Friendly Reminder: 7/8 Dedication and Commissioning for our new Mission

Dear brothers and sisters:

July 8th is one of the very important historic moment of our Chinese Catholic community.  We are sincerely reminding you to make this day available, attend 3PM Mass at St. Clare Church, and celebrate together after Mass at Parish Hall.  If you have photos taken during the past 28 years within our community, please email to sjccmission@gmail.com so we can put them into our memory book.  If you can volunteer your time to help preparing for this event, please also email to sjccmission@gmail.com.  If you have not yet RSVP for the number of attandance to the Mass and celebration, please do so ASAP online at: http://sjccc.org/rsvp or call to 408-509-6960.  Thank you!

May God continue bless you, your family and our spiritual family.

Peace in Lord,

SJCCC Pastoral Council

St. Joseph will be our Patron Saint

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 In our letter to the community during the first week of May, we announced the beginning of a discernment process for two important pillars of our new Mission: our 「mission statement」 and our 「patron saint」.

 After a month of prayer and discernment, last Sunday (June 3rd), 250 members of our community expressed their opinion through their vote for our patron saint. More than 50% of the votes went to St. Joseph. We have communicated this recommendation to Bishop McGrath and he has approved our recommendation

 Therefore, it is my pleasure to announce to all of you that St. Joseph, the head of the Holy Family, the patron of the Universal Church, the patron of China, the patron of our Diocese, will also be our patron saint.

 Let us begin a new way of approaching Saint Joseph, a new devotion to him, a new confidence that he is already praying for us, he who protected the child Jesus and Mary from so many the dangers and trials, he who take care of the basic needs of the Holy Family of Nazareth is also now our particular protector, St. Joseph, pray for us!

 God Bless,

 Fr. Olivera and the Pastoral Council

Friendly Reminder: The Final Discernment of our Patron Saint 6/3 After Mass

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As we approach this coming Sunday, we will be making the final discernment of our patron saint.  We should consider that our Bishop will make the last decision.  Also, it is most likely that the name of our patron saint will be reflected in the name of our new Mission.  Therefore, please consider the possible future name of the Mission when you vote (rank) the saints names.  The ballots will be provided after Mass this Sunday.  Please see the table below as a reference and keep this intention in your prayers.

Peace in Lord,

Fr. Olivera and Pastoral Council


親愛的主內弟兄姐妹們:

本主日6/3我們將舉行團體主保聖人的排序投票, 以供主教下週做最後裁決，請大家務必參加下午三點鐘的彌撒。

現在我們教友已提名七位主保名稱，因為我們選擇的主保聖人名稱可能會用於團體將來的名字中， 所以請大家在投票時也慎重考慮團體的名字。

下面的表格儘供參考, 正式選票彌撒後會提供給大家，讓我們這幾天特別為此意向祈禱。

主賜平安,

歐神父及牧靈委員會

 

Name of Patron  主保名字	Possible Name of the Mission – 團體可能的新名字
St. Joseph 聖若瑟	San Jose Chinese Catholic Mission 聖荷西華人天主堂
Our Lady of China 中華聖母	Our Lady of China Catholic Mission 聖荷西中華聖母天主堂
Mary Help of Christians 進教之佑	Mary Help of Christian Chinese Catholic Mission 聖荷西進教之佑華人天主堂
Martyrs of China 中華殉道聖人	Martyrs of China Catholic Mission / 聖荷西中華殉道聖人天主堂
St. Francis Xavier 聖方濟.沙勿略	St. Francis Xavier Chinese Catholic Mission 聖荷西聖方濟.沙勿略華人天主堂
St.  Therese of the Child Jesus 聖女小德蘭	St.  Therese of the Child Jesus Chinese Catholic Mission 聖荷西聖女小德蘭華人天主堂
St. Paul 聖保祿	St. Paul Chinese Catholic Mission 聖荷西聖保祿華人天主堂

 

Friendly Reminder: Mass of Feast of Mary 5/24 and New Mission Updates

Dear Brothers and Sister in Christ!

1. 進教之佑彌撒將於5/24 (週四)晚上7:30在樓上教堂舉行. 
   教宗要求全世界在每年的5/24為中國教會祈禱.
   Mass of Feast of Mary, Help of Christians will be held at 7:30PM on 5/24 (Thur)
   Pop asked the whole world pray for Chinese church on 5/24 each year.

2. San Jose Chinese Mission:

• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• MIB - Message in-a-box for SJCCC youth

Peace and joy in Lord,

Mission Statement and Patron Saint Discernment Letter

 (我們正在準備這封信的中文翻譯 – We are preparing the Chinese translation of this letter)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

We are pleased to begin the final stages of the discernment process for two important pillars of our new Mission: our “mission statement” and our “patron saint”. During the following weeks, we plan to follow a community-wide discernment process-- in accordance with Bishop McGrath’s January letter to our community--to achieve these goals.

Having both a clear mission statement and a fitting patron saint is important towards reinforcing our identity and establishing a purpose for our Mission. As we near the official date of our Mission installation (July 8), we are asking every member to participate in this discernment process by praying and by providing input on these two areas. 

As a community we have almost 30 years of history, with much to be proud of and much to look forward to.  We are blessed with so many talents, due in part to the broad range of generations that form our community.  Therefore, we strongly desire participation in this discernment from everyone, especially from our youth, our children!

You can provide your input directly to any of our Pastoral Council members in the printed forms that we are going to provide or by submitting them online at http://www.sjccc.org/index.php/commissioningevent/discernment.html no later than May 24th, 2012. 

Once all feedback has been received and compiled, the Pastoral Council will finalize the “mission statement” and proceed with the following steps for discerning our “patron saint”:

●    Sunday, May 27^th – The complete list of proposed saints will be available。

●    Sunday, June 3^rd – Everyone will be invited to vote on the list of saints。The names with the top votes will be reviewed by the Pastoral Council and presented to the Bishop the following week。

●    Sunday, June 10^th – We will announce the final decision for our patron saint and make public our mission statement。 This will be a memorable event as we will be able for the first time to entrust our Mission to our patron saint!

Enclosed is the latest working version of our mission statement as well as an initial list of potential saints to consider.  We have based this list of Saints on their involvement and love for the Chinese people, but we welcome any other suggestions or ideas.  

We look forward to hearing from you。

God bless!

SJCCC Pastoral Council (James Hua, Patrick Ku,

Teresa Lai, Henry Shu, Simon Liao, Yueh An-Pung,

Tony Fu, Shi Tien-Pao) and Fr. Olivera

* Mission Statement (under construction):

We are called to be a dynamic Catholic community that is welcoming to all, growing in faith and apostolic love, and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly among the Chinese, in the Diocese of San Jose and beyond.

* List of Potential Patron Saints:

	English	Chinese	Date of Celebration	Comments
1	Our Lady of China	中華聖母	Saturday before Mothers Day – (in May)	Since 1973 by decree of the Chinese Episcopal Conference in Taiwan.
2	Mary Help of Christians	進教之佑	May 24	Related to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan, Shanghai. Pope Benedict XVI designated May 24th to be a special day to pray for China in the whole Church.
3	Martyrs of China	中華殉道聖人	July 9	Canonized by John Paul II in October 2000. The first Chinese canonized saints.
4	St. Francis Xavier	聖方濟. 薩威 or（方濟格，沙勿略）	December 3	Patron of the Catholic Missions together with St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
5	St. Therese of the Child Jesus	聖女小德蘭	October 1	Patron of the Catholic Missions together with St. Francis Xavier. She always prayed for the Church in China.

Note: As a help to the understand the situation of our community, our Pastoral Council together with Fr. Olivera is preparing a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document about our Mission. The document will be ready and announced in the upcoming days.