msDecember 2011

The Metro

 The Newsletter of the Serra Club of Metropolitan Dallas 

In This Issue
December 2011 Calendar
The Serra Cause
Saint of the Month

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Advent Mass and Dinner

Advent

The Metro Serra Advent Mass and Dinner will be held on Wednesday, December 7 at All Saints Catholic Church, 5231 Meadowcreek Drive (at Arapaho). Mass, with Bishop Mark Seitz as celebrant and homilist, will begin at 6:30 p.m. with wine and holiday dinner immediately following in the Fellowship Hall. There is no cost for members plus spouse or a guest. Reservation deadline is Midnight December 1. You may make your reservation by responding to your Evite invitation or to:  

serrametrodallas@gmail.com. Be sure to include the number attending. 
Concert  Rescheduled
The December 4 performance of The Priests has been rescheduled to Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at McFarlin Auditorium on the SMU campus. Ticketholders were contacted by email and were given the option of a refund or to hold the tickets for the April  concert.

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Areas of Effort for 2011-2012

- Presence at Serran            functions;

- Promote Serran awareness;

- Promotion of Serran membership.

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SPREAD THE WORD
If you have a friend that is interested in the work of Serra, consider forwarding our email newsletter or invite him or her to visit our website. Better yet extend an invitation to join you as a guest at a First Friday Mass or one of our monthly luncheons. 
  
  

President's Letter by Roland Pedevilla

Dear Serrans:
 

Once again we were reminded of the value of Serran prayers and efforts to promote and support priestly vocations. Msgr. Olson, rector of Holy Trinity Seminary, spoke to us at our November luncheon meeting. With a wonderful report of the ever increasing number of seminarians at Holy Trinity we can be hopeful for many ordinations to come. Sixty-four young men are discerning their vocation and are representing dioceses as far away as North Dakota and South Carolina. Msgr. presented interesting facts and figures that are encouraging and we can be hopeful the priest shortage gap will begin to narrow in the not too distant future.

 

Our chaplain, Fr. Guzman, sadly expressed his need to be relieved of his responsibilities for our club as his new assignment in McKinney is demanding of much of his time and energy. For his replacement we are waiting to meet the priest who will be replacing Fr. Jason Cargo at St. Monica and determine if he might be able to include our club among his new responsibilities.

 

As you may be aware, John Hughes has submitted his resignation. As a consequence, we are in need of a replacement to handle our communications functions. As announced at our luncheon, a volunteer from our club or recommendations for outside help would be welcomed. One suggestion has been a college student interested in website work and some of the other communication duties. John has agreed to maintain our communications until his replacement is named and to provide training to the new Vice President - Communications.  

 

We have entered our Advent season and the introduction of enhancements to our liturgy. Hopefully all of you will be able to join in the Mass celebration and following dinner for our club members and your spouse or a guest, Wednesday, December 7, at 6:30 PM at All Saints Church.

 

Trusting that everyone enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, I look forward to seeing everyone at our First Friday Mass and breakfast this Friday, December 2.

 

Roland Pedevilla

December 2011 Calendar

Friday, December 2 - 6:45 am - First Friday Mass & Breakfast - Saint Monica. Speakers: Karen and Charles Brophy, "Raising A Seminarian" 

 

Wednesday, December 7 - 6:30 pm - Advent Mass and Dinner - All Saints Catholic Church, 5231 Meadowcreek Drive (at Arapaho), Dallas. Celebrant and homilist, Bishop Mark Seitz. 

 

Friday, December 16 - No December Monthly Luncheon.

 

To view the complete Metro Serra calendar, click HERE.

New Works Look at Spanish Priest's Contributions to U.S.
Published by FOX News - November 24, 2011

 

Palma - A feature film, a documentary, two television programs and a multimedia platform will commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Fray Junipero Serra on Nov. 24, 2013, and will acquaint people with the Mallorcan who is considered to be one of the "cultural fathers" of the United States.

 

serra statue

The joint audiovisual project between the La Periferica and
Tresques Comunicacio production companies, which was presented Thursday in the Spanish city of Palma in the Balearic Islands, will unfold over the next two years until the day of the anniversary and has the support of the Association of Friends of Fray Junipero Serra, the Mallorca Film Commission and the Cluster Audiovisual de Baleares, or CLAB.

 

The aim of those in charge of the project is to reveal and provide information about Father Serra, who is "very little known in Spain and not sufficiently valued in the United States and Mexico," according to what organizers said at the presentation of the project.

 

Fray Junipero Serra, born on the island of Mallorca in 1713, set sail from Cadiz to "New Spain" as a Franciscan missionary on Aug. 28, 1749, and never returned to his native land.

 

In Upper California, he founded - among others - the missions of San Diego de Alcala, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, San Gabriel Arcangel, San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Francisco de Asis and San Juan de Capistrano, which over time would become the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento.

 

Nowadays, most of these missions are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are part of a road network covering portions of the United States and Mexico.

 

An old route known as the Camino Real links the mission of San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma, in northern California, with that of San Jose del Cabo, in the south, covering about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) along the Pacific coast.

 

Known by the nickname "el viejo" (the old man), Serra was 51 when he traversed California in the service of the Spanish Crown and

Catholic Church, making the journey almost completely on foot.

 

Serra died in the Carmel mission in Monterey in 1784 and is buried there, and he is the only Spaniard honored in the National Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington as one of the illustrious personages (two per state) immortalized with a monument.

 

The organizers of the four big audiovisual projects based on Serra's life have initiated contact with independent and government institutions in both the United States and Mexico in the hopes of securing financing and other involvement.

 

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Serra Clubs of Dallas and Fort Worth
The following, with photograph, appeared in the November edition of the All Saints newsletter:

 

HTS Mass_Andrus
Mr. and Mrs. Bob Andrus at Holy Trinity Seminary with seminarians

Serrans of the Dallas and Fr. Worth dioceses are members of the largest Catholic organization in the world strictly devoted to the promotion of vocations. Membership consists of both men and women who are actively involved in the Catholic Faith. The organization supports young men and women who are in the midst of their journey of discernment to enter the priesthood or consecrated life in the Catholic Church.

 

The Annual Vocations Awareness Program (VAP) is the Serra Clubs of DFW's largest project, and it is held in June each year at Holy Trinity Seminary. The organization supports the efforts of Fr. Rudy Garcia, Vocations Director for the Diocese of Dallas, and Fr. Kyle Walterscheid, Vocations Director of the Diocese of Ft. Worth, in fostering priestly and religious vocations for our area. Young men and women who are invited to attend the VAP weekend, are given the opportunity to pray, attend daily Mass, con-
 
template and visit one-on-one with religious - all to help them follow the Lord's will in their lives.

 

In order to cover the cost for room, board, and supplies for this three-day program, the Serra Clubs raise funds throughout the year. Anyone who is interested in seeing faithful young men and women enter the religious life is welcome to join the Serra Club's efforts. In fact, this past June the group hosted 17 young men and 13 young women who attended the VAP weekend. The group also covered the cost of room and board for visiting priests, nuns, and religious at the same event.

 

Other initiatives of the Serra Clubs include attending Mass regularly at Holy Trinity Seminary, visiting with the seminarians and reassuring them of the group's prayers. The Metro Serra Club also visits the Catholic high schools in the diocese to increase awareness of vocations, as well as offer support for those discerning the priesthood or religious life.

 

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Junipero Serra's Cause for Sainthood  

Father Junipero Serra's cause for beatification and canonization as a saint in the Catholic Church was opened in 1934. Father Maynard Geiger, archivist at Old Mission Santa Barbara, the headquarters for the BL SERRASerra Cause, completed much of the historical research. From 1941 to 1955 Geiger, who died in 1977, traveled in California, Mexico and Spain, compiling documentation for the Serra Cause.

 

In 1986 the cure of Franciscan Sister Mary Boniface Dyrda in 1960 was authenticated, as the miracle required for Father Serra's beatification, the most difficult step of the canonization process. On September 25, 1988, Pope John Paul II beatified Father Serra in Rome.

 

Currently, Blessed Serra remains one miracle away from canonization. Please visit the links below to read about the process leading up to Serra's 1988 beatification and the latest efforts to identify and prove that elusive second miracle.

 

Serra Sainthood Cause Moves Forward (Los Angeles Times - 1987)

Catholic Down To The Bootstraps: How Junipero Serra Was Beatified (Los Angeles Lay Mission - 1998)
Junipero Serra Needs Just One More Miracle (Los Angeles Times - 2009)

Guide to Serrana (2009)

The Miracle Search (2011 - The Orange County Register

Blessed Junipero Serra Sainthood Cause Just One Miracle Away (The Catholic Voice - 2011)


 

For more information, please click HERE to visit the Blessed Junipero Serra page at our website.

  

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Saint of the Month - St. Thomas Becket - December 29

A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong churchman, a martyr and a saint - that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170.

 

becketHis career had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II. When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of Henry's intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole way of life!

 

Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible, Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favored by the king, Henry cried out in a rage, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!" Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral.

 

Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint down to our own times.

 

No one becomes a saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must stand firm in defense of truth and right, even at the cost of his life. We also must take a stand in the face of pressures - against dishonesty, deceit, destruction of life - at the cost of popularity, convenience, promotion and even greater goods.

 

In T.S. Eliot's powerful drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his life situation, Thomas responds: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." 

 

Source:  www.americancatholic.org. To receive "Saint of the Day" as an email from St. Anthony Messenger Press click here.


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