2022 Parish Giving Tree and St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Program

 

- St. John Chrysostom and St. Elizabeth Seton combined parishes

We are happy to announce that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Program and the Giving Tree will be running as they did before the pandemic.

For the Christmas Program that serves our St. Vincent de Paul families, your donation will continue to go towards the purchase of grocery gift cards for parents and gift cards from a local store so that parents can purchase a gift for the children in their family.

For the Giving Tree Program, we will resume having the Giving Tree at the back of both churches decorated with stars for gifts for those in long-term care facilities, seniors and others in need living in our community.  Although backed and supported by your Society of St Vincent de Paul, this program is primarily the organizational initiative of the two parishes in Newmarket, working together with the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

For more information or to donate to the Christmas program click here

Our Father - the Just Judge

 

In the gospel reading from Luke for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary time, Jesus finishes his parable about the unjust judge by comparing him with God and asking, "Will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays? I promise you, he will see justice done to them and done speedily." In the plays of Ancient Greece, someone playing the part of a god would be let down in a basket by ropes, a "Deus ex machina (god in a machine,)" to resolve a hopeless knot of problems that humans had gotten themselves into in the plot of the play. But the God of Jesus and his disciples, our Heavenly Father, is not a "Deus ex machina." Our God works through ordinary people who seek out and follow God's will. People like you and me, and the politicians we elect when we vote wisely and compassionately with an eye to justice and the common good, rather than what is simply going to be best for me without regard to others and their just demands.

Here in Ontario we are in the midst of election campaigning. Although these are 'only' municipal elections, not Federal or Provincial, it behooves us as Christians, Catholics and Vincentians to exercise our civic privilege, and to do so responsibly as a duty, identifying and voting for those candidates whom we believe will best serve the interests of the common good. 

The cry of the poor for food and affordable housing is coming to the ears of our Heavenly Father who wants to see justice done for them. 

The cry of the earth for sustainable development and resource usage in the face of land exploitation by unscrupulous property developers is also going up to the ears of our God along with the cry of the poor.

As Vincentians, our mission is to live the Gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice and joy. We are called to be disciples of Jesus, and Vincentians, 24/7 - not just when delivering food cards.

Happy voting.

Do not let us turn into “broken cisterns” - St John XXIII

 Undated photo released by the Vatican in December 2010. (CNS photo/Vatican)

“O Lord, do not let us turn into “broken cisterns” that can hold no water… do not let us be so blinded by the enjoyment of the good things of earth that our hearts become insensible to the cry of the poor, of the sick, of orphaned children and of those innumerable brothers and sisters of ours who lack the necessary minimum to eat, to clothe their nakedness, and to gather their family together in one roof.”

― Saint John XXIII - Pope