Pastor’s Desk

As we begin the Third Week of Advent, we anticipate Christmas, and so we ask Christ to grant us His grace that we might be prepared for welcoming His Birth. Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, marks a traditional turning point in this period of preparation, and we see it visually in the Advent wreath. Not only do we light more candles than we leave unlit for the first time in Advent—thus providing more light, symbolizing the light of Christ—but if our Advent wreath has a rose or pink candle, that’s the one that we light this week. The purple candles of the first two weeks (and of the fourth week) are symbols of penance, but the rose candle is a symbol of our coming joy. 

3RD WEEK PRAYER3RD PRAYER: : (Light 2 purple candles and 1 pink) 

Incline Thine ear to our prayers, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and make bright the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation. Who lives and reigns, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy 

If the First Week of Advent serves as a call to repentance, to “cease doing evil, and to learn to do good,” then the Second
Week of Advent reminds us that living an upright life alone is not enough. We must submit ourselves in humility to the will of God.

The Lord calls His children — the inhabitants of Jerusalem — to return to him. Freed from sin, they must nevertheless mourn their past sins, but because of their spiritual pride (one of the seven deadly sins), they refuse. Instead, while they should be preparing their souls for the coming of their Savior, they celebrate, and God vows to humble them.

2ND WEEK PRAYER: (Light 2 purple candles)
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son, that through His coming we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds. Who lives and reigns, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

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ADVENT PENITENTIAL SCHEDULE:
St. Joseph’s, Langley Thursday, Dec. 13th 7:00 pm
St. Ann’s, Abbotsford Monday, Dec. 17th 7:00 pm
St. Nicholas, Langley Tuesday, Dec. 18th 7:00 pm
St. James, Abbotsford Tuesday, Dec. 18th 8:00 pm
St. Joseph’s, Mission Wed., Dec. 19th 7:00 pm
Sts. Joachim & Ann, Aldergrove Wed., Dec. 19th 7:00 pm
St. Mary’s, Chilliwack Thursday, Dec. 20th 7:00 pm
Our Lady of Good Hope Sat., Dec. 22nd 9:30 am
St. Anthony’s , Agassiz Sun., Dec. 23rd 7:00 pm

CHRISTMAS MASS SCHEDULE:
Monday, Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve: 5:00pm, 7:00pm, 9:00pm (Español), Midnight
Tuesday, Dec. 25th: 9:00am, 11:00am, 1:00pm (Español)
Wednesday, Dec. 26th, St. Stephen: 9:00 am

Time flies! 131 years have passed since the Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini founded our Congregation to respond to the appeal of thousands of migrants. He saw the need to accompany them and support them in their quest for a dignified life. Last month we celebrated the XV General Chapter in Italy – Rome in renewing our vocation and mission to promote, to encounter, to dialogue and to proclaim among the migrants. 

In his address to the Holy Father on the occasion of the general chapter, our Superior General has recalled that our charism is “to journey with all migrants, refugees and seafarers and at the same time to journey with the local Churches, called to welcome, promote, protect and integrate them”. 

Our founder used to say that the society is flying, we cannot stay static, and we have to be dynamic. The Scalabrinian’s local community of Vancouver saw the need to move on in the Archdiocese to be closer to the neediest migrants of the local Church. Indeed, the idea became reality! It was in conformity with the XIV (CG XIV) General Chapter, focusing on the criteria of significance, exemplarity and specificity to make this move. And, the purpose in taking St. Ann’s Parish was to be closer to the Seasonal Farm workers whom we have been ministering to in the Archdiocese for many years now and of course to serve the local Parish. 

So, this XV General chapter seems to challenge us more and more when the Holy Father, Pope Francis in his written document handed to the Capitulars says: “The chapter represents a privileged moment of grace for your religious Family, called to adopt this dual approach of the Divine Teacher toward those who are entrusted to your pastoral care: to announce the word and to walk with them. It is necessary to constantly find new ways of evangelization and proximity, in view of implementing with dynamic fidelity your charism of service to the migrants.” 

Looking in a concrete way, our parish community is trying their best to journey with the Farm workers close by in so many different ways; in welcoming Refugee Families through the Refugee Sponsorship Program and welcoming many family migrants from different places on the world. Mindful of these advices from these two last General Chapters and the Holy Father, Pope Francis’ words; as a Scalabrinian parish community we feel responsible to announce the word to the migrants and walk with them. They come here looking for a better life. In other words, they come here to work. Indeed, they are working hard. Our mission is to continue walking with them, and learning together with them.

Fr. Rosemond 

 BLESSED JOHN SCALABRINI AND DEVOTIONS TO THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT—Frequent and daily Communion 

The extract speaks of frequent – indeed, daily – communion, with an openness that foreshadows Pius IX (to whom Scalabrini sent the acts of the Eucharistic synod). Communion is not a prize, but a necessity, and in order to have access to it, it is enough to be in the grace of God, without demanding an “extraordinary purity of mind.” 

Eucharistic devotion requires that in each parish a considerable number of people should take communion several times a month; others several times a week; and others every day. Where this frequency is not found, even the most essential part of Christianity gradually languishes and fades because it lacks life. 

Communion is the spring from which the soul draws the water that wells up to eternal life; it is the place where its wounds are healed; it is, in a word, the principle and end of that union with God raised to the highest power and brought to that highest degree of perfection that can be hoped for in the present order. If the Word of God was united personally with human nature in the incarnation, it is united even more so to our personality in communion. In this way, he divinizes our essence, Christianizing, so to speak, our individual being; and his union with us has as its emblem the same one that transforms food into the substance of the body that eats it. So those who take communion, as a holy doctor wrote, have Jesus in their minds, hearts, breasts, eyes and tongue. This Savior corrects, purifies and vivifies everything. He loves in the heart, understands in the mind, imparts strength in the breast, sees in the eyes, speaks by means of the tongue, and moves every other power. He works all things in all people, and they no longer live in themselves, but is the Word of God who lives in them, setting nobler and higher aims and purer and more perfect motives for their actions. 

As you can see, my loved ones, there is nothing beyond this union but heaven. So when the divine substance is conjoined with ours, if God were to transform our understanding into his and our will into his love in the same proportion, then we would see him clearly and love him with the love of the blessed. Now, what else is this if not eternal life? 

Take communion, I shall now say to all of you, my very dearest children, take communion often, and you will find all you need. If you lack help, Jesus is strength; if you fear death, he is life; if you desire heaven, he is the way that leads there; if you flee the shadows, he is light; if you seek your food, he is the living bread; so taste how sweet is the Lord. However, so far as you are able, let your life be such as to be worthy of receiving the holy Eucharist each day. Come to Jesus with purity of mind, heart and body, and with the firm intention of never offending him again. Urge yourselves to the liveliest acts of faith, humility, hope and love before receiving him in your breast, and, after receiving him, stay with him for a long time, thanking him for every good thing. Then I am sure that you will always leave the Eucharistic table better, and more disposed and ready to walk to the eternal pastures in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd. 

Continued

III. BISHOP OF PIACENZA – Continued

Continued

III. BISHOP OF PIACENZA
1. The Pastor
“The spirit, the character, the sole ambition of the bishop lies in sacrificing himself in every way to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ in people’s souls, risking, if necessary, his own life for the salvation of his beloved flock, placing himself, so to speak, on his knees before all the people in order to beseech the favor of their permission to do them good. He uses everything – his whole authority, skill, health, strength – for this noblest of purposes” (Scalabrini).
In his twenty-nine years of ministry as bishop of the Piacenza Diocese, he showed above all his gifts as a pastor of souls, “thirsting” to communicate the life of the Good Shepherd to them. He always walked before his sheep, leading them to the pastures of an “abundant” Christian life, through effective, timely and incisive action of government to improve the structure of pastoral work, taking St. Charles Borromeo as his model.

2. The Pastor of the Clergy
His first concern was for the clergy, to whom he addressed his third pastoral letter (August 1876), reminding them of the need for the Spiritual Exercises, which he saw (and here we find one of his typical features) not only as a time of spiritual experience, but also, and above all, as a time to reexamine and plan one’s life.
He instilled new discipline and introduced a new curriculum in his three seminaries, anticipating by three years Leo XIII’s Thomistic reform. He also started courses in Gregorian chant and instituted its practice, anticipating in this case Pius X’s reform by many years.

He worked for harmony among the clergy in an age of polarization not only in the political sphere (between the “transigent” and “intransigent” groups), but also in the philosophical sphere (between Rosminians and Thomists).
His relations with his clergy were marked by concern, respect, justice and fatherliness, and he was repaid with zeal, obedience and filial love – to the extent that for a long time after his death he was still “the bishop” for the clergy of Piacenza.
As was said, he actively supported the transigent party, convinced that the temporal power of the Pope (the Papal States), had seen its day, and that the Church must become – with a minimum of territorial sovereignty (i.e. the Vatican) to guarantee its spiritual independence – an evangelical power in the service of the highest good, which is the salvation of souls. In other words, he wanted to reconcile the two contrasting aspirations which were such a “torment to many consciences” in contemporary Italy – those of religion and country.

Continued

II. Biographical Information
Born at Fino Mornasco near Como on July 8 1839, the third of eight children, he attended the public high school in Como, where he showed a fine intelligence, but above all a constancy in hard work – qualities also seen when, after junior high school, he entered the minor seminary and, in due course, the major seminary. After being ordained to the priesthood in 1863 at the age of twenty-four, he expressed a desire to become a missionary with PIME, but his bishop decided to send him instead to the minor seminary as teacher and vice-rector, and later as rector. “Your Indies are in Italy,” he told him.
Here he brought a breath of fresh air in terms of method and content in the teaching of history and Greek, opening it up to a more modern approach. He also showed the compassion and love for those in need when he distinguished himself in the care of the victims of cholera which struck the region. In the political sphere, he showed a certain tendency toward the “transigent” attitude –
which sought conciliation between Italy and the Vatican. Since this tendency cooled his relations with the old guard of “intransigent” professors – who wanted the Pope to regain possession of the Papal States – in 1870 the bishop appointed him parish priest of St. Bartholomew’s on the industrial outskirts of Como, in order to spare him more serious problems.

His new post gave him a chance to bear the first fruits of that pastoral activity that would grow into a personal trademark: a zeal for souls, which places intelligence at the service of good. And thus, we come across his Small Catechism for Nursery Schools (1875), various social initiatives, including those for textile workers and the deaf and dumb, a mutual assistance society to help the unemployed and the handicapped, and the first oratory for men in Como.
He also kept in touch with issues and events outside his parish resulting, among others, in the eleven talks on the First Vatican Council (appreciated also by St. John Bosco). These were printed and reached as far as Rome, contributing to his appointment as Bishop of Piacenza in 1876 when he was only thirty-six.