Edition #1

Sunday 5th

June 2011 Edition #2

Sunday 12th

June 2011

Edition #2

Sunday 12th

June 2011

Edition #29 Sunday, 15

th January 2012

Sunday Priest Father Bernardino Andrade Contact: bernardinodandrade@gmail.com Newsletter Receive the Joyful Gift every week in your inbox!

Subscribe or feel free to contribute with articles by emailing Laura at laurikaaa@gmail.com

Find us online www.joyfulgiftatpenha.blogspot.com

JOYFUL GIFT Your weekly newsletter from the Catholic English Mass in Funchal

Welcome to the Chapel of Penha de França, founded by António

Dantas in 1622 and built on a “penha” or peak, by the sea. This soon became so famous a shrine that people came to it on pilgrimage from all parts of the Island, and in 1721 the chapel was restored and enlarged. When the Diocese of Funchal took possession of the chapel it was used for the bishops as a Country House or Summer Residence for many years. In the meantime, the Franciscans had been coming to Madeira to carry out apostolic duties however it was only in 1935, on Easter Sunday, that they founded the Franciscan Residence of Our Lady of Penha de França, at the request of Bishop D. António Ribeiro.

The English Mass is a tradition that dates back to 1966, when Fr Rafael Andrade, having just returned from his first visit to England, complied with the Bishop´s request to start an English celebration. Fr Rafael presided this mass for over 30 years, when he had to stop in 1999 due to overlapping duties. For eight years there was no Mass in English in Madeira, until it began again on the first Sunday of Lent in 2007.

Have a lovely time in Madeira Island and we hope to receive your visit again soon!

Thoughts on the Scripture Readings Brought to you by Chris Oliver, UK

15th January – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

The first Book of Samuel opens

with Hannah, the devout barren wife of Elkanah, praying for a child in the temple at Shiloh. She

promises that if she has a son she will give him to the Lord as a Nazirite. The priest Eli sympathetically added his prayers to hers. God answered their prayers and she named her son Samuel. When Samuel was weaned Hannah gave him up into Eli’s care in the temple. Hannah’s song of thanks is echoed by Mary’s Magnificat in Luke’s gospel, and Luke based the birth of John the Baptist on the miraculous birth of Samuel. The Lord told Eli his dynasty would die, and the Lord himself would choose a faithful priest to succeed him. In our first reading Eli realises that it

is Samuel who is to succeed him as prophet to bring the word of the Lord to the people. Paul devotes several parts of his letter to the Corinthians to sexual immorality, which some Corinthians did not see as sins. In John’s Gospel the Baptist prophetically points Jesus out to his disciples as the “Lamb of God”, so they follow him instead. Like the rest of Jesus’ disciples, they come to Jesus through the testimony of others.

1 Samuel 3: 3-10, 19 Psalm 39(40) 1 Cor 6: 13-15, 17-

20 John 1: 35-41

Psalm Response: Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.

Further Information, www.bible-groups.info

CATHOLIC MASS SUNDAYS 10AM

PENHA DE FRANÇA

Capela da Penha de França Funchal, Madeira

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From My Heart to Your Heart Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino, Madeira

Christmas 2011 on a Journey to 2012

Christmas is not the end but the beginning of a new journey. It is food for the road. In

different cultures the Christmas season ends in different dates. In Puerto Rico Christmas ends on February 2. In Madeira Island it ends on January 15. In some countries, it ends on December 25 or 26. I prefer the Madeira style. Here is my Christmas Message even if it is in the middle of January.

My name is Jesus..!

Tell the world that I arrived! Tell the world that I came to bring good news to the poor! Tell the world that my name is also Fabio, Josephine, Margaret, George… because my true name is mainly the

name of all the poor and the excluded… My true name is the name of the last, the least and the lost. If you meet a person who is hungry, no job, homeless or an immigrant without papers who is called David, my true name is David… If you meet a prostitute, a liar, a criminal, a manipulator a woman in prison because she

killed her baby, who is called Marianne, my true name is Marianne..!

I don’t hate the rich. I hate the way some rich hate and treat the poor..! (Math. 25)

«There are people who are so, so very poor that the only thing they have is money».

When we give alms to the poor we should give them in a way that the poor would forgive us for giving them alms (St. Vincent De Paul)

The option for the poor is not optional. The option for the poor is the heart of the entire Gospel. When we approach the poor we should do it the way God told Moses to do it: «Take of your sandals, because you are

standing in a holy ground.» (Ex. 3: 5).

Where the Ocean Meets the Sky Discovering Madeira Island

Madeira is divided in eleven municipalities (2nd level administrative division). Ten of those municipalities

belong to Madeira Island and one to Porto Santo. Their creation, ordered by the King, was meant to reduce the power and privileges of the colonial masters in favour of the people.

Santana has its name from a little chapel devoted to Santa Ana (Saint Anne) and is situated on the north side of the island, 54km away from Funchal. Its soils are ideal for cultivating cereals, potatoes, fruits and vines. Nowadays Santana is best known for its traditional straw houses and famous levadas, such as Queimadas and Caldeirão Verde and our highest peak, Pico Ruivo (6107 ft high).

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Santana

Municipality 1832

Civil Parishes Six: Santana,

Faial, S. Roque do Faial, S.

Jorge, Arco de S. Jorge, Ilha

(last parish created in Madeira)

Population 7,795 (2011)

Area 95.56 km2

Patron Saint Saint Anne Municipal 25 May Holidays www.cm-santana.pt

The World Seen from Rome Brought to you by ZENIT, the Catholic Church news agency

2.5M Visited the Pope in 2011

The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household

announced that during the course of 2011, some 2,553,800 faithful participated in various meetings with Benedict XVI.

This number includes general audiences (400,000), private audiences (101,800), liturgical celebrations (846,000), Angelus and Regina Coeli gatherings (1,206,000).

These statistics, which show an increase with respect to the last three years, refer only to meetings that took place in the Vatican or Castel Gandolfo, and do not include the many thousands of faithful who came to see the Holy Father on his journeys in Italy or abroad.

The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household explained that the numbers are approximate, calculated on the basis of requests to participate in meetings with the Pope and on the tickets distributed, as well as on estimations of people present at events such as the Angelus or large celebrations in St. Peter's Square. The single event which brought together the largest number of faithful was the beatification of John Paul II on May 1.

Further Information, www.zenit.org

From Father Aires’ Desk Brought to you by Fr. A Gameiro, Pombal

An Atheist Civilization?

For awhile now a topic has been

circulating in the Internet and other papers: for the first time ever, the world has accepted to be living in an atheist civilization.

Vaclav Havel is being quoted as the author who said in Prague in 2000, ours is "the first atheist civilization", which "has lost its connection with the infinite and with eternity". The meaning of his repeated words are that the humanity has lost the connection with the transcendence and eternity and that this loss is a kind of suicide trend for our civilization.

I would say that we do not live in a civilization without God. It is enough to consider roughly the 2,3 billions of Christians (Catholics 1,2), the 1,5 billions of Muslims, the 8-900 millions of Hindus, about 1,5 billion of other different religious groups. True, the world is oppressed by minorities, groups, lobbies against to all kinds of religion, atheist mafias, interests and business groups who think they command the world, pretending that God and religion groups (the Catholics in first place), have no place in the world. This is not new but today it is

more sophisticated, better organized and with more means. They try to achieve their goals promoting abortion, all aberrant sexual practices and violence, the trafficking of children, adults, arms and drugs. They do not fear neither God nor Satan. All started a long time ago. The project of building a civilization without God and no transcendence and eternity horizons, to my mind, took a noisy way with the French Revolution; and is steadily being imposed and developed since then.

Pope Benedict XVI said in Berlin that without God there is no future for humankind. Some groups have been trying hard to prove the opposite. For the moment, we face this colossal crisis of values and of huge corruption. Christians, however, know that God is not absent, He is very present in the world. We go on celebrating his presence in Jesus Christ, God’s Word made Flesh. Civilization is being restored all the time by Him and those united to Him.

Fr. Aires Gameiro [aires.gameiro@isjd.pt]

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Editor: Laura Machado © Funchal, 2011

[laurikaaa@gmail.com]

If you wish to DONATE, please find bellow the details for PHP Bank Account, NIB: 0038 0000 39527051771 85 IBAN: PT50 0038 0000 39527051771 85

BIC: BNIFPTPL

To send CHECKS or any correspondence, here is our Address Book,

(Europe) Pe Bernardino Andrade Rua das Murteiras, 28 – 1E 9060-199 Funchal, Madeira

(USA) Janice Contreras 60 Meeks Ln. Oakley, CA 94561

Music for Everyone Brought to you by Coro Tradiciones, Venezuela

In Madeira we celebrate our last day of Christmas on the 15th of January,

which is the Day of Santo Amaro. It is the day to remove the Christmas decorations and eat the last remaining food delicacies, that is why we call this: “sweeping the cupboard”. The Choir Tradiciones (traditions in Spanish) is helping us celebrate this last festivity. They are originally from Venezuela and during Christmas they sing a folk genre called Aguinaldo which is based on an archaic form of Spanish Christmas Carols.

People Helping People

A small project founded in the Chapel of Penha de França to help those in need

After 18 months, and only because of the never-wavering and never-ending support of Portuguese, English

and American supporters, we were able to launch two original programs (never done before in Madeira by any other organization) to help those, particularly those that don’t qualify for other official institutions. Here we give you a sneak peek of what has been achieved…

If you wish to know more, don’t hesitate to contacts us, and if you

too believe that help has many forms (a birthday cake, a lift to the hospital) start your own People Helping People and lets create and international community that looks after one another.

We would also like to express our gratitude to Fr Rafael for all the information on the English Mass, Fr Nélio for kindly giving the booklet on the story of Penha de França, Sir Ronnie for all his dedication and friendship, Fr Bonifácio, Pablo & Ligia for all the help printing this newsletter, restaurant FIGOS for always providing a fabulous meeting point and all of you that, with your endless generosity, support this cause.

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A partnership with a

Portuguese supermarket

chain to print food vouchers,

not only at Christmas

time… Pioneer

vouchers in the island to

help those struggling

with something

we so often take for

granted. Pingo Doce (the

name of the store) means

“Sweet Drop”.

A very special restaurant (FIGOS, in Garajau) offered to cook a meal for a family of eight, twice a

month! With this initiative we hope many more restaurants also feel that the joy of living, is giving.

It works like this…

1 At 6pm

a lovely cook is making a

homemade meal for a needy

family.

2 At 6h30 one of

our volunteers is picking up

the meal and getting ready to

deliver it.

3 At 7pm a family receives a

wonderful special meal, full of warmth and love.

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