Bulletin: The Presentation of the Lord

Posted 2025-01-31 by @saintmichaelyyc

 

What you need to know from this weekend’s bulletin:

 

Our Silence with God

February 2, 2025

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord celebrates the formal dedication or consecration of the Child Jesus to the work of God.  It reminds us of our own dedication or consecration of our lives to God.  This acknowledgment of God’s jurisdiction over our lives mandates us to make symbolic offerings of our lives, like tithing or actual response to God’s call, not only to the priestly or religious life, but also to the call of lay ministry, including family life. 
 
Today is also the World Day for Consecrated Life.  Consecrated persons, including priests and religious, dedicate their lives to God and spend periodic silence with God.  In a letter on consecrated life, Pope Benedict XVI states that consecrated persons continue the work of evangelization, even on the frontlines of the faith, with generosity and often with the sacrifice of their lives, even to the point of martyrdom. 
 
Our celebration today highlights the importance of silence, prayer, and contemplation in our Christian life.  Our Sunday worship reminds us of our need to be silent and listen to God.  The Holy Mass should literally silence us and make us more aware of His presence in our lives.  During Mass, there are moments of silence to be observed: during the penitential rite, the opening prayer, after the first and second readings, after the homily, and after communion.  We also spend some silence before and after the celebration. 
 
St. Thomas Aquinas refers to this kind of silence when he defines the evangelical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as vacare Deo, which is translated in English as “vacancy for God”.  To provide a vacancy for God is to let our soul give room for God to influence our lifestyle, our schedules, our attitudes, our decisions, and our life.  The vacancy we create for God provides us with the opportunity to lift our soul to His presence. 
 
Our silence with God can give us a sense of direction and courage.  Let us pray to God to help us commit ourselves to spend more and more periodic silence or create a regular vacancy for Him in our respective lives: “Heavenly Father, create in us an emptiness for You in our rather busy and crowded life. Create a silence for You in our noisy schedules. Create a vacancy for You in our life that is so full of ourselves. We ask this through Christ who prayed to You for our unity with You and with one another.  Amen.”

fredmund@saintmichael.ca

 
 
Healing Lines
 
Victims of violence and abuse are often lost in the darkness of terror and despair. The light of our caring and good deeds toward them can help them find strength to see their way out of this. Be aware of what your fellow parishioners, colleagues, and friends might be going through and let your light shine.
 
 

Announcements:

 

Please see this weekend’s bulletins for all announcements:

Download St. Michael bulletin

Download Diocesan bulletin (Condensed)

Download Diocesan bulletin (Full Length)

 

2024 Tax Receipts

The 2024 tax receipts will be available for pick up from February 7 until February 16, 2025. They will be arranged alphabetically on a table in front of the main washrooms. After that date, the remaining tax receipts will be mailed.

 

Art Walk 2025

We invite artists and photographers from beginners to professionals to register to showcase their works at the upcoming Art Walk 2025 on March 8 & 9, 2025. The cut off date to register is February 23, 2025. For more information, go on line to www.saintmichael.ca/events or pick up a form in the Narthex after Mass.  

 

Potluck Sunday

The next Potluck Sunday for St. Michael Community will be on February 2, 2025 at 6:00pm. This is a free event. Please bring a main dish, bread, salad, pickles, vegetable tray, or dessert to share with others. Please bring your food ready to serve. Come celebrate our community! Meet and mix with others to build it up! Upcoming Potlucks: March 2, April 6, May 4, and June 1.

 

Pastoral Council

Pastoral Council wishes all parishioners a Happy New Year! We continued our work at our first meeting of the year on Tuesday, January 28. 

Highlights of our meeting: 

* The Eucharistic Adoration Ministry hopes to expand Eucharistic Adoration at Saint Michael.        

* The Parish Renewal Team is looking forward to sharing highlights of the renewal survey. 

* Watch for a “Tap to Give” machine soon to be installed in the Narthex. 

Meeting minutes from January 28 will be available on the website after our next meeting on February 25, 2025. If you would like to attend one of our meetings as an observer, or if you have any questions or concerns, please reach us at 403-249 0423. To read the minutes from our meeting in November, or any past meeting, please go to:  http://saintmichael.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SMCC-Pastoral-Council-Minutes-of-Meeting-November-26-2024-Bulletin.pdf

 

Pilgrimage to Rome 2025

An Information Night will be held on Tuesday, February 4, 7pm (after the 6pm Mass) at St Michael’s Room.       Fr. Edmund is leading a holy pilgrimage to Rome on November 19-27 this coming Holy Year 2025!  Please check it out online at https://gateway.gocollette.com/link/1241218. For more details, contact Fr. Edmund at efvargas@shaw.ca or (403) 874-2015.

 

Week-at-a-Glance (February 2-8, 2025):

 

Sunday:

–  Children’s Liturgy Guardian Angel Room, Session A: 8:30am and Session B: 10:30am

–  Coffee Connection: After 9am and 11am Mass 

–  Potluck Sunday & Nametag Sunday 6pm-8pm

 

Monday:

–  Bible Study: St. Nicholas Room, 7:00-9:00pm

 

Tuesday:

–  Rosary Group: Day Chapel, 6:30pm

–  Grief Share Program: Rooms 143 & 144, 7:00pm

–  Finance Council Meeting: Boardroom, 5:45pm

–  Pilgrimage to Rome 2025 Info Night: St. Michael’s Room, 6:30pm

–  RCIA: St. Nicholas Room, 7:00-9:00pm

 

Wednesday:

–  Men’s Ministry: Theatre, 6:00-7:30am

–  Coffee Connection: 9:30am

–  Women’s Ministry: St. Nicholas Room, 9:30am-12:00pm

 

Thursday:

–  Knitting Ministry: Library, 10:00am-12:00pm 

 

Friday:

–  No events.

 

Saturday:

–  Face to Face Youth Night (Gr. 6-8), 6:30-8:30pm

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