Pray the Pope's Intention - July 2021

Pope's July 2021 Prayer Intention: We pray that, in social, economic and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship.

Pope Francis: The Bible says that whoever finds a friend has found a treasure. I would like to invite everyone to go beyond their groups of friends and build social friendship, which is so necessary for living together well.

We especially need to have a renewed encounter with the most impoverished and vulnerable, those on the peripheries. And we need to distance ourselves from populisms that exploit the anguish of the people without providing solutions, proposing a mystique that solves nothing. We must flee from social enmity which only destroys, and leave “polarization” behind. And this isn’t always easy, especially today when part of our politics, society and media are bent on creating enemies so as to defeat them in a game of power.

Dialogue is the path to seeing reality in a new way, so we can live with passion the challenges we face in constructing the common good. Let us pray that, in social, economic, and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship, men and women who always hold out a helping hand, and may no spaces of enmity and war remain.

The Statement on Commitment & Contribution to Reconciliation and Healing

2021 World Day of the Poor

The Fifth World Day of the Poor will be observed on 14 November 2021. In the message, entitled “The poor you will always have with you” (Mk 14:7), Pope Francis states: “The poor, always and everywhere, evangelize us, because they enable us to discover in new ways the true face of the Father. ‘They have much to teach us. Besides participating in the sensus fidei, they know the suffering Christ through their own sufferings. It is necessary that we all let ourselves be evangelized by them.
The new evangelization is an invitation to recognize the salvific power of their lives and to place them at the centre of the Church’s journey. We are called to discover Christ in them, to lend them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them. Our commitment does not consist exclusively of activities or programmes of promotion and assistance; what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism, but above all an attentiveness that considers the other in a certain sense as one with ourselves. This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 198-199).”
Pope Francis established the World Day of Poor following the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in November 2016.

Ride for Refuge #nobikesrequired

Elizabeth House will again be participating as a partner charity in the Ride for Refuge ending on October 2, 2021. Our goal is to support the great work that Elizabeth House accomplishes, in offering young pregnant women and young women with babies a safe and loving home, while empowering their journey to independent living. This year our ambition is larger and with your help we hope to reach our lofty goal! 
#NOBIKESREQUIRED to participate at 2021 Ride for Refuge! Register yourself, gather your friends, and select a fundraising activity you love. Do whatever you can, wherever you can, and sky is the limit. Of course you can still do the 5km,10km cycling, or the 5 km walks, but you don’t have to! 
​Want some ideas? Here’s some fundraising ideas you can organize instead: litter pickup day, lose 5-10 pounds for Elizabeth House, 10k steps for a week, hike Kilimanjaro virtually, anniversary celebration ($__ for every year you’ve been married?), cooking class, knit for Refuge, board game tournament, shave your beard/head, paint and offer 2 ballots to win it for a $50 donation, more ideas at: rideforrefuge.org/freestyle 
SO WHAT’S NEXT? 
  1. Be a team captain and register a team from your parish/ministry or yourself at rideforrefuge.org
  2. Pick “Elizabeth House” as the charity 
  3. Get started! Pick the fundraising activities, and recruit team members. You can pick a fundraising activity for the whole team, or encourage members to run their own fundraising activities #freestyle. Need more ideas for fundraising activity? Visit:  https://rideforrefuge.org/freestyle
    • Team members can fundraise their own #freestyle activity, or join the team activity
    • Those who just want to donate can do so online. 
    • Each participant that raise over $150 get a free tee-shirt and for youths under 17 they only need to raise $75. 
    • All activities need to be complete by Oct. 2, 2021
    • Donations can be made online or by way of pledge sheets | Download Pledge Sheets
This fall should mark the reopening of our parish communities.  What better way to celebrate than with an activity that will bring us all together with a common goal of raising awareness and funds for Elizabeth House! 
 If you have any questions or need ideas on how to fundraise or use the Ride for Refuge website, please contact Real Phaneuf, our 2021 Ride for Refuge Coordinator at Real.phaneuf@shaw.ca  – and he’ll be happy to assist you!

Year Amoris Laetitia Family

Through a series of 10 videos, beginning with the chapters of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Holy Father, with the help of several families, invites us to journey together to rediscover the family as a gift, despite every problem, obstacle and challenge that families have to face today.
 In the first video “Walking Together” Pope Francis and a family share about the beauty of being a family and how each person is called to lovingly care for the life of the family.  Never a problem, families are always a gift and, in terms of the future, they are an opportunity. Each video is accompanied by a guide that can be used either by families or by groups within the parish. The objective is to nurture reflection, dialogue and pastoral practice and, at the same time, to provide encouragement, stimulus and help to families in their spiritual and concrete daily lives. 
 Information on the Year of Amoris Laetitia can be accessed here. ​

Year of St. Joseph

​With the Apostolic Letter Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis recalls the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To mark the occasion, the Holy Father has proclaimed a “Year of Saint Joseph” from Dec. 8, 2020, to Dec. 8, 2021. Read more
  • Read Patris corde (With a Father's heart) here
The Apostolic Penitentiary also issued a decree granting special indulgences for the duration of the special year to celebrate the anniversary and “to perpetuate the entrustment of the whole Church to the powerful patronage of the Custodian of Jesus.” Conditions for the plenary indulgence:
  • The plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions) to Christians who, with a spirit detached from any sin, participate in the Year of St. Joseph on these occasions and manners indicated by the Apostolic Penitentiary:
  • The plenary indulgence is granted to those who will meditate for at least 30 minutes on the Lord’s Prayer, or take part in a Spiritual Retreat of at least one day that includes a meditation on St. Joseph. “St. Joseph, an authentic man of faith, invites us”, the decree reads, “to rediscover our filial relationship with the Father, to renew fidelity to prayer, to listen and correspond with profound discernment to God’s will.”
  • The indulgence can also be obtained by those who, following St. Joseph’s example, will perform a spiritual or corporal work of mercy. St. Joseph “encourages us to rediscover the value of silence, prudence and loyalty in carrying out our duties,” the decree notes.
  • The recitation of the Holy Rosary in families and among engaged couples is another way of obtaining indulgences, in order that “all Christian families may be stimulated to recreate the same atmosphere of intimate communion, love and prayer that was in the Holy Family.”
  • Everyone who entrusts their daily activity to the protection of St. Joseph, and every faithful who invokes the intercession of St. Joseph so that those seeking work can find dignifying work can also obtain the plenary indulgence. On 1 May 1955, Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph “with the intent that the dignity of work be recognized by all, and that it inspires social life and laws, based on the fair distribution of rights and duties.”
  • The plenary indulgence is also granted to the faithful who will recite the Litany to St. Joseph (for the Latin tradition), or the Akathistos to St. Joseph (for the Byzantine tradition), or any other prayer to St. Joseph proper to the other liturgical traditions, for the persecuted Church ad intra and ad extra, and for the relief of all Christians suffering all forms of persecution. Because, the decree notes, “the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt shows us that God is there where man is in danger, where man suffers, where he runs away, where he experiences rejection and abandonment.”

We are the body of Christ, nourished by the Eucharist, joyfully committed to living the Gospel message, and working together to share our gifts.

316 Windermere Drive,
Chestermere, AB T1X 0B9

​Phone:  1(403) 455 0196
Fax:  1(403) 455 0335
​Email:  office@saintgabrielparish.ca
​
 Our Weekend Masses Are:

Address:   197 Invermere Drive, 
Chestermere AB T1X 1M7

Saturday:  5:00 PM
Sunday:     9:00 AM
​Sunday:     10:30AM
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