I need to ask for your immediate help and support for St. Vincent de Paul. Our food shed is empty and we are still getting calls for food assistance. Please check your cabinets or the next time you shop, please pick up some food items and drop them off at the rectory. I don't ever remember having such a demand with so little to offer. Items needed are: jams & jellies, canned vegetables, cereal and oatmeal, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, juices, canned meats & tuna. Thank you.

My family tradition is to celebrate St. Anne's novena each year with a visit to my birth parish in San Francisco. Each year the people I recognize are fewer. My mother and sister actually made more services than I. I still remember learning as a child that St. Anne and St. Joachim were Mary's parents and thus the grandparents of Jesus. Whenever we needed a special prayer answered, we would pray to Anne and Joachim to intercede for us to Jesus. After all, who can refuse the request from a grandparent. I know of prayers answered when trying to find a good spouse, when a couple is trying to conceive a child, and for a cure for all types of illnesses. The feast day of Sts. Anne and Joachim was last Monday, July 26th. If something is weighing a heavy burden on you, why not ask them to intercede for you. It's surprising what a little faith will do.

Even though it's summer time, the Church is open every day for you to visit. It's surprising how refreshing it is to spend a few minutes in quiet prayer in your parish church.

The Columban Fathers are a Missionary Society of priests working in ten different countries, mostly in Asia and Latin America. Their special vocation is to reach out to all of our sisters and brothers who have not yet fully heard the Gospel message; to identify with the poor, the oppressed and the weakest members of the communities where they serve.

CATHOLIC POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY: A GUIDE FOR THE CATHOLIC VOTER

WELCOME TO FATHER JOSEPH HUNG
Fr. Joseph Hung will be in residence at St. Robert's. Father Hung was born and ordained in 1970 in Vietnam. He has served in various parishes throughout the Archdiocese since 1979. Most recently Father Hung has been the Associate Pastor at St. Gregory's Church in San Mateo. Father Hung will be working part time as Chaplain at Seton Hospital and part time at Chope Hospital in San Mateo. Welcome Father Joe. As a side note - Father Bruce is threatening to change his first name so that when you call St. Robert's all you have to do is ask for Father Joe!

As you are reading this, I'll be in Santa Maria for our annual gathering. This year, the sisters and associates from my community celebrate the jubilees of 11 of our sisters, who among them have given 645 years of service to God's people! Most amazing, don't you think? Among them are teachers, a principal, a nurse and hospital administrator, hospital chaplain, day care worker, teacher of English as a Second Language, marriage tribunal advocate, global speaker for peace and justice, and one who has suffered with Muscular Dystrophy for decades, praying for the rest of us all those years. We are also blessed to receive one young woman as a novice and to witness the final vows of another!

Our focus this year will be on the environment: how do we show our appreciation for all creation by using the things of this world as the gifts they truly are? You may remember St. Francis speaking of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Brother Fire and Sister Air. He wasn't just being poetic, but was recognizing the interrelationship among all forms fo God's creation. Remember when people actually watched nuclear bombs being tested in Nevada without fear of the fallout? Remember when we used to think that the ocean was vast enough to absorb all the toxic chemicals and waste material we poured into it? Remember when we brushed our teeth (for some reason) with the water running? Hopefully, with these decades since the publication of Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, we are a bit more aware of our actions and their consequences.

We will continue our adult computer classes on Saturday mornings beginning October 2nd. We will have a six-week session in the Fall and another in the Spring. If interested, please, call the Rectory and put your name on the registration list. Spaces are limited to the number of computers in the St. Robert's School Computer Lab. More details will be given closer to the first class.

St. Robert's School uniforms free for the taking after all the morning Masses on Sunday, August 15th, in Hennessy Hall.