Day of Confessions - March 4

"Jesus in the confessional is not a dry cleaner: it is an encounter with Jesus, who waits for us just as we are. Is going to confession like a torture session? No! It is going to praise God, because I, a sinner, have been saved by Him. And is He waiting to beat me? No, he waits with tenderness to forgive me. And if tomorrow I do the same? Go again, and go and go. He always waits for us.” 

- Pope Francis

This Wednesday Fr. David and I will be celebrating the Day of Reconciliation with the Archdiocese with the following Schedule:

9:00 - 11:00 am - at the Church

11:00 - 2:00 pm - at St. Michael's Secondary School

3:30 - 5:00 pm - at the Church

7:30 - 9:00 pm - at the Church (after 7:00 pm Mass)

Here is the Invitation from Cardinal Collins

Peace.

To Knock, seek, ask,...

I think for most people there is an inquisitiveness that is natural in our youth, that can be quashed, or limited in later years.  I think of how a child keeps asking why, and eventually an exasperated adult eventually says "Because!" and shuts down the asking. 

On the flip side God in today's scripture reminds us that it is his great desire for us to knock, seek, and ask.  In this searching we find not only God, we realize our very need for God!

Peace

February 24 - God's Word

" ... It shall accomplish that which I purpose,..."

Isaiah 55:11

We know that Jesus is the eternal Word, the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophets and promises in the Jewish Scriptures. The long awaited promise of the Father. Some 600 years before Jesus was Born - the Prophet Isaiah was proclaiming a promised Word that would accomplish all that God desired!

Thus says the Lord, your God:For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,and do not return there until they have watered the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 As we Pray, as we Fast, and as we Give during this season of Lent, we are allowing the Word - Jesus Christ - to accomplish much in us... that which God Purposes.

Peace

February 23

This video is a nice - simple take on what is at the heart of Lent!

Fasting and Giving - flow from our Praying... great images.

Peace.

February 22 - 1st Sunday of Lent: Pray - Fast - Give

The liturgical season of Lent is a time of preparation and it can only be understood in relationship to Easter.  The Church invites us to enter into 40 days of preparation so that we may celebrate the great 50 days of Easter. 
The word Lent comes from an old English word meaning Springtime.  In the northern hemisphere this name for the liturgical season that prepares us for Easter is quite appropriate.  Even during the harsh days of March when the weather is unpredictable we do see signs of Spring and know that soon new life will be surrounding us. 
The Church reminds us that Lent has two major purposes: It recalls or prepares for baptism and emphasizes a spirit of penance.  The emphasis on a spirit of penance assists us in preparing to recall our baptismal promises.  For those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil the spirit of penance is to assist them in preparing for their baptism.  

Every baptized person is called to renew their baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil or Easter Sunday.  The first question we are asked is: Do you reject sin so as the live in the freedom of God’s children? 
In Lent with the help of the Holy Spirit and through the traditional practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (using our financial resources to support the work of the Church) we are led to let go of actions, attitudes and behaviours that keep us from living in the freedom of God’s children. 
Each member of our parish, everyone from two to 102 is invited to enter into this time of preparation through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Each time you complete a Lenten activity you are invited to tie a ribbon on one of our Lenten trees.  The ribbons are a visible sign of our Lenten practices, a visible sign of our journey to Easter and abundant life with God. 
We shall include suggestions for Lenten activities in the parish bulletin, on Facebook (Holy Family Catholic Church Bolton) and on our website. 
Remember Lent is a time to fast from that which keeps us away from God or prevents us from living in the light of  Christ.

This morning, during the 8:30 mass, I was struck by the number of people who leave Mass during communion - it was really quite sad. This was at 9:12 am - and it made me think - what is your rush folks - we were well within an hour!
The recessional hymn was COMPLETE at 9:21. this is so not acceptable.  How do we change a culture!?!

Peace

February 21 - Be Kind

Here is a video from the Editor of America Magazine - the weekly publication of the Jesuits in the United States.

Simply put: Instead of giving something up - Be Kind!

Don't be a jerk. Honour the absent (don't talk about people behind their back). Always give people the benefit of the doubt.

A Great Message as we begin Lent!  Peace

February 20 - Fasting

"... you fast only to quarrel and to fight ..."

Isaiah 58:4

Fasting.  Why would we fast? Why should we fast?

I had a friend who one year decided to give up Coffee for Lent! On the surface this seemed to be a great Idea.  He always had a cup of coffee in his hand. He had a coffee make in his bedroom. (This was long before the single serve Tassimo or K-Cup machines!) When he went for a drive - he always stopped at Tim Hortons.  So as I say - on the face of it - this was an impressive personal sacrifice.

Well I have to say - that was a most miserable Lent for both my friend - and for all of us who came in contact with him! He was irritable, and often uncharitable. and this impacted all of us.  He would not want to stop at a Tim's location for us - who had not given up Coffee.  At meetings that he organized - there was no coffee served... you get the idea... 
Something like the first reading from todays Mass. 

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.

Yet the Lord desires a different kind of Fast.  A transformative Fast. A Fast that will lead us to realize our need for mercy and grace from our Father - who desires Justice. Justice is us living in right relationship with each other - and the whole of creation.

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Peace

February 19

"I set before you two paths - Life and Death - choose life..."

cf  Duet. 30:15

Why?

Why does God give us a choice? 

It really is amazing, when you think of it!  God respects us, values us, and values our freedom.  God gives us choice - in order to give us freedom. 

The first phrase from the renewal of Baptismal Promises at Easter is: Do you reject sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God? Living in freedom is God's deepest desire for you and for me. Yet sin always binds and limits us.  Sin takes away our freedom. That is why we desire to reject sin. To live as God desires, to live in freedom.  Our Lenten disciplines - Praying; Fasting; Giving encourage us to be true children of God - Free!

The fact that we could choose to NOT love God is really what makes our choice to love God have any value!

Peace

Ash Wednesday 2015

"Brothers and Sisters, we are Ambassadors for Christ..."

2 Cor 5:20

St. Paul uses this wonderful analogy for us as disciples of Christ - Ambassadors. When we think in civil or government terms - the idea of an Ambassador can shape how we see ourselves as Christians:

• An Ambassador is an emissary from his home land to a foreign land: from our Baptism - we are incorporated into the body of Christ - so our homeland is the Kingdom of God, and we are sent to be a witness in Bolton, Peel, Ontario, and Canada!
• An Ambassador represents the leader of his/her homeland: we represent Christ and his message of God's abundant love for the whole of the human family. 
• An Ambassador is obedient to the will of his/her ruler: living as Disciples of Christ we continually seek the will of the Father - and Lent affords us an opportunity to deepen that awareness through the disciplines of Lent: Praying, Fasting and Giving.

Peace

Prayer for the Sick

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes - and each year is also the world day of Prayer for the Sick.  Today Cardinal Collins has released a Pastoral Statement about the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Doctor Assisted Suicide.

Statement from Cardinal Thomas Collins 
re: Supreme Court of Canada decision on assisted suicide

 “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.”

Psalm 31

In our days, as in the days of the psalmist, so many years ago, people can suffer grievously during their journey through this “valley of tears,” and may even be tempted to request assisted suicide. The Supreme Court has now allowed that, and at first glance, it may seem to be the compassionate thing to do.

There is certainly no need to take extreme measures to extend the length of life. When people are dying, we should surround them with love as they enter into their final experience on this earth, and relieve as best we can any suffering they endure. We need as a society to make effective palliative care more available. But there is a profound difference between compassionately journeying with someone who is dying, or who is suffering when not in danger of death, and killing that person, or helping that person to commit suicide. No one has a right to do that, and it is simply wrong for the state to allow or to encourage that.

Suicide is already a sadly common tragedy in our society, as persons facing what at the moment they feel to be intolerable suffering of some kind, decide to end their life. We all need to reach out compassionately to anyone contemplating suicide, and to offer whatever help we can to alleviate their pain, be it physical or psychological, so they can appreciate the value of their life, and know they are loved. But for anyone actually to assist them not to escape but to commit suicide is wrong. It is a perversion of the vocation of physicians to have them engaged in helping people to kill themselves. Physicians are called to be servants of healing, not agents of death.

Assisted suicide is the deceptively attractive face of euthanasia. The most compelling cases grip our attention and sway the debate, and so the Court opens the door to assisted suicide, all the while seeming to do less than it actually has done by surrounding its action with a set of limiting conditions, seeking to guarantee informed consent, as if that were the key issue. But the state is authorizing the killing of an innocent person, whatever controls are in place, and even those limitations can over time be swept away, leading to the more widespread practice of euthanasia. We have only to look at some European countries to see what lies ahead. We Canadians patriotically believe our country is special, but it is not so special as to be immune to the dynamics of increasing access to medical killing, as individualist rationales make persuasive the argument for that in more and more cases.

The court, recognizing that many physicians, faithful to their healing vocation, will not assist people to kill themselves, makes some very slight room for freedom of conscience. It trusts local Colleges of Physicians and other such groups to deal appropriately with the conscience issue. This trust is misplaced. Currently the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is proposing a draft conscience policy which states that physicians who refuse to perform a procedure to which they morally object must arrange that the procedure gets done by someone else. In other words, they are compelled to become accomplices. I urge the College not to go through with this unjust policy, and I urge Ontarians, especially physicians, to speak up against it. First the politicians; now the physicians: the assault on freedom of conscience steadily advances in our country.


We all are on the way to death and should gain wisdom from contemplating that inescapable fact, so that we use each present moment to prepare for the moment of our death by living well. We should provide all who are suffering with the best medical assistance we can offer, especially in palliative care for those who are coming to the end of life. Most importantly, we should accompany each person with love, especially those without friends or family. But any society that authorizes killing people through assisted suicide and euthanasia has lost its moral compass.

Peace

Doctor Assisted Suicide

In a sense I feel this is a sad day in our recent history. Today we have learned that the Supreme Court has ruled that the section of the Criminal Code that makes it a crime to assist a person in committing suicide has been ruled unconstitutional. From today's Supreme Court of Canada Decision:

Section 241 (b) and s. 14 of the Criminal Code unjustifiably infringe s. 7 of the Charter and are of no force or effect to the extent that they prohibit physician‑assisted death for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.

The declaration of invalidity is suspended for 12 months. This will allow Parlaiment to fashion new laws around assited suicide.

I feel that this goes against the most basic element of the Hippocratic Oath: to first and foremost - Do no harm! The picture to the right is an 11th century Byzantine copy of the Hippocratic Oath. 
Notice the cross!

Yet perhaps this is simply another step away from life in a culture of death that removes God from the centre of life.

We are becoming a Self made society that worships its creator!