1) Thanksgiving Day Mass: Please consider starting your Thanksgiving Day celebrations by joining us for mass at 9 AM. You can also join us online at livestream.stjoan.church.

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Our CSA goal this year is $211,447. Anything raised above the goal will return to the parish, while any shortfalls must be covered by the parish. Thus, your support is greatly needed and appreciated.

You can also easily give by visiting: sja.aodcsa.org or by clicking on the button below.

I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2022. As of today, we have $190,005 in pledges and gifts toward our $211,447 goal ($185,097 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 597 families (we have 3,335 families registered). We have thus achieved 90% of our goal!

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is the culmination of the liturgical year. In this week’s Encountering the Word video, Jeff Cavins asks if we are ready to make Jesus king in our hearts.

The Sunday Readings:

First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5

Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20

Alleluia: Mark 11:9, 10

Gospel: Luke 23:35-43

Friends, we come to the great feast of Christ the King, which is always the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Think of the king coming at the end of a long procession into his palace; this is Christ the King at the end of the great procession of the liturgical year. What I want to do is look at three dimensions of Christ’s kingship, one from each of the three readings today: our unity in Christ, Christ the warrior, and the weapons by which Christ wins the battle with the powers of darkness—his nonviolence and forgiving love.

Thanksgiving Day (Part One): Of all holidays, Thanksgiving Day is at the top of my list. While Christmas and Easter are up there too, this one, as far as a national holiday, is one of my favorites. It’s one of my favorites because I usually have only one liturgy (a rarity with holidays), and more importantly, it’s a day to celebrate with family and friends. There’s no gift-giving; you simply get to “be” with family and friends. And I dare say we need to spend more time with family and friends.

As with all holidays and holy days, we need to reflect upon them in their proper context. Thanksgiving Day isn’t just about parades, turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and football! It’s about being thankful to God for all he has given us.

Because we live in such a busy and fast-paced world, it would be easy to breeze through Thanksgiving Day without pausing to thank God for all he has given us. Going around the dinner table and asking people to share what they are thankful for would be a great way to start or end your gathering.

Thanksgiving Day (Part Two): Please consider starting your Thanksgiving Day celebrations by joining us for mass at 9:00 a.m., whether in person or online (livestream.stjoan.church).  It’s a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day with your “church” family! Parishioners from St. Lucy, Our Lady Star of the Sea, St. Veronica, and St. Basil parishes will also join us. As is our custom, the collection taken up at mass will be given to our local St. Vincent DePaul Society Conference. Your contributions help our local Vincentians assist the poor and needy who live within our parish boundaries!

Thanksgiving Day (Part Three): Over the years, Mitch Albom has written several thought-provoking columns about Thanksgiving. I wanted to mention two of those columns here. The first column was written in 2010; it was entitled “The Turkey Shrinks as the Absences Grow.” In this column, Mitch spoke about how missing Thanksgiving Day with family and friends was once unthinkable. Years ago, Thanksgiving with family encompassed the whole weekend. In recent years, he writes, “the holiday has been shaved, like one of those giant wedding cakes that slowly gets sliced away.” Today, however, the turkey “shrinks” as the excuses trickle in. People have all kinds of excuses why they can’t attend the usual family Thanksgiving Day (weekend) celebrations. The saddest reality, as Mitch points out, is that people are missing the best part of Thanksgiving … being with family! Mitch’s article is a great read and worth sharing with family and friends. You can find this column at Mitch Albom’s website: mitchalbom.com; search for “The Turkey Shrinks.”

The second Mitch Albom column I wanted to call your attention to was written three years ago. It’s entitled, “Empty chairs, empty table, but still Thanksgiving.” In this column, Mitch mentioned how he decided to set an extra table for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t for the kids or the extra desserts. It wasn’t for the out-of-towners. Rather, this table was for all those who “are no longer coming, all those who filled the house with laughter and stories and singing and arguments, and who, sadly, will never walk through the door again.” That year was the first time Mitch hosted his Thanksgiving Day celebrations without his parents. We can all relate to Mitch’s thoughts as it seems that as we age, every Thanksgiving now brings about more people who sadly fill those “empty chairs.” As I write this, I was thinking how cool it would be if we could actually revisit those Thanksgiving Day gatherings of, say 10 years, 20 years, or 40 years ago and see and hear those beautiful people who have since gone home to the Lord.

Mitch writes, “Now, like so many of my older relatives, my parents are gone. But I can still see them. Hear them. So I’m setting a table. Empty chairs.” Mitch then walks down memory lane and recalls the family members who once filled the seats at his family Thanksgiving Day dinners. He recalls their stories and what they often wore or brought. Mitch profoundly recalls how Thanksgiving for his family was a once-a-year opportunity to gather both immediate and extended family for a long weekend. It’s different now, he writes. It’s not the same as it once was. He also recalls how the absentees grow as he himself grows older. “One by one, they disappeared from the Thanksgiving table, and each year we mourned the latest absentee, until the absentees outnumbered the original attendees…. You can’t keep things alive. I’m learning that, painfully. No matter how much you love something, or someone, their existence is out of your control. You can weep. You can wail. But you can’t summon them back. All you can do is carry on and remember. So I pull out the furniture and move it around, if only in my mind, which is where so much of this holiday lives. Empty chairs. Missing loved ones. Lord, how their voices once filled the room, as their echoes fill it now.” I encourage you to read the whole column. It can be found at Mitch Albom’s website: mitchalbom.com; search for “Empty Chairs.”

Thanksgiving Day (Part Four): Several years ago, I found a great editorial column about Thanksgiving Day posted in the archives section of the New York Times website. The piece was originally published on November 18, 1869. Here are a few snippets: “Thanksgiving is the Home Holiday. We have no sweeter festival in the calendar…. We need more holidays in our American life. We have many anniversaries, but few days sacred to friendship (and) faith …. This is the feast day of Family and of Friendship. Many a truant son and daughter will cross seas and travel weary miles to sit in the old pew, and hear the familiar psalms, and gather around the fireside with those they love. The real meaning of this day is Coming Home. There are no traditional glories, no memories of sacred adventure or suffering to divide it. It has but one embracing sentiment. ‘God has blessed us,’ we say, ‘and we thank Him in our homes.’ While we come together and thank God for his manifold kindness … let us remember that with our privileges there comes a duty always present, but in seasons like this, commanding and imperative. In the fullness of our own joy we must not forget those who are poor and sick and cast down by bitter fortune. The Master to whom so many praises will be sung this morning showed no holier attribute of divinity than when he taught us that true Christianity gave clothing to the naked and food to the hungry, and opened the prison doors to those in bonds. We have many prisons around us, where poverty and misfortune and hard necessity hold their victims with sterner grasp than with chains and bars. It is for us to open these doors and break these bonds, to spread our substance and store, to lend the helping hand and bless the day with deeds of charity. As we do to others so may we hope that others will do to us and our children. This is the lesson of the day. By its full observance we can make a true Thanksgiving, and show that the gifts we have received from the Father of all have not fallen upon hard and stony ground.”

A blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family!

The Work of the Saints: At the All Saints Day masses this year I used a short reflection on death and eternal life in my homily written by a bishop in the 1800s. A number of people commented on the poem, so I thought I would offer it again here for anyone who did not hear it on November 1. For anyone who has lost a loved one, I hope this brings a little comfort to know that as hard as it is to lose a loved on, there is a cloud of faithful souls who would have delighted in welcoming them home, as we had to sadly say goodbye.

“What is dying?

I am standing on the seashore.

A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.

She is an object and I stand watching her

Till at last she fades from the horizon,

And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?

Gone from my sight, that is all;

She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,

And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.

The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “She is gone”,

There are others who are watching her coming,

And other voices take up a glad shout,

“There she comes” – and that is dying.”

- Bishop Charles Henry Brent.

Bishop Brent’s words seem most appropriate on this day, as the Church celebrates the end of the Church year with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Today we hear the words of St. Paul, writing to the Colossians:

Let us give thanks to the Father,

who has made you fit to share

in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. (Col 1:12)

The King and creator of this universe wants YOU alongside Him in eternal life. We just have to ensure we do everything we can in this life to reserve our place alongside the holy ones who have been judged worth to share His Kingdom. And in the meantime, know that we have so many advocates and intercessor cheering us on, people, who like us, knew the struggle and challenges of living as a disciple in the world.

As a disciple of Jesus, the world may sneer at us, as the rulers did at Jesus in the Gospel today. Others may jeer at us, as the soldiers did at Jesus. Still others may rebuke us, as the robber did to Jesus from the cross, but he “had no fear of God” - he had no reverence for God; he did not understand the power in God’s hands, and he had no sense of awe for God.

But the other criminal did, as he hung, dying on the cross. He called out to Jesus to remember Him in the Kingdom. He probably had not expectation of joining Jesus there, but his repentance and openness to faith and conversion made it possible for Him. And Jesus responds:

"Amen, I say to you,

today you will be with me in Paradise."

And so a criminal dying on the cross becomes a saint in heaven. Until our dying breath, it is never too late to turn and say “yes” to the Kingdom and to eternal life.

The saints give us encouragement by their lives. They give us hope in our ability to overcome the difficulties. They are witnesses to hope in the holiness and goodness for which God made us. They give us a great reason to feel thankful, that this world and its challenges is not the end-zone, it’s not our focus, and those challenges should not distract us or make us take our eyes away from Jesus Christ the King.

We continue our prayers for the souls of all the faithful departed from this life. We pray that they may find comfort and rest in the house of Our Heavenly Father forever, and from where they intercede for us, until the day they see us approach and welcome us home too.

Birthday Treat: Birthdays are a big deal at St. Joan. I don’t know if there is an official “keeper of the list” among the 7am daily Mass attendees, but there is clearly at least a mental list as we are often informed of who’s birthday it is before Mass begins.

In the Parish Center, our Business Manager, Dina, is the keeper of the birthday list. And about every couple of months we have a birthday lunch for those who are celebrating within those two months.

There were a number of October and November birthdays and a couple of weeks ago we had our lunch, complete with cupcakes with candles.

One of those celebrating on this occasion was Dina herself. Dina generously makes lunch almost daily for the staff and even for her own birthday lunch, she set up the table in the conference room table and placed an order of sandwiches from a local restaurant for us all.

There is a recent tradition here that you must wear a birthday hat at your birthday luncheon, but some seem to have been shirking this responsibility lately! Dina was reluctant to participate. Well, I thought, this cannot be allowed to stand.

So when Dina was out of the office for her actual birthday, I invited Cardboardina to stand-in for her. She gladly wore the birthday hat!

If you come to the Parish Center, ask if Cardboardina is available! She’ll be happy to see you. Happy birthday Dina!

Happy Thanksgiving!

adawson@sjascs.org 

Let's talk about exercise!

Today Fr. Mike challenges us to re-evaluate the way we treat and view our bodies as well as to compare the difference between doing a workout and training whether for a race, competition or towards a goal and that same approach to growing in the spiritual life.

Queen Elizabeth’s firstborn son, like all Royals, has lived his entire life under a microscope. But now that he is king, that situation will likely intensify even more.

Decades ago, it was his treatment of the late Princess Diana.

Through the years, and even more so recently, it is his treatment of his brother. And to be sure, of his younger son.

And consider the story that made headlines a few weeks ago, using a “palace insider” as the source, providing details on how King Charles is allegedly “one of the most eccentric sovereigns Great Britain has ever had.”

Among the examples citied were allegations that the king doesn’t squeeze his own toothpaste, doesn’t shave his own face, needs assistance putting on trousers and shoes, still employs a former nanny to mend his childhood teddy bear, requires certain – very specific – food and utensil placement, and so on.

Setting aside for a moment that some of these things seem more unlikely than others – and that some of it may be downright expected for a king – the larger lesson would seem to be that everyone has quirks and eccentricities and, more to it, anyone with the title of king can expect to have little left private.

And in the final analysis, that seems just fine. For as important a title as king is, no human of whatever character will ever come close in importance to the true king, whom we celebrate today.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” St. Paul writes of Christ to the Colossians in today’s second reading. “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.”

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7:00 a.m., Jerome Szymanski Jr.

7:00 a.m., Doreen Oster and George J. Bugarin

7:00 a.m., Sr. Elaine Hartnett

9:00 a.m., Roland & Gerri Doak, John L. & Marguerite Joseph, the deceased members of the McQuillan, Zaranek, and Walters Families, Thomas P. Dailey, Dee Allor, Brian & Jan Fannon, George J. Bugarin

7:00 a.m., Teresa Lopez

4:00 p.m., Jay Finn, Mary T. Hobig, Blair Zernick, John & Antoinette Salvador, Bonnie Batche, Anna Mae Reinhard, Alfred Blind, Gabriel Nehro, Rose Ferreri, Dorothy Baumann, and Special Intentions for the Thomas Family, the J. Champine Family, for Jack & Ro Coury, for Pierre Zayat and Family, for the Fawilo Family, for the McGovern Family, and for Elias Kassab

6:00 p.m., Peter Sarra

8:00 a.m., For the Intentions of Saint Joan of Arc Parishioners

10:00 a.m., C. Pat Walters

12:00 p.m., Sam Ciaramitaro, Emael L. Sarmiento, Jose R. Medina, Rosario O. Medina, Jeffrey A. Hardy, Daisy Marie Buenavista, Guadalupe Sandoval

10:00 AM - Funeral for Antoinette Grego (Read Obituary HERE)

Wednesday (November 23):

Thursday (November 24):

Friday (November 25):

Saturday (November 26):

9:00 AM - Funeral for Adelina Haraga (Read Obituary HERE)

Sunday (November 27):