September 16, 2005
In This Issue:
Hurricane Katrina
Local Resettlement Plans
Youth Ministry Retreat
St. Robert Bellarmine
Four Windows of Time
Jim McEntee Memorial
Announcements
Weekly Readings
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You, too, go into my vineyard!
Hurricane Katrina: SJV Response
At the first meeting for SJV response to Hurricane Katrina
we agreed to work on four groups: fundraising, resettlement, sister-parish,
and direct support for local people with loved ones in the devastated area.
Individuals who were at that first meeting are working on all four of these
ideas.
Fundraising: One couple who attended the meeting had lived in Louisiana for some time and have a great recipe for Jambalaya. We decided to have a Mardi Gras dinner fundraiser. There will be an auction and a silent auction. All funds will go to rebuilding after Katrina. We'll need lots of help for this but it sounds like it will be fun also. Perhaps you can help out?
Resettlement: Catholic Charities San Jose is the agency that knows the most about resettling people in this area. We are working with them to get some training for SJV parishioners who want to help with resettling families from the devastated area. See the article below for more information on local settlement efforts.
Sister-Parish: The Archdiocese of New Orleans (www.archdiocese-no.org) and the Diocese of Biloxi (www.biloxidiocese.org) both lost their web sites after the disaster but are slowly coming back on line. A neighboring diocese, the Diocese of Lafayette (www.dol-louisiana.org) has lists of parishes that are providing direct service to persons who have been evacuated. We will try to contact some of those parishes in order to find a parish in need. We then will work to support that parish over the next five years or how ever long it takes to rebuild. We will try to connect individuals and groups from our parish with similar individuals and groups in the affected parish. We hope to have school children writing to other school children, parish volunteers connecting with other parish volunteers, and so on. Eventually, we might send a delegation of young people to do clean-up or rebuilding work, or we might host a group from that parish here in San Jose for a break from the hard work of rebuilding. The sister-parish relationship will be a long-term bi-directional sharing.
Direct Support: This group will work to provide opportunities for supporting local people who have family and friends in the devastated area and need to talk about it or to find resources for them. We may be able to gather a local support group.
There is much we can do from here to help. We agreed to meet again on Tuesday, September 20, at 7 PM in the Parish Center. Join us to see where you might contribute.
In the mean time, please pray for all those who are displaced, have lost a loved one and who have died as a result of this heart wrenching disaster. If you have any questions, please contact Bruno Martinez in the Community Ministry – Outreach office at 258-7832 ext. 23 or bmartinez@sjvsj.net.
Various social agencies met with Mayor Ron Gonzales last week to work out plans for resettling Katrina victims.
At this point, the mayor's office does not know IF or WHEN evacuees may come to San Jose. IF they come, the city has a plan in place for the initial reception of the evacuees, including housing (Spartan Village, behind San Jose State University) for 2-3 weeks. However, IF they come, the mayor also says that we should expect at least some of the evacuees to relocate here permanently. As they say, this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.
The American Red Cross is the lead agency for the immediate needs of evacuees who may come to San Jose. Catholic Charities remains committed to helping with their long-term resettlement needs. We will contact you as soon as we receive more information on the evacuation, keeping in mind that if local solutions become available, they will likely opt to remain near their homes.
How you can help:
1) If you would like to volunteer to be deployed into the affected
regions, please contact your local Red Cross and get on a waiting list for training.
2) Please inform any evacuees with whom you have contact that it is critical that all evacuees register with the American Red Cross, as soon as possible, in order to be eligible for F.E.M.A. benefits.
3) Catholic Charities across the country have joined together to launch Operation Home Away from Home to provide housing for evacuees from the devastation.
4) To donate to Catholic Charities USA (Hurricane Relief Fund): Online see: www.CatholicCharitiesUSA.org. Mail Checks To: Catholic Charities USA, 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, PO Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788. Call (800) 919-9338, or contact your local American Red Cross.
5) For donations of clothing, furniture and goods, please contact your local Goodwill Store. They have the storage capacity, and have agreed to be the recipients.
6) Finally, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County has a fund to aid in the direct relief and long-term resettlement needs of evacuees to this area, should they arrive. To donate, please mark checks "Hurricane Relief", and mail to Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. For more information, please contact Victoria Contreras at (408) 325-5129 or vcontreras@ccsj.org.
Junior High Youth Ministry Core Team Retreat
by David Cortese
This past weekend twelve members of the Junior High Youth Ministry Core Team, lead by David Cortese, went on a 3-day/2-night retreat in Big Basin State Park. They stayed in tent cabins, cooked their own meals, bonded and spent time developing team building, small group, leadership, and ministry skills.
In order to prepare for the upcoming year of Junior High Youth Ministry these dedicated young people gave up a precious weekend to learn how to be better disciples of Jesus and leaders of new disciples.
They spent time learning new ice-breaking activities, about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, hiking, and relating all these activities back to their ministry.
Let us all pray that they will be filled by the Grace of God in order to fulfill the challenges and calling to ministry that they will share this year.
For more information about Junior High Youth Ministry, contact David Cortese at (408) 258-7832 ext. 34 or dcortese@sjvsj.net.
St. Robert Bellarmine: Feast September 17
Robert
Bellarmine grew up in a pious family
in the Tuscany area of Italy. His mother was the niece of a cardinal, who
later became Pope Marcellus II. He was a first rate student at the Jesuit
school in his area, and joined the Society of Jesus at the age of 18. He
became a well known professor at the University of Louvain, Belgian, where
he specialized in combating the attacks of Reformers. He devoted his life to
the study of Scripture and Catholic doctrine.
Bellarmine incurred the rath of those in power by showing that the "divine right of kings' theory was untenable. Even after he was made a cardinal, he lived the austere life of the poor.
In 1616, Bellarmine had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired and with whom he corresponded. Bellarmine developed a balanced attitude toward scientific theories that appeared to contradict Scripture, a concern that is still with us today. If a scientific theory is insufficiently proved, it should be advanced only as an hypothesis; but if it is solidly demonstrated, care must be taken to interpret Scripture only in accordance with the proven scientific theory. While Bellarmine lived, Galileo's theory was still unproven, but now we know it to be valid. At the time, Bellarmine was required to condemn Galileo and to accept his submission.
St. Robert Bellarmine was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930, and declared a Doctor of the Universal Church in 1931. He is the patron saint of catechists. Click here for more information about St. Robert Bellarmine.
Join Human Agenda and the National Take Back Your Time Movement
between Labor Day and October 24 to select four windows of time for
yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your civic life, and a
more relaxed and meaningful job. Take Back Your Time!
Silicon Valley is a poster child for an alarming trend in the United States: Long hours of "exempt employees," long hours to "make a fortune," or long hours simply to pay the rent. Let's not fool ourselves. October 24, Take Back Your Time Day, reminds us that:
The nine weeks from October 24 to December 31 remind us that US workers have far less personal time available. In Europe, mandatory vacation and shorter work hours provide workers with more time for self, family, friends, and community.
October 24, 2005 marks the 65th anniversary of the Fair Standards Labor Act which enshrined the 40 hour work week. The 40-hour week? Hah! We need to launch a new campaign for the 40-hour week that will allow us to work on living instead of consuming, or that will allow low-wage workers to live from a 40-hour weekly income.
The US is the only industrialized nation out of 28 that overworks its employees in the name of productivity, economic growth, and consumption. Instead of a better standard of living we need to live better, by taking time to care for ourselves, our families, our friends, and our communities.
The US is the only industrialize nation with no mandatory vacation laws, no sick leave, no paid family leave, and no national health care system. This combined with overwork leads to high levels of obesity, creates illness, stress, and alienation of millions from ourselves, our families, our friends, our communities, and our higher beings.
JOIN Human Agenda
and Take Back Your Time to re-create balanced and meaningful lives. When
elderly are asked how they would have lived their
lives differently, they never respond "I wish I had worked more!"
They lament the lack of time to enjoy themselves, their families, and their
friends; the lack of time spent in solidarity with their communities and
helping others.
Write down four actions that you commit to in the next weeks. Email your FOUR WINDOWS OF TIME pledged actions to the secretary of Human Agenda at hnguyen2003@yahoo.com. When you have completed your four actions, email back your experiences and how many hours you spent on your Four Windows of Time.
Some Ideas:
Personal: Write a letter to an old friend. Share a personal thought or feeling with a loved one. Take off your watch for a weekend. No TV for a week. Call an old friend. Seek out a spiritual event or moment. Catch up on your sleep. Workout slowly and deliberately. Do something personal you can't share publicly.
Family: Visit a new park. Do a jigsaw puzzle together. Tell someone you love them unconditionally. Cook slow food together. Spend time with your pet. Cut out one activity from your child's schedule. Play with your family.
Friends: Tell a joke. Read poetry aloud. Invite an old friend to your house for a meal. Read a book and share it with a friend. Call or write to an old friend.
Community: Spend 1-2 hours in a public library. Photograph the beauty around you. Hang out in a bookstore. Ask an elder about his/her life. Be a Big Sister/Brother. Ask your bookstore to display the Take Back Your Time handbook.
Civic Engagement: Walk a precinct with another. Hold a house party to review ballot measures. Read a book on civic engagement by Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi. Obtain an absentee ballot.
Work: Take a break. Take a full hour for lunch with a co-worker. Reflect on your work-life imbalance. Encourage reduced working hours. Take off on October 24th and do nothing. Support a sustainable wage campaign so low-wage workers can have a life.
Human Agenda
is a vision and practice 501c3 (a non-profit organization) committed to love
and loving relationships using knowledge and social justice to meet our
human needs within balanced lives. With
Vision in Practice,
Human Agenda focuses in 2005 on seven areas within a human needs vision:
sustainable wages, housing, globalization, campaign reform, universal health
care, education reform, and food security. With
Sane & Humane,
Human Agenda works to sustain our humanity and our activism through an ethic
of love, balanced lives, conscious consumption and living, and new
indicators of individual and social success.
For more information, call Richard Hobbs at (408) 460-2999, or click here.
Pastor Tim Kidney welcomed by sharing some of his memories of Jim and how Jim influenced him. A variety of speakers shared stories of Jim and how his life's ministry affected them and their communities. Many of the speakers shared a prayer from their tradition and quoted from their scriptures in remembering Jim. In addition to Fr. Tim, speakers included:
Rev. Gerald Sakamoto of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin
Msgr. Eugene Boyle, retired Roman Catholic priest and activist
Maha El Genaidi of the Islamic Network Group
Debbie Pinck of Congregation Shir Hadash
Richard Roe of the Council of Churches
Jagmohan Singh Sahni of the Sikh Gurdwara of San Jose
Loc Bu, Vietnamese Community
Peter McEntee, son of Jim and Ann McEntee
It was very special to see and hear from all the various communities that Jim had worked with and to share how his life touched so many.
Revelation Choir, from St. John Vianney's Sunday 7 PM liturgy, provided music. The congregation sang Amazing Grace, Let There Be Peace on Earth, and De Colores. Revelation Choir did a wonderful job, especially with the meditation song, Offertory, based on Micah 6:8. Their flutist added much depth to De Colores. Brendan Cunning sang a beautiful rendition of Danny Boy.
A reception followed in the Main Hall. Envelopes were available for donations toward the cost of a public art project to be created for the plaza in front of the County Government Building. The Board of Supervisors had decided earlier to name the plaza, a gathering place for all people, after Jim McEntee.
For more information about Jim McEntee and his legacy visit the website: www.JimMcEnteeLegacy.org
Holy Family Parish 26th Annual Festival: September 16, 17 & 18. Holy Family Parish invites you to come and celebrate its 100th Jubilee with three days of festival fun for the whole family. Enjoy Carnival Rides, Continuous Entertainment, Games, International Food, Beer, Wine, Silent Auction, Bingo, Cherry Bells, Raffles, and KidFest (for kids 7 and under) on Saturday 10:00-3:30 PM. The JOE SHARINO BAND 7-10 PM on Friday. The SAGE BAND 7-10 PM on Saturday. The MUSICIAN’S WAREHOUSE BAND 12:30 to 2:00 PM on Sunday. Admission is FREE. Festival hours are Friday 6-11 PM, Saturday 10 AM-11 PM, and Sunday 12-6 PM. 4848 Pearl Avenue (behind Westfield Oakridge).
Breakfast at the San Jose Family Shelter this Sunday, September 18 . Don't wait for victims of Katrina to show up, needing help. Join other SJV parishioners this Sunday to feed families in need at the San Jose Family Shelter. We meet at 7 AM and are finished by 9 AM. What do you have to do this Sunday that is more important than feeding Our Brother Jesus? Call Ann McEntee at 923-4788 or Manoli Kelly at 258-8878 for details.
Rainbows: A grief support program for children who are hurting because of a divorce or death in the family. We have helped many children to cope with their painful situation. Our 12 week sessions on Monday evenings begins on September 19. Rainbows is held at St. John Vianney School from 7 PM-8 PM. There are four age levels for children, kindergarten to 8th grade. For more information, or to register, call Lily Tenes at 272-1861.
SJV Katrina Response Team: Tuesday, September 20, 7 PM, at the Parish Center. Join us to see where you might contribute.
Unity Nights at Most Holy Trinity
on
September 23
is from 6-10 PM. This event, hosted by Most Holy Trinity Parish Youth Group,
will feature a FREE live concert with positive music geared towards 16-25
year olds. For more information go to www.UnityNights.com.
Pace e Bene: From Violence to Wholeness: A one-day workshop, September 23 or November 12, 9 AM-5 PM at the First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison Street, Oakland. The From Violence to Wholeness process offers individuals and communities a vision and toolbox for making peace in their lives and in the world. For more details, contact Ken Preston-Pile at (510) 268-8765 or kenpreston@paceebene.org.
Jashn-eh Mehregan, "The Ninth Annual Iranian Arts and Cultural
Event,"
is a day trip to Iran where we will enjoy traditional dance performances,
listen to mystical music, admire the fine arts and crafts, meet young
Iranian American entrepreneurs, learn tips about healthy living and taste
the delicious ethnic food of Iran. In this autumn festival, for several
consecutive years, new friendship were formed while old friends reunited.
Bonding is the spirit of this celebration. Everyone from any cultural
background, age or race is welcome to join. Children are particularly
invited. Free admission, free parking and open to public.
Date: Sunday,
September 25
Time: 11 AM-6 PM
Place: Cupertino Community Center, 10185 N. Stelling Rd.,
Cupertino
Contact (408) 381-4268 or payvand95@aol.com.
JustFaith, a process of adult spiritual enrichment centered on Catholic Social Teaching, will start on Monday, September 26, 7 PM in the Parish Center. If you are interested in participating in this process, please call Ellen Turner at 272-9234.
Silicon Valley Young Adults:
Have you been desiring a deeper and more personal relationship with Jesus?
Do you know someone who does? Silicon Valley Young Adults invite you to join
us for the Life in the Spirit Encounter on Tuesday,
September 27,
through Friday,
September 31,
7:00-8:30 PM, Saturday,
October 1,
10 AM-5 PM. Childcare will be provided. This event is FREE to all. Click
here to see a copy of the flyer.
St. Cyprian Conference Center
1133 W. Washington Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-7019
For more information email us at svya@saintcyprian.org
or check out our website at www.saintcyprian.org/youngadults.htm.
St. John Vianney School's Oktoberfest is September 30, 6:30-11:30 PM. $50.00 per person. No one under 21 admitted. Invitations are located in the school lobby, or contact Sue Quinn at 258-3305.
5th Annual SJV Golf Tournament:
Hosted by the SJV Alumni Association on Sunday,
October 9,
at 8:00 AM. Modified Shotgun Start. Los Lagos Golf Course, 2995 Tuers
Road, San Jose, CA 95121. Please join us for a Sunday morning round of golf
& BBQ luncheon. Registration: $100 per golfer. Registration Fee
includes: green fees, cart, range balls and lunch. Luncheon guests: $30 per
person. Proceeds to benefit: SJV School - Sister Joan Marie Scholarship
Fund. For more information contact the SJV School Development Office at
(408) 258-7677 or khienemann@sjvsj.org.
To see the sponsorship form click
here.
Coming Events:
o Holiday Faire, December 2-4, 2005 at SJV School
o Crab Feed, January 28, 2006 at Irmandade do Espirito Santo (IES)
Hall
o Spring Fling, April 28, 2006 at Drying Shed
o SJV Fiesta, May 19-21, 2006 at SJV Courtyard
For more information, contact the SJV School Development Office at (408)
258-7677 or lelston@sjvsj.org.
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This Week:
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sep 18
Next Week:
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sep 25
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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!
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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.
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