Full Wednesday

Yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Under this title  Pope John Paul II declared that Mary is the Patroness of the Americas.  And so this was quite a full day in Holy Family Parish!  We had 2 Advent Masses at Pope John Paul II School.  Since the school is over 700 students - we celebrate 2 masses - with 1/2 of the students and staff at each mass. And Stephanie and I had some time for visits to a couple of the grade 8 classes.  One student had quite a few questions for me.  It seemed each time I answered one question - Jack had 3 more he wanted to ask.  I love these times to just hang out and speak with the young people.
After a Pizza & Salad lunch that the school staff provided, I went to St. Michael's for our weekly Wednesday "Class Mass" that happens in Period 4 (1:00 - 2:15). There are usually 3-4 classes that attend these weekly masses - this was the last one for this semester, and had 4 grade 9 classes.  After Mass I usually have a time of 

"Anything you ever wanted to ask a priest and were afraid to ask, since you thought he might run away, but now he won't - so you can ask!"

These grade 9's have been asking terrific questions - including stuff about priesthood, Illuminati, the Mayan calendar, etc.
To be sure, there is lots of talk in our culture these days about whether the world will end on December 20th, 2012.  I simply reminded the students that Jesus consistently said " ... about that day we know not the day or the hour ..."  

After a stop at Tim Hortons for Tea and coffee for Lydia and Stephanie, I spent some time in the office talking to Stephanie about plans for a new ministry in the parish - aimed at children in grades 3, 4,  and 5.  (Watch for a roll out in the new calendar year!)

Then we both headed to Boston Pizza to have dinner with the Chaplain - Urszula Cybulko - and the team going on the Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic in January.  This was a fundraiser that Boston Pizza does with different charities, with a percentage of the evening's sales being donated to offset the cost of the mission trip and supplies.

After that dinner - Stephanie came back to the church for the Holy Family School - Family Advent Mass, while I went on to St. Margurite d'Youville to help with the sacrament of reconciliation.

A full day in the parish!
Peace