St. Robert's Catholic Church Bulletin, December 7, 2003

St. Robert's Catholic Church

1380 Crystal Springs Road, San Bruno, CA 94066

Tel: (650) 589-2800

PARISH BULLETIN
December 7, 2003
Second Sunday of Advent

    

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Dear Parishioners,

"We wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ"

Advent is a season of waiting and preparing for Christmas. The world around us waits too, and counts down the "shopping days" until Christmas. How often does the "world" forget the reason for Christmas as it enters into the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating, gift giving and parties. How do you celebrate Advent? How are you preparing for the coming of Christmas? Who is included in your gift list? How much extra time can you set aside for Scripture reading or prayer? How is your time and energy spent this December?

Christmas is the season of giving. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to us. How are we going to return thanks and gratitude to Him?

Our parish has so many lonely, grieving, sick and shut-in people waiting for Christmas but with very little physical energy to do much for themselves. This is a time where we can reach out and help bring the joyful spirit of Christmas to them. A visit, a phone call, a card, a small gift would do wonders for a lonely shut-in, whether he/she is a friend, a former neighbor, or a relative. "Whatsoever, you do for the least of my brethren, you do unto Me", says the Lord. I want to thank the parishioners for their gifts put in the donation baskets on the sanctuary steps. These gifts will be given to the shut-ins of St. Robert's before Christmas. May all of you have a very prayer filled Advent.

Sister Patricia

    

A NOTE FROM FATHER RING

Dear Parishioners:

Thank you to Gina, Briana, Amanda, Sarah and Ashley from the 3rd Grade of St. Robert's School, who presented me with $36.20 they raised for the poor. What a wonderful example for all of us.

This past week the Parish Council discussed how we as a Parish can be a greater welcome to newcomers and make them welcome not only at Mass but also in parish organizations and activities. The most important element is the need for each of us to reach out as individuals to say welcome and to give a personal invitation to join us at a meeting or an activity. Several different ideas will be followed up on. One of these is to look into the publication of a new Parish directory. If you think this is a good idea and would like to help, please call me at 589-2800. It is a major task and will take a good committee.

This year the Parish Council president is Victoria Sciacqua. Cindy Smerdel is the Vice-President and Joe Roberts is the Secretary. The other members of the council are: Bob Balestieri, Nancy Green, Nancy McMahon, Rick Rolfes, Patrick Byrne, George Horton, Elio Sciacqua, Helen Mantler, Josie Mercado and Russ Hanley.

Sincerely,
Father Ring

    

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Monday - December 8
Readings: Gn 3:9-15,20     Eph 1:3-6,11-12      Lk 1:26-38

Mass Intention
   
6:30a
8:30a
6:00p
Jim Diggins †
Mary Lucille Banchero †
Nieva Madrid †
Women's Guild Mtg.
St. Vincent de Paul
7:00p
7:30p
Hall
Library
Tuesday - December 9
Readings: Is 40:1-11     Mt 18:12-14
Mass Intention 6:30
8:30
Norma Ottoboni †
Vittoria Fanti †
Religious Education
Legion of Mary
Choir Practice
Athletic Board Mtg.
Liturgy Committee Mtg.
Teen Club
3:30p
6:30p
7:00p
7:00p
7:30p
8:00p
Hall/Church
Library
Church
Mahoney Room
Convent Chapel
Hall
Wednesday - December 10
Readings: Is 40:25-31     Mt 11:28-30
Mass Intention 6:30
8:30
Raoul & Marisa Luisa Kahn †
Christ Boncic †
Religious Education
Choir Practice
Breakfast with Santa Mtg
Advent Group
Faith Sharing
Fil/Am
6:30p
7:00p
7:00p
7:30p
7:00p
7:00p
6th Gr. Classroom
Church
Mahoney Room
Convent Chapel
Library
Hall

Thursday - December 11
Readings: Is 41:13-20     Mt 11:11-15

Mass Intention 6:30
8:30
Franco Miraglia †
Vittoria Fanti †
Religious Education
School Advent Program
RCIA
3:30p
5:00p
7:00p
Hall/Church
Hall
Convent Chapel

Friday - December 12
Readings: Common of BVM (707-712)

Mass Intention 6:30
8:30
Christopher Trailer, Sr. †
Charles Agius †
Advent Group
8th Gr. Cheerleading
In-Betweeners
Fil/Am Choir Practice
Youth Group event
9:30a
3:00p
6:00p
7:00p
Evening
Mary's Chapel
Hall
Hall
Church
Off site

Saturday - December 13
Readings: Sir 48:1-4,9-11     Mt 17:10-13

Mass Intention 8:30
4:30
Paul & Rosina Vella †
Todd Aiello †
Breakfast with Santa 7:00a Hall

Sunday - December 14
Readings: Zep 3:14-18a     Phil 4:4-7     Lik 3:10-18

Mass Intention 7:30
9:30
11:30
5:00
People of St. Robert's
Giuseppe Pignati †
Ann & Frank Cericola †
Family Kovacevic †
Fil/Am Choir Practice 10:00a Hall
    

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WELCOMING THE STRANGER AMONG US

As a community and as a Parish we are becoming more and more diverse in our ethnic heritage and backgrounds. Our Parish Council is discussing ways we can reach out to newcomers in our midst - be they recent immigrants or long time Americans. In the year 2000, the Bishops of the United States issued a document, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us, concerning new immigrants, the conclusion of this document is worth our mediating upon.

Pope John Paul II has callen for a new evangelization centered on the person of Jesus Christ: "The encounter with the living Jesus Christ' is `the path to conversion, communion and solidarity.'" This personal encounter with the risen Lord, so abundantly recounted in the Gospels, Epistles, and Acts of the Apostles, leads to a daily vision of the Lord present and active in the world, especially in the poor, in the stranger, and in the migrant and refugee. Those most in need draw the members of the Church out of their unawareness to a conversion of heart through which they are able to offer a genuine and suitable welcome, to share together as brothers and sisters at the same table, and to work side by side to improve the quality of life for society's most vulnerable members. All of this is an expression of the Spirit of the risen Jesus being poured out again on his followers.

The Holy Spirit made manifest at Pentecost enabled people of diverse languages and cultures to understand the one message of salvation. The new evangelization means openness to the gifts of the Spirit wherever they might appear. Our response to the new immigration thus is informed by a renewed vision of what it is to be Church, and by a new spirituality, informed by the Spirit of Pentecost present in the sacrament of confirmation, which gives the power to discern the one message of the kingdom in the diverse customs and languages of our immigrant brothers and sisters.

Immigrant communities give ample witness to what it is to be Church—in their desire to worship as a people, in the faith, in their solidarity with one another and with the weakest among them, in their devotion and their faithfulness to the Church of their ancestors. For the Church in the United States to walk solidarity with newcomers to our country is to live out our catholicity as a Church. The Church of the twenty-first century will be, as it has always been a Church of many cultures, languages and traditions, yet simultaneously one, as God is one—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—unity in diversity.

The new immigration is a reminder of the pilgrim state of the Church, made up of all those, regardless of race or class or national origin, who have been called to the wedding banquet and have responded (Lk 14:23). As a pilgrim, the Church encompasses in itself all the reality of human suffering and all the glory of the human spirit infused with the grace of Christ. With its diverse pilgrim peoples, the Church in the United States has known uprootedness and loss, persecution and flight, the search for a better life, and the difficulties and disappointments of that search. The Church has known God's grace as it lifts spirits in times of despair, sustain hope in the face of hopelessness, and revives love despite evils and human frailties. In the one baptism, the Church acknowledges God's call to conversion, while in the sacrament of the Eucharist, she enjoys prefigured the glorious communion of Father and Son in the Holy Spirit. At the Eucharist the Church prefigures the revelation of "a great multitude...from every nation, race, people and tongue" (Rev 7:9).

In such a Eucharist, on that sunlit Jubilee Day of Migrant and Refugees in St. Peters Square, Pope John Paul II summed up the challenge and hope for the Church in the United States as it welcomes the immigrants of the new millennium in a very simple but profound image:

Like the disciples of Emmaus, believers, supported by the living presence of the risen Christ, become in turn the traveling companions of their brothers and sisters in trouble, offering them the word which rekindles hope in their hearts. With them they break the bond of friendship, brotherhood and mutual help. This is how to build the civilization of love. This is how to proclaim the hoped-for coming of the new heavens and the new earth to which we are heading. (no. 4)

    

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Registration for Kindergarten for the 2004-2005 school year will take place January 7-14, 2004. Our annual Open House will take place on January 12, 2004 at 7:00 pm.

We are looking for someone to help with the layout of our new school brochure. All photos and words are compiled. We just need help setting up the color graphics. If you have access and experience with QuarkXpress, please contact Maureen Wallace.

    

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  • December 9th - Prepare Lunches for AIDS patients, in the Hall.

  • Christmas in the City, this Friday, December 12th-Bart - See or call Juan 255-0791 for details.

  • December 16th - Youth Mass Music Practice 7-9 p.m. in the church.

  • December 21st - Youth Mass at 5:00 p.m. Social to follow.

  • Christmas in the City, this Friday - ee or call Juan 255-0791 for details

    

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As a Parish Community, We Pray...For our teens, in a special way for those preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Come, Lord Jesus, embrace them in your light and in your hope.

    

SICK RELATIVES AND FRIENDS

We would like to update the following list. Please review and call the rectory at 589-2800 if someone you know can be taken off the list.

We pray for the ill: Sharon Aiello, Gabrielle Ausiello, Marilyn Arancibia, Robert Bacci, Genaro Badiable, Lito Badiable, Bastiaan Blumenthal, Marcia Bourne, Ann Burns, Maricris Candelaria, Arthur Candia, Josie Clarke, Nan Connolly, Zenaida Cortez, Ana Cosgaya, Anna DeLucchi, Walton & June Dickhoff, Sandra & William Dill, Carl Edwards, Joyce Flax, Adela Florez, Henry Fosson, Jesse Grube, Denise Hawald, Dominique Hauscarriague,Jr, Viko Ivancich, Joanne Johnson, Koret Koelman, Muriel Krause, Sisilia Langi, Shirley Latham, Josephine Lavoie, Greg Lille, Marky, Michael Martinez, Kathryn McCann, Daniel McHale, Rosemary McHale, Terry McLeod, James Morrisey, Thomas O'Brien, Lara Pinten, Jason Pimentel, James Piazza, Louis Ricardo, Bill Reilly, Mary Shick, Pauline Speranza, Ron Stern, Justo Tan, Joan Thomsen, Mafi Tukumoatu, Gene VanSlett, Don Vickery, Diana Walter, Jennifer Westbrook & Frank Wright.

Dear Parishioners,
Please notify the priesthouse (589-2800) if a loved one is either sick or in the hospital and would like to be visited.
-The Parish Priests and Staff 

    

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by Sister Sheral

Light the first and second purple candles on your wreath with the following prayer:

Dear Lord,
Your love for us is as constant as these branches which stay green through every season. As the farmer longs for the harvest, so we are anxious for your coming. Open us and the world to your gift of peace that we may bear fruit in works of justice. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

The readings for today are so full of hope! The prophets which we hear from these Sundays are speaking to their people in times very much like ours. They are trying to give a disheartened people hope by reminding them of God's promise to send a savior. [If your bible isn't handy, you might want to put it somewhere accessible, so you can read the Sunday scriptures before you come to Mass; they are printed in each week's bulletin.] The same readings can strengthen our hope today. We need to listen and to pray for our brothers and sisters so in need of God's strength and mercy. We can pray for a change of heart for those who do violence and for wisdom for the powerful few who have so much influence over the lives of so many. We are called to "prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." We can help the kingdom of God to come in our own families, neighborhoods and workplaces, imperfect as we ourselves are.

Is there someone you know from church or work who is lonely or who has recently lost a loved one? Have you reached out to speak to that person or to express your sorrow? Most of us aren't good at dealing with another's grief and yet even our awkward efforts would be much appreciated. We cannot open our homes to the pregnant Mary and anxious Joseph, but perhaps the Lord is coming in disguise, inviting us to welcome him now.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception
The United States is under the special patronage of Mary under this title and that is why the churches here celebrate her feast even when it falls on a Monday. Masses will be the usual 6:30 am and 8:30 am with an additional evening Mass at 6 pm.

Advent Reconciliation Services
If you'd like to prepare your heart for the celebration of His coming, there are two opportunities for you: Monday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, Dec. 20 at 3 pm. Both will take place in church with readings and songs to help us receive the gift of forgiveness which God constantly offers us.

Christmas Singers!
If you love to sing, but don't have the time to commit to the weekly practices, you are cordially invited to commit to a few practices so you can sing for Christmas! Singers of any age are invited to sing for the 8 pm and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and for the 7:30am, 9:30 am and 11:30 am Mass Christmas Day. Please see Kevin, Griselda or Sr. Sheral or leave a message at the rectory.

Caroling
The 9:30 am choir will be caroling at the Emmanuel Convalescent Home at 2 pm Sunday, Dec. 14 and welcomes any other parishioners to join them. Please meet in the church at 1 pm for practice before carpooling to the residence.

    

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ST. VINCENT DE PAUL

Listed our a few of the food stuffs that we are running low on: jams and jellies, canned vegetables, cereal and oatmeal, marinara sauce, juices, packaged cookies, gum, mayonnaise and other condiments, and canned chicken. Cereals are in high demand.

We are also collecting Gift Certificates and Scrip for MOLLY STONE-ALBERTSON'S-LUNARDI'S-SAFEWAY- in lieu of frozen turkeys. You may make out certificates to Saint Vincent de Paul and either mail them or drop them in the rectory mailbox.

As always, we thank you for your continued generosity and support.

    

GIFTS FOR THE HOMEBOUND

There are several members of our Parish Family who are confined to their homes or nursing homes because of illness or advanced age. Christmas can be a lonely time for them. Our Advent theme asks: "Come, Lord Jesus." We have the opportunity to bring Jesus' love to them by seeing to it they have a Christmas present. There are baskets on the altar steps waiting for your gift. A few suggestions are: slippers, robes, dusters, nightgowns, pajamas, sweaters, hand and body lotions, white knee socks, lap robes, card and letters of encouragement. The only requisite is that the gifts be new items that are unwrapped.

    

AIDS LUNCH
December 10th

We are scheduled for the 2nd Wednesday of each month. If you can prepare a favorite cookie, snack or lunch items for 10 to 12 people, please drop it off at the Children's Chapel, in the back of Church, by 9 a.m. on December 10th. Please pack the items in a non-returnable container. Frozen items can be donated.

We appreicate your help!

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ADVENT

Advent Evening Prayer
Monday, December 22nd at 7:30 pm

Communal Celebration of the Sacrament of penance
Monday, December 15th, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 20th, 3:00 p.m.

    

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

Saturday, December 13th
8:30 am and 10:30 am seatings

See Santa present each child with a gift. There will be a continental breakfast and children can create a unique gift for someone special. Get your photo taken with Santa.

Reservations are a must - please call Jean Jauregui. Please bring a canned food dontation for St. Bruno's.

    

WOMEN'S GUILD

Women's Guild cordially invites you to our December meeting on Monday, December 8th! Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and dinner is at 7:30 p.m. The price is $10.00 and a canned food item! Please bring a wrapped ornament for the ANNUAL ORNAMENT EXCHANGE. Call Teresa Nusbaurm.

    

MEMORIAL POINSETTIAS

Christmas Poinsettias will decorate the Church during the Christmas Season. If you would like to make a donation of $10 (please make check out to St. Robert’s Poinsettias Fund) toward their purchase in memory of a loved one, fill out the form below and return it to the Parish Office by Sunday, December 21st.

My gift in memory of:______________________

My gift in honor of:________________________

Given by:________________________________

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