First Communion Reconciliation Makeup Session

    For parents or guardians of children who will be celebrating First Holy Communion this spring who could not attend the previously scheduled Reconciliation information sessions must attend a makeup session on Saturday February 8th from 10 to 11 am in the parish hall.
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Mary of Nazareth 

Branches Catholic Ministries will be hosting the film Mary of Nazareth at Landmark Cinemas Square One in Mississauga on Saturday, February 8th at 10am. Mary of Nazareth is a new epic motion picture on the remarkable life of Mary, mother of Christ, from her childhood through to the Resurrection of Jesus. The film vividly captures the essence of Marys profound faith and trust in God, as well as her compassion and concern for others and her desire for all to come to know and grow in a deeper relationship with her Son. Purchase tickets for $12 online at www.go2branches.com  Advance Purchase Suggested.       Tickets are not available for purchase at the box office.

Tickets are available to purchase after this weekend’s Sunday Masses


Marriage Sunday February 8-9, 2014

>>click on image to view flyer
Cardinal Collins has designated the weekend of February 8-9, 2014 as Marriage Sunday in the Archdiocese of Toronto. The event provides an opportunity to honour husband and wife while saluting the faithfulness, sacrifice and joy that comes with the marriage covenant. To those preparing for marriage, newlyweds and those that have been companions on the journey for decades, we offer our prayers and best wishes in a special way this weekend. Let us celebrate the tremendous contributions of married couples who continue to strengthen our faith community. For more information and resources on marriage enrichment, visit: www.archtoronto.org/marriage

A special Mass and reception with Cardinal Collins

will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 4 pm at St. Paul’s Basilica (83 Power St., Toronto) to celebrate Marriage Sunday. All couples celebrating a significant milestone anniversary anytime in 2014 (25th, 40th, 50th 60+) along with family and friends are encouraged to attend.

First Holy Communion
For parents of children receiving First Holy Communion this year who did not attend last weeks’ Information Session on Reconciliation,  there is a further one this week on Tuesday, January 21st from 7:30- 8:30 in the parish hall.
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Sacrament of Confirmation
For children who are being confirmed this year, there is an upcoming mandatory meeting for both parents and Confirmandi on either 

Thursday January 23 from 7:30pm-9pm
or
Saturday January 25 from 10am-11:30am.
 Meetings will be held in the parish hall.

The Baptism of Our Lord


  
  Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord bringing to an end the season of Christmas. The Church recalls Our Lord's second manifestation or Epiphany, which occurred on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan. Jesus descended into the river to sanctify its waters and to give them the power to beget children of God. The event takes on the importance of a second creation in which the entire Trinity intervenes.
    In the Eastern Church, this feast is called Theophany because at the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan, God appeared in three persons. The baptism of John was a sort of preparation for the Baptism of Christ. It moved men to sentiments of repentance and induced them to confess their sins. Christ did not need the baptism of John. Although, He appeared in the "substance of our flesh" and was recognized "outwardly like unto ourselves", He was absolutely sinless and impeccable. He conferred upon the water the power of the true Baptism which would remove all the sins of the world: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who takes away the sins of the world".
    Many of the incidents which accompanied Christ's baptism are symbolical of what happens at our Baptism. At Christ's baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him; at our Baptism, the Trinity takes its abode in our soul. At His baptism, Christ was proclaimed the "Beloved Son" of the Father; at our Baptism, we become the adopted sons and daughters of God. At Christ's baptism the heavens were opened; at our Baptism heaven was opened to us. gExcerpted from Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas

THE SACRED LITURGY THIS WEEK


Tuesday January  7,  St. Andre Bessetté, Religious

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    St. André was born in Quebec, and entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross as a Brother. He performed humble tasks for over forty years and entrusted all of the poor and sick who flocked to his cell to the care of St. Joseph. During his life he was able to have a chapel built to the spouse of the Virgin Mary. After his death, the shrine grew into the great basilica known as St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal.

    Sickness and weakness dogged André from birth. He was the eighth of 12 children born to a French Canadian couple near Montreal. Adopted at 12, when both parents had died, he became a farmhand. Various trades followed: shoemaker, baker, blacksmith—all failures. He was a factory worker in the United States during the boom times of the Civil War.

    At 25, he applied for entrance into the Congregation of the Holy Cross. After a year’s novitiate, he was not admitted because of his weak health. But with an extension and the urging of Bishop Bourget he was finally received. He was given the humble job of doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Montreal, with additional duties as sacristan, laundry worker and messenger.
  
    Brother André expressed a saint’s faith by a lifelong devotion to St. Joseph, to whom he had been devoted since childhood.

   When he heard someone was ill, he visited to bring cheer and to pray with the sick person. He would rub the sick person lightly with oil taken from a lamp burning in the college chapel. Word of healing powers began to spread.
   
    When an epidemic broke out at a nearby college, André volunteered to nurse. Not one person died. The trickle of sick people to his door became a flood. His superiors were uneasy; diocesan authorities were suspicious; doctors called him a quack. “I do not cure,” he said again and again. “St. Joseph cures.” In the end he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year.

    Through his many prayers and devotions, land was bought and a chapel built on Mount Royal.  By 1931 there were gleaming walls, but money ran out. “Put a statue of St. Joseph in the middle. If he wants a roof over his head, he’ll get it.” The magnificent Oratory on Mount Royal took 50 years to build. The sickly boy who could not hold a job died at 92.

    He is buried at the Oratory. He was beatified in 1982 and canonized in 2010. At his canonization in October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said that St. Andre "lived the beatitude of the pure of heart."