1 Guardian Angels Parish 1161 Broughton Street, Vancouver BC V6G 2B3 Tel: 604-684-5775; Fax: 604-684-5757 Email: [email protected]; Website: guardianangelsvancouver.ca Pastor: Rev. John Alex Pinto, OCD Parish Bookkeeper & Admin. Assistant: Leah B. OFFICE HOURS: Monday to Friday 9am to 12:30pm; 1:30pm to 4:30pm CLOSED on Weekends and Statutory Holidays Mass Times September 5, 2021 Weekend Masses: Saturday 4pm & 6pm Sunday: 9am, 11am, and 12:30pm Weekday Masses: Monday 8am Tuesday 7pm Wednesday - Friday 8am First Friday of the month - 7pm (No 8am Mass) Live-streaming (Sunday 11am Mass) - Mark 7: 31-37 - 1) YouTube Channel: guardianangelsparishvancouver REFLECTION 2) Parish website: Many healings in the gospel are about deafness. While they are about healing https:// from physical deafness, they are also about our deafness in hearing the word guardianangelsvancouver.ca/ of God. 3) Facebook Page: Deaf people will tell us how isolated they can be. Even with sign language they https://www.facebook.com/ can miss a lot. Spiritual deafness isolates us from the community of faith, and GuardianAngelsParishVancouver we may live spirituality in our own. Our Chrisan faith is intensely personal, but not private! We gather faith and Sacraments renewal of faith from each other, as we celebrate together in sacraments and Confessions: others occasions. Without the community of faith, our faith may remain stac. Tuesday: 6:30pm to 7pm Saturday: 3pm - 3:45pm We can all of us recall and remember ways in which others share faith with us that was helpful. We were taught how to pray and how to link faith and life. or by Appointment Some of the best lessons in faith are the example of others. To quote Pope For other Sacraments: Francis: ‘Very oen it is a holiness found in our next-door neighbours that Please contact the Parish office reflects God’s presence (Gaudete Et Exsultate, 7). Private Prayers Opening our ears to hear the message of the gospel is done day by day by contact the parish office parents, grandparents, teachers, chaplains, aunts and uncles and all the people who go to make up our Chrisan life. This is the invitaon of Jesus, to focus on his call ‘to do all things well’, as he does. Kindness, a smile, a word of good ad‐ Each release of vice, a prayer shared – all are ways of opening our ears to hear the word of Summer Parish Bulletin God. is for two (2) weeks. Therefore, you will only receive ‘speak, O Lord, your servant is listening’. Donal Neary SJ email once in two weeks. (Source: https://sacredheartmessenger.com/2018/09/06/23rd-sunday-ordinary-time-year-b-2018/) 2 REFLECTIONS The Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Sunday, September 16, 2018: St. Peter Square Source: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2018/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20180916.html Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning! Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 8:27-35) turns to the question that permeates the whole Gospel of Mark: who is Jesus? But this time Jesus himself poses it to his disciples, helping them to gradually address the question of his identity. Before asking them, the Twelve, directly, Jesus wants to hear from them what the people think about him, and he is well aware that the disciples are very sensitive to the Teacher’s renown! Therefore, he asks: “Who do men say that I am?” (v. 27). It comes to light that Jesus is considered by the people as a great prophet. But, in reality, he is not interested in the opinions and gossip of the people. He also does not agree that his disciples should answer the questions with pre-packaged formulas, quoting well-known individuals from Sacred Scripture, because a faith that is reduced to formulas is a short-sighted faith. The Lord wants his disciples of yesterday and today to establish a personal relationship with him, and thus to embrace him at the centre of their life. For this reason he spurs them to face themselves honestly, and he asks: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). Today, Jesus addresses this very direct and confidential question to each of us: “You, who do you say that I am? All of you, who do you say that I am? Who am I for you?”. Each person is called to respond, in his or her heart, allowing each one to be illuminated by the light that the Father gives us in order to know his Son Jesus. And it can also happen to us, as it did to Peter, that we passionately affirm: “You are the Christ”. However, when Jesus tells us clearly what he told the disciples, that is, that his mission is fulfilled not on the wide road to success, but on the arduous path of the suffering, humiliated, rejected and crucified Servant, then it can also happen that we, like Peter, might protest and rebel because this contrasts with our expectations, with worldly expectations. In those moments, we too deserve Jesus’ healthy rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (v. 33). Brothers and sisters, the profession of faith in Jesus Christ cannot stop at words, but calls to be authenticated by practical choices and gestures, by a life characterized by God’s love; it calls for a great life, a life with an abundance of love for neighbour. Jesus tells us that to follow him, to be his disciples, we must deny ourselves (cf. v. 34), that is, the demands of our own selfish pride, and take up our own cross. Then he gives everyone a fundamental rule. And what is this rule? “For whoever would save his life will lose it” (v. 35). Often in life, for many reasons, we go astray, looking for happiness only in things, or in people whom we treat as things. But we find happiness only when love, true love, encounters us, surprises us, changes us. Love changes everything! And love can also change us, each one of us. The witnesses of Saints proves it. May the Virgin Mary, who lived her faith by faithfully following her Son Jesus, help us too to walk on his path, generously spending our life for him and for our brothers and sisters. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 - LABOR DAY Dear Parishioners, Labor day weekend marks the end of summer vacation period. I invite parishioners to come back and be actively involved. Happy Labor Day! Father John - Pastor 3 From One of our Own A Caring God. (by: Agustin Gramajo) The Lord said to the Prophet Elias to retreat near the torrent of Kerit because there would be no rain for three years. That in there he would find water, and the crows would bring him bread and meat. And as the torrent eventually dried, the Lord told him to go to Sarepta, for He had instructed a widow in there to give him food and shelter. Elias met the widow and her child collecting branches to make fire for their last meal, for they had nothing else to eat and were expecting to die. Elias told her to give him to eat first and then to prepare some for herself and for her son, for never the jar of flour neither the oil would be empty for them. She believed and survived (cf. 3K 17: 3-16) Some years later, Elias went to the Horeb, the mountain of God, into a cave, and the Lord went to chase him out of the cave, for the Lord was going to pass by. There was a hurricane, then a strong tremor, then a big fire, until a soft breeze was felt and from there the Lord said to him, Go to Damascus and anoint Hazael as king of Syria, and Jehu as king of Israel; anoint Eliseo your successor (cf. 3K 19: 9-16) In the same manner, God took care of Abraham, who by faith offered his son Isaac in sacrifice (cf. CCC 145) God changed his name to Abraham, and the name of his wife’s Sarai to Sara, to whom God promised numerous descendants. The story says that she suggested him to take as wife her Egyptian slave, Agar, and to have the promised descendants through her because she had proved barren. Agar became pregnant, and arrogant, and openly despised her owner. So, Sarai brought the case to Abram, who told her that the decision of what to do with her slave was hers. So, Sarai treated her badly and Agar escaped to the desert. But God, in His mercy, also took care of the son of Abraham: for an angel appeared to Agar near the water pond and told her to go back to the house she had left, and to name her son Ishmael, for God would make her descendants numerous. That Ishmael would be a wild mustang, living separate from his brothers (cf. Gn 16: 11) CLEANING TEAM MINISTRY Team 1: Legion of Mary Team 2: Lectors & Knights of Columbus, Grp. A Team 3: Knights of Columbus, Group B Team 4: El Shaddai Team 5: Judy (Independent) Cleaning schedule Sep 05: Team 2 Sep 12: Team 3 Sep 19: Team 4 Sep 26: Team 1 Oct 03: Team 2 Oct 10: Team 3 Oct 17: Team 4 Oct 24: Team 1 Scope and description of work, including charting, is posted at the bulletin board inside the Sacristy for the conven- ience of all team members. T TIME EFFORT!!! PROJECT ADVANCE 2021 Your gift will grow your parish and expand the reach of Christ’s love to those who need it most.