SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

PASTOR’S CORNER

In the middle of this special season, I want to share with you this Advent prayer to help

you remember why we have an Advent wreath and not a Christmas tree in our church:

“Gracious God,

I am overwhelmed with many things that demand to be done…

money to be spent when there is little or none,

entertainment to be offered even if it is shallow, or even inappropriate,

parties to attend even if I am totally fed up with them,

lights to be put up…

And if I am not faithful to you in my heart and in my life,

the façade of celebration crumbles,

music becomes noise, smiles become blank stares

and wishes fade into early sunsets.

Grant me the grace to look beyond,

for within the mass of wrapping paper, cluttered rooms

and never-ending claims on my time, the Incarnation becomes a reality.

We are told and we await a God who is already with us…Immanuel.

Free my heart of the limits I impose on your grace,

when you come, Blessed Infant, God with us.

Amen.”

Fr. Slawek

Youth Group News !!!

On Friday, December 9th the Youth Group will get together to plan/practice how we can best serve the Shepherd Lodge Community with music and song. No try-outs necessary, just a willing spirit! 7:00 - 8:30 pm, parish hall Youth Group Outing and Service Project: Saturday, December 10, yes the next day... the Youth Group will be walking over to Shepherd Lodge to spread some Advent Season Cheer to the residents. Any youth from the Holy Spirit Community and friends wishing to join us are most welcome! We will first meet in front of Holy Spirit Parish to hand in our permission forms and organize the group at 9:30 am. Please be prompt and remember to wear your Santa Hat! Happy Ad-vent! holyspirityouthgrouptoronto@gmail.com

Children's Liturgy News: Attention Parishioners with small children... Just a friendly reminder that the Chil-dren's Liturgy is offered Sunday mornings at the 9:00 am Mass only. Fr. Slawek will invite our young parishioners to come forward at the beginning of Mass with a warm welcome then send them forth with the Children's Liturgy Team Members to hear the message of Jesus proclaimed at their level of understanding with stories, songs and activities. After the Homily the Team will escort the little ones back upstairs to join their families in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We look forward to engaging your children in this beautiful ministry. God Bless!

R.C.I.A. Catechumens Please pray for our 5 RCIA Catechumens, Phil, Mariam, Jen, Monjay and Han-an, as they continue their studies on their journey of faith.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR THE ALTAR SOCIETY

This service is on a two week rotation once per month on a Friday morning and entails clean-ing the holy vessels, filling the Holy water fonts and ensuring that the Sacristy is kept clean and tidy. This would take 30 minutes of your time. Volunteers are also needed, again on a two week rotation, to pick up the altar linen to be laundered and ironed. This can be picked up after Mass on the weekend and returned the next weekend, providing there is a good supply of linen in the Sacristy. We need your help! These two positions are in God’s service, think of the blessings you will receive. If you can find it in your heart to vol-unteer, please call Carlene Henry at 647-210-2345

2017 OFFERTORY ENVELOPES

Are available for pick up after all Masses Dec. 3/4 and Dec. 10/12. Envelopes are also available for pick up from the Parish office during office hours. Please use 2017 envelopes starting Jan. 1. Pr int your full name, address, phone number and donation clearly on the envelope for the month so the Parish office can record the number to your name. If you have a change of address please list it on your envelope or notify the of-fice. Please DO NOT USE 2016 or older envelopes. Discharge last year enve-lope. This old number is no longer assigned to you. Please DO NOT SCRATCH OUT the number and put your own number.

Holy Spirit Roman

C A T H O L I C C H U R C H

Name(s)________________________________________________

Other family members____________________________________

Address________________________________________________

City___________________________ Postal Code_____________

Phone ( )___________________________

CHECK ONE:

New Registration

Change of Address Moving out of Parish Renewal Please drop this form into the offertory basket. Note: Use of this form does not automatically register you

with the church. You will be contacted by the Parish Office to confirm registration.

December 4, 2016

Christmas Assistance Program Saint Vincent DePaul Holy Spirit Conference

We will no longer be doing our Christmas Star Tree Pro-gram as in previous years. Instead, we will be giving gift cards from either No Frills or Food Basics to all of our Fami-lies in need. There are many in our neighbourhood who are experiencing difficulties. The stories are as varied as the number of Fami-

lies who must come to us for assistance, especially at Christmas time. This year we will be helping about 83 Families. Some of those are the working poor, single moth-ers and the elderly. All of them are struggling to make ends meet and the price of food keeps going up. We think the best way to assist them is by giving them gift cards for groceries. The value of these gift cards will be from $ 75.00 to $ 150.00 depending on the size of the family. The total value of gift cards will be approxi-mately $ 9,500.00 Next weekend we will be distributing Christmas envelopes for making a cash dona-tion to our Christmas program. If you assisted us previously with the Star Tree Pro-gram, we encourage you to make a cash donation instead. Many of you prefer to make out a cheque and receive the added tax benefit of a receipt from SSVP. We encourage all who would be willing to be as generous as possible to the SSVP fund in the coming weeks so that no family in need will go without food for the Christ-mas season. Simply use the special envelopes provided by SSVP, write your name, address and phone number on the front of the envelope and place it in the SSVP box at the back of the church. You may also place in the offertory collection and it will be passed on to us. Tax receipts are issued separately by Saint Vincent de Paul, so information is required to issue them. Please do not use your church envelope number for refer-ence. Our Christmas envelopes will also be available at the back of the church throughout the Christmas season. Your gift of cash is important to the families in need. Our Christmas Assistance program will funded by contributions received over the next few weeks. We truly thank all our parishioners who support us during the Christmas season and throughout the year. Again, Thank You and God Bless!

MASS INTENTIONS

Tuesday, December 6 9:00 a.m. (+) Bernadine DeSouza req. by Denise & Stephen Chen. Wednesday, December 7 9:00 a.m. Intentions of Sally Radigan req. Holy Spirit coffee group . Thursday, December 8 9:00 a.m. Intentions of thanksgiving req. by Lulu Ochangco.

Friday, December 9 9:00 a.m. (+) Camilla Leung. Saturday, December 10 4:30 p.m. (+) Gladys Waychison req. by Connie & Susan. Sunday, December 11 9 a.m. All Parishioners. 11 a.m. (+) Joseph Leenamkwong req. by family.

Vocation Discernment Retreat: The Office of Vocations invites single Catholic men, 17 years and older to at-tend a Vocations Discernment Retreat from Dec 9 to 11, 2016 at Manresa Spiritual Renewal Centre, Pickering. (Starts on Friday at 7 pm). This is a good retreat for men who are at crossroads in discerning God’s desired Vocation for them. The retreat offers Guided reflections, Holy Mass, Adoration, confes-sion and the assistance of a vocations team. Suggested donation of $150 to help cover costs. For m ore inform ation, please contact (the parish priest) or call 416-968-0997 or email vocations@archtoronto.org.

YOUR HEALTH

As cold and flu season approaches, to en-sure the health of the entire community, parishioners are encouraged to stay home from Mass and parish functions if they are experiencing symptoms of the flu virus, colds, etc. Respect and concern for the common good takes precedence. Thank you for your cooperation! To minimize risks please use the hand sanitizers that are located at each entrance!