Why Join - Fr. Steve Bossi, CSP

Why Join?

Once again we are in the season of “sign ups”. We are asking people to fill out a registration form, telling us who they are and how to contact them and we invite them to commit to activities around here.  Why?  Because nothing can happen here if people don’t let us know who they are and where they are willing to invest some of their time, energy and talent.  That is why joining is a good thing for Newman.  But more importantly it is good for those who make Newman their faith home.

We live in a culture that values independence. It tells us to live as if “I don’t need you and I don’t want you to need me”.  Ultimately this approach to life doesn’t work.  Anyone who sings or plays a musical instrument knows the only way there will be beautiful music is if everyone shows up for rehearsals and performances.  Life at Newman is like that.  The Liturgies here at Newman are what they are because people agreed to show up, to learn to make music with our choir, to read the scriptures well, to help distribute communion, and clean up when Mass is over.  

That’s why signing up is good for Newman.  Why is it good for each of us?  If we do not join in common effort with others, we fall into feelings of isolation and alienation.  There is much discussion today about the effects of those feelings on our bodies.  Our very nature as humans begs for social connection, starting with families but reaching beyond them to the people around us.  We need people with whom we can share our lives.  This is fundamental to being human.

One of our greatest challenges today is to overcome the feelings of alienation that cause us to distrust others.  It is only in knowing others that we feel less alone and vulnerable.  In human friendships we feel valued.  That feeling is hard to find in our busy and populous world.  We find it in community on a smaller scale where we can know people by name and form friendships with them.

So if Newman keeps pushing the idea of joining up and being part of the activities we offer, it is because our very nature demands it.  Jesus called his followers to have a concern for one another.  He said, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:35)   We do that best if we know others and they know us.  So when you see something offered at Newman that holds some interest for you, try joining.  It could be the healthiest thing you can do - for yourself and for those you will come to know.

- Fr. Steve Bossi, CSP

Parish Picnic Appreciation - Jeannie Battagin

 Parish Picnic Appreciation

No longer will the table draped with the red & white checked tablecloth, and the basket of candies luring young and old, or the festive balloons - be greeting everyone who comes through our red doors.  But the memories of our Newman Parish Picnic will hopefully linger a long while!  It was a beautiful day in Tilden Park, and the picnic site perfectly accommodated the approximately 180 people who brought their dishes and drinks and chairs to share.

The Mass on the meadow led us into a joyful celebration of Eucharist, concelebrated by our 3 loved priests, and accompanied musically by our lovely choir, led by Colleen.   Christine our sacristan, carried our sacred vessels from Newman for the altar.  As we processed up to the food area in a flow led by Carla, it was so evident that we were a wonderful cross section of our richly diverse community.    How beautiful to be on our sweet planet among the trees, reflecting on God’s infinite love and mercy!  

It seems important to acknowledge many who were not particularly ‘seen’ that day (some were already standing, so weren’t obvious when Fr Ivan asked the team to stand). But they were so instrumental in creating this wondrous, and rather historical event.  Many kudos to Bob Gannon, for getting the picnic ball rolling, and organizing our team planning meetings.  He arranged details with Tilden Park, rented a U-Haul truck (not once, but twice!), and made sure that various parts of the planning were coordinated.  Other members of the team who met weekly included Ellen Baker, Kinson Ho, Edrick Sabalburo, Kimi Hebert, Ned & Yvette Nicolls, Fr Ivan, Fr Steven Bell, and me.  Each of the team members led and organized the tasks at hand:  publicity (posters, sign up table and tabulation, bulletin, pulpit and website announcements), truck drivers and equipment loaders and unloaders, site setup and take down, route signage, transportation of parishioners, parking assistance, potluck organization and table signs, food purchasing and grilling, name tags, game planning, and site clean-up.

A few other key ‘shout outs’ are warranted:

Frances Rojek and Grace Shannonprepared tables of activities for our young children, and Cal students planned amazing games for the parish.  (Though there was an unforeseen glitch with the games, the plan is much appreciated.) 

Randy Dixon prepared signage with balloons to help people find their way to the picnic site (apologies for those who found it difficult from other points of departure), as well as signage within the site. 

Frs. Ivan and Steven did all the shopping for food and supplies. 

Julia Casellasupplied table coverings, Christine Feirreradesigned the food table centerpieces, Kirk Petersonprovided his truck to move food and supplies from Newman.

And during the entire time, there was Kinson Ho, our parish photographer who voluntarily chronicles everything that he can, taking photos to record for posterity, which eventually land onto our website.

But truly, the entire meadow of Newman folks could have been applauded for being part of The Picnic Team.  To all those who brought food and canopies and chairs and helped wherever it was needed – with specific team tasks or on the spur of the moment (blowing up balloons, setting up canopies, etc.!), YOU truly made the picnic what it was!  Did you feel the breeze on your face in the meadow, while singing and praying together?  Did you have a chance to look around and see all the tables full of people enjoying the feast and mingling with each other, lingering over conversations and making new connections? 

Thank you, dear community, for BEING community, for showing up when possible, and for your open hearts and hands.   

                        Gratefully submitted by Jeannie Battagin

Photos from our Parish Picnic: General Prep Mass Food People Other Pictures

Farewell and Thanks - Mary Ann Fake

 Farewell, and Thank You

I first set foot in Newman in late 1978.  I had just moved to the East Bay from Colorado, having started a job with a “Big Eight” accounting firm in San Francisco.  I had been active in the Newman Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I’d recently received my degree.  I was looking for a spiritual home and community.  

What I found in Newman was that and more.  In my 40+ years I’ve been most consistently a member of the choir – I think I’ve outlasted at least five choir directors!  I’ve also at various times served on the Parish Council and Finance Committee, and have helped with the refugee ministry, Rebuilding Together, church clean ups, and more social events than I can count. My two wonderful daughters have been Newmanites from birth, having gone to Little Church and CCD, been baptized and received first communion, and been members of the choir at various times themselves.   

And now it is time for me to move on.  The company I work for opened an office in Denver a year ago, and they have asked me to move there.  It is a homecoming of sorts for me – my brother lives in Boulder, my sister in the town in Southwest Colorado where I grew up.  My younger daughter has already moved to Colorado with her fiancée.  I know that when I get there I will find a new spiritual community, and music groups to sing with, and friends.  And I will come back to visit!  

But I will also miss all of you terribly.  I will miss the energy and spirit of the students.  I will miss the wisdom and ideals of the “old timers”.  I will miss the inspired and inspiring preaching of the Paulists. I will miss the blessings in the smiles of the ministers when I receive Communion. I will miss hearing Jim Roth and Colleen playing heavenly duets before and during mass.  And I will miss the choir – who have been friend and family and inspiration to me and my daughters for so long.  

You all have seen us through joy and tears, through exhaustion and tragedy and “mountaintop” experiences.  And there have been times when I have been on the risers singing, and I look at the congregation and my fellow choir members, and I am overwhelmed by beauty and fellowship – and I’ve thought “This is what Heaven must be like”.  

“Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place – I can feel His mighty power and grace.  

I can hear the brush of angel wings – I see glory on each face.  

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place”.  

Thank you all.  

  – Mary Ann Fake
9/8/19

Who are "Women in Conversation"?

What is it that you like about Newman Hall-Holy Spirit parish? What keeps you coming?  Is it attending a good liturgy with prayerful music, a thoughtful homily, and a chance to mix during donuts and coffee afterward? More than this, are you hoping to make friends, to grow spiritually and intellectually, to find a real community where you can share your joys as well as your sorrows, your beliefs as well as your doubts in a setting of mutual acceptance? 

In our parish, we have a wonderful venue for women of all ages to share experiences of faith and to build a vibrant spiritual community. Women in Conversation (WiC), co-founded in 2011 by Kaya Oakes and Jean Molesky-Poz, offers opportunities to consider theology, scripture and spirituality from women’s perspectives, deepen prayer and discernment practices, and to support one another.  

We meet bi-monthly on the second Saturday, September to June. Not only are we treated to lectures, small group discussions and prayer, but we value getting to know each other over coffee and snacks, making friends with women of diverse ages and backgrounds. At a meeting, participants can number from thirty to sixty women.

Over the course of nine years, Women in Conversationhas considered topics such as “Women Seeking the Sacred” and “Transitions: From Who We are to Who We Are Called to Become,” as well as inquiring into more public roles of Catholic women’s leadership, including women’s ordination.  Feminist biblical scholars have examined overlooked stories of women in the Bible with us and provided skills to reconstruct biblical history in which women were central and active agents. Muslim women dialogued with us on their faith, and undocumented mothers shared their stories, as have women ministering to girls who have been sex trafficked. We inform one another of needed social actions that reflect Catholic social teaching.

In an earlier session, women students led the group through a meditation on the visit of the young pregnant Mary who “set out with haste to a Judean town in the hill country” to stay with her aunt for three months (Luke 1:39). In small groups of students and regular parishioners, we asked, “What can we, as women of faith, learn from one another across the generations here at Newman?” Students said they were glad to “get out of their bubble;” a parishioner said to the students, “I am amazed at the depth of your spirituality, your freshness,” reflecting thoughts of many.  We also sponsored a treasured event, “Women Resting in the House of God” an all-night vigil, praying and resting together in the quiet of the candle-lit chapel until daybreak.  

As in the early church, we are women “of the Way,” searching, desiring to build a beloved, inclusive community. In Spring 2019, Sandra Schneiders, I.H.M., S.T.D. Professor Emerita from Jesuit School of Theology opened our eyes to the early church in the Gospel of John: “A Response for Renewal Thinking of the Church Jesus Brought to Us.” And in June, Elizabeth Johnson C.S.J. in her lecture, Your One Wild and Precious Life: Women on the Road of Ministry,advocated for “courage and hope,” that women’s voices and wisdom be recognized in the Church

Our next event is September 14th,and one of our favorite biblical scholars, Gina Hens-Piazza of the Jesuit School of Theology, presents: Silence Breakers: Woman Zion and the #Me Too Movement: Lamentations 2:20-22 as Path to Resilience. All women are welcome -- students to boomers -- that we might dialogue across generations and enrich one another in faith and our experience of the Living God. 

This was brought to you by the Women in Conversation planning team. For more information contact Peg Bogle at pegbogle@gmail.com.

Paulist Capital Campaign Study

Paulist Capital Campaign Study 

Help us explore the support level among the Newman Hall-Holy Spirit Parishioners for a Paulist Capital Campaign to build a new seminary, repair various Paulist properties, care for our senior Paulists, and enhance our missionary programs.

If you have not already, please complete this online survey.

What's going on?

Did you feel the earthquake?  Not the usual ground shaking earthquakes of California, but the visceral one that has rocked our nation and our parish.  

On July 28that 5:40pm, a gunman attended our normally joyful Gilroy Garlic Festival and killed four and physically injured 13.  Then on August 3rdat 10:39am at an El Paso Wal-Mart, another gunman went on a rampage, killing 22 and injuring 24.  That very evening at 1:05am, yet another gunman went on a 30-second shooting spree killing 10 and injuring 27 others.  

And if that is not enough, the tremendous heat wave in Europe and North America has now struck Greenland and Alaska, leading to glaciers there melting at an incredible rate.  The Economists cover story for this week is about the Brazilian Amazon being near a tipping point, where soon there will not be enough trees and vegetation to maintain the normal moisture and rain in the area.

And if that was not enough, we sadly lost 40 year-old Steven Koneffklatt.  He was baptized at our parish on September 21, 1979. His contemporaries whose baptisms were near this date include Tyler Kreitz, Gretchen Werner, and David Battagin. Steven sadly leaves behind his wife and four young children.  His funeral Mass was beautifully celebrated at St. Therese Catholic Church last Tuesday. 

With these horrific tragedies, it is hard to make sense of this world we live in.  Is this really the world that God kept on saying was good over and over again in the Genesis creation story?  Is this really the world that St. John tells us God so much loved that God sent God’s only Son into the world?  Surely the Bible is talking about another earth, not ours.

These are confusing times with no simple answers.  There are only overwhelming Job-like mysteries that make no sense.  There are lots of tears, lots of confusion, lots of anger, lots of frustration, incredible sadness,...  There are deep wounds that may never heal on this side of Heaven.  But then even Jesus continued to have his scars after the resurrection.

Jesus does a most curious thing when he first meets with his disciples after his personal horrific passion and death, followed by the resurrection.  He shows them his hands and feet and then asks for food. What a most curious set of things to do? But sometimes trying to use too many words to explain things just gets in the way.

By showing his hands and feet, he was sharing his wounds with his disciples.  On this side of heaven, we are all going to be wounded in some unique way.  Our woundedness ironically is a thread that links us together and awakens us to our fundamental unity, our shared reality, that we really are brothers and sisters. By Jesus having wounds like us, we can realize Jesus is just like us.  He truly is fully human besides being fully divine.  We are not alone and more than that, we are loved.  God so loved our crazy world that God sent us a son, a brother, a Savior.

By asking for food, he is inciting a shared a meal.  Maybe that’s what we need to do more.  We need greater unity.  In unity, we can support each other in our helplessness.  In unity, we can be a light against the darkness.  In unity, we can multiply our acts of kindness and goodness to tip the scales of the world back to how God intended.  In unity, we can go beyond passive, frustrated thinking or talk, to prophetically speak out and demand greater morality, greater goodness from our leaders and others.  It is time to demand our political leaders change our laws to keep us and our world safer and healthier.      Life is a mystery, but united in our woundedness, let us make life, not a tragic mystery, but a grand mystery.  

– Fr. Ivan

(8/11/19 Bulletin Flap)

Please Welcome Fr. Steven Bell, CSP

Please welcome 
our newest associate

FR. STEVEN BELL, CSP

In the Paulist search to fill our associate pastor position, we experienced the decline in numbers limiting the number of men to ask to come.  However, one Paulist wanted to be close to ailing parent. Another was not ready to move so quickly, wanting to establish himself first in in first assignment.  Fr. Steven graciously told the Paulist president, if you have need of me, I am available.  Those are magic words our president loves to hear, instead of “no.” 

God is in control and so I believe God is always working on sending those needed for God’s mission at Berkeley.  The No’s led to right Yes.  We are blest to have Fr. Steven join our parish team.  He comes with an abundance of spirit, charisma, and talent. 

Based in New York City, he currently leads parish missions, retreats, revivals and workshops, all of which consider the importance of reconciliation and healing.  Visit - Paulist.org/healing- the Healing Pagefor articles and more related to Fr. Steven's ministry in this area.  Fr. Steven previously served as a Catholic campus minister at St. Thomas More Newman Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.  To hear some of his powerful homilies at the Newman Center, please visit buckeyecatholic.podomatic.com, their podcast archive   He also previously served as associate pastor of St. Austin Church in Austin, TX, and as associate director of our young adult media ministry, Busted Halo.  

A native of Washington, D.C., Fr. Steven was ordained a priest on June 22, 2008, by then-Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  He will be arriving here at Newman on August 2nd. Please give him a warm Newman welcome when he arrives.