Newsletter | September 21, 2021 |
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Our parish is open for in-person Mass and we’re eager to see you all again. 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 Holy Water, no singing, and no Blood of Christ. Clearly marked sections for worship are available for people seeking physical distancing.
Please continue to self-screen and stay home if you are not feeling well. Dispensation to attend Sunday Mass is still in effect. Sick, vulnerable, at-risk, and otherwise concerned persons are encouraged to celebrate Mass with us via live stream.
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WELCOME BACK SJV CELEBRATION
This Sunday!
September 26 from 4:00-7:00pm on the SJV Preschool Lawn
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The contemporary worship team has been working hard on their sets for this weekend. There's even a surprise performance by someone special. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs and celebrate with us!
- Support some local food trucks and purchase food, or bring your own
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Tacos El Guero, The Cheese Pit, and Kool Kidz Ice Cream
- Water and lemonade provided
- Live music from our contemporary worship team
- Play life size Battleship
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Animal Encounters petting zoo from 4:00-6:00pm
- Pick up your family's "We are a light on Finn Hill" candle with instruction for decorating. You will bring the candle back and present it at our 50th Anniversary Mass with Archbishop Etienne on November 6 at 5:00pm.
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If you haven't filled out our Back to Mass Survey yet, please take a moment to do so. We want to know how our SJV families are doing and what situations they are facing. Thank you! |
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Are you a long time member of St. John Vianney Church? Let us record your story after Mass this weekend. Please see Laura Stanger or Susan Weaver after Mass in the Narthex. |
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50TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY BOOK
Pre-order Now - Only $30
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Celebrate SJV’s marvelous story with the purchase of our 50th anniversary commemorative history book. Find out why, for 50 years, SJV has truly been a light on Finn Hill.
Pre-orders can be made on our website using the button below, or pre-order in the Narthex after Mass or in the office during business hours.
Books will be distributed in conjunction with the 50 years celebration in November.
DON’T MISS OUT, LIMITED QUANTITIES ON ORDER.
The final order is due to the publisher no later than October 1st.
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SAVE THE DATE - NOVEMBER 6 |
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We will have the St. John Vianney 50th Anniversary Mass with the Archbishop, Gala and Auction Celebration. Everything will commence at the 5:00pm Mass. Volunteers are needed to make this event happen! To volunteer for the auction committee or for questions, please contact Ann Vandewark at 425-823-0787 x101 or avandewark@sjvkirkland.org.
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LITURGICAL MINISTERS TRAINING
This Saturday, September 25 at 10:00am
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Are you confirmed? Please consider serving your parish as a sacristan, eucharistic minister, lector, usher/seater, or hospitality minister. Fr. Vu holds trainings every fourth Saturday of the month at 10am in the church. Sign up at the welcome table in the narthex or by contacting the parish office.
Youth who have taken First Eucharist and are at least middle school age interested in being altar servers are also welcome to sign up. Youth interested need to be able to carry the cross through the church and up the steps to the sanctuary.
Ushers/seaters have a particularly special role to play at this time. Please prayerfully consider volunteering. If you would like to help usher/seat people at our weekend Masses please contact Greg, gleptich@sjvkirkland.org.
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RACIAL EQUITY FORMATION SERIES |
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Please join us for an exciting series on Racial Equity, beginning on-line September 29 with a workshop on Empathy and Perspective Taking facilitated by SJV’s own parishioner, Andy Parks.
Choose the day and time that works best for you for the four weekly study sessions that follow.
The series concludes with a deanery-wide day of service November 13, and an evening retreat, November 17, facilitated by a member of the Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center.
Please click on the flyer above for more information or contact Susan, sweaver@sjvkirkland.org. To register, please click on the button below.
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Calling all moms, especially moms with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school-aged children! Take some time for yourself and meet up with other moms on the same journey. Join the "SJV Moms Meetup" Facebook group for updates about our monthly meetups. Hope to see you next week!
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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. |
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HIGH SCHOOL MISSION TREK TO TIJUANA
June 19 - July 2, 2022
Applications Available Now!
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High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, please join us!
Upcoming Dates:
- Sunday, October 10: Opening Meeting for all interested and participating trekkers and parents immediately following youth group
- Saturday-Sunday, October 23-24: Bake Sale Fundraiser
- Sunday, November 14, 3:30-5:00pm: Christmas Tree Sales Orientation in the Tree Shed Lot
- Sunday, November 21 - Wednesday, December 22: Christmas Tree Sales
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RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION FOR ADULTS |
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If you know of someone who is interested, or has a spark within them, an inkling of becoming Catholic, and joining the Catholic Faith Community, please contact Fr. Vu or Laura, Lstanger@sjvkirkland.org.
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Mrs. Fitz and Ms. Maria are back in the parish nursery on Sunday mornings during the 9:00am and 11:00am Masses for families with young children. You can find the nursery at the bottom of the stairs. The sound system from the church is pumped into the nursery. If you would like to stay downstairs with your child, you can still hear what is going on in the liturgy. The nursery is recommended for children 1 to 4 years old. |
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CHILDREN'S LITURGY OF THE WORD
In-person during 11:00am Mass OR
Zoom on Sundays at 10:15am
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Kids are welcome to process out during the 11:00am Mass for in-person Children’s Liturgy of the Word in the Social Hall, OR join Zoom Children’s Liturgy of the Word at 10:15am on Sundays. Contact Laura for the Zoom info, Lstanger@sjvkirkland.org.
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CATHOLIC KIDS' CATECHISM CLUB |
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We do need Volunteers! If you feel called by the Holy Spirit to join us, please let Laura know!
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High Schoolers and Middle Schoolers, mark your calendars for our kick off retreat on October 2 & 3 - Discernment & the Half Blood Prince (after the 6th book in the Harry Potter series). This will be a two day (not overnight) outdoor retreat here at SJV, Saturday from 9:00am - 9:00pm and Sunday from 9:00am-12:30pm. For more details or information about Youth Group, please contact Maybeth, mterashima@sjvkirkland.org or visit sjvkirkland.org/faith-formation/#youth.
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REFLECTIONS ON CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
From Laudato Si
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We’ve all heard that climate change is a hoax. Or that the science is too new. Or that there is no scientific consensus about climate change. Or that while climate change is real, it is part of a natural pattern that is not caused by human activity. Or that the weather in a particular place in a particular time disproves climate change. Or that environmentalists confuse the creation with its Creator. Or that the earth is protected by God’s promise to Noah (Genesis 8:21-22) to never destroy the earth and its living creatures again. What if any one of these statements is true? (Just to be clear at the outset, each of them either is false or irrelevant, as The Science of Science Denial argues.)
Underlying the debate about care for our home are at least three major issues. The first is what we live for. The second is our relationship to the world around us. The third is the value that we place on life.
But first, let’s consider a modified version of Blaise Pascal’s wager. Pascal’s argument is purely transactional: if we refuse to believe in God and he exists, the consequences of our choice are both eternal and catastrophic; if we believe and he doesn’t exist, there are no consequences, and we lose nothing. We can apply Pascal’s wager to climate change: if we believe climate change is real and act accordingly, and it is real, we’ve perhaps sacrificed something but ultimately lost nothing. If we believe climate change is not real and it is (and it has drastic consequences for the future of our common home), we become culpable for what we have failed to do, as the Confiteor reminds us. The consequences of failing to do something can be damning.
Underlying the view that our common home is not in danger is typically a basic contentment with our existing economic system. That economic system and the culture it’s generated, however, are deeply troubling. Ours is a throw-away society, where single-use products (especially ones made of plastic) abound, new and supposedly improved products constantly replace the old, and our personal convenience is highly valued. In this economy, we live for ourselves and our convenience. Waste, and particularly food waste, is a hallmark of this economic system. The problem here should be obvious: as believers, we are called to live for God, and as followers of Christ, we are called to take up our cross (Matthew 10:38) to become a people of sacrifice; instead, our economic system teaches us to live for ourselves and above all for our convenience.
The culture supporting our economic system also dictates a particular relationship to the world. We exist as consumers: we evaluate the world around us from the vantage point of its potential value to us. While we may profess gratitude to God for the blessings that He’s poured out on us, we are nevertheless disconnected from God’s creation and from those – and particularly the world’s poor -- who work to provide the objects that we consume. We see God’s creation not as intrinsically valuable, but merely as something that God created and over which he has surrendered control to us so that we may do with it as we please. We believe that God gave us a right of ownership over his creation. But as What Is the Meaning of Dominion? argues, this is a profound misunderstanding. Instead, God gave us stewardship over his creation so that we care for and nurture it. Psalm 24 tells us that the earth and everything on it belongs to the Lord; nothing in either Sacred Scripture, the Jewish roots of our Christian heritage, or the teaching of the Fathers indicates that he’s given it away. The implication of this is that we are an interdependent part of God’s creation, and not separate from or above it and in a position to dominate over it.
Finally, when we view the world around us in terms of its utility to ourselves, we begin to see life itself as transactional – valuable if it serves us, disposable if it doesn’t. Psalm 114:30 reminds us that all life has been created by the breath of the Holy Spirit. All life, whether human, plant, or animal, has a dignity unique to itself. When we allow a species to become extinct, we are silencing a God-given voice that we have no right to silence. When we choose to dismiss the significant dangers to life – and above all to the lives of the poor in coastal regions of the world’s poorest countries – posed by climate change, we are emphasizing the superiority of our lives over other lives. In the process, we forget that Jesus tells us that whoever would be great in the kingdom of heaven must be a servant (Matthew 20:26-28) and that we must love our neighbor as ourself (Matthew 22:39).
So even if climate change is a hoax, our faith calls us to reassess our relationship to the world around us as we recognize the interdependence and interconnectedness of God’s creation; to recognize the glory and dignity of God’s creation, and especially of the living beings He has created; and as imitators of Christ, to strive to preserve and protect the common home that God has entrusted to our care. In short, even if our common home is not undergoing catastrophic change, it should make no difference: we should live for God, live for the wellbeing of our neighbor, and reject the crass commercialism, selfishness, and waste engendered by world economic systems.
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Last call to join the Goodwin Group trek and build homes in Tijuana Mexico 10/30-11/6/21. Come experience the profound sense of purpose building community with our friends at www.esperanzaint.org. Contact Kenny Goodwin - 425.466.4460 or goodwin.hp@gmail.com to be part of this transformational experience.
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We have had several “chip drops” for our gardens dropped by the front entrance and we need to spread them around. They are very useful for soil enrichment while keeping weeds down - and they don't cost us anything, just the labor to spread them around. If you feel called, please contact Greg at gleptich@sjvkirkland.org.
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Do you need a little 'sunshine' in your life? If so, Sonshine Ministry prepares and delivers no contact meals on a short-term basis for those who are ill, recovering from surgery, elderly, or with a new baby. If you need to catch a ray of the 'SON’ or would like to prepare an occasional meal for a fellow parishioner, please contact the parish office. |
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The USCCB has asked Archbishop Etienne to take up emergency collections as a direct response to the earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace calamities in Haiti, and the extensive damage inflicted by Hurricane Ida. To donate to this great need to aid the families, businesses and churches impacted by these disasters please visit sjvkirkland.org/donate.
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You Are Enough: NAMI Virtual Spiritual Retreat
Saturday, September 25 from 10:00am - 12:30pm
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A Mental Health Ministry event focused on the importance of mind, body and spirit in making one whole and healthy. Learn more
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