7. NEDELJA MED LETOM 7TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME SLOVENSKA ŽUPNIJA SV. GREGORIJA VELIKEGA | ST. GREGORY THE GREAT SLOVENIAN CHURCH 8/53 Številka - Number / Leto - Year 19. 2. 2017 Fr. Drago Gačnik, SDB ŽUPNIK - PASTOR NASLOV - ADDRESS 125 Centennial Pkwy N Hamilton, ON L8E 1H8 TEL.: 905-561-5971 FAX: 905-561-5109 E-MAIL gregory_sdb@ stgregoryhamilton.ca WEB PAGE www.carantha.com HALL RENTALS CELL: 905-518-6159 E-MAIL hallrental@ stgregoryhamilton.ca VESTNIK Povračilo z enako mero? Vse zakonodaje starega Vzhoda, Mojzesova, Hamurabijev zakonik in rimsko pravo so dovoljevale povračilo z enako mero. Ljudje so vračali milo za drago. V Jezusovem času se je uveljavilo poravnavanje sporov in razžalitev v denarju. Osnovno načelo, ki se mu je Jezus zoperstavil, pa je ostalo isto. Kaj Jezus uči drugačnega? Kristus se obrača na ranjenega, razžaljenega človeka. Njegovo prizade­vanje, hrepenenje po pravici ni nikoli popolnoma upravičeno. Na dnu srca klije seme maščevalnosti. Jezus svari pred željo, da sočloveku vrne vse storjene krivice. Navkljub pregovoru je maščevanje bolečina: kazen rojeva novo kazen, vse se ponavlja v sklenjenem krogu. Ali Jezus opozarja, da je tudi »pravično naložena« kazen krivična? Ali je naš način kaznovanja in vzgoje primeren ter uspešen. Pogosto se hudobnež le še bolj zakrkne, krivica ni odpravljena in vsi se čutijo ogoljufane. Le pristna, zdrava človeškost lahko popravi krivico. Jezus je imel v mislih božjo zamisel: svet naj bi postal skupen dom, v katerem bodo ljudje živeli povezani v solidarnosti in razumevanju. Ne zago­varja popustljivosti, strahopetne ustrežljivosti. Otroci luči morajo biti ljudje dobre volje, brez zahrbtnih namenov. Pozabiti moramo na svoje potrošniške izgovore. Jezus opozarja na razsodnost, ki bo izbojevala resnično zmago. Člo­vek, ki se mu je zgodila krivica, naj ne posnema hudobneža; naj ne sprejema »svetnih« norm. Mogoče se bo pri tem poboljšal tudi zatiralec, če že ne takoj, pa ob pogledu na trpečega. Bog pa bo sodil žrtev in hudodelca: »Meni gre maščevanje, jaz bom povrnil, pravi Gospod« (Rim 12,19). Le Bog je pravičen sodnik, kajti on je vir večne ljubezni. Drugače ljubiti, ljubti sovražnike: Nenavadna, edinstvena zahteva! Z njo Jezus reže v ravnanje in vrednotenje in obtožuje našo mlačno cerkvenost, na katero smo skrčili svoje krščanstvo. Ob treh besedah bomo odkrivali novost ljubezni, zapovedi in življenja. 82 | VESTNIK 2017 84 | VESTNIK 2017 86 | VESTNIK 2017 88 | VESTNIK 2017 90 | VESTNIK 2017 92 | VESTNIK 2017 94 | VESTNIK 2017 96 | VESTNIK 2017 Served promptly at 12:00 Paid Reservations $15/adult (at the door $20 Child 4-10 yrs $5 3 and under free VESTNIK 2017 | 83 VESTNIK 2017 | 85 VESTNIK 2017 | 87 VESTNIK 2017 | 89 VESTNIK 2017 | 91 VESTNIK 2017 | 93 VESTNIK 2017 | 95 Our Annual Bazaar preparations 2017 are well on their way: CWL Blue Lottery tickets - Lottery tickets have been distributed and are being sold by our members. A few may be available before or after Sunday masses. We kindly ask that our members do their best to sell them. All sold tickets and monies collected should be returned as soon as possible. If anyone is having difficulty selling their booklets please return them as soon as possible in order to give someone else the opportunity to sell and or buy them. Thank you to every-one who has participated in supporting us by purchasing these lottery tickets! GOOD LUCK to you!! All money raised from selling these lottery tickets go directly to our parish. Štrudel - pre-orders are no longer availa-ble but štrudel will be sold in a single serving pieces at the Bazaar. Donations to our Penny Sale, Raffle, Pe-civo tables and Children's Center: every year we appeal to the generosity of our mem-bers and parishioners to consider donating some of their baking talents for the bake ta- ble; new or nearly new items for our Penny Sale, Raffle tables and Children's Center. It is this generous spirit in our community that has allowed our Bazaar to be a success every year. We hope this year will be equally as successful. Lunch Tickets - will be sold before Sunday masses. Advance Paid Reservation Adult tickets are $15. $20 at the door. Children 4-10 are $5. Children 3 and under are free. Reserva-tion contact numbers are: Teresa Sarjaš at 905-560-1218 or Milena Krušič at 905-393-6594. Noodles - will be sold on the day of the Bazaar immediately following mass from the hall coat check room for $12 a bag. We will start with a 2 bag limit in order to give every-one an opportunity to buy them. Any left over will be announced later in the afternoon. Dear Parish family, it is your attendance, generosity and support that will allow us to continue the tradition of this over 45 year parish family event. We rely on and look forward to your continued support for the success of Bazaar 2017. All our proceeds go to help our parish. Bazaar 2016 PRIDE AND HOPE by Tony Horvat, P. Eng., Oct. 22, 2011 at Scholarship Banquet I am also proud of the support and activism of Slovenians in Hamilton and other countries around the world as they quickly rose up to support the Slovenian fight for independence and support it politically, financially and morally. During that dan-gerous and ultimately, exhilarating time there was a great spirit of unity among all Slovenians world-wide. I hope that spirit can be renewed and sustained into the future by the younger generations. I am proud of the Slovenians who came to the Hamilton area. There are many notable accomplishments whose story must be told and re-told to the youth of the next generation so that they can appreciate them. Ask them this: “As a person born here, can you imagine departing your country of birth and being placed in a far off foreign country with no knowledge of the local language, few resources or knowledge of local laws and customs and in less than one generation building thriving multi-million dollar facilities to support Slovenian spiritual, social and cultural needs?” As an example, my father came to this country as a refugee with one suitcase with one change of clothes in it and $20 in his wallet. By working hard, he built himself a successful life here and also con-tributed many hours to the various activities within the Slovenian community. His is not an unusual story among Slovenians coming to Canada in the 1950’s. Slovenians are by nature a hard working people. This is, in fact, a measurable statement – just before their independence from Yugoslavia, Slovenians repre-sented 8% of the population of the county but pro-duced 20% of the gross domestic product – in other words each Slovenian produced 2.5 times more than the other citizens. In 1961, the American President John Kennedy said during his inaugural address “ask not what your coun-try can do for you; ask what you can do for your coun-try”. It is evident that many Slovenians in the Hamilton area have taken this approach to life – they have con-tributed uncountable volunteer hours in serving their community. In one generation of immigration to Canada, Slove-nians have built excellent facilities to assist in the preservation of a Slovenian cultural identity. Then they developed programs like the Slovenian school, choir, folklore group, credit unions etc., organized and staffed primarily by volunteers. Recently, while I was preparing a display for a func-tion at the parish hall, I was approached by a young girl about 12 years old and asked how much I was be-ing paid to do this work. Frankly, I was shocked by the question. I hope this incident was an unusual one and that we are doing a better job of instilling a volunteer ethic in our young generation for the good of our com-munity. The next generation has been presented a great gift and advantage in that, the physical facilities are already complete and are ready to be utilized. Only time and participation in the existing programs and/or development of new programs is necessary. I hope young parents and youth become more and more involved – take advantage of what is here and invent or re-invent what is needed. The way forward is not always easy and convenient – certainly many peo-ple have some distance to drive to take advantage of the facilities - but in the end, the effort is worthwhile and rewarding. To be continued Our "Let's Raise the Roof" event held last Saturday was a fabulous night and an over-whelming success for our parish! After mass, parishioners started to make their way to the hall to have a look and support their Slovenian Community. Everyone who was involved in the organizing of our Social Fund-raiser had high hopes for the evening, but it is safe to say that our expectations were over-whelmingly exceeded. As people continued to walk through the doors and participate in the various activities that were set up, it was clear that there is still a connection to our par-ish. Tickets were purchased, guesses were made, games were played, the food and drink were plentiful and competition stood strong. However, the greatest part of the evening was to watch the interaction amongst old friends, the re-connections made with familiar faces and the laughter and memories shared by all. The young and the old, sat together and realized a common thread which lead to inter-esting conversations. The aura in the room was that of great family and friends coming togeth-er. The optimism of our future was evident that evening, and the reassurance that we want our Slovenian heritage to live on in our community was clear. There was something at this event for every-one! We'd like to take a minute to share a short story with you all ... One of our families lives in North Burlington and the parents are teaching their children the importance of responsibility and a good work ethic. They have chickens and it is the children's responsibility to do all the chores connected to the chickens and any money they make can go towards whatever they want. These four children have been dili-gently mucking out the chicken coup every day, cleaning the eggs and selling them and saving every penny to buy themselves a TV. These kids purchased tickets, played games and dropped their tickets into the bags des-perately wishing for the TV. Well, suddenly, there were jumps to the ceiling and screams of disbelief - these 4 kids won the TV. Seeing their enthusiasm and excitement brought a smile to everyone who knew their story. There were many similar stories in the hall that night - with people buying tickets so a kid could win a game, enthusiasts watching com-petitors desperately hammering a nail hoping to get it in with a single whack and youngsters watching competitive member toss their toonies as if they were in a bocce court. Yes... the night was a success on so many levels. So, as our event is now over and we've evaluated the evening and have made notes on how to improve next year's event, for ex-ample, ensuring the elderly are accommodat-ed for the buffet process and making the grand prize bags a little more accessible we hope you plan to attend next year. There were many hands involved in the organizing of this event, so to all who helped out in any way, we say THANK YOU! To every-one who made the effort to come out and par-ticipate and show your commitment to our community, we say THANK YOU! And of course to Fr. Drago, who is always so support-ive of all our efforts, THANK YOU! Oh, and yes, let us not forget the financial success of the event which is also a testament to our commitment to the future of our Parish. Our "Let's Raise the Roof" initiative brought in $9,577.00 with 244 paid guests - this will cer-tainly help out in the cost of our replaced roof. On behalf of your parish council, THANK YOU for showing your community that the efforts to keep our parish alive and strong are a priority and a common goal for us all. Heidy Novak, president of Parish Council Prosovoljci, ki so sodelovali pri pripravi dogodka »Rais the Roof«: Planning committee: Father Drago Gačnik, MaryAnn Demšar, Pamela Gosgnach, Tony Horvat, Adam Novak, Heidy Novak, Elka Peršin, Sonya Podrebarac, Sidonia Poppa, Nancy (Dundek) Taylor. Advertising, Set-up/Clean-up Volun-teers: Dragica Ferenčak, Fr Drago Gačnik, Joe Horvat, Tony Horvat, Frank Novak, Heidy Novak, Nancy (Dundek) Taylor, Brock Novak, Clark Novak, Jessica Novak, MaryAnn Demsar, Joe Gosgnach, Pamela Gosgnach, Adam Novak, Elka Peršin, Anthony Podrebarac, Sonya Podrebarac, Bob Poppa, Sidonia Poppa, Rosemary Šusteršič, Nicholas Scarccelli. Event Volunteers: Joe Horvat, John Horvat, Amanda Skimming, John Cestnik, MaryAnn Demšar, Sidonia Poppa, Sandy Ferletič, Joe Gosgnach, Pamela Gosgnach, Lorie Mramor, Jessica Novak, Jesse Pace, Elka Peršin, Bob Poppa, Peter Novak, Mike Brake, Tony Horvat, Joe Pust, Fr Drago Gačnik. Kitchen and baked goods: Nancy (Dundek) Taylor, Dragica Ferenčak, Amy Davis, Lily Ferenčak, Majda Lukežič, Rosie Šušteršič, Regina Nedelko, Marija Mlačak, Albina Antolin. Special Thank you to the Sponsors of our event who provided the Fabulous Prize Donations: Ace of Games, Moja Credit Union, John Doma – Bateman Mackay LLP; Milan Ferletič – Powerkure Systems; Rina Petrella – Rina’s Place of Nails Salon; Beamsville Home Hardware – Marianne Horvat & Francis Marinko; Ferdinand; Tony Horvat, Marianne Kutleša, Adam & Heidy Novak, John & Sonya Podrebarac – Odorem Inc.; Nancy (Dundek) Taylor, Dragica Ferenčak. KULTURNI DAN PRI DRUŠTVU SAVA V nedeljo, 5. februarja 2017 smo dan začeli s sveto mašo, nadaljevali z dobrim kosilom in po kosilu je sledila še proslava ob Prešernovem dnevu. Pavle Ravnohrib, slovenski gledališki igralec, ki je nastopal tudi v TV nadaljevanki »Prešeren«, je recitiral nekaj prešernovih pesmi. V angleščini je recitirala Nina Bizjak. Po končanem programu so 10. zaslužnim članom društva podelili priznanja za sodelovanje v društvu Sava. Priznanja so prejeli: Anica Murko-Čelan, Terezija Čeh, Ludvik Čeh, Ferdinand Crnko, Olga Medica, Theresa-Zinka Mirt, Alojzij-Alex Muhič, Andrew Nessner, Angela Prilesnik, Frank Štampar. 7TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Response: The Lord is merciful and gra-cious! First Reading Leviticus 19:1-2. 17-18 We are to be holy as God is holy. Second Reading 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 The Spirit of God lives among us for we are God’s temple. Gospel Matthew 5:38-48 We are to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Illustration We are living through four years of remember-ing the hundredth anniversary of the events of the First World War. We rely mainly on black-and-white photos and films, which capture the dark and relent-less nature of the conflict. The overwhelming image is that of the young men who went out boldly to fight in what turned out to be a style of warfare that had reached stalemate. Many of them did not re-turn, and many of those who did return were marked physically and mentally for life. Yet in the midst of this massacre of minds and bodies there were acts of heroism. Medals were giv-en for acts of valour against the enemy, but the acts of heroism that stay longer in the mind are the acts of self-sacrifice that people made for the injured and those in need. Soldiers carried colleagues and even their enemies out of the living hell of no-man’s-land, sometimes wounded themselves but determined to bring the wounded back to help and healing. Among the acts of violence and desperation there was yet room for these higher ideals. Men flung themselves on explosives to save the lives of their comrades, held on to impossible positions to give others the chance to escape, literally gave up their lives that others might live. And behind the front, and back home, battalions of women nursed the wounded and attempted to bring them back to health and sanity from this world that had lost all reason. Gospel Teaching We sometimes think that the law of love be-longs to the New Testament whereas the lex talionis or the law of retribution, “an eye for an eye”, domi-nates the Old Testament. Yet today we see in the book of Leviticus the injunction not to exact venge-ance but to love our neighbour as ourselves. The challenge addressed by Jesus takes this command-ment a step further. He acknowledges that even the tax collectors and pagans are neighbourly to those who are good to them. The difficult question is, how do we react to those who are our enemies and those who treat us badly? In the Sermon on the Mount, which has formed our Gospel readings over the last few Sun-days, Jesus is explaining what the Beatitudes mean in practice. What does it mean to be meek? What does it mean to be merciful? You wonder whether lurking at the back of his mind is the awareness of what his commitment to us, who are sinners, is go-ing to demand of him at the end of his life. Is the passion already in his consciousness? It is certainly there in the awareness of the Gospel writers, who are writing as it were backwards, trying to explain how those great salvific events of death and resur-rection came about. They came about because Je-sus is capable of obeying his own injunction to love his enemies and pray for his persecutors. It is in this way he shows us how to be perfect, just as his heav-enly Father is perfect. Application When faced with words such as “holiness” or “perfection”, our first reaction may be to distance ourselves from them. Such terms belong to saints. They don’t come into the orbit of our everyday world. It is true that we are not required to live at these heights every moment. Moral theologians used to make a distinction between behaviours that were required of us to be good rather than bad and behaviours that were counsels of perfection, those acts of self-sacrifice that probably belonged only to the few. Jesus does not make such distinctions. He asks us to consider that, if we are his true followers, we all have the potential to respond at this level. We can all follow in his footsteps. It is not behaviour we can chart accurately in advance. The times when we are asked to give of ourselves so utterly are few and far between. But we prepare ourselves for such challenges by the way we live through the day-to-day moments of our lives. If we think of others rather than ourselves, if we are not overwhelmed when others fail to no-tice us or even treat us with respect, when we are sensitive to others’ needs as well as our own, espe-cially those who are not close to us or with whom we have little in common, through all those mo-ments we are becoming the disciples of Christ, dis-ciples who are learning to be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. LIPA PARK - JUBILEJNO LETO V nedeljo 25. marca 2017 bo na Lipa parku koncert Ansambla VIŽAJI iz Slovenije v počastitev 50 letnice ustanovitve društva Lipa park. S tem koncertom se prične jubilejno leto praznovanja. Ob 12.30 bo na razpolago odlično slovensko kosilo, tudi jabolčnega zavitka in krofov ne bo manjkalo. Bar bo dobro založen. Ob drugi uri bo koncert ansambla VIŽARJI iz Slovenije, nato pa družabno popoldne. Vstopnice so po $30 in jih lahko naročite pri MaryAnn Barich tel: 905-945-3750 ali pri Francki Seljak tel: 905-735-5207. Vsi ste prav lepo vabljeni! OBVESTILA - ANNOUNCEMENTS PEVSKE VAJE Naslednje pevske vaje za mešni zbor bodo v četrtek, 23. februarja po večerni maši. Zbor bo skupaj z angleškim zborom pel 5. marca - Bazar KŽZ - maša bo takrat samo ob 10:00 a.m.. DOGODKI V BLIŽNJI PRIHODNOSTI - 25. februar: St. Gregory the Great - Pustovanje - 5. marec: CWL -St. Gregory the Great - masa:10:00 a.m. - Bazar; London-Triglav - koline v klubski dvorani; Sava-Breslav - MGM (Meeting) at 1:00 p.m., light lunch - 12. marec: Sava-Breslau - maša ob 12:00 noon; Triglav-London - Annual Membership Meeting in ob 4:00 p.m. maša v dvorani Triglav - 18. marec: Sava-Breslau - Spring banquet - igra ansambel Vižarji iz Slovenije - 19. marec: Društvo sv. Jožefa - maša 10:00 a.m.; Banket in praznovanje 80 letnice društva - igra ansambel VIŽARJI iz Slovenije - 26. marec: Sv. Gregorij Veliki - Letni občni zbor GIFT BEARERS - DAROVE PRINAŠATA . 19. februar, 9:30 a.m.: Gizela Hauzar & Emilija Mertuk . 26. februar, 9:30 a.m.: Jože in Albina Antolin . 5. marec, 10:00 a.m.: Sandy & Brian CWL KŽZ Your executive is looking forward to all members participating in some way for the success of our one time a year big fundraiser, our Annual Bazaar. Please bake, donate to our Penny Sale and Raffle tables and or help set up if at all possible. Thank you to those members who have paid their 2017 membership fees. Outstand-ing membership fees can be given directly to Pamela or Milena or placed into Sunday mass-es collection baskets. Please continue your support, renew your membership, non members ... come join us! ... become a member. Let us contin-ue our 48 year tradition ... we need an infu-sion of new people, fresh ideas and helping hands to continue successfully. Your mem-bership and help are very important to us and our community. INCOMETAX Income tax receipts will be out on the week of Bazaar, March 5th. SV. JOŽEF - TICKETS FOR BANQUET Annual Banquet and celebration of 80th Anniversary (1937-2017) of Slovenian Society of St. Joseph and the 25th Anniversary of Villa Slovenia will take place on Sunday, March 19, 2017 first with the Mass at 10:00 a.m. and than celebration at the St. Gregory the Great Hall. Dinner will stat at noon. Ansambel Vižarji, from Slovenia, will play on the stage. For the tickets & table reservations contact: Frank Erzar @ 905-643-0285. Tickets: Adults: $30, Students: $15, Children (ten & under) $10. POKOJNI V Sloveniji, v Beltincih, je v sredo 15. februarja umrl Toni Volf, star 84. let. Pokojni Toni je brat našega farana Karla Volga. Pogreb pokojnega bo v sredo, 22. februarja v Beltincih. Tukaj bomo darovali sveto mašo v petek, 24. februarja. Iskreno sožalje Karlu in ženi Mariji. Pokojnemu Toniju pa večni mir in pokoj. SVETE MAŠE - MASS TIMES: Ponedeljek/Monday – Petek/Friday: 7:00 P.M. Sobota/Saturday: 8:00 A.M. – slovenska / in Slovenian 5:30 P.M. – slovenska / in Slovenian - Nedelja/Sunday: 9:30 A.M. – slovenska / in Slovenian - 11:00 A.M. – angleška / in English KRSTI / BAPTISMS: Po dogovoru, prijava 1 mesec prej. - For an app’t, call one month before. POROKE / MARRIAGE: Prijava eno leto prej. / For an app’t, call one year before the wedding date. SPOVED / CONFESSIONS: Vsak prvi petek ob 6:00 P.M. / First Friday of the month 6-7:00 P.M. (or by appointment) BOLNIKI - Sporočite, če je kdo bolan ali v bolnišnici, da ga obiščemo. You are welcome to call for a personal conversation (person counselling) with your priest – please call during business hours for an appointment. Tel: 905-561-5971. DON BOSCO 7. NEDELJA MED LETOM 19. FEBRUAR Bonifacij, škof † † † Za žive in rajne župljane Milan Zamuda Anna Winkler Betty Nedelko 9:30 A.M. 11:00 A.M. Toni in Marija Franc z druž. Janiak Family Štefan in Angela Antolin PONEDELJEK-MONDAY 20. FEBRUAR Frančišek in Jacinta TOREK - TUESDAY 21. FEBRUAR Irenea (Mira), dev. † † Milan Borštnik Frank Brajer 7:00 P.M. Družina Klepec Manja Erzetič SREDA - WEDNESDAY 22. FEBRUAR Sedež Apostola Petra † † † † Izidor Zabukove, obl. Sidonija Drvarič Frank Brajer Francka Pust 7:00 P.M. Žena Mary Hči z družino Margaret Žagar Družina Pust ČETRTEK - THURSDAY 23. FEBRUAR Polikarp, šk-mučenec †† † †† Verona in Štefan Prša, obl. Marija Mes, obl. Verona in Štefan Prša, obl. 7:00 P.M. Joe in Kathy Prša Amalija Štadler Cecilija Sobočan PETEK - FRIDAY 24. FEBRUAR Matija, apostol †† † † Za versko rast mladih Pokojni dobrotniki Frank Brajer Za zdravje Toni Volf 7:00 P.M. Slomškovo oltarno društvo Jožica in Ivan Vegelj Frances Jervis Ana Tadič Brat Karel Volf in žena Marija SOBOTA - SATURDAY 25. FEBRUAR Alojzij in Kalist, muč. †† † †† † Po namenu Za duše v vicah Ljudmila Mozetič Marija in Alojz Mes, obl. Ana Veselič 9:15 A.M. 5:30 P.M. Maša za slovensko šolo N.N. Manja Erzetič Družina Mes Družina Vlašič 8. NEDELJA MED LETOM 26. FEBRUAR Aleksander, škof † †† † Za žive in rajne župljane Bogu v zahvalo Gerda Žekš Lucija in Jernej Ponikvar Tony Desanti 9:30 A.M. 11:00 A.M. N.N. Milka in Karol Ferko Družina Ponikvar Mary Desanti SVETE MAŠE - MASSES Od 19. 2. 2017 Do 26. 2. 2017 PUSTOVANJE No Mass at the church!