A Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Very Important SJV Town Hall Meeting
by Ellen Turner

On Saturday, May 6, SJV Parish will have an important Town Hall Meeting. We will learn about the new process the Diocese is using to support the parish through the change in pastor. A transition team is being formed of SJV parishioners. One of the priorities of the Diocese of San Jose is Lay Leadership and responsibility. This new transition team approach is an example of bringing the laity into the process of pastor assignments. This Saturday's Town Hall meeting is an important step in SJV exercising lay leadership and responsibility, and we need as many parishioners as possible to attend and participate.

Because of the change in the agenda, caused by the news that Pastor Tim Kidney is leaving, and the transition process, the meeting time has been expanded to two hours, from 10 AM to Noon, in the Main Hall. Also, since we will be discussing our hopes and dreams for St. John Vianney and the new pastor, Fr. Tim will not be attending the meeting.

Our St. John Vianney Parish Pastoral Council had a hastily called meeting last week with Sr. Pat Mitchell, whose job it is to train us and lead us through the process of making the transition to our new pastor. A Transition Team, composed of 8-12 parishioners is being formed. The members of this team will be active for the remainder of the calendar year, assisting Fr. Tim in tying up loose ends before he leaves, then working with the new pastor on a regular basis until the end of the year, making certain that the transition is as smooth as possible. This is a serious responsibility the team members are taking for the good of our parish.

At this Town Hall meeting we will also elect two new members of the Parish Pastoral Council. Several candidates have been nominated to replace two outgoing members. Nominations from the floor are also possible as long as the nominated person agrees to serve. Those elected at this meeting will serve a full three year term, starting on September 1.

The Pastoral Council will also report on progress thus far for the priorities parishioners have set for SJV parish.

Agenda:

• Welcome at 10:00 AM
• Review of parish objectives and progress made toward those objectives
• Review of objectives set by Deanery (immigration, death penalty, education)
• Newest objective of spiritual/parish renewal & survey
• Election of 2 new Parish Council members for 3 year term
• Tim Lilienthal from PACT report on Mayoral candidate forum (while votes are counted)
• Announce new Council members
• Status on selection of new pastor ­ transition team
• Process to get input from parish members regarding new pastor
• End at noon

Teams Building Our Community
SJV's Annual 3-day Fiesta
by Leticia Scaringe

Saint John Vianney Celebrates Youth Confirmation
by Bruno Martinez

On Friday evening, April 21, Bishop Patrick J. McGrath came to seal forty-five youth into their faith. In this busy diocesan jubilee year, our bishop is only celebrating ten parish Confirmations, and our parish was blessed to be one of them. Among the forty-five, four also celebrated their First Eucharist.

These students each spent six month preparing by attending two Confirmation classes and two youth ministry sessions a month. They also each gave an average of 30 plus hours of community service, ranging from visiting homeless shelters to participating in the Youth Mass, to helping with blood drives. They researched and chose saint names as their Confirmation names. They all went on a beautiful and emotional Confirmation retreat, and 25 went to the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress Youth Day.

These youth have truly begun to live full, active, and conscious lives of discipleship. They have shared thoughts, feeling, pain, hope, joy, tears and love with one another. They are not the future of the Church, they are here now. They are the Church of today. Please pray for these truly amazing youth as they enter into lives of faithful discipleship to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Editor's note: Prints/Packages/Enlargements are available from www.LifeTouchEvents.com. You are invited to contact David Cortese, Mary Ann Andrade, or Linda Rokita for the guest password so you may preview the hundreds of SJV photos online. These include Confirmation and the recent First Communion celebrations.

SJV Marriage Community's First Coffee & Dessert: Success
by Richard Wildanger

Marriage takes commitment, selflessness and giving. A good marriage is marked by that and thereby honors God. That's the message a group of enthusiastic couples from St. John Vianney heard the evening of Thursday, April 27. Lead by Richard and Veronica Wildanger, the first meeting brought together a diverse range of couples who share a desire to have rich, loving and holy marriages. Click here to see photos.

Richard and Veronica shared a new perspective on the purpose of marriage they'd found in a recent book by Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage. In it, he asks what if God created marriage not so much to make us happy but to make us holy? If we are imperfect creatures in an imperfect world, what better place to live out Christ's (difficult) command to love others as ourselves than in the intensity and intimacy of a marriage? Being married presents so many opportunities to honor God by loving selflessly - in good times and in bad - and thereby growing in our relationship to God. Therefore marriage is not so much about the relationship between you and your spouse but about your relationship with God. Loving others can be relatively easy when the other person is "nice" all the time and not really intimate. But when they are close up and very involved with us - like a spouse - then that is not easy all the time. But when we dedicate ourselves to loving our spouse and serving them - and it's powerful when they commit to doing likewise - we develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for our spouse, are able to have profound joy together, and most importantly, have a Sacred Marriage - a place where God is made known to others and we discover the depths of each other in love.

The evening had lots of good conversation and reflection in which the husbands, not just the wives, participated. At the end we all enjoyed coffee and desert. All couples are welcome to our next meeting on Thursday, May 25, for a presentation and discussion of Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages, which has terrific ideas on how to determine what you can do to let your spouse know they are loved in the ways that they can really feel loved.

For more information about St. John Vianney's Marriage Community or to be added to the announcement list contact Richard & Veronica Wildanger at rpwildanger@earthlink.net or 408-937-1483.

Carry the Vision Peace Conference
by Ray Turner

Last Saturday I attended Carry the Vision, Building a Culture of Peace in Our Families, Our Community, and Our World at Evergreen College. This conference is part of an international educational campaign launched at the United Nations in 1998, called A Season for Nonviolence. Guest speakers included: Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi; Dr. Barbara Fields who periodically meets with the Dalai Lama; Jane Roberts, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Judge LaDoris Cordell (photo at right) who gave a tribute to Coretta Scott King, and many others. Arun Gandhi talked about his grandfather and how his grandfather had taught him important lessons on life and nonviolence.

There were workshops focusing on peace in family, community, and the world, as well as meditation and a special workshop for youth. In the one I attended, the panelists talked about successes they'd had creating peace and fostering nonviolence in their own way.

The San Jose Sikh community generously provided lunch (Langar). After lunch we had discussions in small groups culminating in us each making a specific commitment for fostering peace and non-violence in our family, community, or world. One creative aspect of the conference was that a mural was created in real time as the presenters spoke capturing their ideas in words and graphics.

This conference is an annual event in San Jose.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King, jr.

Jim McEntee Legacy Art Project
by Ellen Turner

On Sunday, April 30, I attended the Jim McEntee Legacy Art Project focus group at the Dr. Cruz/Alum Rock Library. We met with the artist who has been selected to create an art project honoring Jim at the Santa Clara County Office plaza at 70 W. Hedding. The artist, Carlos Perez, actually knew Jim, which is one of the reasons the Legacy Committee selected him to coordinate the project. Jim presided at the wedding of Carlos and his wife Analisa, who also works with him on art projects.

There were almost twenty people who came to share their memories of Jim and to help design the art that will be his visible memorial. Some had been classmates of Jim's in seminary, some knew him from his days working with Cesar Chavez and others in the Morgan Hill area, some were from St. John Vianney Parish.

We all had a chance to introduce ourselves and share how we knew Jim. There were many great stories told. Then we spent some time looking at different themes of Jim's life, such as Social Justice, Diversity, Religion/Spirituality, Vision. A lot of great ideas came up. Carlos will hold one more focus group (this was the third one) in the Morgan Hill area where Jim worked as a priest with migrant families, then he will take all the ideas and come up with a design to present to the Legacy Committee.

If you have ideas for artwork, but were unable to attend, contact Ann McEntee at 923-5788 and she will listen to your thoughts or tell you where and when the last focus group will be held, so you can participate.

Announcements

PARISH AND DEANERY:

Family Faith (CCD) 2006-2007 Pre-Registration will be held after every Mass on Sunday, May 7, at the Parish Office Center, for St. John Vianney parishioners only. All children/youth must be registered by their parent or legal guardian. Please bring baptismal certificates and 50% of the registration fees to register your children and youth. All parents or legal guardians who desire to register their children or youth for baptism, first communion or confirmation, must attend a brief (5 min.) orientation meeting prior to registration. For more information, click here. Thank you!

Help Needed! Family Faith is seeking individuals (minimum age 16 yrs) who are interested in becoming a Catechist or Catechist aide for grades 1-6. TRAINING WILL BE PROVIDED. Please contact 258-7832 x 24 for more information. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

St. John Vianney Fiesta 2006 - "Teams Building Our Community", Friday, May 19, 5-11 PM, Saturday, May 20, 11 AM - 11 PM, and Sunday, May 21, 11 AM - 9 PM. Admission is Free! A must for the entire family! Authentic food, carnival rides, variety of entertainment (popular bay area bands and more!) fun games and booths. Raffle tickets available (win awesome prizes!!) AND.....THE Famous Sunday Chicken BBQ, Tickets: Adult $8, Children (12 and under) $5. 12 Noon to 6 PM or until the food runs out. Click here for more information.

PACT Mayoral Forum is Sunday, May 21, 2:45 PM at the Parkside Hall, 180 Park Ave. SJV LOC has committed to getting 200 parishioners to attend this important opportunity to tell the mayoral candidates what is important to our city. Join in and let your voices be heard. For more information, contact PACT at (408) 998-8001 or visit their web site at www.pactsj.org.

COMMUNITY AT LARGE:

Silicon Valley Open Studios Celebrates Twentieth Anniversary with three weekends in May. Local artists (including Ray and Ellen Turner) open their studios from 11 AM to 5 PM to show and sell their most recent artwork. You can actually see where and how your favorite artists work, or meet some new artists to broaden your scope.

Silicon Valley Open Studios 2006 Tour Hours: 11 AM to 5 PM

May 6 & 7 features North Santa Clara County,(Cupertino, Los Altos, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Saratoga, Stanford, Sunnyvale)

May 13 & 14 (Mother's Day weekend) features South Santa Clara County, & neighboring towns along Highway 17 (Campbell, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, San Jose, San Martin, Santa Clara, Scotts Valley, etc.)

May 20-21 features San Mateo County & Coast (Belmont, Burlingame, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Montara, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Mateo, etc.)

Catalogs, including maps, are available at some locations. (Ellen Turner has a dozen to give to first comers. email her at ellenjturner@earthlink.net or phone 272-9234 to reserve a catalog.) or you can find full information at the web site: www.svos.org

You are Invited to a Memorable Evening at Holy Family School watching the 8th grade performance of "The Mouse Trap" by Agatha Christie on May 14 or 15 at 7 PM. Admittance is one can of food per person for people in need. 4850 Pearl Ave., San Jose, 978-1378.

Spring Cleaning? Save Your Old Computers, monitors, printers, keyboards, mice, fax machines, TVs, DVD/VCR players, stereo components, microwaves, radios, phones, and speakers to bring to Holy Family School on Friday, May 19, from noon to 5 PM, and Saturday, May 20, from 9 AM to 4 PM. Questions? Contact Carolyn Canete at carolyn.canete@hfsj.org or 978-1378.

May Interfaith Opportunities: There are a variety of interfaith opportunities this month. Check them out at: www.interfaithspace.org/IS-events.htm

Weekly Readings

This Week: 4th Sunday of Easter: May 7   Acts 4:8-12   1 John 3:1-2   John 10:11-18 Next Week: 5th Sunday of Easter: May 14   Acts 9:26-31   1 John 3:18-24   John 15:1-8

Praying the Scriptures:   Visit this web site for ideas   on praying the Scriptures:   www.liturgy.slu.edu Take a Moment to Pray:   Visit this web site for ideas   on the Ignatius way to pray:   www.sacredspace.ie

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