Vessels of Love: An Advent Retreat
Friday, Dec. 1, 12pm – Saturday, Dec. 2, 3pm

“God loves things by becoming them,” writes Richard Rohr in his book, The Universal Christ. Everyone and everything is a vessel in which God’s love is always flowing. We are being invited to trust in our capacity to be a channel for the Holy.

During this tender time of Advent, we bring ourselves as we are––our hesitations and certainties, our desires and sometimes wayward hearts––and ask to live more fully as vessels of Divine Love. What would it mean to trust that our desire and God’s desire is one desire?

Through silence, scripture, creative expression, and contemplative sharing, we will listen for how Love is calling and how we might collaborate with Sacred Presence in this season of expectancy and new birth.

Notes: We begin by enjoying lunch together on Friday at noon. That evening, after our evening session, we will join the Mercy Center community for Taize Prayer Around the Cross at 8pm. Our final session ends on Saturday at 3pm. Retreatants may linger, walk the labyrinth, or visit the chapel before departing.

Join the GIVEN Institute at the Vallombrosa Center retreat house in Menlo Park, CA for a weekend retreat on the theme of Entering Into Advent with Our Lady. This retreat is open to women of all ages.

In accepting her mission to become the mother of Jesus, how did Mary receive the gift that she was, realize the gifts she had been given, and respond with the gift only she could give? How can we learn from her example as we enter into this Advent season?

Registration deadline: November 17

You will experience:

• Single-occupancy lodging (with private bathroom) for 2 nights


• Meals from dinner Friday to brunch Sunday


• Mass on Saturday and Sunday


• Talks by GIVEN retreat leaders Dorrie Donahue, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Albers SOLT, and Sr. Mary Gabriel SV


• The opportunity for Adoration and Confession


• The opportunity to rest and enjoy community with fellow retreatants while taking in Vallombrosa Center’s peaceful grounds

Come be refreshed in the Mary’s heart for the new liturgical year; be reminded of your identity as a beloved daughter and a gift!

Join the 18-voice Schola Cantorum of St. Patrick’s Seminary in the beautiful seminary chapel as they sing music for Advent and Christmas, new and old, including beloved carols, Gregorian chant, works by Rachmaninov, Hassler, and others.

A reception follows this free event, which is open to the public.

To RSVP, please visit stpsu.edu.



 

Vessels of Love: An Advent Retreat
Friday, Dec. 1, 12pm – Saturday, Dec. 2, 3pm

“God loves things by becoming them,” writes Richard Rohr in his book, The Universal Christ. Everyone and everything is a vessel in which God’s love is always flowing. We are being invited to trust in our capacity to be a channel for the Holy.

During this tender time of Advent, we bring ourselves as we are––our hesitations and certainties, our desires and sometimes wayward hearts––and ask to live more fully as vessels of Divine Love. What would it mean to trust that our desire and God’s desire is one desire?

Through silence, scripture, creative expression, and contemplative sharing, we will listen for how Love is calling and how we might collaborate with Sacred Presence in this season of expectancy and new birth.

Notes: We begin by enjoying lunch together on Friday at noon. That evening, after our evening session, we will join the Mercy Center community for Taize Prayer Around the Cross at 8pm. Our final session ends on Saturday at 3pm. Retreatants may linger, walk the labyrinth, or visit the chapel before departing.

Join the GIVEN Institute at the Vallombrosa Center retreat house in Menlo Park, CA for a weekend retreat on the theme of Entering Into Advent with Our Lady. This retreat is open to women of all ages.

In accepting her mission to become the mother of Jesus, how did Mary receive the gift that she was, realize the gifts she had been given, and respond with the gift only she could give? How can we learn from her example as we enter into this Advent season?

Registration deadline: November 17

You will experience:

• Single-occupancy lodging (with private bathroom) for 2 nights


• Meals from dinner Friday to brunch Sunday


• Mass on Saturday and Sunday


• Talks by GIVEN retreat leaders Dorrie Donahue, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Albers SOLT, and Sr. Mary Gabriel SV


• The opportunity for Adoration and Confession


• The opportunity to rest and enjoy community with fellow retreatants while taking in Vallombrosa Center’s peaceful grounds

Come be refreshed in the Mary’s heart for the new liturgical year; be reminded of your identity as a beloved daughter and a gift!

Join Star of the Sea and Stella Maris for their Arts and Crafts Christmas Market December 2-3. Fourteen artisans will display their work for sale. Food and Drinks. Free entrance. Free parking.

Join the GIVEN Institute at the Vallombrosa Center retreat house in Menlo Park, CA for a weekend retreat on the theme of Entering Into Advent with Our Lady. This retreat is open to women of all ages.

In accepting her mission to become the mother of Jesus, how did Mary receive the gift that she was, realize the gifts she had been given, and respond with the gift only she could give? How can we learn from her example as we enter into this Advent season?

Registration deadline: November 17

You will experience:

• Single-occupancy lodging (with private bathroom) for 2 nights


• Meals from dinner Friday to brunch Sunday


• Mass on Saturday and Sunday


• Talks by GIVEN retreat leaders Dorrie Donahue, Sr. Mary Elizabeth Albers SOLT, and Sr. Mary Gabriel SV


• The opportunity for Adoration and Confession


• The opportunity to rest and enjoy community with fellow retreatants while taking in Vallombrosa Center’s peaceful grounds

Come be refreshed in the Mary’s heart for the new liturgical year; be reminded of your identity as a beloved daughter and a gift!

Join Star of the Sea and Stella Maris for their Arts and Crafts Christmas Market December 2-3. Fourteen artisans will display their work for sale. Food and Drinks. Free entrance. Free parking.

Join the St. Anthony Foundation for an Advent Concert Series with St. Boniface’s historic organ.

Concert Series dates: December 5, 12, and 19.

Advent Concert Series for the Homeless

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Join us for the 30th anniversary Guadalupana Pilgrimage to St. Mary’s Cathedral of San Francisco on Saturday, December 9, 2023.

The day begins at 5:00 a.m. at All Souls Catholic Church, with a blessing at 5:30 a.m. Departure from All Souls Church is at 6:00 a.m.

There will be 5 stops along the way with the pilgrimage ending at St. Mary’s Cathedral for Mass with Archbishop Cordileone at 2:00 p.m. and a reception following.

*Note: Transportation to All Soul will be available from St. Mary’s Cathedral parking lot leaving at 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. In the afternoon from the afternoon from the Cathedral to All Souls Church from: 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Parking at the Cathedral will be limited.

Join Star of the Sea for their Advent Mission entitled ” Your Lady, Mother of Mercy.” Speaker Sister Donata Farbaniec, of the “Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, the religious order to which St. Faustina Kowalska belonged, will start with a day of recollection and will be giving talks from Dec. 9-11. Visit our website for detailed schedule.

There is a universal recognition throughout the wisdom traditions that sacredness is held in nature. The ways in which we are intricately woven together, more in a circle than a hierarchy – human beings and all the other realms of creation. During this Advent season of waiting, watching, and wondering about how the Divine grows new life over and over again in each of us for, the birthing of that into the world for all of us, come ponder such things in terms of our relationship to all creation.

Come for a day experiencing and contemplating the ways creation compassionately coaxes and calls us into new life. Come ponder the ways we may be called to reciprocate that same compassion shown to us, out toward the rest of creation. The sound of ocean waves, creation imagery set to music – both classical and the music of Alexa Sunshine Rose, the wisdom and invitations of scripture and other holy texts, poets and authors such as Joyce Rupp, Judy Cannato, Robin Wall Kimmerer and others, silence, sharing, space for wondering and walking and more will be woven together to create this contemplative Advent experience.

Come receive some of the gifts of love and healing creation so generously gives, and ponder our part in the seeding of that same sacred new life among us all.

St. Brendan Church Small Faith Communities, School, and Clubs are hosting our annual Mariachi Mass and Dinner beginning at 5:00 pm with live presentation of the Apparitions after Mass and Buffet Dinner at 6:00 pm in the Church Hall. Dinner features Mariachi San Carlos presenting until 9:30 pm.

Join St. Robert’s Catholic Church for their third annual Advent concert featuring more than 50 singers from around the world with choral pieces, Christmas carols, and praise and worship music. It will be a great way to enter into the Advent season, in anticipation of Christmas.

Fulfilling the Blessed Mother’s request to Marte Robin of France, Vallombrosa Retreat Center is hosting a retreat according to her direction. It will be completely silent (including digital), led by a priest (Fr. Agapetos, a monk from the Transfiguration Monastery in Ukiah), and be five days (because she said that three days was not enough to convert a soul).

The cost is $450.00, which is half price due to a generous donor. Scholarships are available. Includes a solitary room, three meals a day, daily Mass, spiritual counselling, beautiful prayer grounds, meditation spots and conferences.

Join Star of the Sea for their Advent Mission entitled ” Your Lady, Mother of Mercy.” Speaker Sister Donata Farbaniec, of the “Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, the religious order to which St. Faustina Kowalska belonged, will start with a day of recollection and will be giving talks from Dec. 9-11. Visit our website for detailed schedule.

Mater Dolorosa Parish is happy and proud to invite you to their Christmas Concert by their Adult and Children’s Choirs.  The choirs are raising fund towards a 2025 performance pilgrimage tour to Italy where they plan to bring the glorious harmonic sound of the parish choir to the Vatican.

Tickets are $20 per adult and $10 for children 17 yrs and under.

All proceeds will benefit the MD Music Ministries 2025 Performance Pilgrimage to Italy.

Join Star of the Sea for their Advent Mission entitled ” Your Lady, Mother of Mercy.” Speaker Sister Donata Farbaniec, of the “Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, the religious order to which St. Faustina Kowalska belonged, will start with a day of recollection and will be giving talks from Dec. 9-11. Visit our website for detailed schedule.

Join the St. Anthony Foundation for an Advent Concert Series with St. Boniface’s historic organ.

Concert Series dates: December 5, 12, and 19.

Advent Concert Series for the Homeless

Come join us as the Archdiocese sends us forth on a mission to be this light of Christ!

16^th Annual Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass
Wednesday, December 13, 2023, 6:30pm
Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption

Principal Celebrant: Cardinal Robert McElroy 

About the Mass:

Each year, the Archdiocese holds a Commissioning Mass to herald the beginning of “Simbang Gabi Masses” widely celebrated in its various parishes throughout the Archdiocese of San Francisco during the Christmas season.  “Simbang Gabi” is a prominent centuries old Filipino Catholic faith practice with roots in farming and fishing communities dating back to the 1600’s.  This practice traditionally consists of attending a novena of pre-dawn, or night-time masses leading up to Christmas Eve.  Please double check the dates and times of Simbang Gabi masses that may be celebrated in your parish.

We encourage you to attend our Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass, and to bring your own Filipino Christmas “Parol”, and your family “Cresche” (or Nativity scene) to receive a special blessing after the mass.

If you have been carrying a burden from a past abortion, you are invited to the next healing retreat for women.

Father Vito Perrone, COSJ, and Father James Liebner, SVD, will lead this three-day retreat, which will include Mass, the sacrament of Reconciliation, counseling, and sharing as much as each woman is comfortable doing in this warm and healing environment.

It will be held at a confidential location.

If you are interested, please fill out the form below, call 415-614-5567 or email [email protected].

*****

If you have been carrying a burden from a past abortion, you are invited to the next healing retreat for women.

Father Vito Perrone, COSJ, and Father James Liebner, SVD, will lead this three-day retreat, which will include Mass, the sacrament of Reconciliation, counseling, and sharing as much as each woman is comfortable doing in this warm and healing environment.

It will be held at a confidential location.

If you are interested, please fill out the form below, call 415-614-5567 or email [email protected].

*****

If you have been carrying a burden from a past abortion, you are invited to the next healing retreat for women.

Father Vito Perrone, COSJ, and Father James Liebner, SVD, will lead this three-day retreat, which will include Mass, the sacrament of Reconciliation, counseling, and sharing as much as each woman is comfortable doing in this warm and healing environment.

It will be held at a confidential location.

If you are interested, please fill out the form below, call 415-614-5567 or email [email protected].

*****

Mission Dolores Basilica Choir continues its tradition with the 32nd Annual Candlelight Christmas Concert in the beautiful and historic Basilica Church.  The concert will feature the Gloria from the “Mass for All Saints” by Baroque Czech composer, Jan Zelenka.  There will also be selected motets and carol arrangements and the ever-popular audience sing-along.  Led by Music Director, Jerome Lenk, the Choir will be accompanied by chamber orchestra and organist, David Hatt.

Join the Traditional St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir and St. Brigid School Honor Choir for Carols and Christmas music accompanied by your favorite cookies and desserts.

$25 Adults, $15 Seniors and Students, Under 5 FREE

Please call 415-567-2020 Ext 213 to reserve your tickets. Tickets also available at the Cathedral Gift Shop, and at the door.

Join the St. Anthony Foundation for an Advent Concert Series with St. Boniface’s historic organ.

Concert Series dates: December 5, 12, and 19.

Advent Concert Series for the Homeless

 

Join us for an Advent Mercy Night, a special evening of personal prayer, contemplative music, and quiet reflection in God’s presence. Adoration with music and meditation will be from 7:30-9:00PM, and confessions will be available from 7:30-8:30PM.

Mercy Night is an invitation to experience God’s mercy and prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus this Christmas. All are welcome! Advent Mercy Night is a wonderful opportunity to invite someone you’ve always wanted to introduce to the Catholic faith or perhaps friends and family who haven’t been to church in some time.

The Restorative Justice Christmas Angels program is designed to support children affected by homicide, children with a parent in prison, and children affected by domestic violence and abuse. With your support, we can bring extra joy into their lives during the Christmas season.

The project will culminate with a Family Christmas Event on December 22, 2023 from 12:00 – 4:00 pm. At this festive event, the gifts will be distributed, food and drinks will be served, and children will have the opportunity to get their photo taken with Santa.