Leaving for Holidays

As I leave this afternoon for 2 weeks of holidays - I travel with many people in my prayers:

• A few of our faithful parishioners are undergoing new treatments for Cancer and so are in my thoughts and prayers;
• Deacon Robert's Sister in law (Gabrielle's sister) has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour;
• Another parishioner is nearing the end of his life, and preparing to go home to God;
• Mae Sutton, who is the Mother of our past Grand Knight - Chris Sutton - died last week and the Funeral is at St. Benedict's Parish tomorrow.

With these families in my prayers I leave, flying Westjet for the first time ever!

I am home on May 3rd.

Peace.

Youth Ministry Updates

We have been moving along in so many facets of our Youth Ministries that I thought we should give an update...

Holydays Summer Camp:
Registration for Holydays Summer Day Camp begins on Saturday April 20th at 11:00 in the morning.  We know it will be a busy time - we already have over 200 hits on our Registration Info Page on www.HFYM.ca 

We have received the permit for Holy Family School - Including the Kindergarden Rooms! This will help us with the introduction of the Kindergarden program this summer.  Our young teens are also in the process of applying for the many Counsellor positions that we will have during Holydays. Applications are due this week.

We will also be having a Seminarian Intern joining our parish this Summer (June-August) and one of the main things he will do is be involved with Holydays as a counsellor! More on this in May!

Rooted Ministry:  
(Students in grades 3, 4, & 5)
We had a Rooted Session this morning - and Rooted continues every third Saturday Morning - with our next rooted Saturday May 4th - 10:00 - 11:30 am.  Our team has done a terrific job of working on teachings that apply to the daily lives of our youth...

Edge and LifeTeen continue weekly - with these weeks being the heart of the special semester that was put together for the Year of Faith.  Coming soon (Saturday - April 27) is the Annual Pasta Dinner Fundraiser - that raises money for Youth Ministry Retreats.  The Teens will be going on a weekend retreat at the beginning of May - and Tickets are on sale now for the Pasta Dinner.

During the Year of Faith - the Office of Catholic Youth are having "Travelling" youth nights in different parishs. This week LifeTeen is joining the night at Merciful Redeemer Parish, and on May 10th the Edge youth are joing St. Isaac Jogues Parish for their Edge Night!

Thank God for the work that Stephanie does in the parish.  My head just starts to hurt as we keep all these ministries spinning in the parish!

Peace

Difficult Endings

One might think that the title of this post - and the nature of this Blog would mean that I am going to write about the funerals that we are facing in this second week of Easter! But no - on Tuesday evening I was with my friends Maureen and Emil Schemitsch for the hockey game Oshawa was playing against the Barrie Colts.  This is the second round of the OHL playoffs - and the Oshawa Generals had beat Niagara Ice Dogs in the first round - 4 games to 1. The Barrie Colts had won thier first round 4 games straight - so we know that they are a strong team, yet Oshawa had beat them in the regular season.  It was not so in the playoffs.  Barrie came from behind in the first game of the series, and it was all Barrie after that.  
It was in getting ready to go to the game Tuesday night that I realized that it could be Geoffrey's last OHL Game.  He is an "Over-Ager" this year - one of 3 players that were born in 1992 and are allowed on each OHL team this year.  
The first period was tight, with Barrie scoring once - while Oshawa out shot the Colts.  The turning point was in the second half of the second period when Barrie went up 3-1.
With a final score of 4-2 Oshawa was elinated in 4 games.  It was an emotional time, realizing that Geoffrey will not play in the OHL next Fall.
The classy part of the night was that Oshawa announced the 3 Stars of the game as being the 3 players who were over age: 

Matt Petgrave  - Scott Sabourin - Geoffrey Schemitsch

Where will Geoffrey be next year?  I do not know - but I do know that he has tremendous talent, great leadership skills and is a genuine gentleman.  On top of that - he has "Hockey smarts" and that might mean he will play in another professional league.

Peace.

Full Easter week

This has been a busy week.  My family came to Bolton on Easter Sunday.  My Sister and Brother in Law & Gabriel - who is also my 6 year old Godson, came to 12 noon Mass, and then went over to the Rectory.  My Dad, Brother, Sister in law and my nephew Michael, arrived around 4:00 in the afternoon.  Dad was at his parish in Kingston for the Easter Vigil since he is a sponsor in the RCIA process there.  And my Brother was at his in-law's in Napanee for Easter Sunday Morning Mass.

We enjoyed a meal together Sunday night and stayed up late talking and catching up.  On Monday morning we had a breakfast of toast, bacon and eggs, but if the truth be told - we really started with an appetizer of Chocolate Eggs!  (I think Laura Secord eggs are the quintessential Easter Chocolate!)  After eveyone left Monday around 12:30 - I went back to bed and had a nap!!!

Tuesday we had Vitamin F - Faith Nourishment - and some thought provoking reflections on Easter and the celebrations we participated in!  Wednesday We had a chance to see the play - The Wizard of Oz that the students from St. Michael's performed at the Rose Theatre in Brampton.  The last performance is tonight - a dinner theatre show!

Thursday was full of appointments - even a walk in appointment, and our Marriage Preparation team gathered for dinner at the Rectory Thursday Evening.  Tonight we have Edge! and I went to the store to get 100 Cadbury Easter cream eggs yesterday!  We also have adoration tonight - led by Decon Robert.

A full week - and we still have Family Gatherings for First Communion Families this coming Sunday and Thursday... I am starting to look forward to my Easter Vacation - April 16-30!

Peace