Dear Parishioners:
---Get Ready for St. Gabriel/Prince of Peace Virtual Pilgrimage 2023… Our Parish
Community is, once again, welcome and appreciative of Maria Murphree who will
initiate this Virtual Pilgrimage 2023 as a way to keep us engaged in our everyday
Christian living, both, physically and spiritually. The goal is to travel from our Home
Mother Church of Cathedral of St. James, Seattle to the Basilica, Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., beginning on the First Sunday of Advent
November 27, 2022 to Pentecost Sunday May 27, 2023. Maria Murphree will introduce
this Virtual Pilgrimage 2023 at all Masses this weekend.
---In the month of November, all the parishes in our Archdiocese of Seattle are
conducting the annual tradition of Christian Stewardship. Let me first say a “big word
of THANKS” to all of you who had generously given to our parish this past year through
the gifts of Time, Talent and Treasure. Through your gifts, our parish community was
able to fund the ministries and other needs. Once again, in order to plan well for the
upcoming year, we ask that you return to the parish the “Stewardship of Treasure
Card” in the collection basket or mail it back to the parish office as we anticipate another
“successful year” in providing the needs and ministries in our parish community.
Don’t forget to take home a Parish Annual Report, including the Parish Synodal Report
with links to the “Archdiocesan Summary Report” and the “United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops Region XXII Report”. The Regional Report will be incorporated to the
overall “U.S.C.C.B Report”, which is the official U.S. Report at the Synodal of Bishops
Meeting with the Pope in 2023.
---As we come to the end of the Church’s liturgical year, our Sunday Scripture readings
are filled with apocalyptic images that may well terrify us with their intensity, honesty,
realism, and practicality. Apocalyptic writing was popular in Christian circles for a
millennium. Major historical crises most often triggered apocalyptic thinking.
Not all uses of the word “apocalypse,” however, have to do with a special kind of
literature. History being set in the larger context of God’s purpose, giving rise to
extraordinary writing with historical descriptions that are laced with symbols, signs, and
mysterious figures of speech. As strange as this literature may seem to us, it is a dramatic
witness to the tenacity of faith and hope among the people of God.
As we near the end of the liturgical year and are confronted with the ultimate things in
today’s Scripture readings, let us never forget that we are called to give witness through
our daily living. Amid painful and prolonged suffering, when there can be seen on the
horizon of predictable history no relief from disaster, faith turns its face toward heaven
not only for a revelation of God’s will but also for a vision of the end of the present
misery and the beginning of the age to come. That thought alone is a cause of
consolation, joy, and hope in the midst of the storms of our times.
---A special tradition throughout the month of November is that, our parish will
remember and pray for all our deceased members at Mass, especially those names that
have been written on the parish prayer book. Please join us in the daily Mass or at the
weekend Mass in these celebrations. It’s not too late to send in the All Souls’ envelop
with the names of your loved ones who have passed away and wanting our parish to pray
for them.
Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Phuong Hoang