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

Street Address: 2888 Delahaye Drive, Coquitlam, BC

Phone: (604)941-4800

St. Clare Updates for

September 12 - 25, 2026

Greetings!

This Sunday, Jesus gives us a challenging and beautiful lesson about forgiveness. Peter asks, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?” Jesus answers, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” He then tells the parable of the unforgiving servant.

The message is simple but demanding: we forgive because we have first been forgiven. The debt God has cancelled for us in Christ is infinitely greater than any debt another person may owe us. Christian forgiveness does not mean pretending that nothing happened or saying that evil does not matter. It means refusing to allow another person’s sin to have the final word in our heart. Forgiveness is not indulgence either; it is factually speaking a re-creation.

Forgiveness is a spiritual act, forgiveness is a lifestyle not a single act; it can only come from God. God alone grants pardon. Forgiveness is the high point of love, and love is of God, because God is love. Forgiveness comes from God, but we are directly implicated and called to participate. It is we who are to allow the forgiveness of God to be incarnated and bear fruit.

As we begin a new school and university year, this Gospel has a special relevance. Our children and young people will encounter new teachers, classmates, roommates, challenges, and friendships. They will sometimes be hurt, misunderstood, excluded, or disappointed. They will also, perhaps without realizing it, hurt others. Let us teach them not only how to succeed academically, but how to live with a Christian heart: to apologize, to forgive, to begin again, and to remember that every person is made in the image of God.

This is also a new beginning for our parish. RCIA is beginning again, offering those who are seeking Christ and considering becoming Catholic an opportunity to discover the beauty of the Gospel and the life of the Church. We also begin another year of Religious Education and sacramental preparation (PREP) for our children and young people. I am deeply grateful to all who serve as catechists, teachers, sponsors, and volunteers. Your ministry is helping the next generation encounter Jesus Christ.

Perhaps this Gospel gives all of us a good resolution for the beginning of this new parish year: let us leave old resentments behind and begin again. In our marriages, families, friendships, workplaces, schools, and parish community, let us ask: Whom do I need to forgive? From whom do I need to ask forgiveness?

At every Mass, we come before the same Lord who forgives us our debts. And in the Eucharist, Christ does not merely tell us about forgiveness - He gives Himself to us as the source of the grace to forgive.

May the Lord bless our students, university students, teachers, families, catechists, RCIA participants, and the entire community of St. Clare of Assisi. May this new school year be a time of growth not only in knowledge, but in faith, hope, charity, and holiness.

And may St. Clare teach us to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, who is our true treasure.

God bless you all, and have a blessed week!

Fr. Roman Wroblewski, SDS

Assistant Pastor

UPCOMING SECOND COLLECTION

September 27

Needs of the Canadian Church

Please drop your donation in the Sunday collection basket or in the designated drop box located at the back of the church.

Project Advance

PROJECT ADVANCE 2026

***** We have raised $123,254 towards our goal of $$250,000

(nearly half way there) *****

And that is from only 25% of our fellow parishioners. We have exceeded our diocesan goal of $63,300 so now every single additional dollar donated comes right back to the parish to help pay down our mortgage as well as help “build our new rectory”.

Soon, if you have not already donated there will be a letter and a pledge form in the mail from Fr. Majiej reminding you how important this campaign is to our parish. Please consider making a donation prayerfully.

Remember, every gift regardless of its size make a difference. Every gift counts.

You can donate online at projectadvance.ca or pick up a pledge form in the lobby (in the forms rack on the wall by the bulletin board). The completed pledge can be dropped in the collection box, or it can be mailed or dropped in person at the office.

Our way forward begins with your generosity in growing our parish and local Catholic community. We’re very grateful for your support.

Happenings at St. Clare

GENERAL MEETING

Monday, September 21 at 7pm

in the Parish Centre

Executive Meeting at 6:30pm

CWL GENERAL MEEETING

Saturday, September 26 at 10am

in the Parish Centre basement

Let us come together and share your summer moments, fresh ideas you may have thought about and see how this year is in the works planned out with your valued input.

Food for Thought . . . and for the Soul

The English Martyrs and Tyburn’s Hidden Waters

Regrettably, no trip for us to the UK this year, so here is some interesting Catholic London history:

In London, on the corner near the Marble Arch, there’s a noteworthy medallion on a traffic island commemorating Tyburn Tree. When English Catholics think of Tyburn, they think of the martyrs who died there – dragged through the streets after torture in the Tower of London, hanged, racked, and disemboweled, denied mercy unless they were prepared to deny loyalty to the Catholic Church and Peter’s successor in Rome.

Their names have come down to us with honor: Edmund Campion, Ralph Sherwin, John Stoughton, and more. Today there are churches and schools named after them (e.g, Campion School (in Hornchurch Essex, and my first teaching post, founded in 1962 by the Jesuits). Pilgrims flow steadily to Tyburn where nuns at a thriving convent nearby hold a 24-hour vigil before the Blessed Sacrament.\

The shrine, and the site of the gallows itself, have undergone a notable change in my lifetime. From being a slightly obscure shrine, known to devout Catholics, but not to the general public, they are now widely publicized, not least with an official Transport for London sign at the Tube station (Marble Arch).

The English Martyrs, as they are collectively known, were canonized by Paul VI in 1970. It was done with wisdom and with tact – the pope referred briefly and in a generous spirit to those Protestants who also lost their lives in the grim years of the English Reformation. And Catholic devotion to the 40 Martyrs (there were many more, of course, and it seems likely that there will be future canonizations as historical research is completed and miracles reported) has grown steadily. Today their stories are spread by new websites, videos, and TV features, taking over from the booklets and leaflets of my youth.

But Tyburn is also the name of a river – one of the half-forgotten rivers of London that still flow beneath us as we hurry about on everyday business or relax in a park or café.

There were two branches of the Ty – the old word “burn” for a river, still used in Scotland, is linked to bourn, meaning a spring (as in place names such as Eastbourne or Bournemouth). One branch flowed through what is today called Marylebone (Mary-le-bourne), the other through what is, today, Hyde Park, along Park Lane and the Bayswater Road. I say “flowed” but of course a river never really ceases to exist. You can still hear the Tyburn if you stand above the Thames Water Authority’s manhole cover in the park – and just occasionally the water rises to flood, and the river makes a brief reappearance as a large and spreading puddle.

London is full of lost or, rather, forgotten rivers. Their names are still with us – the Falcon that runs down from Clapham Junction to Battersea, giving its name to the street that now covers it, and to the local pub – the Beverly Brook that flows through the suburbs of New Malden and Raynes Park, partly through local public gardens, partly between the backs of houses and blocks of flats. The Westbourne flows through Kensington and Paddington. The Fleet, which famously gave its name to the street of newspapers, flowed into the Thames at Blackfriars and fed a great Dominican monastery still honored in the name of the pub and the tube station.

The hidden or half-forgotten stream is not a bad analogy for the extraordinary revival of the Catholic Faith in England in the modern era. St. John Henry Newman spoke of the “Second Spring” in 1852 when he addressed the gathering of newly appointed bishops following the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850. He was speaking, of course, of the season rather than of bubbling water, but both make an interesting analogy for the unfolding events. “Oh yes,” you will say, with the sad shrug of the modern Western Catholic, “There was a revival in the 19th century, and it lingered into the 20th – but what about now?” And it is true that the fastest-growing religion in Britain is Islam, and the Catholic Church is running desperately short of priests, has merged many parishes, and runs schools that are notable for producing students who are non-practicing long before they leave.

And yet, and yet. . . . Almost 800 people – average age 35-40 – were received into Catholic communion in Westminster in 2026, a rise of 60 percent over the previous year, which itself broke previous records. The Dominicans have expanded their Cambridge accommodation to fit growing numbers of novices. This summer’s “We Believe” Festival drew vast crowds to Oscott, where Newman preached in 1852.

Rebirth from what seems the grave is a central feature of the Faith. By the 19th century, some of London’s rivers, fresh and sparkling in the medieval abbeys and village wells, had become sources of filth and cholera in an overcrowded industrial landscape. After the “great stink” of 1858, Parliament voted to fund a proper water and sewage pumping system. The rivers were incorporated and found new life. It was, coincidentally, the era of that “Second Spring” of which Newman spoke.

Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars is a fresh appreciation of the Catholic centuries – including old London’s waterways with the shrines and wells and abbeys linked to them. Today, piped beneath us by rather impressive 19th-century engineering, and hence not really lost, London’s old rivers wash away our filth, and provide for our needs as they did when they flowed through the old medieval city and villages that preceded today’s massive urban sprawl.

The Tyburn martyrs could not have imagined the rather splendid imperial city of the 19th century, nor the London of the 21st. Yet from Heaven they hear our prayers, as do the London-born Newman and the older saints of our very old city: Erkonwald and Ethelberga and Elphege, Mellitus and Anselm and Becket. And the rivers of London flow on, and so does the Faith that was already old when the martyrs died for it, and is always young.

from "The Catholic Thing" by writer Joanna Bogle

Parish Ministries

BEGINS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10!

DID YOU EVER ASK YOUSELF...

What am I looking for in life?

What is the meaning of my life?

How can I be a better person?

What can I do about the loneliness I feel?

How can I come to know God's love?

How can I know the right path God has in store for me?

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

RCIA Pamphlet

PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY

A prayer shawl is a shawl that has been knitted or crocheted by a caring person (crafter) in our parish for someone who is facing treatment for cancer or other serious health issue.

Available by donation.

CHILDREN'S LITURGY

OF THE WORD

RESUMES SEPTEMBER 13!

Open for children 4 to 8 years old. Sundays at the 11am Mass.

ST. CLARE OF ASSISI COQUITLAM

FRATERNITY

Are you being called to a deeper faith life and want to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi?

MONDAY BIBLE SHARING

Join Us Each Monday Morning

After Mass to 11.30am

in St. Clare Parish Centre (Basement)

LEGION OF MARY

Thursdays

from 9:45am to 11am

Room 2

Parish Centre

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

Contact

maria.magnusson-cwl@shaw.ca

Mothers Prayers Group

“Mothers Prayers” is a prayer group for all women who have a desire to pray for children.

PRAYER CHAIN

If you or someone you know would be comforted by prayer during these circumstances, please contact Gillian at stclareprayerchain@gmail.com. You are not alone — we are praying with you.

Sacraments at St. Clare

BAPTISMS

Join us in welcoming Matthias Kaare Gronmyr, Ezra Oscar Gately and Amora Nisha Ash who were recently baptized into the Catholic community.

FUNERALS

Let us pray for the repose of the souls of Catherine Gale Kozak, Margaret Ethna Hurst and Gerlinde Maria Drobe who recently passed away. May they rest and rejoice in the presence of God's eternal love and glory.

Please contact the parish office to make arrangements for

baptisms, weddings, funerals and other Sacraments.

Mass Intentions

Dates may be subject to change without notice.

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.

Our Prayer Corner

Please pray for the sick of our Parish

Caroline Bouvier Laprise, Crystal Phung, Allan Thiele, John Seifert, Michael and Carol Berry, 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,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, Lori Dennis, Mazoe Kaufman, Cindy Mazerolle-Kass, Anna Figura, Ed Garcia, Viray Family, Walter Banke, Terry McDonald,Hari Vijay, Peggy Maas, Chad Galitzky, Al Trotter, Pat Dizy, Brett Lawrence, Norman Schuster, Brenda Haines, John Bergen, Laud Vidal, Rick Empey, Addie Jamieson and all recipients of St. Clare’s Prayer Shawls.

In and Around the Diocese

24-hour Fast and Pray Sept 18-19

Catholic Street Missionaries Society (CSM), a registered charity endorsed by the Archdiocese of Vancouver, invites young adults (ages 19–39) to join “24 Hour Fast and Pray,” starting Friday, September 18th at 6 p.m.

Participants, in community, will fast and pray for those struggling with mental health challenges. There will be a testimony and a talk on this subject.

We will meet at St. Mary's in Vancouver and carpool to the beautiful Westminster Abbey for part of the event. We will share a provided meal when we break our fast on Saturday evening. For details or to register, visit http://catholicstreetmissionaries.org/24hourfast

Come for an evening of music and fun where classic hymns are arranged with swing/jazz rhythms! Hymn Swing features a jazz quartet with piano, bass, drum and vocals performing your favourite songs and hymns - with a twist. Blending faith and hymns, singing and instruments, entertainment and talk, it will be an engaging evening. All are welcome! Donations accepted at the door.

The Talitha Koum Society, a non-denominational Christian charity offering addiction-recovery services for women, holds its “Journey of Hope” fundraising gala at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 3, at St. Clare of Assisi Parish Hall, 2888 Delahaye Dr., Coquitlam.

Entertainment by Dani Black. Catering by Pasta Polo. Silent Auction. Inspiring panel discussion. Tickets are $85 per person or $640 for a table of eight. Purchase at https://bit.ly/4xgkxDm or at www.tkrecovery.ca/events.