Mailing Address: 1320 Johnson Street, Coquitlam, BC V3B 4T5

Street Address: 2888 Delahaye Drive, Coquitlam, BC

Phone: (604)941-4800

Greetings!

I hope you have had a wonderful start to 2026!

As we slowly return to our regular routines and recover from all the celebrations, festivities, and delicious food of the Christmas season, we also begin to look ahead to what lies before us. I would like to highlight a few important events starting this month:

Men’s Group – beginning January 9

This is a new initiative and a direct fruit of the recent Alpha for Men program. There has been encouraging interest, and we would like to offer the men of our parish community an opportunity to spend time together through discussion, prayer, and social connection.

Rescue Program – beginning January 26

This program is similar in format to Alpha but presented from a Catholic perspective. It consists of inspirational videos, table discussions, and prayer. We warmly invite men and women, including young adults, to take advantage of this 8-week program. Consider it your own personal retreat!

On a different note, I would like to express a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make this Christmas season so special and meaningful. Many groups, ministries, and volunteers worked tirelessly behind the scenes, and we are deeply grateful for your dedication.

A special thank you as well for all the cards, kind wishes, and gifts that Fr. Roman and I received during Christmas. They truly meant a lot to us, and we are very thankful for your generosity and kindness.

With gratitude and prayers,

Fr. Maciej

A MESSAGE FROM THE SISTERS AT ST. CLARE'S MONASTERY

Food for Thought . . . and for the Soul

Father Maciej Wos SDS, our pastor, insists that, unlike the rest of the Western world, for us Catholic Christians, the Christmas season (because "season" it is) does not end with Boxing Day and its sales, but much much later: on the Sunday after the Epiphany on January 11 2026.

One question is however: why do we put up all those lights at Christmas? A cynical answer suggests that this is done for purely commercial purposes. As well, for many of us, these lights are simply a question of aesthetics, color, and celebration, mostly devoid of any religious meaning. However, even here, there is still something deeper going on. Why do we put up lights at Christmas? Why do we light our homes and our streets with colorful lights at this time of year?

taken from Ronald Rolheiser's column three years ago

to read it in full, click onthe link below

click here "Defying Darkness with Christmas Lights"

Karl Rahner once wrote that, at Christmas, God gives us sacred permission to be happy. Christmas also assures us that we have more than sufficient grounds to be happy, regardless of what might still be happening in our lives and in our world. We can be defiant in the face of everything that demands we be downcast.

Our Christmas lights express that defiance

"Older Catholics might remember 1 January, however, as the feast of the Circumcision. As the Marian feasts of the Annunciation and the Assumption began to be celebrated annually, emphases had shifted. By the fourteenth century, 1 January was being celebrated as the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of Christmas. Despite the change of title, this was nonetheless a feast replete with readings and prayers involving Mary. In 1969, the revision of the Roman Calendar restored the original focus of the day, declaring that ‘1st January, the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord, is the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, and also the commemoration of the conferral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.’

Yet you might reasonably ask, what do these historical and theological minutiae have to do with 1 January 2016? Vatican II teaches us that in the work of salvation, the union of the Mother of God with her Son is ‘made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to His death’ (Lumen Gentium §57). An ancient understanding of the Crucifixion scene of the Gospel of John – an instinct older even than Rylands 470 – interprets the words of Jesus to his mother and to the beloved disciple to mean that that the love between mother and son is now extended to all disciples: the Mother of God is also and inseparably Mother of the Church. Yet in the last 50 or so years, Catholics’ devotion to the Mother of God has, at least in some quarters, declined or become an inessential extra to a healthy faith-life. In these more ecumenically-sensitive times, when Mary can be like her Son, a sign of contradiction, the mother of Jesus has sometimes faded from awareness. Yet to know and love Jesus requires that we also know and love Mary. Or, as the Orthodox theologian Fr. Georges Florovsky put it, ‘to ignore the Mother means to misinterpret the Son.’ Yet even when Christians are not present to her, the Mother of God remains constantly present to her Church. 

One last facet of this Solemnity demands our attention. New Year’s Day 2026 was be celebrated by a troubled world which seems to be more filled with violence and tension than for many years past. In 1968, Paul VI designated 1 January as an annual World Day of Peace. His words in Marialis Cultus remain particularly poignant: ‘This is a fitting occasion for renewing adoration of the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the glad tidings of the angels (cf. Lk. 2:14), and for imploring from God, through the Queen of Peace, the supreme gift of peace.’ This year, as ever, the Church prays that the Mother of God and the Mother of Church will hear our supplications, suffer us not to be in adversity but deliver all the nations of the earth from danger."

Click on the Link to visit the original article from "Thinking Faith"

Parish Ministries

If you are asking these questions, or questions like them, the Catholic way of life awaits you. Click here for more information.

Everyone is invited to join us online daily at 7:30pm

Contact

maria.magnusson-cwl@shaw.ca

Please contact the parish office to make arrangements for

baptisms, weddings, funerals and other Sacraments.

If you wish to book a Mass Intention, please send your request via email at stclareofassisi@shaw.ca giving the name of the person, whether it is for a living or deceased person, who it is from and if you have any preferences for the day of the week, a weekend mass or specific date. We will try to book your mass intention as close to the request as possible.  Please note that there may be unforeseen situations when your scheduled date may be changed without notice.

The suggested offering for a mass intention is $10 and can be brought to the office, mailed to 1320 Johnson Street, Coquitlam, V3B 4T5 or dropped in the collection box in the church. Enclose your offering in an envelope clearly marked with the name and date of your Mass intention. Your offering will go to the priest who says the mass, not to the church.

If you are unable to use email, mass intentions may be phoned in at 604-941-4800.

We are able to accept multiple Mass intentions on Fridays. For all other days, the priest can accept one intention only per day.

Please pray for the sick of our Parish

Crystal Phung, Allan Thiele, John Seifert, George Allen, Michael and Carol Berry, Lourdes Cabael, Claudia Eberle, Suzanne Davies, Connie Tarling, Matthew Tarling, Valerie Ng, Melvin Anthony, Peter Adamkovics, Aldo de Loza, Mike Van Duynhoven, Bernie & Zeny Perez, Marge Hogan, Jamie Willis, Helen Dougan, Noah Zanatta, Loni Cain, Brendan Pace, Gracienda Ramos, Brian Stewart, Catherine Dunne, Lucy Chase, Doreen Allyen, Tyson Ward, Nora Arroyal, Christopher Brown, Joan McDonald, Annabella Cirko, Frank Matchett, Kelly Durkin, Jason Kendall, Bill Clendinning, Chris Mah, Lydia Guzman, Angelo Visentin, June Cross, Katelyn Boudewyn, Ramon Montecillo, Janice Caine, Nadine Classen, Leanne Theiss, Sierra Osborne, Sebastien Robillard, Sandra Diersch, Lori Dennis, Mazoe Kaufman, Cindy Mazerolle-Kass, Anna Figura, Ed Garcia, Viray Family, Walter Banke, Elizabeth Teixeira, Reema Ferreira, Terry McDonald, Andrew De Boda, Hari Vijay, Peggy Maas, Chad Galitzky, Al Trotter, Pat Dizy, Brett Lawrence, Norman Schuster, Brenda Haines, John Bergen, Laud Vidal, Rick Empey, Dan Arseneault, Addie Jamieson, Jean-Yves Duret, and all recipients of St. Clare’s Prayer Shawls.

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