Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
This weekend we will light the second candle on our Advent wreath, in our spiritual home and own private homes. In three weeks time we will celebrate Christmas and the coming of the Son of God among us as our prophet, our priest, and our king. To really know who Jesus is, we must recall the faith of the people who looked out for him. We must look to the writings of the Old Testament to see what they say about the promise of God to visit his people - and during these coming weeks we will read and break open the Word of God from the prophets. We will recall those who prepared the way for his coming - and we will recall the work of John the Baptist. We will reflect on how the Christ child comes to birth in our world through our faith and discipleship, and we will remember Mary whose faith and acceptance of the invitation of God inaugurated the whole Christian era. Let us find those precious moments, to stop and pause, and in silence note that this moment is an important turning point in our year and in our lives 2023 years later. O come, O come, Emmanuel. May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent together. Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
This weekend we begin a new liturgical year with the Season of Advent. With each passing day from now until Christmas, we will lose about 20 minutes more of daylight. There is something about darkness. We slow down, and in the case of reflecting upon the Season of Advent, we prepare. The message we will be hearing throughout the season of Advent is exactly that. Preparing – preparing our hearts, for our God is sending a Saviour, Emmanuel, which means God-with-us. This preparing involves prayer and our active participation in the liturgy and sacraments of the Church, and our willingness to serve and to be of service to one another. Advent draws us in and invites us to do all this, with the help of Holy Spirit, to meet our God, who comes to us in the form of a baby. As we begin this Advent journey as a parish family, may we ponder the birth of our Saviour some 2000 years ago as we unite our prayers together to prepare for the coming of Christ into our hearts this Christmas. O come, O come, Emmanuel. May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent together. Fr. Greg Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the UniverseChrist the King SundayLast Sunday in Ordinary Time11/24/2023
Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
Here we are, the last Sunday of Ordinary Time. This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. The Feast of Christ the King was given papal recognition by Pius XI in 1925 with the calendar celebration set as the last Sunday in October. In 1960 when the liturgical calendar was revised, the Feast was moved to the last Sunday of the Year before Advent. I pose a simple yet profound question for all of us. Is Jesus the King of your life? This is the question that we are to ponder this Sunday. Bishop Barron sees the Liturgical Year as kind of a grand procession, at the end of which comes the most important person, Jesus Christ, the Lord, the King of the Universe. The Latin word for “Lord” is “Dominus”. It is a good word because it invites us to ask ourselves whether or not Jesus is the dominant influence in our lives. If we say anything other than Christ is the King, then we need to revisit what Christianity really means. If we only think of Jesus as a good, kind person, that is not enough. If we let him into only one or two rooms of our house, we are playing games. This is not real Christianity. He should be the King of every room. That is the real challenge of this Feast day. My canon law professor put it this way: In your personal life you should feel comfortable having Jesus sitting next to you while you are doing whatever you are doing. If you try to hide from God, even if no one else knows about what you are doing, then Christ is not the King of your life. Acknowledging Christ as King means that you are in steady contact with the Lord, so that all we do is dedicated to him. Jesus must be the “Dominus,” the dominant influence in our lives. May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
As our liturgical year prepares to come to an end with the First Sunday of Advent the weekend of December 2nd and 3rd, (yes, I can't believe it either), there is so much for us to pray for. I ask for your prayers for our RCIA candidates (the unbaptized) and catechumens (baptized in another denomination) that the Holy Spirit has sent to us. Now 14 in number, one of our recent meetings had 26 of us gathered in the Divinity Room to learn and grow in the faith. This included sponsors, our catechists, and members from our parish community. It is something that I sit back and am in awe of. I also ask for your prayers for our youth preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation with Bishop Bergie next Sunday, November 26th, as they prepare to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Our Grade 2 children from our parish are preparing for their first Reconcilation on November 29th. They are eager and excited, and some a bit scared I am told, though I assure them that I am there to guide them every step along the way. That goes for those young at heart as well. These children did themselves proud in leading our ministries last Sunday at our 9:00 a.m. mass. If you want a smile and a reminder that the spirit of faith and hope is alive, I livestreamed the mass that you can go back and watch here. We continue to prayer fervently for the end of war and destruction in the Middle East and Ukraine. For all those displaced from their homes, for the lived lost, and for the uncertainty, we pray for peace, and for comfort and strength for all those impacted. This is sad on so many, many, levels. I ask for your prayers for the members of our community who long to be one with us around the altar. For all those suffering due to sickness, caring for a loved one, or facing the challenges of raising a family, we unit our prayers with them. I also ask that you continue to keep Fr. Charles Moser, who served our community as pastor, in your prayers. During this month of November, we pray for all the souls in purgatory, and those loved ones, family members, friends, and members of our community who have gone before us. This is an important part of our faith to pray for them and to help them get to heaven. If they are already enjoying the eternal banquet of heaven, those prayers are redirected to someone else. Prayers are never wasted. And if you can fit in one more prayer, say a prayer for me, as your pastor. As always, be assured of my prayers for each of you and those that you love. I look forward to us gathering together this weekend for the source and summit of our faith, the celebration of the mass. Maybe even be wild, and invite and bring a friend. Just not to wild. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
What is the goal of life? St. Ignatius can help guide us with what is known as the First Principle and Foundation of his Spiritual Exercises. One translation reads as follows: The goal of our life is to be with God forever. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Fr. David Flemming, SJ, unpacks this in the following way: The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit. All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal. In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me. I encourage you to sit and meditate with this. So what is your goal? Are you being called into something deeper? Do you need to realign your focus? Ultimately it comes down to love. Love of God. Think of the vows of marriage: “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” If we have found true love, then we love no matter what happens and always choose the better option for our love to thrive. That’s what First Principle and Foundation calls us to. It is my prayer that we desire to be one with God in this life and in the life to come. During this month of November, may we continue to pray for all souls who have gone before us and the souls in purgatory. May they we one with God forever. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
In you, Lord, I have found my peace. We will hear this beautiful Psalm 131:1, 2-3 sung this weekend. So, how exactly do we find peace in the Lord? In the busyness of our lives. In what appears to be a chaotic world. When we are crying out for direction. When we are worried. Quiet trust in the Lord. I came across a reflection that noted that in a world of instant everything, waiting even five minutes for a response from God might as well be the equivalent of waiting five years. Yet when we place quiet trust in God it affords us freedom. Placing trust in God frees us of worry, anxiety, and fear because God will take care of it. Truly placing our trust in God allows us to find peace in God, and allows us to let go. It is only then that we can join in with the psalmist and sing, In you, Lord, I have found my peace. That is my prayer for you. Develop a practice of quiet trust in our Lord and God, and may the peace of the Lord be with you. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
We will hear Jesus proclaim in our Gospel from Matthew 22:34-40 this weekend the greatest of all the commandments: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” This was first recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy (chapter 6, verse 5). Long before the coming of Jesus Christ as man, taking on our human flesh, God gave this commandment to the people, through Moses. Centuries later, when a scribe approached Jesus, asking him which is the first or greatest of all the commandments, Jesus answered with the very words from Deuteronomy, well known to the scribe, or any devout Jew for that matter. Jesus would go on to add “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” which Jesus would have known well as coming from the Book of Leviticus (chapter 19, verse 18). Each Sunday when we gather for Mass, we are reminded of these two great commandments on our banners adorning our sanctuary here at St. Julia. Love God. Love people. They truly are inseparable. Each and every day we have numerous opportunities to show this love: in our homes, places of work, our schools, to the poor and marginalized – everywhere. May we call upon the Holy Spirit to ignite that fire within each of us, that fire of love that can change our lives, our community, and our world. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia, Every Sunday when we gather for Mass, we are reminded of the greatest of the commandments on our banners adorning our sanctuary here at St. Julia. Love God. Love people. They truly are inseparable. These two commandments summarize all of the laws given to us in Sacred Scripture. The commandments deal with our relationship with God and then our relationship with others. The one flows out of the other. We need a right relationship with our God. Without this right relationship, our other relationships will not be right either. The cause of so many of our problems, and perhaps even the world's problems, is that we need to be reconciled with God. How can we love our neighbour as ourselves if we do not first love God, with all our heart, mind, and soul. Our best efforts at peace will fail as long we are living in unrest against God. So, where does it begin? It begins with us. Each and every day we have numerous opportunities to show this love: in our homes, places of work, our schools, to the poor and marginalized – everywhere. From there it spreads. May God bless each of you and those that you love, Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,
Having established the church in Philippi, the first European city to receive the gospel of Christ, Paul had a special fondness for this community. He would move on to other communities, yet he would continue to pray for the church he had established there. I've said it many times, yet it deserves repeating. The letters of St. Paul are truly love letters as I was taught in the seminary, and his letter to the Philippians was perhaps his most intimate and personal letter he ever wrote. This weekend in our second reading we will hear the words of St. Paul come alive as we will hear proclaimed "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Once again, we are reminded that he wrote this as he was imprisioned in Rome. What are you facing at this moment? What is God asking of you? What are you trying to work through? What are you searching for? Who is your source of strength? As we bring our prayers and petitions to our mass this weekend, may our hearts and the very depths of our souls be pulled to the source - Jesus Christ. May you leave the doors strengthed having been fed by the Word of God and the real presence of Christ. A gift freely and lovingly given. May God bless each of you and those that you love. Fr. Greg Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia, Pleasant fall days and cool nights, and another Thanksgiving is upon us. As we gather this weekend for Mass at our parish of St. Julia, either in person or virtually, we are reminded of the tremendous blessings God continues to pour out upon our community. And as we gather with our families this weekend, we thank God for the gift of our families, friends, loved ones, and perhaps most of all, the gift of faith. May we be a sign of God’s goodness and hope for one another as we offer our prayers of thanks, not only on this Thanksgiving weekend, but each and every day. May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I thank God for each of you, my spiritual family, and this community of St. Julia. Fr. Greg |
AuthorFrom Our Pastor Archives
April 2024
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