Newsletter | November 30, 2021 |
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Join your fellow parishioners in coming back to mass, to worship at the Lord’s table, to receive Him in the Eucharist, to fuel your faith. Catholic Churches have successfully developed effective safety protocols. THANK YOU to all the ministers and volunteers who make this possible for SJV!
Please join us at one of the following Masses:
Saturday at 5:00pm
Sunday at 9:00am
Sunday at 11:00am
Some changes you'll see at Mass to protect ourselves, to protect our neighbors, and to protect the ability FOR ALL TO safely worship together - face masks required, ushers seat you, no singing, and no Blood of Christ. Clearly marked sections for worship are available for people seeking physical distancing. Doors will be open to ensure proper ventilation, so we encourage you to come with coats.
With the new liturgical year, collection basket passing and Holy Water in the baptismal font will return.
Please continue to self-screen and stay home if you are not feeling well. Sick, vulnerable, at-risk, and otherwise concerned persons are encouraged to celebrate Mass with us via live stream.
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SUNDAY MASS OBLIGATION TO BE REINSTATED
December 8
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The general obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation (including the Saturday/vigil Mass) is to be reinstated during Advent on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
Mass is not a high-risk activity; tens of thousands of Masses have taken place and we have no cases of anyone contracting COVID from attending Mass. Mitigation interventions are still important (staying home when sick, washing hands, wearing a mask, distancing, and good ventilation).
Valid reasons for people to continue to stay home:
- They have underlying conditions, are pregnant or are in a high-risk category.
- They exhibit flu-like symptoms.
- They have good reason to think they might be asymptomatic of a contagious illness (for example, they were in recent contact with someone who tested positive for a contagious illness such as COVID or influenza).
- They care for the sick, homebound or infirmed.
- They are 65 years of age or older (per the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendation for high-risk individuals).
- You cannot attend Mass through no fault of your own (no Mass is offered; you are infirm; or, while wanting to go, you are prevented for some reason you cannot control, such as your ride did not show up).
Livestream Masses and homebound communion ministry will continue.
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Today is Giving Tuesday! Complete an act of kindness or donate to your favorite charity or non-profit.
You can make a donation to help St. John Vianney continue to deliver on its mission to make Jesus visible and present to one another and to the larger community. Thanks to the support of generous parishioners and friends of SJV, we've been able to be a Light on Finn Hill for 50 years!
Take a look at our Year End Giving/Giving Tuesday page at sjmvc.ejoinme.org/SJV50in2021. Amplify our impact by checking if your company can match your donation.
SJV will be closed the last week of December. All monetary donations for 2021 need to be in the parish office or postmarked by December 31 in order to be applied to this calendar year.
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WOMEN'S ADVENT MORNING OF REFLECTION
Saturday, December 4 from 9:00am - 1:00pm in the Social Hall
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Free childcare! Bring your mother, grandmother, sister, young adult daughter, or friend. We will reflect on the Young Mother Mary, the older Mother Elizabeth, and the Holy Spirit. We will share in the joy of the Incarnation of Christ and how their saying yes, is reflected in the stories of our own lives.
Please bring a personal care item or gift to fill a blessing bag for a homeless woman at New Bethlehem Center.
Facilitated by Patricia Wuertzer, Living Light Life Coach and Parishioner. $15 per person includes breakfast snacks and lunch. Sign up at the welcome table or email Laura Stanger at Lstanger@sjvkirkland.org to reserve your spot.
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KIDS IN PRESCHOOL THROUGH 5TH GRADE
We need your beautiful artwork for our Parish Christmas Card
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Your original artwork should be no larger than 8.5x11", and you may use any media you like, including photography, painting, collage, sketching, etc. The artwork should reflect the beauty of the nativity story reflected in Isaiah 9:6...
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
All entries must be received in the parish office by 8:00pm on Monday, December 6. Only one entry per child. Judges will be Fr. Vu and the Parish Staff. Winning entries will receive a gift card, and their artwork will be used to create the Parish Christmas Card that will be sent to all the members of our parish!
Please include with your artwork:
- Artist's name and age
- How you would like your name printed on the card if your artwork is chosen
- School
- Parent email address or cell phone number
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HS ESPERANZA MISSION TREK CHRISTMAS TREE LOT |
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Our Tree Lot is Open for the Season! Please stop by to find your Christmas Tree and Wreath and support our trekkers on their journey to build houses in Tijuana. |
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Please watch Phil Glock share his favorite memories from SJV's history. Thanks Phil!
For more memories, be sure to purchase a 50th Anniversary History Book. A small quantity are available. Pre-ordered books can be picked up after the weekend Masses and in the parish office during open hours. Please contact Susan, sweaver@sjvkirkland.org, for more information.
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We are recruiting for the Finance Council and for Monday morning offering counters.
The Finance Council requires a “numbers” knowledge that can come from working in banking, accounting, finance, or the like. You should have familiarity with reading basic financial reports. The Finance Council meets approximately once a month (currently via zoom) and is a consultative body that assists the Pastor with the responsibility for Parish financial management, accountability, and transparency.
Offertory counters meet Monday mornings at 8:00am and it takes about an hour. This requires a person who is careful and can count. The candidates will need to submit and pass the archdiocese background check prior to volunteering. We currently have two teams that alternate weeks so that this is not a weekly obligation.
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Thank you for sharing your God-given gifts to support the mission of St. John Vianney. If you have yet to make your pledge, there is still time! Please return your commitment card to the parish by mail, collection basket, or completing the Online Pledge Card by clicking on the button below.
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ST. VINCENT DE PAUL FOOD DRIVE FOR CHRISTMAS BASKETS 2021 |
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The SJV St. Vincent de Paul society will be assembling and distributing food baskets again this year for families in great need. Last year we helped approximately 70 families, over 280 people! Of course, we would not be able to do this without your help. Over the next several months, we will be collecting non-perishable food items. When you do your own shopping, please consider purchasing some of the items on the food drive schedule for our pantry. Checks (payable to SJV St. Vincent de Paul) or cash donations are always welcome and may be dropped off in the parish office. Gift cards will be given out to each family to purchase the perishable items they need. Thank you for making stewardship a way of life.
We are particularly in need of: Oil, Mayonnaise, Jelly, Instant Potatoes, Cornbread Mix, Bisquick Mix, Stove Top Stuffing, Pancake Mix, Pancake Syrup, Rice and Rice products, Canned Pumpkin, Canned Cranberry products, Salt 1lb, Frosting, TP, Papertowels, Kleenex.
To see the list of items requested throughout the season please click the button below.
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ST. VINCENT DE PAUL ANNUAL GIVING TREE |
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Please support our annual giving tree for local families in need by contributing gift cards from Amazon, Fred Meyer, Target, Safeway, and QFC in $25 or $50 denominations, to be used for family gifts and perishable foods. Please write the gift card amount clearly on the card. Gift cards may be turned in to the SJV office during open hours until December 12. Thank you for your support. |
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In response to the survey of parishioners undertaken in August/September requesting more time for fellowship, we have been trying to restart Coffee & Donuts after Sunday Masses. The grocery stores are experiencing shortages of dough, so we have not been able to have a consistent supply of donuts. We are moving to muffins and bagels for the foreseeable future. We want parishioners to stop in, grab an item and some coffee and chat, but we need to continue with the open doors for ventilation and ask that you keep your visiting to around 15 minutes so that we are able to continue gathering in this way.
Additionally, we need more volunteers to make this a reality - particularly after the 11:00 Mass and for cleanup. If you like having donut hour, please consider letting the office know that you will help (once a month or more??) and what Mass you would help after. If everyone attending could clean up after their family is done that would also be very helpful in continuing this ministry. Supplies are located throughout the Social Hall.
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CHILDREN'S LITURGY OF THE WORD |
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Kids can join us for IN PERSON Children’s liturgy of the Word at 11:00am Sunday Morning Mass in Room 6 downstairs. No need to register for Children’s Liturgy of the Word. If your children are at the 11:00am Mass on Sunday, Father Vu will invite them up for a blessing and dismissal. Parents or Grandparents are always welcome to join their children. We go downstairs and hear the Gospel reading and have a discussion, read stories or do activities that relate to the gospel. Then we come back upstairs to join everyone at Mass. Please let Laura Stanger know if you want more information or have any questions, lstanger@sjvkirkland.org.
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CATHOLIC KIDS' CATECHISM CLUB |
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BLESSING BAGS FOR THE HOMELESS |
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Catholic Kids Catechism Club will prepare blessing bags for the homeless again this year. Please consider donating personal care items in the box next to the parish welcome table. |
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YOUTH GROUP
Sundays from 5:00-6:30pm
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Make reconciliation a priority this Advent. There will be a Reconciliation Service on Thursday, December 9 at 7:00pm in the church.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is also available every Saturday from 3:30-4:30pm. The Reconciliation Room is next to our Adoration Chapel.
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REFLECTIONS ON CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
From Laudato Si
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We’ve now been writing these weekly blog posts for half a year (or, more precisely, for 28 weeks, although who’s counting?). This seems like an appropriate time to summarize six months of posts, including both our practical calls to action and our reflections on science and faith.
Despite the severity of the environmental and human crisis that faces our world, not all problems will be solved at once or are even capable of easy solution. Therefore, You Don't Have to Be an Environmental Superhero! pointed out that you just have to begin somewhere, with one small step. And that post, as well as the remaining practical posts, listed possible first steps, along with additional steps for those already committed to preserving our common home. Some of these are obvious, such as recycling as much as possible and ensuring that at little of our garbage as possible goes into a landfill. But other actions are not so obvious. Most of us don’t recognize the significant ecological damage that we do to the environment (and often to ourselves!) through mundane, everyday activities like washing our clothes or our dishes. As a result, we discussed the environmental impact of washing the dishes and of doing the laundry not only in one post, but in a second post as well.
Not only do many of our everyday activities contribute to environmental degradation, but many of the products that we use every day also do. Most noteworthy are products made of plastic, a substance which is arguably the hallmark of modern civilization. We discuss the catastrophic impact of plastic on the environment and on human health and offer some suggestions for liberating ourselves (as much as is humanly possible) from a dependence on plastics.
In a culture that emphasizes consumption and views the world around us transactionally, we often assume that resources are unlimited and are simply there for our taking. The result of this ethos of wanton consumption is waste. Two of our posts suggest ways to reduce water consumption and to eliminate food waste, two resources that are in fact scarce and likely to become more scarce as the crisis facing our common home becomes more acute.
One of the byproducts of our culture’s transactional view of the world is death: that it brings death (and in some cases extinction) to the life forms that God has created and that the Holy Spirit has brought into existence, We discuss the extent of the crisis and examine practical action that we can take to slow down the death and extinction of birds and of pollinators such as bees in two posts.
This transactional view of the lives of other living creatures leads us to rely on chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides to eliminate the life forms we don’t like. Besides eliminating them, however, we do permanent damage to the world around us as well as to our own health. One post examines the damage these products do to the ourselves and to the environment, while the first in what will be a series of posts discusses specifically the organic herbicides that we can use to safely eliminate weeds and other plants without causing human and environmental damage.
Taking action to preserve our common home is not enough, however. We must also redefine the way in which we relate to the world around us. In a small way, our reflections aim at helping us to do that.
At a time when scientific truth is under attack, particularly from Christians, one of our posts examines the historically close relationship between science and Catholicism, while another explores the monotonous pattern of science denial, a pattern of falsehood and deceit that we see at work today in the denial of climate change and the diverse attacks on the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccine.
As Christians, we are called to imitate Christ in our lives, and it is ironic that many non-believers expect Christians to imitate Christ. Yet Christians have difficulty understanding that their every action reflects a particular theology, and others are quick to notice when those actions violate Christian tenets. But what does it mean to strive to imitate Christ? We examine this issue through the lens of St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures, which calls us to view ourselves as integrally related to and dependent upon the whole of God’s creation, rather than separate from, autonomous, and above it. In keeping with the spirit of St. Francis’ view that we are intimately connected to the world around us, we also examine the meaning of the dominion that God granted to humankind in Genesis. Besides living as interrelated parts of God’s creation, we also are (or should be) living for the generations that follow us. Pope Francis terms this intergenerational solidarity, a topic that we also explore in one of our posts.
One of the ways in which we can begin to understand our own interconnectedness with humankind and with all of God’s creation that Pope Francis recommends is to say grace before meals. This can be effective, however, only if we actually express our appreciation for the food that God has provided for us by eating it without complaint!
In What if Climate Change Is a Hoax?, we examine whether it really matters whether climate change is real o bring about a change in our behavior and our lifestyle. Ours is a culture of conspicuous and mindless consumption, of loving the things we buy (as eBay tells us), and of evaluating the objects (and living beings) around us in terms of their convenience or utility to us. This is a form of idolatry; and as we point out in our What's So Bad About Idolatry? post, Psalm 115 warns us that idolatry involves a lifeless idol taking possession of us and controlling us. A particular form of this idolatry is associated with plastics, as we argue in The Spirituality of Plastic.
Some Christians have advanced the argument that it doesn’t matter whether climate change is real or not; God has promised to save us anyway. We examine the merits of the ridiculous claim in Will God Save Us from Ourselves? In Is the Second Coming Approaching?, we also examine the meaning of Pope Francis’ statement that doomsday must be taken seriously if we fail to take urgent action. He does not mean by that that Christ will come (especially since the Second Coming of our Lord is not an occasion for gloom) but rather that we will destroy and doom ourselves.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed the first six months of the Laudato Si blog. We look forward to our contributions over the next six months. We also look forward to hearing your feedback and your suggestions for topics that we should discuss.
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DISCOVERING GOD'S WILL AS A YOUNG PERSON
December 17-19 at Archbishop Brunett Retreat Center
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This overnight retreat to discern God’s action in your daily life for grades 11 & 12 is sponsored by Youth Ministry and led by Father Justin Ryan. Cost is $50 and includes all meals and lodging. |
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