Lifeteen Retreat

This morning our Teens and the CORE Team of young adults gathered at Cedar Glen (YMCA Camp on the 11th Line in King) for a day long Retreat.  This is our first off site retreat for LifeTeen, and we began with Mass this morning.  (No sleeping in for this priest!)
It was a terrifically prayerful time with the 25 or so who are there.
The theme is Rooted and built up in him - Grounded in the faith.
The Teens began by imagining where they will be in 10 - 15 years - when they are 27 years old.  Who will they be - Whose will they be?

They can lead a full and abundant life - as witnesses of God's action in their lives - if they are firmly rooted in Christ - and established in the faith.
Each TEEN and CORE member gets a T-Shirt when they attend the retreat - and so now you can spot them when they come to Mass with these T-Shirts!  With that group on retreat till 9:00 tonight it means there will be a smaller crowd at 5:00 Mass tonight - But Jolene and JP are still here for Music! Alleluia!
Peace

Seminar: Good and ...

The past week started with 2 Masses at St. John the Baptist School on Monday morning.  Each of our Schools celebrates a mass around Thanksgiving and we celebrate the beginning of another School Year. I then went up to the Priests' Seminar - held each autumn, and which allows us to explore different Pastoral issues. Half of the priests go each week - about 160 at a time! (Fr. Sherwin will go in 2 weeks time)

This year's topic was Preaching, and the presenter was Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P. The Dominicans are known as the Order of Preachers, and Fr. Cameron had a wonderful method he shared with us - exploring texts, and asking questions.  We went beyond the "standard fare" of many Gospel parables and the homilies they typically elicit by spending time going into the text, over and over, and asking ourselves - what questions does the text propose, and what questions are the people in our pews facing.
It was a great week, well... as far as those presentations went.  The downside of the week was our collective prayer. All of the singing during the liturgies was Gregorian Chant.  While this certainly slowed down - and made our praying of the office more solemn and prayerful - it meant our Eucharistic liturgies were flat, and without life.  The Introit Chant (read "Gathering Song") did not gather us and did not help us to become one body in prayer. That is what the Gathering song is supposed to do... So some Good and some Bad...


This Saturday our LifeTeen youth are on retreat - please pray for them. Their theme is "Rooted in Christ" from the World Youth Day theme this past Summer...


Peace

Cancer and Friends

Yesterday I got back from a quick 2 day visit to Virginia Beach to visit a dear friend and distant cousin, who has been battling Pancreatic Cancer.  Actually today marks 5 years from her first diagnosis! (It was 5 years ago in the beginning of October that Margie described feeling "mothy" just not quite right.)

 I met Margie with 4 other North American Forum team members when I was an Intern (learning about how to present on the Forum Beginnings and Beyond Institute) in Chicago in the summer of 2002 - just before World Youth Day in Toronto!
It was after some conversation that Margie and I discovered a common ancestry in her grandmother's Canadian roots.  Ever since that Institute the 6 of us have been terrific friends - partly because the local co-ordinator was so poor - and the facility was less than ideal (poor physical set up, poor lunch time service in the cafeteria, and really poor quality of food). It meant we bonded together in a way that a team never has before or since in over 100 of these institutes across North America!  We call ourselves the Chicago 6!
Since the fall of 2003 we have been gathering at each other's homes in an annual rotation - starting at Fr. Rick Conway's place in Andover, Massachusetts.  This year was my year to host, but due to Margie's condition, we decided to go to Virginia Beach this year.
We traveled, cooked, dined, prayed, anointed, and shared stories together.  It was a very grace-filled time, even as we realized that Margie is already in the 1% of people who celebrate 5 years of survival with this diagnosis.  Because Margie's Husband - Jim - is a retired Military (Navy) man, Margie has had access to top notch treatment options.  She has also been supported by, and herself has been a support to, many people in her faith and social networks...
I will continue to pray for Margie, my friend and my cousin, and ask you to keep her in your prayers also.
Peace.

Thanksgiving Monday

This Morning - after a Thanksgiving Day Mass - the Knights of Columbus boxed all of the donations from our Thanksgiving Day food drive.  Over 35 boxes were filled and will provide nourishment for those who are experiencing poverty these days.

This was a wonderful outpouring of care and concern.  Where we are able to connect our faith to our lives and share our resources and thus provide for someone else. 

It was a great reminder of the early Christian community in Acts 2:42-47 - where each received according to their need, and provided according to their ability.

Thank you to everyone who made donations.

After the boxing of the food, my Dad and I travelled up to Owen Sound to watch the Attack play a Monday afternoon game.  My Godson has been out of the line up for a few days - feeling sick and less than 100% so that he did not go on the road trip to Erie, Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday.  I got a text message from Geoffrey on Saturday saying he was feeling better, and that he figured he would play Monday, but he did not.  He was in the building, and had skated on the ice earlier in the day, but was "riding the bike" in the dressing room during the game.  The Attack played 2 good periods, and won the game 6-3.  Their new Import draft pick from Minsk, Belarus had a hat trick, and the young guys are contributing - playing good positional hockey. (That last sentence was from Dad!)

Dad and I treated Geoffrey to dinner, and then we headed home.  One of the unique things about the way that the business community in Owen Sound supports the team is that whenever there is a Home Game for the Attack - the local Tim Hortons Stores have an "Attack Doughnut" and I finally purchased one! Well actually three - but one was for Dad tonight and one for the road tomorrow!
Peace

Dignum et iustum est! It is Right and Just

When we Gather for Eucharist – it is our opportunity to give Praise and Thanks to God.  The word Eucharist comes from the Greek and means to Give Thanks.  The Eucharistic Prayer is our perfect prayer of Thanks – Offered by all of us and spoken by the priest

In the last line of the Preface Dialogue: The LATIN Has not changed from 1971 to 2011: Dignum et iustum est
Was translated in 1970 to english as:

“It is right to give Him thanks and praise” 

But you can clearly see:      Right    and    Just    it is

Right & Just – When we remember that Biblical Justice – Is about Right Relationship.  This is our relationship – that we, the creation, the created order, gives praise and thanks to God the Creator the Author of all that exists.  This is the right Relationship.

This Sunday/this weekend – Our Society – invites us to be thankful. Often times that social idea of thanks – for all the stuff - all the harvest stops where our social idea of justice stops – before getting to God – And our Right Relationship with God.  God created us in relationship - for relationship.  God did not just make Adam, he created Adam and Eve.  We are built for relationship - and our Celebration of the Eucharist "rights" our relationship with God.

Dignum et iustum est     -    It is Right and Just.

Even though it is shorter than the phrase we use now, I think that this text, when we ponder it, presents a rich biblical image for us to imagine.

Dignum et iustum est     -    It is Right and Just that we give thanks for the relationships - the right relationships - we have this day. We do this at the wedding feast of the Lamb - where heaven and earth are wed. 

Peace

Thanksgiving Sunday

The word Eucharist is actually rooted in the Greek word for "Thanksgiving".  When we gather for Eucharist - we are giving our Praise and Thanks to God.  The Eucharistic Prayer is the best prayer we have to give praise and thanks to God Liturgically. Yet this ritual prayer of ours as a community will always be lacking if we are not able to offer our own personal prayers of thanksgiving. Maybe the liturgy can form us in how to do this in a personal way: listening to God, realizing what we have, thanking God, looking forward to service.
In the Liturgy, having gathered together, we listen to God's Word.  This word speaks to us in every time and place and is not simply stories about people with hard to pronounce names from places far far away.  God's word is living and true - and speaks to us today - here and now.  Maybe in our personal prayer we could start by taking time to listen to God.  Listen in silence for God to speak.
Having listened to God's word, we place our gifts on the Altar.  We place our very selves in that bread and wine. We offer ourselves, and that offering - joined to Christ's timeless offering on the Cross - transforms what we have offered.  Transforms us. We recognize what we have and the One who has provided it.
In recognizing the giver of all gifts, we praise and thank God.  This gratitude can permeate our whole being, transforming entitlement (what do I get / deserve) to appreciation.
Having given our thanks to God, we leave our prayer recommitted to live our lives in service of Christ, in service of the Gospel. Our time of personal prayer and expression of Gratitude is not simply for our selves, but rather joins us more and more to Christ - who lived his life for the life of the world.


Fr. Thomas Rosica, the Director of Salt and Light Media, offered a meditation on Thanksgiving that I wanted to share with you.  As you gather at the table of the Lord, and as you gather at your dining table as a family and with those you love, my prayer is that you will see the connection between these 2 tables!

Peace

Delegation to Town Council

Yesterday morning Dr. Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, Carmel Hili and myself "Delegated Town Council" - That really means we presented a report to Council - including Mayor Morrison. The Report we presented is: "A Home in the Hills" which presents findings about Homelessness in Caledon (which is available here)

The three of us were there because
- we know of teens in our community who are couch surfing because of Family Conflict;
- there are children whose parents are facing eviction after long term unemployment who are being fed and clothed by a neighbor;
- there are children whose parents who have died and they are too old for CAS – and too young to work;
- there are senior heating their house with an oven set to 400ºF ; 
- Retired seniors who have been farmers have people who live in their barns alone;
- because homelessness can be hidden - with the people in the big house at end of the cul-de-sac choosing between food and hydro;
- because people in our midst suffer severe deprivations of the basic elements of life;
- we see people who are clearly homeless, carrying backpacks, walking into town and spending time in cafes or library, sometime thumbing a ride, a woman, with a bundle-buggy holding all her earthly belongings, sitting dazed on a bench in the Goodfellow building, a gentleman eating his breakfast apple at CCS in the morning, folks who are denied housing because they have a pet.

We were 3 members of the Caledon Homelessness Partnership Strategy Committee that met for over a year - looking at an issue that is a Provincial and Regional responsibility.
We have committed our time to this because our conscience bothers us as citizens at the thought that people are spending cold nights sleeping in the outdoors exposed to the elements, while others live on the edge and struggle not to become homeless. 

“Homelessness is the real or imminent absence of a home over which individuals or families have personal control”

The Committee found that in many ways one can be homeless
before one is without a house, and that there are many factors causing this:
• Decreased access to affordable housing
• Family crisis and conflict – Disintegration / and re-constitution
• Abuse    • Addictions   • Physical and/or mental health challenges
• Limitations of living on a fixed income (OW, ODSP)
• Loss of many kinds (job, spouse, child)
• Shame and isolation regarding one’s situation 


The Committee had an 8 month community consultation including
three Community Forums, and approached many different community demographics including: 

OPP; Youth; High School Chaplain; Guidance Counselors; Optimist Club; Crisis Case Workers; Homeless Youth; Public Works Employees; Library Staff; Motel Managers; Faith Leaders; Kinsmen Club; Salvation Army; Street Outreach Workers; Town Outdoor Staff; LCBO Employees; Tim Horton Employees; Residents; Family Transition Place; Meals On Wheels Staff; and Street Nurses.

The themes that emerged during this study were:
• Hamlets matter - Caledon is full of smaller communities
• Animals matter               • Seniors/Farmers matter
• People are employed but precariously housed
• Youth need places to be, become and matter
• Some people are passing through, but others have no option except to leave because there is no support system here.
• People want to help. People asked again and again: what to do?

In the end we reminded council that the people in Caledon have been known as people who care for their neighbours. This is traditionally so in the hamlets and small communities of Caledon: if a farmer's barn is on fire, the whole village rallies to put the fire down and to give shelter, if need be, to the family affected by the disaster. This sentiment was expressed repeatedly by people in the course of this study and also at the forums held in Claude, Bolton and with the faith community: we care for our own and Caledon should and would support and look after needy members within its communities. 
All we ask, today, is that you take time to read our report and to offer support to the strategic homelessness effort initiated at the Caledon Community Services and overwhelmingly backed by Caledon residents.


It was something different to be nervous presenting and speaking in public! Yet this is something we can address - before the problem of homelessness becomes like other bigger cities in our region.


Peace