The Visitation

Before she came to Canada, she had a dream of a lady with a blue veil. 

After leaving her country she dreamt of the lady again. 

In her dream the lady came with an open arm, embraced her and her children. 

The woman who dreams of the lady finds solace in front of the grotto at Our Lady of Mercy Parish church. 

She comes early in the morning to sit in front of the lady as if the lady called her to come to visit. When she is worried about family members still living in Syria, here she sits. Just by sitting in front of the lady she feels much better. 

The woman is a Muslim.
Our Lady of Mercy used to be a little house on a prairie. It was the very first church I visited when we arrived in Canada. I lived a few blocks away from the church. Now, it was rebuilt to accommodate more people and the grotto is a new addition.

“I am only a man, just like you.”

Trait D’espirit / Drawn by the Spirit

“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures,” said St. André Bessette.

He is just another man, a real person that I would have very much wanted to meet personally.  Unfortunately, he was born way ahead of me and died 20 years before I was born.  If you ask him who he is, the response was “I am only a man, just like you.”

André Bessette is a native of Canada born frail in a poor family in Quebec.  He became an orphan at the age of 12 and had hardly any education at all.  In his early twenties, he entered the Holy Cross congregation in Montreal.  Nobody wanted him.  The main task given to him was menial as a porter, someone who opens the door and greets people who come to visit the Oratory.  Yet he did his duty for 40 years accepting the little he had and turning it into a holy act.

One would not think that he lacks formal education when he is an effective teacher of faith by his action, love, kindness, and example.  He used the simplest means.  It is his complete trust with divine providence is what made him an exceptional person.

His dream was to build a church devoted to St. Joseph.  He trusted that if he is really doing the Lord’s will the Lord would bring it to fruition.  And it did happen.

How I would have wanted to see him open the door for me when I visited the Oratory in Mount Royal.   I felt small as an ant standing at the first rung of the steps looking up at the Oratory.

In a world filled with educated minds and an era of countless celebrity, glitz, and glamour, I am amazed at what a simple man can do.

Brother André is what I call him and has left me a legacy to place my trust in Jesus.

At a moment of Grace

Residents pray inside a damage Catholic Church after Typhoon Haiyan damaged Tacloban, Philippines.  With the gifts of faith, hope, and love the Filipinos will recover and become stronger people.

Source: BC Catholic November 15, 2013 issue

Do not mourn Nature,

For you will discover,

A new growth underneath,

Hope will always deliver.

Rise to the occasion,

Leave the worrying,

Provide us with beauty,

That is your calling.

 

Belsbror

 

 

 

Thank you for the Sunday music, Diana Rasmussen

Expression of Apology and Hope

When we forgive, we have to let go of our own feelings, our own ego, our own offended identity, and find our identity at a completely different level—the divine level. I even wonder if it is possible to know God at all—outside of the mystery of forgiveness.  ~ Mystery of Forgiveness

Source: CNS photo by Art Babych

The Archdiocese of Vancouver, Archbishop Miller addressed former residential school students on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission event.  He acknowledged the role the Church played in “implementing the Canadian government’s policy which involved forcibly separating children from their parents.”

THE APOLOGY

Distinguished members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Venerable Elders, Survivors of the Indian Residential Schools, First Nations Brothers and Sisters, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Speaking on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Vancouver, I am here with you today to acknowledge the role we played in implementing the Canadian government’s policy which involved forcibly separating children from their parents and families and placing them in Indian Residential Schools.  through generations, this deeply flawed policy has led to unbearable pain and suffering.

At the five residential schools which existed within the boundaries of the Archdiocese, we were entrusted with safeguarding the children and young people under our care. However, we failed to live up to the trust placed in us. Over the century of their existence, tragic incidents of cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse took place at these schools. We hold in high esteem those survivors who have had the courage to tell the truth about their harrowing experiences….

Read the full letter here

Related links:

• TRC to hold national event
• Expression of apology and hope
• Let it be written, let it be done