May 30, 2020

Dear Friends:

You may find this hard to believe but 50 days have passed since we celebrated the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, April 12th.  In normal times, the Easter Season is filled with so many different activities and signs of life: baptisms and first communions. Certainly this Easter Season has been quite different and yet, hopefully we all have had an opportunity in our own prayer life to experience the presence and comfort of Jesus the Risen Lord. Today's Solemnity of Pentecost brings our Easter Season to a close with our focus on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the awakening in each one of us the vocation to be missionary disciples. This is a person who truly embraces the Gospel call to trust completely in God's providence and make each moment and encounter with another a moment of grace, shining with the light and love of Christ.

Now that we return to the Season of Ordinary Time we are invited to think about how we live out our discipleship each day and within our own chosen vocation. In the midst of this "otherness" that we have been experiencing, I pray that each one of us has been able to see the hand of God gently guiding us and holding us close. In many ways perhaps, these days have afforded us more time for prayer, quiet contemplation and reflection of what is truly meaningful in our own lives. Perhaps we have been able to get to those things that have been on "the list" for ages or attend to a forgotten or neglected friendship with a call or note.

Hopefully we have all witnessed the grace of the Holy Spirit at work each day. Today's Solemnity reminds us that this gift is with us always. It is easy sometimes to forget to look around, especially when things seem dark or discouraging and truly see the work of the Holy Spirit. Today we offer our prayers and congratulations to some faithful witnesses who over the course of marriage have allowed the Holy Spirit to shine in this Sacrament: Marvin & Veronica Marentette (60 years); Gordon & Shirley Meloche (65 years) and Leo & Virginia Benedet (70 years). Wow- there's grace at work!

We continue to wait in hope for a return to public worship as we await the directives from the provincial authorities. What we do know is that things will be different and will require great patience and understanding from all of us.  There will be new procedures that will need to be followed- we are already used to these types of things when we go out in public. The team met Friday morning to discuss our re-entry and to continue our discussions and preparations for the "wheres/whats and hows" of a return. Once we are informed of how to go about the details of the re-entry procedures we will be sure to communicate this as soon as possible.

Until then, our prayer homework this week is to look back over the course of our last 78 days and find the Holy Spirit's presence. Then when you do, give thanks.

Love Fr. Rob, Fr. Daniel, Rachelle and Maria

Bottle Collection:
Wondering what to do with all those pop cans, beer cans and liquor bottles that are stacking up? Hang on to them, stack in the garage or in the back yard and when this over, we will host a drop off!

The pop cans are collected by the St. Vincent de Paul Society and they turn them in for cash to help with their outreach ministry.

K of C Council 8919 will collect the beer and liquor containers and refunds will be donated to the Special Olympics.

Sacrament of Baptism:
At this time, no dates have been set for the celebration of baptisms. We are awaiting further direction from Public Health officials as to when churches will be allowed to re-open and under what conditions.  If you have any questions about baptism, please contact our Pastoral Minister Rachelle Leslie:  rlslie@dol.ca or 519-735-6023 ext 32.

First Communion:
The COVID-19 precautions have forced us to make changes to the First Communion programs. Parents are asked to continue working with their children in the workbooks. All families have been contacted by Rachelle and Maria.
At this time we cannot give a date or indeed any details about the reception of first communion for our children. We are awaiting directives from Public Health officials as to when churches will be allowed to open and under what conditions. If you have any questions about first communion please contact: Rachelle Leslie: rleslie@dol.ca 519-735-6023 ext 32; or Maria Mollica: mmollica@dol.ca, 519-735-6023 ext 23.