St. Felicitas Catholic Church 1662 Manor Blvd. San Leandro ● Email: stfelicitaschurch@comcast.net

Tel.No. (510) 351-5244 ● Fax (510) 351-5730

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Parish Staff Rev. Augustine Joseph 286 Parochial Administrator Rev. Thomas Khue Parochial Vicar 297 Rev Tran T Dinh , (In Residence) Vietnamese Ministry 351-5221 Jose Prado Deacon (Retired) Mercey Zamora, Pastoral Assoc. Spanish Ministry 347-1293 Sr. Bernadette Nguyen 347-1283 Vietnamese Community Sr. Ancilla Marie 347-1282 Pastoral Care Sr. Magdalena Duong, 347-1287 Ministry Sister Cecilia Chuong-Phan, Altar Servers 357-2530 Sharon Clancey 281 Office Secretary/Receptionist Clare Zipp, Bulletin 284 Religious Education Office Sandi Walton—DRE 483-4880 Fax: 483-2626 stlfelicitasccd@comcast.net Convent 351-5577 St. Vincent DePaul 706-1972

Mass Schedule: Sunday 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:30am 12:15(Spanish) 4:30pm(Vietnamese) Saturday 8:15am, 4:30pm (Vigil) Daily (Mon-Fri) 7:00am, 8:15am Holy Days 7:00am, 8:15am, 7:00pm 1st Friday Exposition 12:30 - 4:45pm Sacrament of Reconciliation Saturday, 3:15 to 4:00pm or by appointment Baptism 4th Sunday of every month 2:00pm Contact Parish Office for information. Marriage Arrangements to be made 6 months prior to the wedding Parish Office Hours Mon-Thurs 9:00am-4:30 pm Fri .8:30am - 12:30pm Sun. 8:30am - 12:00 pm Parish School 357-2530 Meghan Anne Jorgensen Principal 1650 Manor Blvd. Fax: 357-5358 Emergency (during non-office hours) 875-9163

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A VATICAN SURVEY ON MARRIAGE: WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR VOICE! The US Bishops are asking as many people as possible to respond to the Vatican survey on mar-riage and family life to help prepare for an October 2014 meeting in Rome of the Synod of Bishops on the topic: Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization. The Preparatory Document summarizes the Church’s teaching on marriage and family, citing Sacred Scripture, Vatican II, the Catholic Catechism, and some key documents written by past popes. The questionnaire seeks input from clergy, religious and laity to help define the state of marriage and family life. The survey also asks for statistical data and for a comparison of the Church’s teaching with the practice in the local culture. You can respond to the questionnaire, either by following this link to an electronic survey instrument (English | Español) or by submitting your responses in writing (as legibly as possible). Your electronic or written response to the Office of Marriage & Family Life in Oakland is due no later than FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013. Please click here http://oakdiocese.org/vatican-survey to visit the diocesan website for more in-formation and resources, and to download the survey for completion in writing. ANSWERS TO FAQ’S A questionnaire may be submitted even if it is only partially completed. All responses will be for-warded to the US Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) by the end of December and sent to the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican by the end of January 2014. That office has the daunting task of in-corporating the responses from around the world into the working document for the October meeting of the bishops. You will have the opportunity through this survey to share your answers with Pope Francis and the Synod on such controversial topics as cohabitation, Catholics entering civil marriages, divorce and remarriage, contraception, and same-sex marriage. WHY IS THIS SURVEY BEING CONDUCTED? This pastoral study will help the Pope and Bishops (and eventually all of us) better communicate the richness, depth and beauty of the teaching of Jesus Christ on marriage and family and minister to those who feel marginalized by this teaching. Therefore, if you are unfamiliar with Church teaching or the referenced documents, please read some of the actual documents which are available in the reference section below for your conven-ience or visit the USCCB website’s sections on Family Life and Love & Sexuality.

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

READINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday: Genesis 3:9-15, 20/ Psalms 98:1-4/ Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12/ Luke 1:26-38 Tuesday: Isaiah 40:1-11/Psalms 96:1-3, 10ac, 11-13/ Matthew 18:12-14 Wednesday: Isaiah 40:25-31/Psalms 103:1-4, 8, 10/ Matthew 11:28-30 Thursday: Zecariah 2:14-17/Judith 13:18bcde, 19/ Luke 1:26-38 Friday: Isaiah 48:17-19/ Psalms 1:1-4, 6/ Matthew 11:16-19 Saturday: Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11/ Psalms 80:2ac, 3b, 15-16, 18-19/ Matthew 17:9a, 10-13 Sunday: Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10/Psalms 146:6-10/ James 5:7-10/Matthew 11:2-11

Christmas Lights at St. Felicitas Saturday, December 14, 2013 Father Augustine and the Parish Family is asking for volunteers to install the outside Christmas lights at the church and rectory Saturday December 14, 2013. Please meet in front of the church at 9:00 am. Let our church shine in the evening as we prepare for the coming of Christ this Christmas. Thank you. Dimas Resendez

Events of the Week Dec. 9 thru Dec . 14

MON 12/9

10:00 am 6:30 pm 7:00 pm

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Book Club St. Vincent DePaul OLG Meeting

SMC AE Rm Hall

TUES 12/10

3:30 pm 3:45 pm

4:00 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm

CCD Parent Faith Share CCD Advent Reconcilia-tion OLG Decorating RCIA Spanish Catechist Mtg Viet. Advent Penance Service.

SMC Church Church Soc Hall SMC AE Rm Church

WED. 12/11

4:00 pm 6:15 pm 6:30 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm

OLG Gym decorating Faith Share Parents Mtg CCD Advent Reconcilia-tion Spanish Adult Choir OLG Altar Decoration

Gym SMC AE Rm Church

FRI. 12/13

1:00 p,m 5:00 pm 7:00 pm 7:30 pm

School Advent Practice OLG Decoration Removal Spanish Children’s Choir Vietnamese Choir

Church Church Hall AE Rm

SAT. 12/14

9:00 am 3:15 pm 6:00 pm 6:00 pm 6:00 pm 6:30 pm

St. Vincent DePaul Confessions Viet. Children’s Choir Viet Cursillo Youth Ministry—Confirm Vietnamese Angels

AE Rm Church AE Rm Church Gym Church

THURS 12/12

5:00 am 7:00 pm 8:30 pm

Our Lady of Guadalupe OLG Festivities OLG Festivities OLG Festivities

Church Church Gym

Second Sunday of Advent December 8, 2013 The earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,

Mass Intentions Dec. 8 thru Dec. 15

Sun 12/8 7:30 am Girlie DeVetter (Birthday) 9:00 am Parishioners 10:30 am Teresa Hoa † 12:15 pm Zenen Moreno † Mon 12/9 7:00 am Corazon Gulinao (Birthday) 8:15 am Harrison Argallon † Tues 12/10 7:00 am The Pimentel Family (Living & Deceased) 8:15 am Thanksgiving To God Wed. 12/11 7:00 am Nina Ricci † 8:15 am Jose Antonio Noceda † Thrs 12/12 7:00 am Marybeth Schweska † 8:15 am Yvonne Ryan † Fri. 12/13 7:00 am Carmel Barella † 8:15 am Mary Burns † Sat 12/14 8:15 am Irene Cardoso † 4:30 pm John & Viola Litvinchuk † Sun 12/15 7:30 am Jesus Montoya † 9:00 am Mary Giannelli † 10:30 am Parishioners 12:15 pm Rafeal & Ligia Zamora (50th Wedding Anniv.)

PRAY FOR THE SICK AND HOMEBOUND

Anne Tran (Mother of Fr.Tom), Julie Chin, Peggy Miller, David Silva Jr, Michael & Lora Babik, Sheila Bickerton, Daniel & Raymond Bautista, Maria Garcia, Connie and Joyce Guaraglia, Ricardo Duenas, Pearle Cezair, Minh Dinh, Joseph Vinh Ha, Maria Vargas, Leticia Delapena, Mary Helen, Yen Ngoc Dinh, Ed Fletcher, Susan Pulido, Mia Vicedo, Joseph Tinh Tran, Diane Nielson, Alfred Caires, Gerry Toro, Virgilio Labilles, Phil Erlwein, Al Falleiro, Joseph Hoang, Gary Cordano Jr, Christina Cayabyab, Lam Dinh, Trinh Nguyen, Joseph Dinh, Pearl DeSouza, Joe Carson, Lory Stark, Hazel Soares, Ronald Bennet, Sara Le Fargo, Ailene Basila, Josie Herrera, Mary Valladon, Jim Hackmeier, Adam & Faye Mitchell, Arlene Pershing, Art Herrera, Audris Woo, John Vargas, Vincent Jacques, Joe Zipp, Diep Hoang

Pray for the Deceased: Evelyn Lake, Catherine Kelly,

& Lorenso Kinh Duong

CATHOLIC DAUGHTERS

We welcome Rosemary Githens, who will be speaking at St. Felicitas after all the Masses on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013, on the topic of “Membership in the Catholic Daughters of America”

WEEKDAY HOLY HOUR

We thank all those who came for Holy Hours in the Year of Faith. We will resume on Monday, Jan. 6th, at 2:30p.m. to 3:30p.m. in the chapel.

The flag now flying in front of the Church is in memory of John Rollino, friend of Melinda Ocha.

Thanks to our parishioners for donating flags in memory of their Loved ones. We are in need of more flags to have ready to replace each one as they wear out while flying in the weather.

It is an honor to have the flag flying in front of the Church and we hope that if you have a flag and would like to donate it to us, please call the Parish Office. Thank you.

ST. FELICITAS SCHOOL

What is Advent all about? Advent is a time of joyful anticipation, and also a time for penance as we continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ. We look in anticipation and wonder towards two events. We look forward to celebrating the amazing event where God gave himself to the world in the flesh taking the form of a helpless infant born into great poverty. This is truly the greatest sign of love we could ever hope for. We live our lives always look-ing toward that great love from God. In addition, we are constantly reminded during the advent sea-son of “staying awake” for the second coming of Jesus. We don’t know when he will be here, and we need to continue to look for him coming to us in our everyday experiences. In an attempt to prepare my own self for ad-vent, I was indulging in one of my favorite pas-times - watching videos on Youtube. Thanks to Youtube, I have been able to learn more about childbirth, watch a set of newly born twins em-brace, see 9 month old babies swim on their own, find religious prayers and songs, learn how to change the battery in my phone, and watch enter-taining comedy and in depth current event clips - all on the same website. Youtube does have it’s downfalls however. On Youtube, if you look for them, you can also easily find terrible and highly inappropriate videos. In this way, Youtube is very similar to our own lives: if you change your focus to look for the inspirational stories of the everyday world you can find truly amazing tales of humanity, and everyday saints. With just one search, I was able to find a great sign of love in the most amaz-ing wedding proposal, a young man who decided to do 22 random acts of kindness for his 22nd birth-day and documented it, a man with no arms and legs who has become an inspirational speaker on the topic of gratitude, and a 17 year old with a heart condition who spoke of how wonderful God is and how amazing heaven will be one week be-fore he died. As is very true to life, I chose to look for signs of God in humanity and I found it in abun-dance! So maybe this can be the start of how we work to transform ourselves during Advent. Start-ing at this moment, we work to shift our focus and look for the good instead of focusing on the bad. We do all of these things in community, and just maybe that can be our gift to one another: Helping each other look for the good. Together we can all help shift our focus toward God’s abundant love! - Meghan Jorgensen

LITURGUCAL MINISTRIES

We thank you to the 12 people who signed up last month to serve at Mass as Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors, Greeters, Collection Takers, and Head Usher. WE STILL NEED MORE HELP, especially at the 4:30 pm, 7:30 am, and 9:00 am Masses. Please turn in your name and phone number to the Parish office and tell your friends who wish to serve God and our parish. How powerful and such a witness your presence are when you are here for Mass to worship making it a time to serve our God and broth-ers and sisters. Your calling is “as each one has re-ceived a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10)

Sr. Magdalena Duong, LHC (510) 347-1298

Christmas Gift Drive Collection

The St. Felicitas, St. Vincent de Paul Conference will be collecting gifts this weekend, Saturday Dec. 7th and Sunday Dec. 8th. Anyone who picked an ornament off of our tree last weekend is asked to bring the unwrapped gift along with the ornament and place it in the manger located near the baptis-mal font. If you were unable to purchase your chosen gift please bring it to the parish office no later than Wednesday Dec. 11th. If you have any questions or lost your ornament please call our hotline at 706-1972 and leave a message including your name and call back number. Thank you for taking part in this special event. Edgar Walters, President St. Felicitas SVdP Conference

Dear parishioners of Saint Felicitas, The Committee of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Spanish Community of Saint Felicitas is celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Thursday, December 12th with Mariachis. This is a special celebration for us and we will begin with Mañanitas in the church, at 5:30 A.M. Our Eucharistic Celebration will begin at 7:00 P.M. in the church. Following there will be a feast in the gym with mariachis.

WE INVITE YOU TO COME AND CELEBRATE WITH US. Con gran regocijo mariano, El Ministerio Coordinador para la festividad de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, les invita a la celebracion en honor de nuestra Madre de Guadalupe, el Jueves 12 de Diciembre. El horario es el siguiente: 5:00 a 5:30 A. M. Serenata a la Virgen, por diferentes personas. 5:30 a 6:30 A. M. Mañanitas. Presididas por el Padre Alejandro Rodriguez. Cantadas por el Mariachi. 7:00 a 9:00 A. M. Convivio Mariano en el Salon Social. 6:00 a 6:30 P. M. Serenata a Maria por diferentes personas. 7:00 P. M Solemne celebracion de la Eucarista. Presidida por el Padre Alejandro Rodriguez y concelebrada por varios sacerdotes Musica Liturgica: Mariachi y Coro Santa Felicitas. 8: 30 P. M. Recepcion en el gimnasio de la parroquia. El 12 de Diciembre se abrira el templo a las 4:30 de la mañana y permanecera abierto hasta despues de la Misa de 7:00 P.M. A que se parece el amor? ADVIENTO El amor tiene manos para ayudar a los demas. El amor tiene pies para ir junto a los necesitados y los pobres. El amor tiene ojos para ver la miseria y la pobreza. El amor tiene oidos para escuchar los lamentos de los hombres. A eso es lo que se parece el amor. —- San Agustin