Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

In November last year, His Eminence  Thomas Cardinal Collins (who was then Archbishop), made his first-ever visit to our parish during the Second Week of Advent. You may recall that the visit coincided with the implementation of the New Roman Missal as part of church services across Canada.

Cardinal Collins noted his great delight with our parish and our strong and growing faith. Cardinal Collins also made some observations about our church. One such observation related to the Stations of the Cross - that while there were inscriptions of the Roman Numerals on the Floor, we didn’t have the actual Stations of the Cross. 

The Stations of the Cross originated in the early medieval period when the Muslims took over the Holy Land and prevented Christians from making the pilgrimage to the Holy Sites. 

As a result, the Franciscans created the Stations of the Cross, which are “Artistic Depictions of Our Lord’s Passion,” and include a Cross and the Roman Numeral. Hence the name, ‘the Stations of the Cross'.

What we have in our Church today are the Roman Numerals, but no artistic depiction of our Lord’s Passion or the Cross. 

Cardinal Collins instructed me to place the Stations of the Cross in the Church, as is the custom and the tradition in the Catholic Church. 

Tasked with this mission, I did some research and found that the original Stations of the Cross from the Old St. Francis de Sales Church are in Notre Dame High School. I also discovered that the old Stations of the Cross were installed by the 15th pastor, Fr. Bernard Kyte, in 1942. This year marks the 70th anniversary of those Stations of the Cross.

I am sure many of you vividly remember the old Stations of the Cross, which was blessed and displayed in the old Church. It had been part of a decades-old tradition which has enriched and nourished this faith-filled Community. Some of your may have even had a particular attachment to the old Stations of the Cross as members of your family may have contributed towards the cost and installation of the Stations of the Cross. 

Rather than purchase new Stations of the Cross for our parish, I have commissioned an accomplished artist, Carlos Nunez, who has done many major renovations in the diocese including those at St.Paul’s Basilica, St. Augustine’s Seminary and St. Michael’s Cathedral, to work on our old Stations of the Cross. 

I am happy to inform you that the fully restored Stations of the Cross will once again adorn our Church at the beginning of the Lenten Season, re-establishing the rich and enduring tradition of the Catholic Church. 

I pray that the restored Stations of the Cross remind us of our Lord's Passion and lead us to experience God’s infinite love for us.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

With the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord we say goodbye to the festive and exciting season of Christmas, and once again welcome the season of Ordinary Time.

But, the use of the word "ordinary" in the term Ordinary Time can often be misleading as "ordinary" has the connotation of being boring - that nothing interesting or exciting is happening. However, even though we call it ordinary, it is never just ordinary.  

Green, which is the liturgical colour of Ordinary Time, signals life and growth
springing from the ground, and so does God bring to life and fruition our virtues, goodness and holiness. 

Ordinary Time is a time during which we get to know who Jesus is, and we grow closer to Him. And as we grow closer to Jesus, we are able to follow Him even more closely and learn to be more like Him in our ordinary day-to-day lives.

Thus we transform our "ordinary time" to "extraordinary time" of grace and redemption! 

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

Saint Francis de Sales was born in 1567 near Annecy (France), of noble and pious parents, and studied with brilliant success at Paris and Padua (Italy). On his return from Italy he gave up the grand career which his father had destined for him in the service of the state, and became a priest.

When the duke of Savoy resolved to restore the shattered Church in the Chablais region, Francis offered himself for the work and set out on foot with his Bible and breviary, accompanied by one companion, his cousin Louis of Sales.

It was a work of toil, privation and danger. Every door and every heart was closed against him. He was rejected with insult and threatened with death, but nothing could daunt him or resist him indefinitely. And before long the Church blossomed into a second spring. It is said that he converted 72,000 Calvinists.

He was compelled by the Pope to become Coadjutor Bishop of Geneva, and succeeded to that see in 1602. Saint Vincent de Paul said of him, in praise of his gentleness, “How good God must be, since the bishop of Geneva, His minister, is so good!”

At times the great meekness with which he received heretics and sinners almost scandalized his friends, and they protested when he received insults in silence.

One of them said to him, “Francis of Sales will go to Paradise, of course; but I am not so sure about the Bishop of Geneva: I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him a shrewd turn!”

“Ah,” said the Saint, “you would have me lose in one instant all the meekness I have been able to acquire by 20 years of efforts? I would rather account to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. God the Father is the Father of mercy; God the Son is a Lamb; God the Holy Ghost is a Dove; are you wiser than God?”

When a hostile visitor said to him one day, “If I were to strike you on the cheek, what would you do?” Saint Francis answered, with his customary humility, “Ah! I know what I should do, but I cannot be sure of what I would do.”

With Saint Jane Frances of Chantal, Saint Francis founded at Annecy the Order of the Visitation Nuns, which soon spread over Europe. Though poor, he refused provisions and dignities, and even the great see of Paris. He died at Avignon in 1622.

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends, and family in Christ,

“Are we there yet?” Where exactly is there? Do we know where we are going? Are we on the right path? 

As we usher in another new year, 2012, we ask ourselves questions like these, and try to examine our lives. 

Greek philosopher and scientist Democritus once said, “Life unexamined is not worth living,” but the flip side of this quote would be, “Life examined, by and lived according to our God’s commandment, is worth living!” 

The first month of each year is called January, which literally means the “month of Janus.” Janus was a Roman god of gates and doorways who had two faces, one at the front and one at the back of the head, looking in opposite directions. 

In a sense, we are like Janus, we look to our past with its mistakes, failures as well as achievements, and we look forward in hope that with God’s grace we will not perpetuate our past mistakes. 

Back in 2004, the founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, during the commencement speech to the graduating class at Stanford University said, “If you live each day of your life as if it were your last, someday you will most certainly be right. 

I ask myself each day looking into the mirror if today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I’m about to do today? And whenever the answer's been no for too many days, I know I need to change something.” 

How true! We should be asking ourselves the same question everyday, “If today were my last day, would I like to do what I am about to do today?”

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

I’ve been thinking for a while…what single word would describe my experience of the first Christmas and New Year’s celebration? Awesome? Amazing? Moving? Spiritual?

I must say, “All of the above!”

I was moved by the awesome, amazing and moving celebrations that were deeply spiritual. Many of the Christmas celebrations were extremely well attended, and so was the New Year’s weekend (except for the ones at 8:30am and 10:00am). Granted that that whatever excuses one might have they're considered valid and legitimate reasons! For example, getting together with family and friends. That’s what we do, that’s what we are supposed to do. We spend time with the people we love and care about, and exchange gifts and words of gratitude. 

On that note, I would like to thank each and every volunteer for over-extending themselves with generosity, and attending multiple masses with dedication in all of the ministries within our parish. In particular, I am grateful for this year’s Christmas Pageant (Concert).  It was very well done, and even with the short notice we had a great turn out. I would also like to thank the coordinators and all children who participated in the Christmas Pageant. The Church looked stunning with all the lights and decorations. Thanks to all those who came out to decorate the Church, making it look festive.

Thank you once again!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. Despite his disparaging comments, his wife remained steadfast in her faith and raised their children in the practice of faith. On one snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their two children to Christmas Eve Mass and asked him to come along just like she had done so many times before, but he refused once again, saying: "That story of Jesus is nonsense! Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!"

So he stayed home by himself while his wife took the children to Church.

Later that night, the winds grew stronger and the snowstorm turned into a blizzard. As he looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm…suddenly he heard this very loud thump. Something had hit the window. So he ventured outside to see what it could have been. To his surprise he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. And a couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

He felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. ‘It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the snowstorm.’ So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, hoping they would notice the barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn.

The man tried to get their attention by waving a lantern, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came back with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn, but they still didn't catch on. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the opened barn doors. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

Frustrated and exhausted, he said to himself, "Why don't they follow me? Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the snowstorm? If only I were a goose, then I could save them!”

Then, all of a sudden he had an idea! He went into barn, got one of his own geese and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released his goose, which flew through the flock and straight into the barn -- and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed loudly in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier that evening. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!” 

Suddenly it all made perfect sense to him. That is what God had done! We were like the geese -- blind, lost, and perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way, and save us! Now he understood why Jesus Christ had come as one of us. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing snowstorm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and said his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form, to get me out of the storm!”

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

Pope Benedict in his book, The Feast of Faith, noted that soon after the Second Vatican Council people began referring to the Eucharist as a community meal. The Pope's response was that it cost Jesus his life, and only at this price can we enjoy the gift of the Resurrection.

The official teaching of the Church, defined by The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), is that "the Mass" (another name for the Eucharist) is at the same time, and inseparably, the memorial in which the Sacrifice of the Cross is perpetuated, and is the Sacred Banquet of Communion with the Lord's body and blood." (CCC #1382). 

During the celebration of the Mass, the faithful are instructed to kneel during the consecration. But why do we kneel? The Pope, in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, cites examples of kneeling and genuflecting, as follows:  

The leper kneeling before Jesus asking Him to cure his leprosy (Mark 1:40); the rich young man kneeling before Jesus (Mark 10:17); the father of the epileptic son falling down on his knees before Jesus (Matthew 17:14) and the Magi falling down and worshipping the Infant Christ (Matthew 2:11).
 
St. Paul’s Pastoral Letter to the Philippians points out that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

The Holy Father affirms that kneeling and genuflecting are gestures acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, and as acts of worship (p. 189). The kneeling comes from the Bible. It is based on Biblical Tradition, and is an expression of Christian Culture (p. 185). 

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

It was truly an honour and a rare privilege to have His Grace, Archbishop Thomas Collins, spend an entire weekend at our parish during his first pastoral visit to Ajax. 

One of the first things the Archbishop said as he entered our church was that he was impressed with the Benedictine arrangement (Pope Benedict's arrangement of the altar) with the golden Crucifix and candlestands. “This is great, this is the way it should be,” the Archbishop commented. He also expressed great pleasure to see our vibrant faith community in action, and said he would definitely like to visit us again in the near future. 

It was especially significant that Archbishop made himself available to our parish community for the Advent Retreat. Although the numbers were not staggering, those who attended the Archbishop's Retreat were treated to a special insight and abundant spiritual benefit from the event.

On a personal note, I must admit that having the boss around made me nervous and quite a wreck. While the Archbishop's visit itself was a challenge, having to cook dinner for him certainly required special grace and a lot of prayers. I'm no professional chef, but I'm glad to say we all survived that test - and His Grace did not end up with food-poisoning.The prayers worked...

On a serious note, while the Archbishop was thrilled that our parish has given the church two seminarians who are currently studying for the priesthood, he has asked that we work towards encouraging more vocations to priesthood, religious life and the calling as a permanent deacon. 

If you've heard the call and felt moved by the Archbishop's appeal, please contact me so we can work together to help you find your vocation and take the next steps. Like the Archbishop assured our parish community,"You will never regret answering this call!"

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

We have finally moved into the new Rectory.  I only wish moving in was the same thing as settling in.  The boxes now all need to be unboxed, unpacked and organized.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the much-needed helping hands.  The move would not have been possible without the help of the youthful and energetic men (young and old) who moved everything, as well as the ladies who helped me pack, unpack and reorganize all the kitchen stuff.

With the move to the new Rectory and the introduction of the new Roman Missal and Liturgy, I just need a new car and a new hairstyle to go with the complete makeover!

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

The centrality of the Crucifix in the celebration of Mass was more evident, and firmly observed in the past. That was a time when the priests and the faithful faced the Crucifix, which was placed in the centre above the altar.
 
In the present custom of celebrating the Eucharist with the priest "facing the people", often the crucifix is located to the side of the altar, thus losing its central position.
 
In his book, Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI stresses the importance of placing the altar Crucifix in the centre of the altar. He proposes that "Where a direct common turning toward the east is not possible, the cross can serve as the interior 'east'. The significance of 'facing the east' is drawn from the fact that the east is the direction of sunrise, and is the symbol of light dispelling darkness and evil, and is the liturgical symbolism of the Lord's resurrection.
 
Pope Benedict says that even during the celebration with the priest "facing the people," the Crucifix should maintain its central position, and that it would be impossible to think that the depiction of the Crucified Lord could in any way be a source of disturbance (this is with reference to complaints by some people directly to the Pope that because of the positioning of the altar Crucifix people could no longer clearly see his face when celebrating the Mass. The Pope's response was: "Could Christ ever get in the way? Since when do we stare at each other's eyes when we pray? Don't we look to God?").

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

Dear Parishioners, friends and family in Christ,

After months of painstaking search for a new rectory, we’ve finally found one. It's just two blocks, or 200 metres north of our present Church. 

I guess Fr. Colman and I will finally be going green and getting lots of exercise walking to Church every day! My goal is to lose 20 pounds!

We’ve decided to move to a new rectory for two reasons.

Firstly, the distance between the old rectory and our Church on Ravenscroft Road was a bit too far to walk (nearly 40 minutes each way). When the old Church was at the Church Street location, it was convenient and manageable with the rectory adjacent to the Church. And that worked fine in earlier times. Not any more...

Secondly, the old rectory building is in bad shape. It needs a lot of work! After having consulted building experts and construction professionals we were told that we'd have to spend a huge amount of money to fix and update the premises to today’s standard (personally, I think the rectory looks like it was frozen in time: circa 1950).

Anyway, after much consideration, the solution we opted for was to sell the old rectory and buy something closer to the Church. With the new rectory so close to the church, we could soon be using the basement as another meeting space!
 
We will be moving to the new rectory in a couple of weeks.

Although I’m looking forward to moving closer to the Church, one thing I’m not looking forward to is all the packing and unpacking that’s required for this huge transition. I’ve not even finished unpacking all my belongings from my last move, and yet I have to pack everything I’ve unpacked!

I reckon I’ve done my share of penance for Lent!

Sincerely!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi

ROMAN MISSAL - IN FOCUS 

Posture - Matter of Respect And Reverence!

1. Excerpt from Cardinal Carter’s letters and legislation on kneeling during
consecration (please click on Cardinal Carter's Letters and Legislation to access the excerpted document).

2. Posture while receiving the Holy Communion (Video Clip #1), and
Posture after having received the Holy Communion (Video Clip #2)

The following two video clips show Cardinal Francis Arinze’s explanation of the Church’s liturgical norms. These norms were etsablished after careful examination, and in consultation with bishops and liturgical experts from around the world.

The first video clip is an explanation of the “Redemptionis Sacramentum” Vatican document released in 2004.

VIDEO CLIP 1

In this video clip, Cardinal Arinze explains that the preferred method for receiving Holy Communion is while kneeling. However the bishops of Canada and the United States asked for, and have been granted permission for the Catholic faithful to receive Holy Communion on the hand while standing. Therefore, although receiving Holy Communion while standing is an exception rather than the norm, it has become a standard practice in North America, and is now permitted, provided the communicant demonstrates due reverence, by making a deep bow or genuflecting (3:08 -3:33).

The second video clip is an explanation of the accepted posture during Mass.

VIDEO CLIP 2 

Cardinal Arinze refers to GRIM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) and instructs Catholics to kneel down during consecration.He also notes that the Vatican has no regulations regarding posture after communicants receive the Holy Communion (3:05-3:48). When Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, asked if he should recommended that people of his diocese be instructed to remain standing until the last person has received Holy Communion, the Vatican advised against that.

While the Vatican shows flexibility, and has granted permission to Catholics in dioceses in Canada and the US to stand or to kneel while receiving communion, the Vatican is firmly opposed to 'regimenting' or taking away  freedom when nothing has been formally legislated by the Vatican.

After having received the Holy Communion people should return to their seats and say an act of thanksgiving to God first, and then join in singing of the Communion hymn (please click on Act of Thanksgiving to access the thanksgiving prayers). 

The emphasis on acceptable posture is meant to assists us in praying and showing respect and reverence to God.

Yours in Christ!

Fr. Peter Jae Choi