The parishioners of St. Joseph’s invite you to join us in witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ in the world. We are a growing community with a diverse mix of new families, teens, young adults, and seniors who have been with St. Joseph’s since it was the little Church on the hill on Penfield Road. All are welcome, all are part of the fabric that makes us Church. There are many ways to get involved with the life of the parish and to serve the Body of Christ. Learn more about who we are as a
community,
worshiping at St. Joseph’s,
faith formation for lifelong learning, ways to serve through pastoral care and social justice
outreach, and ways to take another step on your faith journey through our vibrant parish life and
spirituality enrichment.
May 1st - St. Joseph the Worker
Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955. But the relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers has a much longer history.
In a constantly necessary effort to keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has from the beginning proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously trained by Joseph in both the satisfactions and the drudgery of that vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also in creating.
Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.
“The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Genesis 2:15). The Father created all and asked humanity to continue the work of creation. We find our dignity in our work, in raising a family, in participating in the life of the Father’s creation. Joseph the Worker was able to help participate in the deepest mystery of creation. Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work. Thus, if you wish to be close to Christ, we again today repeat, ‘Go to Joseph’” (see Genesis 41:44).
In Brothers of Men, René Voillaume of the Little Brothers of Jesus speaks about ordinary work and holiness: “Now this holiness (of Jesus) became a reality in the most ordinary circumstances of life, those of word, of the family and the social life of a village, and this is an emphatic affirmation of the fact that the most obscure and humdrum human activities are entirely compatible with the perfection of the Son of God....this mystery involves the conviction that the evangelical holiness proper to a child of God is possible in the ordinary circumstances of someone who is poor and obliged to work for his living.”
(from today's 'Saint of the Day' publication published by Franciscan Media)
Wikipedia Founder Praises John XXIII Encyclical Pacem in Terris
Vatican City, Apr 28, 2012 / 04:16 pm (CNA)
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has praised Pope John XXIII’s historic encyclical “Pacem in Terris” as “a great thing.”
“I would say what struck me about it was how modern it is and how in tune it is with modern thinking,” Wales told CNA in Rome April 27.
Wales is in Rome as a guest of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council of Social Sciences which is exploring the legacy of the 1963 encyclical on global peace. Wales, who is not Catholic, read the papal document for the first time last week.
“I thought I better do my homework,” he explained.
“You have the impression that the Catholic Church is quite old fashioned...but also that the thinking (in the encyclical) is quite up-to-date and quite modern, so I think that is a great thing.”
“Pacem in Terris,” whose name means “Peace on Earth,” was published on April 11, 1963. Pope John XXIII wrote it at a time when he knew he was terminally ill, and it is often described as his “last will and testament.” He died two months after its release.
The document’s overarching theme is the “tranquility of order” in society as a foundation for global peace. The Pope’s reflections were drawn from his re-reading of St. Augustine’s “City of God” in 1942, during the Second World War.
The work had great influence. “Pacem in Terris” is the only papal encyclical to be published in full by the New York Times.
“I think one of the most important avenues towards peace is for people to first think about what we do agree upon and how can we characterize our disagreement in a way that at least we agree what we disagree about,” he said.
Shine Through Me
The presence of Jesus among us is just that: a widespread presence among all of God's people. We are able to embed the wonders of the presence of God within us. Each of us can and must be the “Jesus Presence” in this world around us.
And yet not one of us is perfect We are formed by environment and grace, by politics and prayer, by church and conscience. All God’s creatures conspire to teach us as well. We stumble. We stutter. We rise. We are lifted.
Still, God chooses each of us, through our Baptism, to be the presence of Christ to all we encounter in the world everyday.
from
"Eucharistic Adoration: Reflections in the Franciscan Tradition"
Pope Pius V and Pope Paul VI
Leaders of Renewal and New Birth in the Church
On April 30th, the Church remembers and celebrates the life of St. Pius V. He became pope in 1566. His primary job was to implement the agreements of the historic Council of Trent. If we think recent popes had difficulties in implementing the agreements of the Second Vatican Council, Pius V had even greater problems after that historic council more than four centuries ago.
During the 6 years that Pius V was pope, he faced the almost overwhelming responsibility of getting a shattered and scattered Church back on its feet. The family of God had been shaken by corruption, by the Reformation, by the constant threat of Turkish invasion and by the bloody bickering of the young nation-states. The Council of Trent met off and on for 18 years in an attempt to deal with all these pressing problems.
Pius V directed the founding of seminaries for the proper training of priests. He published a new missal, a new breviary, a new catechism and established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) classes for the young. Pius zealously enforced legislation against abuses in the Church. He patiently served the sick and the poor by building hospitals, providing food for the hungry and giving money customarily used for the papal banquets to poor Roman converts.
His decision to keep wearing his Dominican habit led to the custom of the pope wearing a white cassock. Pius's ceaseless quest for a renewal of the Church was grounded in his personal life as a Dominican friar. He spent long hours with his God in prayer, fasted rigorously, deprived himself of many customary papal luxuries and faithfully observed the spirit of the Dominican Rule that he had professed.
Much like Pius V, Pope Paul VI was responsible for implementing the decisions and agreements of Vatican II in the 1960s and 1970s. Both Pius V and Paul VI led the family of God in the process of embracing and implementing the new birth called for by the Holy Spirit in major Councils. With zeal and patience, Pius and Paul pursued the changes urged by the Council Fathers. Like Pius and Paul, we too are called to constant change of heart and life.
"In this universal assembly, in this privileged point of time and space, there converge together the past, the present, and the future. The past: for here, gathered in this spot, we have the Church of Christ with her tradition, her history, her councils, her doctors, her saints; the present: we are taking leave of one another to go out toward the world of today with its miseries, its sufferings, its sins, but also with its prodigious accomplishments, values, and virtues; and the future is here in the urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life, that life precisely which the Church of Christ can give and wishes to give to them"
(from Pope Paul's closing message at Vatican II).
Methodist-Catholic Dialogue on Eucharist, Environment Stewardship
April 23, 2012 Washington
Both Methodists and Catholics believe their celebration of the Eucharist helps them to see God’s glory in all of creation and therefore leads to greater care for the environment, according to a new joint statement produced by the United States dialogue between the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the Catholic Church.
The 7th round of the Methodist-Catholic dialogue sought to build on the new found unity between the UMC and the Catholic Church when the Methodists signed onto the Catholic-Lutheran Joint Declaration on Justification—an agreement dispelling the centuries-old disagreement on how people are made just before God—in 2006. The dialogue partners agreed to explore a major issue affecting the common good and chose environmental stewardship.
“We call both Methodists and Catholics to participate more deeply in the Eucharist by recognizing its intrinsic connection with the renewal of creation,” the statement said. “The Eucharist is regarded as the central form of Christian worship because it orchestrates all that humans are and can be on this earth—our senses, abilities, talents, gifts, and intelligence—and offers them back to God the Father in thanksgiving for the Paschal victory of his Son.”
The statement notes that elements of nature—grain for bread and grapes for wine—become part of salvation through the Eucharist and that salvation itself is an act of God at work in all of creation and all creation encountering God. This has implications for believers in their relationship with God’s creation in the environment.
Rev. James A. Schwartz Learning Center Open!
The 150-day transformation of the former small meeting rooms into the St. Joseph's Learning Center has been completed. We are open for business, the business of Lifelong Learning within our parish and school.
We now are blessed with a very large, multi-purpose conference and meeting room facility, replete with advanced audio-visual and Internet technology to support the faith-for-life journey of all in our parish and school. This space was purpose-built to support a wide array of learning initiatives. It can be easily reconfigured to support very large, or very small meetings and events. It will also support many new hospitality opportunities, including after-Mass Java & Juice Sundays, and funeral receptions.
We are very grateful to all of you who so generously supported this important expansion effort. We are also very grateful to the many contractors and workers who demonstrated innovation, skill, and excellence in their work. Thank you!
Mass Schedule
Daily:
Monday-Saturday 8am
Weekend:
Saturday 5 pm
Sunday 7:30am, 9:00am, 11:00am & 5:00pm
Sacrament of Reconciliation:
Saturday 3:30—4:30 pm or by appointment
