Edge Camp 2014

We had another wonderful Edge Camp this year! This is the 6th year we have been running Edge Camp with a number of other parishes - and now the Office of Catholic Youth with Archdiocese is helping to begin a second week of Edge Camp in order to expand the possibilities of Edge Camp offerings!

The theme this year was Fearless. 

Each camper received a Cinch bag, a T-Shirt, a Water Bottle, and a pair of Sun Glasses withe the Fearless Logo.

This is an adventure camp - so there are many activities that the young people get to take part in: High Ropes, Leap of Faith, Zip Line, Kayak & Canoe, FLOID (like a play ground on water) Swimming, Colour Run Obstacle Course, Mountain Biking, Archery, Arts and Crafts.  

The Leap of Faith Platform!

Despite rain in the forcast there was lots of sunshine!

Yet this is also an Edge Camp - and so each day also involved a Catechetical Session: Reconciliation, with even a model of how to go to confession; the Mass, connected to Abraham and Isaac; Adoration, a moment to appreciate that communion we have in the Eucharist; and finally facing our fears - David and Goliath - and the 5 stones he used translated for campers today... Trust - Friends - Eucharist - Reconciliation - Prayer.

Campers at the Main Hall - Just after a Mass

After Reconciliation a talk - reflecting on the grace they now have received...Mystagogy

It was a terrific camp - and our young people had such a great time. Thank you to our Teen and Adult leaders who helped with Edge Camp: Stephanie, Shawn, JP, Lucas, Asia, Julia, Katie, Talia, Laura, & Dario. You guys ROCK!

This week we are collecting school supplies again for those who are heading back to School and do not have enough resources to purchase these many supplies on their own. 
You can bring these donations to any Mass this Saturday or Sunday and leave them in the Parish hall.  We will pass them on to The Exchange for distribution to families in need. Thank you for your Christian Generosity!

Frisbee and Edge Camp

WWhen you have 20 teens in the church hallway at 8:10 on a Sunday morning - it can only mean one thing: FRISBEEEE!
Sunday was a terrific day in terms of weather - and once again our youth have won the Archdiocese of Toronto Frisbee Tournament held each August in Orangeville.

Champions again - even as the team was split into 2 parts at times - and often had competition with fresh legs.
Way to go team!

This week we head up to Edge Camp - 45 campers and 9 team leaders! This is a picture from last year's Edge camp. 300 youth and almost 100 Teen and Adult leaders & priests !

This year our theme is  Fearless. We have an awesome week planned for the youth - and we return on Sunday afternoon. Keep us all in your prayers this week!

Peace!

Carlota Ryan

Carlota Ryan was a woman of wonderful faith. Perhaps at times like Mother Teresa - she was not always aware of how strong her faith was - and how much of an impact she had upon others.

Her funeral is tomorrow - Friday, August 8th at 10:00 and there will be a time of visitation this evening Egan Funeral Home from 6:00 to 9:00 pm with prayers at 6:15 pm this evening. 

Carlota struggled these last few years with Cancer and we usually speak of Cancer as limiting a person - but for Carlota it was the Cancer that was so limited!

CANCER IS SO LIMITED …

It cannot cripple LOVE

It cannot shatter HOPE

It cannot corrode FAITH

It cannot eat away PEACE

It cannot destroy CONFIDENCE

It cannot kill FRIENDSHIP

It cannot shut out MEMORIES

It cannot silence COURAGE

It cannot invade the SOUL

It cannot reduce ETERNAL LIFE

It cannot quench the SPIRIT

It cannot lessen the POWER OF THE RESURRECTION 

CANCER IS SO VERY LIMITED!

March on August 10, 2014

A protest march against the persecution of Christians in Iraq will take place on Sunday, August 10, 2014.  The march will assemble at Bay and Front streets at 3:30 p.m. and march to the front of the Ontario Legislature Building - Queens Park by 4:45 p.m.  

This is being organized by a number of Christian Churches in the Toronto Area.

Library Preparations and Prayers for Peace

Each year we have a meeting with ALL of our staff: part time, full time, housekeeper, Pastoral staff and Maintenance.   Last week was the time of that staff meeting - and we began moving forward on plans for a library in the parish.  A place for parishioners to access spiritual resources, and grow in faith.  Yesterday Evening the Knights of Columbus helped assemble the shelf units from Ikea!

So we have begun! Over the coming weeks the books we have will be sorted further - and the Library should be open by the end of August!

Tonight we will pray in a special way for peace during Adoration from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. 

A Sunday Reflection

Joy & Treasure

Does finding the Treasure give us Joy?
     Or might our Joy help us find the treasure?
Have you got something that is very precious to you? 
It might be something that isn’t very important to anyone else, but is very special to you. Maybe it is something you would grab in a house fire, or flood. Would you be willing to give it away or swap it?  In the Gospel Jesus tells us that God’s kingdom is like a priceless treasure that one would give their most precious possession for. God’s kingdom begins here and now, in this life. 
It is not simply something in the Future - on the other side of death. Deacon Robert and his wife Gabrielle tell me that Fr. Bob McDougall s.j. was fond of saying that the Kingdom is not just Pie in the Sky after you Die, but it is Steak on the Plate while we wait! God, the Lord of all creation, is always present to His creation. Often it is us - the creatures who are not present to God! 

This is quite evident - when we see the horrible suffering inflicted on Christians & other minorities in Iraq and Syria;   
   Seeing the fighting and killing in Israel and Gaza; 
      When we hear of planes shot down over Ukraine.
Yet it is just as apparent when we are unkind to each other: when we select the bad over the good because it is ‘popular’ or is ‘socially acceptable’ to do so.
The Kingdom of God, the Reign of Heaven is here and now.

When we have a true and deep encounter with God - that is a Real Treasure! no matter if that authentic experience of God is:

• Found in nature / in a time in the wilderness, or the beaty of a sunset;
• Or found in a time of quiet Prayer, experience a deep presence of God;
• Or in singing a song - and being surrounded by others singing praise to God and being in utter communion;
• Or in the mystery of Love - in a Husband and Wife, in the joy of the birth of a new child - realizing the Joy of Family

We often would give up everything in that moment to remain there – to have & keep that ‘treasure’. Yet we will all face the Cross. and for us the image of the middle parable in today's set of three parables can give us consolation. The pearl of great value - of great price.

Pearls, of course, are not created in a vacuum. They are born from friction, hardship. Out of that struggle comes a miracle: a jewel of profound simplicity and humbling beauty, our Joy – The Joy of the Gospel – enables us to bear our cross / to hope thru suffering and to allow God to bring forth the K of G here and now - this beautiful Pearl.

Peace

Fearful Times in Iraq / Syria / Israel / Gaza and Ukraine

The Arabic letter N - for Nazarene - being used to mark the homes of Christians in Iraq and Syria

If you visited Facebook or Yahoo or Bing on Friday afternoon, you would see all kinds of stories trending - about celebrities, and movies and TV shows. You would have to look very hard to find any discussion at all about what we might say is the most important, most harrowing story of the week—quite possibly, the most historically significant story of this year.
That is: the obliteration of Christianity from Iraq.
The world is only now waking up to a horror that is unfolding before our eyes. Mainstream media coverage has been scant. Our government has been largely silent. But attention must be paid. The gospel we hear this Sunday is about a pearl of great price – the kingdom of God. Some of our brothers and sisters seeking that pearl are paying the ultimate price. They are paying for it with their lives.
In the city of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, the church bells have fallen silent. For the first time in 1600 years, there are no Christian church services, no Masses, no liturgies. Crosses have been ripped from churches. The cathedral has been turned in to a mosque. A monastery has been raided, looted, overtaken; the monks have been expelled, taking only the clothes on their backs. In a video that is, frankly, incredible, the ancient tomb of the prophet Jonah—one of the holiest sites in the region—was bombed and destroyed.

Men, women and children are literally running for their lives, fleeing to safer places to the north. In some towns, ISIS – the Islamist extremist group now dominating the country—has cut off water supplies and electricity. They have confiscated medicine. If they catch people trying to flee, they take everything they have – passports, medicine, wedding rings. The edict has gone forth: convert to Islam, or pay an outrageous tax that no one can afford. If you do not pay, you will be killed. It’s not an idle threat. Some people are being crucified.
And it is happening for one reason only: because they are Christian.
Seventy years ago, men and women fought a war to stop genocide in Europe. Now it has returned, in another place, targeting another group, going by another name. One Catholic archbishop has called it, bluntly, “religious cleansing.” 
The first Christians were baptized in Iraq nearly 20 centuries ago. Some speak the same language that Christ himself spoke, Aramaic. Now they are being crushed under the heel of evil.
Last week, during his general audience, Pope Francis led a moment of silence to pray for the people of Iraq. The Chaldean Catholic patriarch Louis Sako wrote an open letter, saying that for the first time in his history, Mosul is completely empty of Christians, and warning that the country is facing — quote – “a humanitarian, cultural and historical disaster.”

Some are trying to stop it—including Muslims. Last week, professor Mahmoud Al Asali at the University of Mosul spoke out against the reign of terror being inflicted on Christians, saying he believes it goes against the Muslim commandments. For his courage, he was killed.  And yet, even now, other voices are continuing to be raised.
Friday, Jordan’s Prince El Hassan – himself a descendant of Muhammad – called for an end to violence in the name of religion in a statement that was signed by several religious and secular leaders. He wrote: “We cannot stand idly by and watch as the lives of the most vulnerable, our women and our children, are destroyed in the name of religion.”  Last Sunday, in Baghdad, both Muslims and Christians gathered in the St. George Chaldean Church to pray together—and to weep together. Some Muslims carried signs: “I’m Iraqi, I’m Christian” – a powerful show of solidarity.

In Mosul, members of ISIS have been marking Christian homes with the Arabic letter “N,” which stands for “Nazarene” – meaning Christian. It is reminiscent of the Star of David that marked Jews in Nazi Germany. But now, that “N” has swept social media and is even being seen on tee shirts. The message: no matter what our belief or our nationality, we are all Christians. We are all Iraqis. We stand together in defiance of genocide, of persecution, of hate.

If there is any consolation here, it is this: Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are not facing this alone.  Neither are we.
Many in the media may be ignoring this onslaught. We cannot.
We hold in our hearts our own pearl of great price: a pearl of faith and hope. Pearls, of course, are not created in a vacuum. They are born from friction, hardship. Out of that comes a miracle: a jewel of profound simplicity and humbling beauty, giving off radiance and light.
Let us offer that pearl in prayer to the Holy Family: for Joseph and Mary know only too well the tears that are being shed, the desperation that is being felt. The Holy Family has known their terror, spoken their language, and have been refugees, fleeing from tyrants.   
Let us pray for Peace!