IN JOYFUL THANKSGIVING
In a letter from “E.W.” (Edward Winslow) to a friend in England, he says: “And God be praised, we had a good increase…. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling that so we might after a special manner rejoice together….” Winslow continues, “These things I thought good to let you understand… that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favorably with us.”
This is the truest attitude of gratitude. An unexpressed gratitude remains a simple mental construct but when expressed it becomes a thanksgiving. This is the dominant spirit as we approach the Christmas Season and the end of this year.
In a couple of weeks, we as Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day which is typically on the last Thursday in November. On this day, we express our gratitude to God, to our families and loved ones for what and who they have been to us in this year. This beautiful family of St. Brendan’s parish also has overwhelming reasons in this year to thank God.
A cursory look will remind us of God’s special gifts to us as individuals and as a community. And so we thank you , our very wonderful family of St. Brendan, for your many generous gifts to the church as we noted in the State of Parish and School Report (FY July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013) that we recorded a net profit and not a deficit.
We also have reason to thank God for our former parochial vicar Fr Mike Quinn, who from among us, was appointed and installed pastor of Star of the Sea Sausalito. In this same year, our pastoral and parish family has been strengthened by the duo of Sr. Angela Furia, FdCC and me , Fr. Theo Hwande, who joined the parish and has since started work. We are also blessed to have a knowledgeable and experienced priest, Fr. Vincent Ring, who has joined us and will be celebrating Sunday masses with us. Prior to his retirement, he taught at SI and Sacred Heart, and was Pastor of St. Robert’s in San Bruno and St. Denis in Menlo Park. On November 9th , our seminarian Roger Gustafson was raised to the diaconate at the Ordination Ceremony at St. Pius, which was attended by both Fr. Dan and me. This is an occasion of great joy that God has offered an invitation and there was a” yes” response to it. We ask God to bless Deacon Roger’s resolve to follow him.
We continue to thank God for our very kind, humane, gentle, humble and indefatigable pastor, Fr. Dan Nascimento for his dedication to the spiritual, pastoral and social life of this parish.
The word thanksgiving is from the Greek eukharistia which highlights gratefulness (eukharistos) and so it’s better expressed as communion which in a sense is the coming together of brothers and sisters, and in the early church it was precisely for the breaking of bread, sharing of the cup and the meal (cf. 1cor. 12;17-34). It is therefore ad-rem that as a family of God we should express our thanks to God to reflect these two ecclesial realities and so, we shall gather at the school gym on Saturday November 23rd 2013 at 6pm for our annual parish thanksgiving dinner. The invitations were in last Sunday’s bulletin insert.
The school is our treasure and the students are the young church and so we join them in a thanksgiving mass on Wednesday November 27th at 11 am.
And on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 28th 2013, we shall have masses at 7:30 AM and 9:30 AM. At these masses we shall be collecting non-perishable items for the poor and so we’d like to remind you to bring your gifts.
As we joyfully thank God and one another, I pray that God will multiply our reasons for thanksgiving in the coming year. Amen.
Fr. Theo Hwande
