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

Fr. Zhong's Talk on VERBUM DOMINI in June 2012

親愛的諸位:
向大家報告一則為我們華人教友服務讀經: Fremont Chinese Comminity has a series talk of VERBUM DOMINI by Fr.Zhong (鍾子月神父) in June.
鍾子月神父, 來自中國哈爾濱, 現於 U.C. Berkley 進修. 願與我們華人信仰團體的教友們,一同分享, 講解讀經,歡迎每一位教友一同前來參與聆聽. 我們安排了六月的四個禮拜六 6/9, 6/16, 6/23, 6/30 早上 9am-12pm 於真福書坊與大家一起研習.
本週六 6/9/12 的主題是: (請參閱附件)  

《上主的話》宗座勸諭
VERBUM DOMINI
論天主聖言在教會的生活及使命中

這是教宗本篤十六世於世界主教會議後, 致全球主教, 聖職班.
真福書坊 (DMCA)的地址是:
46164 Warm Springs Blvd, Fremont, CA 94539. (510)489-8879
即 Fremont 永和超市的mall 之內.
主僕團的負責人為姚建國弟兄 (Jim Yao) (510)676-9814
謝謝
主僕團敬上

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

 

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.

New members for SJCCC Pastoral Council - Chinese and English version

(See below for Chinese Version.  中文版在英文的後面)

Dear brothers and sister of SJCCC,

On February 18^th, we sent an email to all of you to communicate the imperative need of establish and strengthen our Pastoral Council in order to prepare effectively our community for the canonical status of Mission.

Following our request, the main group leaders of the community suggested thirty possible names as candidates to become new members of the Pastoral Council; fifteen of them accepted to participate in a discernment process on February 25^th.

The discernment process meeting was very inspiring and gave us the opportunity to listen the voice of the community on important issues for short and long term planning and action.

Two days after the discernment meeting, reviewing the data, praying and considering again the results, we realized that it was pretty clear that we had already got the desired number of people for the Pastoral Council.

Today we officially announce the five new members for the Pastoral Council: Teresa Lai (賴照郁), Tien-Pao Shi (施天寶), Tony Fu (傅典端), Patrick Ku (古柏) and Henry Shu (舒弘宇). This is a good opportunity to give them our most sincere congratulations and thanksgiving for their generous acceptance.

Five of them together with the current three members: Simon Liao (廖煥中), Louis An-Pang Yueh (岳安邦) and James Hua (華正朔) will bring our Interim Pastoral Council to a number of eight members, a very good number that represent very well our community. On Sunday, March 4^th during 3.00pm Mass, we will have a blessing and commissioning ceremony for them.

To prepare our Mission is the task of everyone in community. Please keep praying for this intention and let us be ready all together during following months to make our best dreams real for the Most Glory of God

God bless!

Fr. Olivera and the discernment committee (Louis An-Pung Yueh, James Hua, Simon Liao and Ken Wang).

親愛的主內兄弟姊妹們:

為了更充分地準備我們團體順利過度到符合天主教法規的Mission, 我們於二月十八日向團體發信表達了增固牧靈委員會的迫切需求。

根據我們的要求, 我們的幹事團推舉了30位候選者, 其中15位答應了召叫, 並參加了二月二十五日的審選會議。

審選會議非常順利, 我們聆聽了他們代表團體關於我們團體目前和長遠規劃的重大問題的聲音。

在審查會議、慎重考量、和不斷祈禱的兩天後, 我們確定了最後的名單。

今天, 在天主的恩寵下, 我們正式宣布如下五位成員加入牧靈位員會: 賴照郁(Teresa Lai)、施天寶(Tien-Pao Shi)、傅典端(Tony Fu)、古柏(Patrick Ku) 以及 舒弘宇(Henry Shu) 。讓我們向他們獻上最誠摯的祝福和感謝。

他們五位將配合現有的三位牧靈委員: 廖煥中(Simon Liao), 岳安邦(Louis An-Pang Yueh) and華正朔(James Hua) 組成八個成員的過渡期牧靈委員會, 代表我們團體所有信友的聲音。本主日, 三月四號下午三點的彌撒中, 他們將接受降福和派遣禮。

為過度到Mission 做準備是我們每一個人的職責。請為這意向祈禱, 讓我們一起在未來的幾個月做好充分的準備, 為光榮天主的極大恩寵, 實現我們的美好願望。

求主保佑你們!

歐維禮神父及審選委員(岳安邦、華正朔、廖煥中、王樹治)

Letter from SJCCC PC to the Community about new members for PC

Dear brothers and sister of SJCCC,

It is only a few days before the beginning of Lent, it is important at this time to keep all of you updated on the steps that we are doing to prepare our community for the canonical status of Mission.

As you may have realized, "to establish and strengthen our Finance and Pastoral Councils" has been one of the most important recommendations that we have received from our Bishop. This is the reason why in the monthly meeting of January, we've decided to nominate one more member to support each of the Councils: Kenneth Wang for the Finance Council, and James Hua for the Pastoral Council.

We realized that to begin planning for the work to set up our "Mission", according to the guidelines of DSJ, we need between three to five more members in our Pastoral Council, to reach total of eight members, if possible. This addition is essential in an effective transition of the Pastoral Council from the Chair board's operational role to a more "strategic and planning role".

After thinking and praying about these issues, we have considered that would be great if the Main Group Leaders of the community could suggest some potential candidates that will go through a discernment process of selection to find new members for the Pastoral Council.

Following our request during our last monthly meeting on February 15th, we received from the Main Group Leaders of the community twenty five names of potential candidates. We have already begun to communicate with them, and we are waiting for their answers on whether they feel called to participate in a prayerful discernment process on February 25th.

We recognize that an ideal discernment and selection process would need more time and with a broader participation of the community, this is what we want to do next time, but we realized that right now we are in transition, still learning about our new situation, and at the same time in need to move quickly to setup our Mission in a short period of time, for these reasons we believe that this approach is the best option for the good of our community at this time.

We have made clear to our potential candidates that the positions of the Pastoral Council are very different from the Chair Board that we use to have before. The main functions of the Pastoral Council are to envision the mission of the community, to establish long-term plans, to advice the priest in the pastoral life, and to be the voice of the community. Together with the assigned priest, the Pastoral Council will strive to make real the ideals of the Gospel in our Chinese Catholic Community.

We have also made clear that this is not an election where the selected are the ones who have more votes, but a "process of discernment" in a prayerful meeting.

We sincerely ask for prayers from all of you for the intentions of our Community, particularly during this Holy Season of Lent. In the following days, we will suggest some possible spiritual strategies to get the best spiritual fruits from the forty Lenten days that bring us to the joys of Easter.

God bless!

Fr. Olivera and SJCCC Pastoral Council (Louis AnPung, Simon Liao and James Hua)