Greetings from Tampa! I’m in Florida on vacation while you are reading this. I’ll probably be at Disney World wishing Mickey a Happy 50th. When I return home, I will begin a new ministry. Starting in 2 weeks I will be the 5th grade teacher at St. Peter’s Grammar School in San Francisco. I am NOT leaving St. Robert’s while I work at St. Peter’s—I’ll be doing both. To me, St. Robert’s is home and where I intend to stay for a while. I ask for your prayers as I begin this new journey. I want to thank Monsignor Dreier and Ms. Vicki Butler, the St. Peter’s Principal, for allowing me to explore this opportunity. I am very excited, although I’ll be busy, I’m going to be very happy.

I also want to remind all our teens that the Youth Group does community service every Tuesday in the Hall from 8 to 9 pm. Preparing lunches for AIDS patients and dinners for the homeless are just a few examples of our service opportunities, but our activity varies each week. I invite all teens to come check us out and bring a friend. I also want to put in a plug for the Get Movin’ youth rally, which is going to be held on Saturday, March 12th. The cost is $20. Financial aid is available and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Permission slips are available at the rectory and are due, with the money, by February 14th.

ASH WEDNESDAY
FEBRUARY 9TH

Masses are at:
6:30 am, 8:30 am, and 6 pm

Auditions
January 30th and 31st
February 6th and 7th
From 7-9 pm in the Church

”Game Show Mania”

Tickets to the annual Dinner Dance/Auction are available for 300 lucky “contestants” at the February 14th Women’s Guild meeting. Dinner! Dancing! Live Auction! Fabulous Prizes. All this and more for only $75 per person or $65 for seniors. Select from the following “celebrity” menu; “Wink Martindale” Prime Rib, “Monty Hall” Salmon with Champagne Sauce, “Bob Barker” Breast of Chicken Chasseur or “Gene Rayburn” Vegetarian Pasta. “Stay tuned” for more information…

The Dinner Dance Committee is putting together a Red and Blue Pages Quick Reference Guide listing local advertisers’ phone numbers. So many generous people continue to sponsor our fundraisers, that the committee would like to produce something that will give back to our faithful supporters and their businesses. For a $25 fee your ad will be listed by category with your business name, address and telephone number. A complimentary copy of the publication will be distributed to all dinner dance attendees on March 12th and additional copies sold to parishioners at a cost to cover publication. If you have a special talent you would like to advertise, or if you have friend or relatives who would like to promote their business, please call the rectory to place an ad.

February 18-20
Meditation Intensive Weekend
Gregory Mayers, C.S.S.R.
Cost $195 with room or $165 Commuter

March 6th, 1-5 p.m.
From the Depth to the Height:
A Lenten Journey Through Meditation, Dance and Music
Carla De Sola and Suzanne Toolan, RSM
Cost $35

SAN DAMIANO RETREAT CENTER
P.O. Box 767, Danville, Ca 94526-0767
(925) 837-9141

February 11-13
Men's Lenten Retreat
Looking for Love in all the Right Places
Gavin Griffith, OFM
$170 with room $140 commuter

Thank you for your generous donation of $2,695.16 to the Black & Indian Home Missions. Also, an additional $ 1,889.00 was collected for the Tsunami Relief Fund.

We will list the names that we have been asked to pray for during the week. We continue to ask each week that parishioners pray for the chronically ill of our parish.

If you have a friend or loved one in need of our parish prayers please call the Rectory at 589-2800.

Also, please remember our Emergency prayer network that prays for specific intentions that require a concerted effort due to their critical nature. To facilitate the network, please call Michele Pipinich at 589-4963. The network people then pray frequently for the next 72 hours. We would appreciate a return call with the outcome so we can praise God for His faithfulness:

Pope John Paul II has named the time from October, 2004, till October, 2005, as the ‘Year of the Eucharist’. He said, “There is a very close relationship between ‘Building the Eucharist’ and proclaiming Christ. Christ ‘The Living Bread which came down from heaven’ is the only one who can appease the hunger of human beings of every time and in every corner of the earth.” All of the faithful are called to integrate the Eucharist more deeply into their lives. The Pope asked that Christians take any opportunity to adore the Blessed Sacrament.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

(President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953)

Though we would probably need to alter the numbers due to the rising costs of labor and materials, we can still appreciate the point the former general and former president is making. Just as in your household budget, there are always trade-offs in financial decision-making: money spent for one item cannot be spent on another. As the war continues, the greatest cost is in American, coalition and Iraqi deaths, not to mention the tens of thousands of innocent adults and children severely wounded. How do we feel about all the money our government is spending on the war? The president is asking for $80,000,000,000 for the troops there and in Afghanistan. No one wants the troops to go without what they need for their physical and emotional well-being and to defend themselves. But we have to ask ourselves: Why do we have no money to improve our schools or to provide healthcare for the 44 million working Americans without it?

We hear Jesus in today’s gospel saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” (Matt. 5.9) Our United States Catholic bishops wrote 20 years ago: “Peacemaking is not an optional commitment. It is a requirement of our faith. We are called to be peacemakers not by some movement of the moment, but by Christ Jesus.” (The Challenge of Peace, par. 333) The tremendous outpouring of compassion and help towards those displaced and injured from the tsunamis shows what the world community is capable of. Might we not be equally single-minded and single-hearted in searching for ways other than war to solve obviously major conflicts? Let us continue to pray for the Iraqi people: for those brave enough to vote, for their protection and that of the candidates, for the miracle of peace there and an end to the violence. We know that God wants peace and life for all his children; let us pray for a change of heart that people may be open to accept what our loving God always offers.

Lent
It’s probably not too early to start thinking about what to “do” for Lent. It is an invitation to a change of heart, so where does my heart need changing? In my attitude towards certain groups of people or one person in particular? In my attitude towards my work or my family or towards life in general? Ask the Holy Spirit to let you know what aspect of your life needs changing and you’ll discover what to do (or not do) this Lent.