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President's Message - July 2021
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Well, it is July already and Covid 19 restrictions are mostly lifted for the fully vaccinated. Our Parish is back to full capacity, and we can once again sing as a congregation.
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Our recent Mens’s club survey had a great response rate and showed that we as a club have a high vaccination rate among our members. It also showed that we are anxious to get back to in person fellowship events. We will review all the survey results at our July General Meeting on Tuesday 6th. July at 7:00PM (remote meeting, see details and log on in this newsletter).
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On 24th of July the parish will host its in person “State of the Parish Meeting”, the Men’s Club will be hosting a free BBQ (Hamburgers and Hot dogs) in the traditional July fashion. Fr. Anthony and various Parish leaders will present where we are currently and give a peek into our plans for the rest of 2021. It will be great to see everyone at this meeting. Greg Stephens will soon be sending out a call for volunteers to help with this event. We will need many hands so please volunteer to help. This is the start of bringing us back as a community of faith.
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Many of you are in multiple ministries in our Parish and have undoubtedly heard about the new parish volunteer form and Virtus on-line training (Safe environment for our children). Both are required by our Diocese and our parish for participation in all Community groups, Ministries, and volunteer programs. You will soon be receiving an e-mail with more details from me. Please note you only need to do this for one ministry, and it is refreshed every three years.
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One last thing, effective immediately, checks payable to Men’s club must be written to “Saint Joseph Parish” and you can add in the memo line the reason for payment (Membership dues, Chuck-Wagon BBQ, Shirt purchase). There is an article in this newsletter from our treasurer on this subject.
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Wishing all of you a safe, healthy, and family filled 4th of July.
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VP of Spirituality Message - July
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Many of you know that Fr Anthony has appointed five new paintings of saints down the St Mary side of the church. Over the next few months, I will be highlighting some of the stories behind these saints based upon research over the Internet. The first is Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin–Mohawk laywoman. She was born in around 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, on the south side of the Mohawk River in Northeastern New York state.
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She was the daughter of Kenneronkwa, a Mohawk chief, and Kahenta, an Algonquin woman, who had been captured in a raid, then adopted and assimilated into the tribe. Kahenta had been baptized Catholic and educated by French missionaries near Montreal. The Mohawk suffered a severe smallpox epidemic from 1661 to 1663, causing high fatalities. When Tekakwitha was around four years old, her baby brother and both her parents died of smallpox. She survived but was left with facial scars and impaired eyesight. Her name, Tekakwitha, means “she who bumps into things”.
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In the spring of 1674, at age eighteen, Tekakwitha met the Jesuit priest Jacques de Lamberville, who was visiting the village. Most of the women were out harvesting corn, but Tekakwitha had injured her foot and was in the cabin. In the presence of others, Tekakwitha told him her story and her desire to become a Christian. She started studying the catechism and at the age of 19, on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1676. Tekakwitha was baptized "Catherine" after St. Catherine of Siena (or Kateri in Mohawk). She participated in tribal life and became skilled at traditional women’s arts, but refused to marry, taking a vow of perpetual virginity. She learned more about Christianity under her mentor, who taught her about the practice of repenting for one’s sins.
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The Jesuits’ account of Tekakwitha said that she was a modest girl who avoided social gatherings; she covered much of her head with a blanket because of the smallpox scars. Upon her death at the age of 24, witnesses said that her scars vanished minutes later, and her face appeared radiant and beautiful. Known for her virtue of chastity and mortification of the flesh, as well as being shunned by some of her tribe for her religious conversion to Catholicism, she is the fourth Native American to be venerated in the Catholic Church and the first to be canonized. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's Basilica on 21 October 2012.
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Fr John. Prochaska Speaker for July General Meeting.
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Fr John Prochaska will be our speaker at our July meeting. He is a local boy who earned a degree in chemical engineering and was working for a local packaging company when he felt called to the priesthood. He was and still is a keen backpacker. He was ordained May 29, 1993, and served at St. Joseph Parish in Pinole and St. Leander Parish in San Leandro before coming to Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish about 17 years ago as pastor. In his priesthood, travels and mission, he felt called to something more. Five years ago, he received a leave of absence from Bishop Barber to join the Missionary Society of St James, which takes diocesan priests and places them for five years in mission territory in Peru before returning them to their home diocese. Since he had backpacking experience at high altitudes (he had scaled Mt Whitney above 14,000 ft) he was assigned to an alpine parish at 13,000 feet, from where he visited his parishioners as high as 17,000 ft. Fr John is back now and will be assigned to St Joseph the Worker parish in Berkeley on July 1. He will address us at our July meeting and share some of his experiences and perspective. Attend the meeting and hear from a true missionary!
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July General Meeting Zoom Logon
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Our July General Meeting will be held remotely on Tuesday 6th of July at 7:00PM.
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This will likely be our last remote meeting as we will be transitioning back to in person meetings.
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Guest Speaker: Fr. John Prochaska who will speak about his Ministry work in Peru (see article in this newsletter on Fr. John).
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Meeting ID: 723 651 7968
Passcode: 708108
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,7236517968# US (San Jose)
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Men’s Club Recognizes Parish High School Senior
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The St. Joseph Men’s Club is pleased to announce that Madeleine Wong, Notre Dame High School, San Jose, has been awarded the Joseph Faria Memorial Scholarship for her exceptional leadership and service to the St. Joseph community.
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Besides being an excellent student, Madeleine has sung in the Children’s Choir and Schola, taught Special Education Faith Formation, made Easter Baskets for St. Vincent de Paul and been awarded many religious Girl Scout Awards including the Pillars of Faith Award. Please join us in congratulating Madeleine on her accomplishments and in wishing her great success as she continues her education at University California, Berkeley in the coming year.
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The St. Joseph Men’s Club is pleased to announce that Madeleine Wong, Notre Dame High School, San Jose, has been awarded the Joseph Faria Memorial Scholarship for her exceptional leadership and service to the St. Joseph community.
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Besides being an excellent student, Madeleine has sung in the Children’s Choir and Schola, taught Special Education Faith Formation, made Easter Baskets for St. Vincent de Paul and been awarded many religious Girl Scout Awards including the Pillars of Faith Award. Please join us in congratulating Madeleine on her accomplishments and in wishing her great success as she continues her education at University California, Berkeley in the coming year.
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Message from our Treasurer
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I have been advised by Gina Mehta that our parish's bank is no longer accepting checks which are not explicitly made out to "Saint Joseph Parish". In the past I have run into this problem and have had to return checks. So please make sure that when you write checks or receive checks on behalf of the Men's Club, or any function of our church, that the check is written to "Saint Joseph Parish". Even if it is made out to the Men's Club, the check will no longer be accepted. Thank you
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August General Meeting Presentation-Sneak Peek
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Our VP for Spirituality, Dennis Dubro, recently attended the Society of Catholic Scientists conference in Washington, D.C. He will be our speaker at the August meeting where he will present the "Readers’ Digest" version of the conference, whose theme was Extraterrestrial Life and Artificial Intelligence. Some of the main topics include the likelihood of extraterrestrial life, what it means in Catholic Theology, evidence of building blocks of life in outer space, the Search for Extraterrestrial Life – SETI, evolution – the types of theories, theories on creationism, scientific innovation, and Franciscan spirituality. This was a conference of scientists. So, there were some more mundane talks, but equally interesting like earthquakes, their consequences, and the Jesuit Pioneers.
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Year at a Glance
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Here is a link to our "Year at a Glance" calendar:
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