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