastor

On this first weekend of November 2014, which has the first and the second day of the month, we both celebrate on each day ALL SAINTS’ DAY and ALL SOULS’ DAY, respectively. And in our 9:30 a.m. Mass this Sunday, we will see the different portrayal of the SAINTS through the pageantry of the children organized by the Women at the Well Ministry. And so…let the SAINTS GO MARCHIN’ IN!!!

If we recall in our Intermediate Catechism, we have three divisions of the church namely: Church Triumphant (those who are in Heaven already); Church Expectant or Suffering (those who are still in

Purgatory); Church Militant (those who are still on Earth/World=we).

St. Paul occasionally addressed the early Christians as “saints” (meaning, called to a life of holiness or sainthood). May be this can be interpreted as “saints-in-the-making “(prospective saints). This might not yet mean to be the CANONIZED saints that we all know, but one can be SAINTLY in one’s ways and good examples.

As we have this weekend devoted for the SAINTS and FAITHFUL DEPARTED, we thank God for the gift of ETERNAL life. We thank the SAINTS of the PAST, and our FAITHFUL DEPARTED of the PAST, for they still live in our hearts in the PRESENT time.

Our PRAYERS are needed for our loved ones’ souls who might still need to be purge (purified). They are not in hell but they still have to undergo purgation. As one theologian said, “it’s like they are walking from a ‘distance’ to heaven but they don’t become nearer unless we offer prayers for them.”

These past few days we saw children in HALLOWEEN Costumes, some with frightening faces/unusual-scary images. Now, it’s about time to NEUTRALIZE that as we look on the BEAUTIFUL faces of the SAINTS in our Pageantry.

It is a great practice to HONOR the DEAD. But one idea came in recently like, why don’t we start HONORING the LIVING (while they’re still with us)? In Hawaii, where I was assigned in the past, they honor annually people who did significant “heroic or saintly simple ways” for their communities, and they call them, “The Island Treasures.” Make sense.

Our HOPE then is not in this present life only, for God puts in the heart of every living person the desire for unending life and happiness. Death claims each of us at the appointed time, but our hope and desire is to see God face to face. Jesus promises that those who accept him as their Lord and Savior and submit to his word will be raised up to immortal life with him in the Day of Judgment.

We thank the SAINTS for their good examples and became brilliant models of faith to us. We thank our departed loved ones for their goodness that we still cherish in our hearts. We love them. There is a saying: “There are only TWO GREAT TRAGEDIES in LIFE, namely, if you don’t love; and if you don’t say to those whom you love that you love them.”

And let me use this opportunity to THANK you ALL for your prayers and presence during my INSTALLATION as your pastor last Sunday at the 11:30 a.m. Mass. I THANK YOU ALL…and I LOVE YOU ALL.

Fr. Ted

Message from the Pastor

With joy in our hearts we gladly welcome the Archbishop, his Excellency Most Revd. Salvatore J. Cordileone to our Parish for the installation of Fr. Ted Magpayo as the new pastor of St. Brendan Parish. As it’s the traditional hymn of welcome for a bishop I say “ecce sarcedos Magnus, qui in diebus suis placuit Deo”.

We also rejoice exceedingly with our new pastor Fr. Ted on his formal installation as our pastor. The ceremony of installation highlights the fact of the unity of the pastor with the Bishop and the unity of the people with their Bishop through their pastor.

All ministerial priests share in the priesthood of Christ just like every baptized Christian, but in a more visible way, the ordained priest participate in the priesthood of the Bishop in whom is found the fullness of the priesthood. In his function, the Bishop teaches, sanctifies and governs the flock entrusted to his pastoral care in his local church. The ceremony of installation confers on the pastor the privilege to participate and carry out these functions for a particular as a coworker with the bishop.

Simply put, the pastor assists the bishop in administering a parish. In his function as teacher, the pastor will teach the people to follow the way of God that leads to salvation by his homilies, catechesis, spiritual talks/direction, confession and in many other ways. He is the teacher of the people in the ways of faith.

In the function of sanctifying, the pastor will faithfully and with reverence celebrate the sacraments for and with the people, calling down the grace of God upon his people. He shall lead them to a solid life of prayer and gently, loving but firmly bring the mercy of God to those who are on the margins of faith and also show compassion to the lowly, the anawims (poorest of the poor) of Yahweh.

In his function to govern, the pastor is to lead the people. He is the custodian and administrator of the church’s goods. He is to prove himself the good shepherd who came not to be served but to serve and to give his live as a ransom for many. When something is installed its needs to fit, if it does not fit either the thing is pruned to fit or the space is pruned to allow it fit. When installing software, there are times some programs will have to be uninstalled for the new program to be able to run well.

Consequently, when a new pastor is installed and he begins to govern, there are obviously some pruning either on one side or both sides and so I invite us to give Fr. Ted our support as he begins his pastorate in St. Brendan and ready to prune and be pruned if need be. Jesus summarizes the whole of the commandments today into love, when we come out and support the parish out of duty it will amount to nothing but if its for love of God it will be sown for an eternal harvest.

And to you my beloved brother Fr. Ted, congratulations on your installation. I want you to see yourself as a “love program” installed in St. Brendan. Lead the people by love not from a sense of duty but out of the immense love in your heart and your intense love of Jesus. Have a pastoral heart that can abandon 99 sheep in search for the one that is missing.

My dear sisters and brothers, beloved parishioners, please support our new pastor, support him with your time, talent and treasure so that the love of God will overflow, that our bond of love will be stronger and our hearts and minds more united.

May God bless our Archbishop, our new pastor and our parish.

Peace.

Fr. Theo

Message from the Pastor

In our Sunday’s gospel, the Jewish authorities sought to trap Jesus in a religious-state issue. This is the issue regarding paying taxes: whether to PAY TAX or to practice TAX EVASION. Jesus quoted the saying: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Actually, the Jews themselves resented their foreign rulers and despised paying taxes to Caesar. They posed a dilemma to test Jesus to see if he was loyal to them and to their understanding of religion. Whatever answer Jesus would give, there’s no way out! Jesus avoided their trap by confronting them with the image of a coin. Well, it comes from Caesar, return it back to Caesar!

In our society, we oftentimes hear that there’s SEPARATION of Church and State (as regards their FUNCTION). People oftentimes ask, why then the Church “meddles” or “interferes” with POLITICS (STATE/ GOVERNMENT concerns)? The answer is, because they SHARE the SAME constituents. To realize, the CITIZENS of the NATION are also the FAITHFUL of the CHURCH. Right? Also, as far as the role of the Church, it cannot just keep silent on certain SOCIAL-MORAL-ETHICAL issues.

Jesus practically mentioned in the gospel, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." In connection to this, breadwinners of families are constantly being reminded, that they have to give to their work (job) what is due to their work (job); and to give to their family what is due to their family. Some people may rationalize (reason out) with this words, “Anyway, I do my work for my family”. But we need to draw a line to clearly distinguish times devoted to one’s work with times devoted to one’s family. There has to be a healthy balance between the two, besides FAMILY BONDING times should be encouraged.

Now, on our part, have we really given “the things to God, that are God's.”? To realize again, almost EVERYTHING BELONGS to GOD, that is, if we acknowledge it, and we give God the credit. This reminds me of an incident when once I was a chaplain in a hospital, when nurses assessed their patients as IMPROVING. The natural impression and comment t they would say is, “this is due to the wonders of medicines!” I would challenge them by asking, where or who is the source of all these medicines after all???

The gospel also makes us assess our STEWARDSHIP in Christ. Do we do our part to support our parish/church? Do we give what should dutifully be given? We hear sometimes that in certain non-Roman Catholic denominations, they really meticulously practice or are particular in giving their 10% contribution from their salary or income. For the Roman Catholic, we do not impose this, for we leave it to the discretion of the member-donor. Love freely given and not forced is sweeter.

On this MISSION Sunday weekend, it is nostalgic for me to recall when once I was a missionary in Papua New Guinea that it is a great delight to receive something from the people themselves whether a card, monetary gift, financial assistance and other gestures which  can mean “they care for their priests”, especially those in the mission field.

MAY Christ, the great MISSIONARY, “reaching out” from heaven to earth, be our great example to also REACH OUT to others in our own way.

Message from the Parochial Vicar

                              The attitude of gratitude

My dearly beloved St. Brendan family, a couple of weeks ago I wrote in our bulletin about the ice bucket challenge and how we could use it to challenge one another’s faith. Just few weeks after, another challenge chain has emerged on the social media. For me, it is terrific. It is called the gratitude challenge. The most amazing thing about this gratitude challenge is the fact that it reminds us that all we have and are thankful for comes from God. No single person in this challenge so far has credited his reason of thankfulness to himself or to any other thing but exclusively to God.

My auntie called me on Friday and extended this gratitude challenge to me. She said I should give seven reasons to be grateful to God, and I said I would do it in our parish bulletin, which she accepted.

Here are my reasons for gratitude:

One year in St. Brendan: 9/22/2014 was exactly one year since I have been in St. Brendan Parish. I had a lot of mixed feelings when I was asked to come here. I was glad that I was going to meet new people and encounter a new culture but I

was also sad that I was leaving my comfortable zone, leaving my Mom and friends but the grace of God has helped me

to find so much meaning of my being here in St. Brendan that the year went by so fast. It seems like three months to me. God, I thank you.

The people of St. Brendan: in the parishioners of St. Brendan I have met and now belong to an amazing family. Your warm heartedness, your kindness and prayers have made me very at home here and now I refer to St. Brendan as a “home-away-from – home”. God , I thank you for the people of St. Brendan.

The School community: another amazing community is the school, the principal, faculty, and students. They are a wonderful gift to me. Having the opportunity to be a witness of faith to the faculty and students and to share this faith with them brings a lot of hope for the future Church. God, I thank you.

Fr. Daniel Nascimento: From the day Fr. Dan picked me up at the airport till today he has proven to be one of the kindest persons I have ever met. So gentle and humane. I was assigned to work with Fr. Dan as his parochial Vicar but he turned me not only into a friend but a brother. His parents adopted me as their son and his niece and nephews call me “Uncle Theo”. I cannot thank God enough for bringing Fr. Dan in my life at the time and moment he did. God, I thank you.

Fr. Ted Magpayo: Fr. Ted has continued where Fr. Dan stopped. We are having a good time in the rectory and apart from our good working relationship, we are fast becoming friends as we share meals together and sometimes go out to dinner together. I thank God for his humility. God, I thank you.

The Parish Staff: they have been so gentle with me and ready to help me at all times. They have been very instrumental in my smooth transition. God, I thank you for the parish Staff.

My vacation: it was very sweet to see my Mom again and to eat Mama’s food again and to spend time with her loving and feeling loved.  But I am most thankful that she is able to cope well with my absence but not only that, also that she is

happy and grateful that I am a missionary.

Now I pass on this challenge to you the reader who has this bulletin in your hand to give seven reasons why you are grateful to God, using any means like social Media i.e. Facebook etc. This challenge is helping to remind people that God is the fount and source of all blessing and not our efforts.

Pray for me as I make my may to Santa Barbra for the cultural orientation program for international ministers at Loyola Marymount University.

October is the month dedicated to our mother Mary, I encourage you to pray the rosary daily and teach your children how to pray the rosary too and also participate in the rosary rally on October 11^th. May our mother Mary cover us with her mantle of love and may her powerful intercessions always help us.

Fr. Theo