Friday 22 February 2013

Friday = Edge

Last Friday would normally have been the opening of our Edge Semester - yet we were Snow Tubing last week - because of the Snow storm on February 8th!
So all of that shifting around would make TONIGHT the opening of the semester - but hold on there - Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation last week - so we have an Edge night on the Papacy!
We will look at B16 (as he is known in the blogosphere!) and at the process for the election of a new Pope.
Here are some interesting - Fun Facts - About B16:


  • Kelly Clarkson sang for Pope Benedict XVI
  • He has a pilot license for the Papal Helicopter but does not have a driver’s license or know how to drive a car
  • He can speak 7 languages
  • He enjoys playing the piano and listens to Mozart and Bach
  • He loves cats and has two of his own (one was a stray he found in Rome)
  • He still has one of the stuffed animals his mother made for him.

(I don't even know Kelly Clarkson!)

Tonight about 60 of our High School Youth are involved in "Just Fast" (Part of the larger Development and Peace "Think Fast" movement).  I'll drop in there with Stephanie at the end of the Edge Night!
Peace

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Parish Mission & Day of Reconciliation


Join us for our Lenten Parish Mission:
Power and Potential
Presenter: Jerry Galipeau
Jerry will be speaking at all Masses on March 2 & 3, and then each evening - March 3, 4, and 5 at 7:00 pm (more info HERE) 

This parish mission is sacrament-centered. Focusing on Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, the mission will invite parishioners to discover/re-discover the power and potential of the gift of the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. This power and potential can help us strengthen our marriages and families, can make a difference in the way we interact with people at school and at work, and can provide a real spiritual boost for Catholics for whom the practice of the faith has become routine.
The Mission begins on the 3rd Sunday of Lent (March 2nd and 3rd) and continues with sessions at 7:00 in the evening on March 3rd, 4th, and 5th.  Light refreshments will follow the presentations each evening at 8:00 pm.

Jerry Galipeau is the Vice President and Chief Publishing Officer at J. S. Paluch Company and its music and liturgy division, World Library Publications, located in Franklin Park, Illinois. Jerry presents keynotes and workshops throughout the United States and Canada on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, liturgical spirituality, ritual music, evangelization, and adult spiritual formation. He earned the Doctor of Ministry with a concentration in liturgical studies from Catholic Theological Union at Chicago in 1999.

March 6th has been designated as a day of Reconciliation within the Archdiocese of Toronto. We will have the following schedule for the celebration of Confessions that Wednesday:
     8 - 11 am - at the Church
     11 am - 2:30 pm - At. St. Michael 
                                 Secondary School
     4:30 - 6:30 pm - at the Church
     7:45 - 9:30 pm - at the Church

Sunday 17 February 2013

Sunday

Today we had the CWL Speech Contest with students from our local Catholic Schools - there were 7 competitors - all girls!  The winner was Alessia Boem - who spoke about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy as common Criminals (break and enter, speeding, animal endangerment, theft, etc.!) and the runner up was Jocelyn Coulombe who decided to speak on the most mundane of topics: Brushing your Teeth!  Both young ladies were terrific! All of the speakers were very gifted.


I am also including - on this First Sunday in the season of Lent - the Family Resources that offer reflections for the week at home HERE

Peace

Friday 15 February 2013

Lent


Prayer for the Beginning of Lent
  Jesus, beloved friend,
     you call us to a season
     of growth and repentance. 
  You have high hopes for us; 
     may we not disappoint you. 
  May we see your face ahead of us, 
     beaming at the end 
     of our Lenten journey. 
  Give us strength and energy 
     to run toward you during this season. 
  Give us integrity and generosity
     in each new challenge.
  We ask this of you who live and reign with God the Father 
     in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
     one God, for ever and ever. Amen

As we embark on our journey of Lent, I pray that we might come to know not only who we are, but whose we are - God's beloved daughters and sons - children of God.

With the significant snow storm last Friday - now somewhat out of sync - we have our Edge Snow Tubing outing this evening... prayers that everything goes smoothly!

Peace

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Ash Wednesday

This is a busy day in the parish - With 6  Ash Wednesday Liturgies at 3 different schools, and the morning Mass with Holy Family School, and the evening Mass - we have had a full day - add to that a crisis or two - and full becomes very full.

As we had in Advent/Christmas - we will have weekly prayers and resources for use at home - that we will post on our parish website - and I will post here in my Blog.  These resources are called "Keeping the Seasons" from Litiurgy Training Publications in Chicago, Illinois.


Click here for a 2 page handout for use at home thoughout the week.

Peace.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

World Day of Prayer for the Sick


With Yesterday's momentous news from Rome - It was almost forgotten that February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, is the International day of prayer for the sick.  Last November Pope Benedict visited a seniors home in Rome and here is the text of his comments at that time:
“I come to you as Bishop of Rome, but also as an old man visiting his peers. It would be superfluous to say that I am well acquainted with the difficulties, problems and limitations of this age and I know that for many these difficulties are more acute due to the economic crisis. At times, at a certain age, one may look back nostalgically at the time of our youth when we were fresh and planning for the future. Thus at times our gaze is veiled by sadness, seeing this phase of life as the time of sunset. This morning, addressing all the elderly in spirit, although I am aware of the difficulties that our age entails I would like to tell you with deep conviction: it is beautiful to be old! At every phase of life it is necessary to be able to discover the presence and blessing of the Lord and the riches they bring. We must never let ourselves be imprisoned by sorrow! We have received the gift of longevity. Living is beautiful even at our age, despite some “aches and pains” and a few limitations. In our faces may there always be the joy of feeling loved by God and not sadness. 
In the Bible longevity is considered a blessing of God; today this blessing is widespread and must be seen as a gift to appreciate and to make the most of. And yet frequently society dominated by the logic of efficiency and gain does not accept it as such: on the contrary it frequently rejects it, viewing the elderly as non-productive or useless. All too often we hear about the suffering of those who are marginalised, who live far from home or in loneliness. I think there should be greater commitment, starting with families and public institutions, to ensure that the elderly be able to stay in their own homes. The wisdom of life, of which we are bearers, is a great wealth. The quality of a society, I mean of a civilisation, is also judged by how it treats elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life. Those who make room for the elderly make room for life! Those who welcome the elderly welcome life! ... When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary. 
Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: “when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace! This is important in every stage of life: no one can live alone and without help; the human being is relational. And in this case I see, with pleasure, that all those who help and all those who are helped form one family, whose lifeblood is love. 
Dear elderly brothers and sisters, the days sometimes seem long and empty, with difficulties, few engagements and few meetings; never feel down at heart: you are a wealth for society, even in suffering and sickness. And this phase of life is also a gift for deepening the relationship with God.... Do not forget that one of the valuable resources you possess is the essential one of prayer: become interceders with God, praying with faith and with constancy. Pray for the Church, and pray for me, for the needs of the world, for the poor, so that there may be no more violence in the world. The prayers of the elderly can protect the world, helping it, perhaps more effectively than collective anxiety. Today I would like to entrust to your prayers the good of the Church and peace in the world. The Pope loves you and relies on all of you! May you feel beloved by God and know how to bring a ray of God’s love to this society of ours, often so individualistic and so efficiency-oriented. And God will always be with you and with all those who support you with their affection and their help.”
–Pope Benedict XVI
Visit to the "Viva Gli Anziani" (Long Live the Elderly) Home
Rome, 12 November 2012

So I wonder - reading this - if the decision was not made months ago, and only the timing was in Question!

Enjoy the pancakes today - for Lent begins tomorrow!

Peace

Monday 11 February 2013

Monday Morning

Well it was certainly surprising this morning to wake up and hear the news of the Holy Father's plans to resign! So we will have a new Pope before Easter. Interesting.
Even more interesting is the reflections that I have heard over the past few years - that Benedict is such a strong "Teaching" Pope. He is certainly a smart and thinking man. Perhaps in an odd sort of way - he is "Teaching" us again.  I believe he was one of the people who had said that, while he did not think John Paul II should resign, it was indeed possible for the Pope to resign.  This was when John Paul's health was faltering in the early part of the new Millenium. Perhaps this is yet another way that Benedict is showing that we do not have to be bound by the long peoriod of time (almost 600 years) since the last Pope resigned.  
While the story is still very fresh - we may learn more details that will explain this surprising (if not shocking) news in the coming weeks.  Here is the text of his announcement this morning:

"Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."
This  is indeed a time to pray for the Cardinals who will gather in March to elect the next Pope.

Peace

Saturday 9 February 2013

Christ - The Same

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8)

This Scripture passage - which ended yesterday's first reading - reminded me of a video I saw years ago about the nature of "stuff".


Here is some of the information about the "Story of Stuff Project" which you can find online:
When Annie Leonard and her friends at Free Range Studios set out in 2007 to share what she’d learned about the way we make, use and throw away Stuff, they thought 50,000 views would be a good result for her ‘20-minute cartoon about trash.’ Today, with over 15 million views and counting, The Story of Stuff is one of the most watched environmental-themed online movies of all time.
Despite the ways in which things and stuff in our world are transient and temporary - we are reminded in Sacred Scripture that Jesus Christ - whom we encounter in the Eucharist - is the same saviour who suffered, died, and was raised to new life!

Peace

Friday 8 February 2013

Edge Snow Tubing

O how things change!  Each year our Edge youth ministry goes up to Snow Valley near Barrie to go Snow - Tubing. (if you don't know what snow-tubing is check out this promotional video)

When we first haneded out the permission forms for the Edge Snow-Tube outing there were questions about what would happen if there was no snow, if the rain had washed it all away. It was 13 degrees that week!  So I guess people prayed for snow - and boy were those prayers answered! Yet it seems there is too much snow... now our outing is postponed, due to this weather and the difficult driving conditions... 
There is no Edge tonight - so stay safe and warm in your homes!

Peace 

Friday 1 February 2013

Prayer and Pastoral Plan

Prayer Companions 

This Sunday we will be launching a project for the Year of Faith in our own parish: A Ministry of Prayer! The Pastoral Team firmly believe that prayer is transformative.  Intentional prayer that lifts up people and ministries of service to the Lord, without telling God what to do, can transform us and the people involved in those ministries.
We are inviting parishioners to choose 1 or 2 ministries and pray in a deliberate (but non directive) way 3 times per day: Morning, Noon, & Night.  We have composed prayers for each of these ministries, and a post card that you can keep close - in a car, purse, or pocket. There are more than 14 different ministries / groups to pray for. More details in the Homily this Sunday!


Also this Sunday the Pastoral Plan of the Archdiocese is being circulated.  You might remember that back in the Fall, Cardinal Collins circulated a letter about the idea of, and the work that was happening, on the Pastoral Plan.  You can read more about it by clicking on the image above.  There is a printed copy being inserted in each bulletin this Sunday.
Peace