St. Vincent de Paul Society at SJB

Dear Friends in Christ,

The pastor of a parish is also the spiritual director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. As you know the Society is our parish’s organ of charitable works. I have spoken to you and have written about our local Conference and their dedicated service to the poor. We must serve the poor because to serve the poor is to serve Christ Himself.

As you can imagine, this past year has seen a dramatic increase in requests for aid. Compared to the previous year the cases handled more than doubled. Here are some of the statistics from President Paul Kelly’s October 2009 Report (Comparative figures for 2008 are in italics):

• 696/331 cases (home visits, motel visits, and persons who called at the rectory),
• 1382/667 food vouchers were distributed,
• 834/425 transportation vouchers (gasoline, bus passes),
• 181/65 persons were provided with lodging,
• 32/19 persons received medical aid,
• 33/23 utility bills paid,
  
• Members volunteered over 880 hours of service, including 3630 unreimbursed auto miles.
  

Here are some of the figures from the Society’s 2009 financial report (2008 figures are in italics):

• $51,862/$23,349 total charitable disbursements for the year
• $39,441/$23,983 donations for the year from parishioners ($20,255 carried over from the previous year)
• $1202/$1327 donations from Society members
• $9,038 balance as of September 30, 2009
  

The primary source of funds for the St. Vincent de Paul Society are three annual collections for the poor:

1. Ash Wednesday
2. Holy Thursday
3. Thanksgiving Day.
   

In addition, the Society receives the contents of the poor box (located in the church vestibule) and envelopes provided in your annual offertory envelope packet.

I wish to thank all the members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society for their dedicated work, which I witness daily here at the rectory office. I also invite you to join in this blessed work of serving Jesus in the poor. I also want to thank each of you for your donations to this charitable organization and for your continued commitment to sustaining its outreach to the poor of our area. If we persevere in our charity we can hope to hear the Lord say, “Well done, good and
faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25, 21). May we all hear these words one day.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand

Water and SJB

Dear Friends in Christ,

The American author and humorist Mark Twain once said, “Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.” Now the water we have seen this past week was certainly no moderate amount and it has hurt a lot of people in southern California. In the past week’s news you may have seen some of us as we slogged through the water in the parking lot.

Fortunately some of our parishioners saw us trying to deal with the “lake” in our parking lot on Monday and pitched in to help bail out the water. Some of us were interviewed by the reporters. I like what Fr. Norbert said. It was pretty bad but nothing like what they’re experiencing in Haiti. I write this column on Thursday, Jan. 21 so that it can be sent to the publisher for printing.

After Monday’s flash flood we have seen a lot more rain, but we have been able to dry out our classrooms and re-open the school for Thursday. I hope that when you read this on Saturday evening or Sunday we will have a break from the rain. We all wanted to see more rain to alleviate the drought,…but not so fast!

Please join us in praying for protection from these storms. Meanwhile, speaking of Haiti, you probably heard that they suffered a strong aftershock this past week which frightened everyone, and still they are looking for survivors. Millions are suffering in this tragedy, but persons of good will from all over the world are responding to help the people. We are especially grateful to you for your generosity in the special collection for Haiti. We collected nearly $17,000 for this effort which will go to Catholic Relief Services. CRS, which has a base in Haiti, has transformed a golf course near Port-au-Prince into a refugee camp. They are providing food and hygiene items to the many people who are homeless as a result of the earthquake. They have also managed to keep open a quake damaged hospital to serve the thousands of injured. If you were unable to donate to the collection last week you will find an announcement with an address for CRS for sending donations on page 3 of this bulletin.

Other organizations here in Orange County are sending aid to Haiti. We hope to provide more opportunities for you to help the people of Haiti. Our youth group is planning some benefit events that we will announce here in the bulletin and from the pulpit. Here at home we are helping the poor in our area through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This weather is very hard for the homeless, and they are coming to our door for help. Have you ever thought of joining our St. Vincent de Paul Society? Have you used your St. Vincent de Paul envelope lately?

Have a good week and try to stay dry.

God bless you and your family,

Fr. Hildebrand

Haiti

The recent earthquake in Haiti has shocked the world. We have seen images of mass destruction, and we have heard the cries of the afflicted people. The sheer volume of this tragedy defies description as the news media uncover more stories of woe in this impoverished nation. Our hearts go out to these poor people, but our minds cannot grasp the meaning of such a terrible loss of life and property inflicted by nature. We are tempted to cry out like holy Job in the Bible, protesting to heaven over the suffering of millions of innocent human beings. What meaning can we find in this situation? Does our Catholic faith have any answers? Natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes are physical evils that result from the imperfections of the natural world. St. Paul reminds us that “all creation groans and is in labor…waiting for the redemption” (Romans 8: 22-23). The Catechism explains it this way:

“But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world ‘in a state of journeying’ toward its ultimate perfection. In God’s plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature (like earthquakes). With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #310).

God’s mysterious Providence allows physical evils to remind us of the transitory nature of our existence. How brief and fleeting is our sojourn on this earth! The Psalmist reminds us: “Man’s days are like those of grass; like a flower of the field he blooms; the wind sweeps over him and he is gone, and his place knows him no more”(Ps. 103: 15-16). The disaster in Haiti has brought about one very good result, the outpouring of charity from nations around the world, including our own. The disaster of sin had the result that “God sent is only Son” out of love for us sinners, so that we could be saved from eternal disaster. While we cannot humanly understand why natural disasters occur, we can view them with the eyes of faith, believing that the ways of God’s providence will finally be understood when He has guided creation to its final end, when all things will be one in Christ.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand

SJB 50th Anniversary Celebrations

Dear Friends in Christ,

We continue our 50th Anniversary celebrations on Jan. 23 with our Winter Dinner Dance. I hope most of you will join us for this event, which will be one of the three biggest Anniversary celebrations this year.

The Dinner Dance will feature the voice of Father Augustine as emcee. You will have a chance to bid at a SILENT AUCTION. Great music will fill the air for your listening and dancing pleasure, prepared by my old friend Leo Raab, who has over 30 years of experience! This weekend is the last one to take advantage of special pricing for this great event, which you won’t want to miss.

Please stop at the table outside Mass today to purchase your tickets and come to celebrate 50 years of St. john the Baptist parish!

Have you made a New Year’s resolution? Here’s a suggestion. Sign up for adoration one hour a week in our Blessed Sacrament Chapel. You will find the spiritual benefits that many parishioners have experienced by spending an hour with the Lord.

Please remember to lock your cars and keep valuables out of sight when parking in our lot. We have had four cars burglarized between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2. The incidents occurred during Masses, both in the evening and during the day. Our security guard does watch for persons who act suspiciously, but he cannot be everywhere at once.

Thank you for your help in this matter,

Fr. Hildebrand

Pope Benedict’s message for World Day of Peace (Jan. 1)

Dear Friends in Christ,

A happy and grace-filled New Year 2010 to all of you!

Here is a passage from Pope Benedict’s message for World Day of Peace (Jan. 1).

If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation. In the light of divine Revelation and in fidelity to the Church’s Tradition, Christians have their own contribution to make. They contemplate the cosmos and its marvels in light of the creative work of the Father and the redemptive work of Christ, who by his death and resurrection has reconciled with God “all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (Col 1:20).

Christ, crucified and risen, has bestowed his Spirit of holiness upon mankind, to guide the course of history in anticipation of that day when, with the glorious return of the Savior, there will be “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13), in which justice and peace will dwell for ever. Protecting the natural environment in order to build a world of peace is thus a duty incumbent upon each and all. It is an urgent challenge, one to be faced with renewed and concerted commitment; it is also a providential opportunity to hand down to coming generations the prospect of a better future for all. May this be clear to world leaders and to those at every level who are concerned for the future of humanity: the protection of creation and peacemaking are profoundly linked! For this reason, I invite all believers to raise a fervent prayer to God, the all-powerful Creator and the Father of mercies, so that all men and women may take to heart the urgent appeal: If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.

The Holy Father’s appeal would make a good New Year’s resolution for us. We could resolve to be more frugal, less wasteful, more sensitive to our natural environment, and thus more respectful of God’s creation. We might begin with praying for a greater respect for life, especially the greatest resource on earth, human life.

May the Lord bless you during this New Year.

Fr. Hildebrand