August 5, 2005
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O, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
New Monthly Parish Newsletter:
Living
Stewardship With Our Time, Talent, and Treasure
Did you receive the first
monthly newsletter from SJV parish in your mailbox this week?
To complement our weekly electronic newsletter (this one you are reading), the parish now also publishes a monthly newsletter. It is a printed newsletter and is distributed through the mail. We hope, someday soon, to save printing and mailing costs by distributing the monthly newsletter electronically to as many of us as possible.
Those of you who already receive the weekly parish newsletter are also able to receive this new monthly parish newsletter by the same convenient (and low cost) electronic method. To do so, you need access to the internet, and you need an email address where we can send you a brief announcement to present each new issue to you.
If you send us your email address, along with your name and mailing address (where you received the printed monthly newsletter), we will know which name and address to remove from the mailing list, and we will add your email address to the list of those who will receive it electronically. We are diligent about security and privacy, and we reiterate our pledge to keep contact info private. Please send to newsletter@sjvnews.net, or phone Ellen Turner at (408) 272-9234.
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Welcome to the
first monthly parish newsletter. This is a very exciting development in
the parish. It is part of a larger vision for discipleship and
stewardship. Discipleship is our responding to the call of the Lord to
follow Him. Stewardship is the way we put that into action through
our time, talent, and treasure. The monthly newsletter will give
personal stories about members of our parish and how they respond to the
Lord's call, as well as different ministries in the parish.
Thanks to all of you, stewardship is alive and well in this parish. It is a joy to be your pastor. - Rev. Timothy Kidney, Pastor |
For any who did not receive your copy of the first installment of the monthly parish newsletter in the mail, click here to read the July issue in PDF format.
Help SJV Parish have fun while raising funds for our Multipurpose Building. Donate a service or gift to the Silent Auction.
What service can you offer? Tutoring? Organizing closets? Shopping? Computer training? Dancing lessons? Gardening assistance? Artwork? Painting a room?
To see items already offered in past issues of the newsletter, click here. This week we add the following new items for auction:
Tickets to Great America: The Tomasello family is donating tickets to Great America so you can have more fun with your family. These are four tickets, good for adults or children.
Garden Railroad Plans: Ray Turner offers a private tour of his large Garden Railroad and two hours consultation toward creating your own Garden Railroad.
Hard Work: Darby Cunning donates two hours of her time to do yard work or housework.
Free Saturday: Karen Judge will baby-sit up to 3 kids, any age, for one Saturday from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Special needs kids are welcome.
What service can you offer?
To offer a service for our Silent Auction, email newsletter@sjvnews.net or phone Ellen Turner at 272-9234. If we all pitch in, we can make that building a reality while learning and sharing with fellow parishioners.
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The Silent Auction will be held at the Parish Picnic Shindig:
Please bring your favorite dish or food item that corresponds with the first letter of your last name:
Note: Beverages, plates, utensils & napkins will be provided. If you would like to help out, please contact Pat Garcia at 926-3826, Ann McEntee at 923-5788, or Ray & Ellen Turner at 272-9234. |
August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM
the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and within minutes 75,000 people
were dead. Thousands more died in fires that swept through the destroyed
city, and tens of thousands more died of
radiation sickness and cancer caused by the bomb. The bomb was named
"Little Boy."
Three days later, a second bomb, much larger and named "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The epicenter of the second bomb was Nagasaki's Urakami suburb, once the site of Asia's largest Catholic church. The cathedral was completely leveled. The world would never be the same again.
Since that time, we have all lived under the very real threat of total destruction of our planet by ourselves.
How does a follower of Jesus Christ deal with this constant fear?
First of all, we must all recognize that we are intimately connected with every other person, every living thing on earth. Matthew 25 tells us quite clearly that what we do to each other, we do to Jesus. When one side of the war unleashed atomic power to destroy the other, we also destroyed ourselves. We opened a Pandora's Box. The evil unleashed that day is still there, threatening us now in Korea, China, Pakistan, and soon, it could be right in our own neighborhoods in the person of a suicide bomber.
Secondly, we must not teach our children to hate. The answer to the problem is not going to be more violence. We must find a way for every human to see themselves as part of the same family. That means that we, who have so much more than we need, must learn to share more fairly with our sisters and brothers who have less. We must stand in solidarity with the least important, least powerful humans in the world. That person is Jesus, too. And we know we will be judged on how we treat that person.
Thirdly, we must
pray that we never again arrive at a time when humans can be that
destructive.
At the Children's Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, on the anniversary of Little Boy, the crowds of sad-but-hopeful pacifists perform a traditional Buddhist rite, placing ten thousand tiny paper lanterns, each on its own bamboo raft onto the waters of the Ota River. The lanterns light the way for the souls of those killed by the bombs, keeping them company as they flow from this world to the next.
One positive step we can take is to become active and supportive of Pax Christi, the national Catholic Peace Movement, working for a Nuclear Free World. For more information on this Pax Christi movement, visit their news page on the web: www.PaxChristiUSA.org/news_events_more.asp?id=735
Edith Stein, born into a prominent Jewish family
in Poland in 1891, became a Catholic saint in 1998. As a teen, Edith turned
her back on God and religion because she saw people saying that they
believed but acting outside of
their beliefs. Edith then studied philosophy under one of the most important
teachers of the time. She was a brilliant scholar, earning her PhD in 1916.
At the age of 30, Edith read an autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and found herself forever changed. She was baptized a Catholic in 1922 and took a position teaching at a Dominican college for women teachers. She wanted to become a Carmelite nun, but realized that such a move would be too much for her pious Jewish mother to accept. She made vows privately, then began lecturing in various European cities, to women's groups, on the education and role of Catholic women.
The Nazis would not allow her, as a Jew, to teach so she made the life-changing decision to enter the Carmelite convent as Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In the convent, she wrote many books, including Life in a Jewish Family and the Science of the Cross (a study of St. John of the Cross) The Nazis required her to wear the Star of David on her simple habit. When it became too dangerous for anyone of Jewish heritage in Cologne, she fled to Holland. But, when the Dutch bishops spoke up against the Nazis, they rounded up all the Jewish converts to Catholicism and sent them in a crowded boxcar to Poland.
Edith Stein died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Her sister Rosa, also a convert, died with her.
In his homily at the canonization Mass for Edith Stein, Pope John Paul II said: "Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholics and Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: 'Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.' "
For more information on the life of Edith Stein, read this feature article on the web: www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Oct1998/feature2.asp
Attention all New & Continuing College Students: You are invited to attend the 7:00 PM Mass on Sunday, August 14. This Mass will be in your honor.
Parish Picnic Shindig!
Sunday, August 28, St.
John Vianney Rectory Gardens. Potluck and Silent Auction, 2:00 PM to 4:00
PM. If you would like to help out, please contact Pat Garcia at 926-3826,
Ann McEntee at 923-5788, or Ray & Ellen Turner at 272-9234.
High School Camping Trip: SJV High School Youth Ministry will be sponsoring a high school youth Camping Trip to Brannon Island State Recreation Area on August 5-7. The cost is $20 per person plus you will need to bring a tent, sleeping bag, pillow, swimsuit, fishing pole, flashlight, towels, etc. Limited space is available. Leaving Friday, August 5 at noon and returning Sunday, August 7 at 3 PM. The area is hot and windy with good fishing and star gazing. To sign up, please call David Cortese at 258-7832 x34, or email dcortese@sjvsj.net.
Middle School All Night Dance: Attention all Middle School Students - SJV Junior High Youth Ministry is sponsoring an ALL NIGHT DANCE on Friday, August 5 from 7 PM to 7 AM in the Main Hall. The person who dances the longest will win tickets to Great America or Raging Waters! Plus, we will have other activities including a glow in the dark treasure hunt and pie eating contest. Have fun hanging out with your friends and meeting new ones. Permission slips are required and are available on August 5 for your parents to sign as they drop you off. For more information, please contact David Cortese (his contact info is in the paragraph above).
Family Faith Formation
is offered by St. John Vianney Parish. Registration priority is given to our
own parishioners. Click
here to see the latest revision 
of
"Class Schedule & Registration Information" for the upcoming
catechetical year.
* HELP NEEDED! * Family Faith Formation is seeking individuals who are interested in becoming a Catechist or Catechist aide for grades 1-6. Classes are held on Tuesday evenings, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM (grades 3, 4 & 5) or Sunday mornings, 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM (grades 1-6). TRAINING WILL BE PROVIDED. Please contact 258-7832 x18 for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!
St. John Vianney School is still accepting applications for the 2005-06 school year for Kindergarten and First Grade. Applications can be picked up in the school office Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM or on-line at our school website www.sjvsj.org. For more information you can email mwood@sjvsj.org or contact Co-Principal, Martha Wood at (408) 258-7677.
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This Week:
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug 7
Next Week:
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug 14
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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 |
Join Our Mailing List!
Find out what's happening at St. John Vianney Parish by joining our email newsletter subscriber list.
To add (or remove) your email address, send an email request to newsletter@sjvnews.net or phone Ellen Turner at (408) 272-9234. We will use these email addresses for St. John Vianney business only. No addresses will be visible to others.
Visit our web site at: www.sjvnews.net