2025 Giving Tree Program & SSVP Christmas Program

 

It is that time of year when we start planning and fundraising for our Christmas Program and the food requirements of our families in need. Thank you for your donations last year. Through your generosity you made Christmas special for over 1,000 less fortunate people in our community and allowed us to sustain these families with food vouchers and fresh food baskets throughout the year. The need is as great as ever. More and more people in our community need our help! We hope you will donate again this year.

To best serve our families in time for Christmas your donation would be appreciated on or before November 23rd. You can make donations with a credit card on our web page at https://sjcses.blogspot.com/p/christmas-program.html, as you did last year. You can also go to the parish websites or simply use your smartphone to scan the QR code. 

This year you can also donate at the back of the church using your debit or credit card on the weekend of November 1 & 2 at St. John Chrysostom and on November 8 & 9 at St. Elizabeth Seton.

The Christmas Program will continue to serve not only families but other individuals in need that we have helped throughout the year. For our families, your donation will go towards the purchase of grocery gift cards, a Good Food Box and a gift card for parents and gift cards for the children. Our adult recipients will receive a Good Food Box and a gift card from a local store so they can purchase something special for themselves.

The Giving Tree Program is organized by St. Elizabeth Seton and St. John Chrysostom parishes. A Christmas tree will be placed at the back of both churches around November 15, and it will be decorated with stars indicating gifts needed and prayers for those in long-term care facilities, seniors and others in need living in our community. This initiative is parish-based but is supported by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Your gift, no matter the size will make a difference in the lives of those often left out throughout the year but especially at Christmas. Funds remaining after Christmas will go towards our general fund to help individuals and families in need in 2026.

We thank you for your continued support and prayers

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The following extract from a reflection on today's feast by Fr. Enzo Del Brocco CP has an important message for all Christians, but has particular relevance for us as Vincentians. You can read the full reflection here on the Catholic Theological Union web page:
https://learn.ctu.edu/feast-of-the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross/

There is a danger… in how we relate to the Cross. We see it in the temptation of Christian nationalism, where the Cross is used as a banner of power, identity, or exclusion. But the Cross is never a flag to wave over others. It is not a weapon to dominate, nor a tool to draw boundaries of “us” against “them.” Whenever Christians do this, we betray the very One who died on the Cross for all.

Instead, Christianity is called to be like leaven in society—quiet, small, but powerful enough to transform the whole dough. The Cross heals like the serpent in the desert: not by striking down enemies, but by drawing the gaze of the wounded and giving them life. In our world poisoned by division, violence, nationalism, and fear, the Cross offers an antidote: reconciliation, compassion, forgiveness.

To lift high the Cross today means: standing with the wounded: with refugees, the poor, the sick, the excluded; healing with mercy: countering the poison of hatred and lies with truth spoken in love; witnessing hope: refusing to let fear or ideology replace the Gospel of self-giving love.

Brothers and sisters, the Cross is not a symbol of conquest, but of healing. Not a mark of domination, but of love stronger than death. To exalt the Cross is to make visible Christ’s mercy in a broken world.

Let us lift high the Cross, not by imposing it, but by embodying it: healing wounds, building peace, forgiving enemies, and proclaiming by our lives that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Amen.

You can read the full reflection here on the Catholic Theological Union web page:
https://learn.ctu.edu/feast-of-the-exaltation-of-the-holy-cross/

Blessed Frederic Ozanam - September 9

 

Gospel Principles in Bl. Frederic Ozanam's Life

Service to the Poor:
Ozanam's primary mission was to serve the poor and oppressed, mirroring Jesus' teachings in the Gospels. He believed that caring for the poor was a direct expression of faith in God.

Justice for the Needy:
He advocated for the rights of the poor and the working class, founding a newspaper to secure justice for them.

Embodiment of Christ's Charity:
Ozanam's followers, known as Vincentians, visited and assisted the poor in their homes, encountering Christ through these relationships.

His Legacy - Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVP):
He co-founded this global charitable organization to put the Gospel into action through works of mercy, becoming one of the largest church institutions in the world.

In Summary
Blessed Frederic Ozanam lived the Gospel by actively seeking out the poor, working for their justice, and forming a movement to do the same. He is celebrated as a saintly figure whose life served as a powerful example of applying Christ's message of love and compassion.