Off on retreat
Post for March 25, 2008
I’m off on retreat today for a week. I’ll be back on April 1. Happy Easter and God bless!
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Condolences to Father Peter Sabbath
Post for March 20, 2008
His mother passed away two days ago. Today was her funeral. Many friends were there to support him, and I’m proud to call myself one of them.
May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.
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No new theology lecture for today
Post for March 19, 2008
I cancelled class today, as today was one of our most important diocesan celebrations: the annual Chrism mass, at which the archbishop blesses the holy oils and the clergy renew their ordination promises. I love these celebrations, for exactly these reasons. For the last few years we have begun with a gathering of the English-speaking clergy at Saint Patrick parish, and then proceeded over for the Chrism mass.
The mass itself begins with a huge entrance procession, as well over 200 deacons, priests and bishops enter into the church. The blessing of the oils is a most ancient ritual: we don’t really know when it began, but we do know that the apostles themselves used oil in the sacraments, and that holy oil was used in Jewish rituals as well. The blessing of the oils would seem, therefore, to be of apostolic origin. For me, though, the most significant part of the ceremony is the renewal of my ordination promises. When I was ordained I placed my hands in the hands of the bishop and promised obedience to him and his successors. Like with any relationship, though, I know this promise needs to be renewed. It always means a lot to me when I do.
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The Armenian Primate visits the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism
Post for March 18, 2008
As I’ve mentioned before, I am actively involved in the work of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. Today the Centre received a special guest: Bishop Bagrat Galstanian, the Armenian Orthodox Primate of Canada. Bishop Galstanian was accompanied by Deacon Hagop Arslanian, his assistant and representative for ecumenical affairs. The visit was very cordial, with a number of questions being raised around the table (not the least of which was the ordination of women, something that the Armenians do not do).
The good bishop invited us all to go an visit him sometime at his own Montreal headquarters, and I plan to take him up on his offer.
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Torture therapy
Post for March 17, 2008
Or at least, that’s what it felt like……
OK, so I’ve been having knee problems for many years now. The thing is, no doctor I’ve seen has been able to figure out why, as the knee itself seems fine, and the problem is so intermittent.
Happily, I’ve been seeing an athletic therapist since last December, and he decided to take a look at it after some lunges he gave me to do aggravated the problem considerably (something he was not expecting). These tests involved me lying on a comfortable medical bench with him attempting to turn me into a human pretzel (something rather less comfortable). I was passing most tests, which was puzzling him, until he did a test on my crazytightus legmuscleus (I’m not sure that’s the exact name for them in Latin, but it sure sounded like that to me).
This discovery led to some massage therapy. Now those who have ever had massage usually associate it with the word “relaxing”. “Excruciating”, on the other hand, typically indicates something bad is happening. Except, it would seem, in my case. It turns out I have two leg muscles, one on each side of my body, that are extremely tight (for reasons unknown, although I suspect it has to do with a skiing accident years ago). This tightness likely means that my kneecap does not always track properly, causing inflammation and soreness from time to time. Happily, this can be fixed: certain muscle stretches should eventually alleviate the tightness. Unhappily, these muscle fibers are improperly woven together, meaning that they need to be first “shocked” into going back into a proper “alignment”. Translation: somebody (namely, the guy I pay $XYZ dollars an hour) has to “tenderize” them like he was tenderizing meat. And the tighter the muscles, the more that hurts.
Yep, it hurt. As my therapist put it, “I can tell someone is in pain when they start to sweat.” And was I ever sweating.
I have resolved that 2008 will be my year of fitness, and as they say, “No pain, no gain.” But this was like the medieval techniques of the Spanish Inquisition. And nobody expects a Spanish Inquisition……
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Update on the spirituality of snowstorms
Post for March 16, 2008
Just to let you know, she was back this week (Palm Sunday), and she brought two friends!
Palm Sunday is pretty crowded, so I didn’t see her during the mass, but after it was over she said hello to the choir and passed on word that she was here. I was delighted to meet her two friends from Burundi, and I made sure to invite them to all the Holy Week celebrations. Hopefully we will see each other again at Easter.
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Brunch with B, C and P
Post for March 15, 2008
Bety & Charif are a couple from St. Luke parish, where I was once posted. Late last year Bety gave birth to Paula, their first child (a daughter). Unfortunately I had not been able to make it to the post-baptismal party, so we took a raincheck. Today was the day, so I headed over to Pointe-Claire for brunch in their beautiful condo.
The food was awesome, but so was the company. Both are immigrants to Canada (Bety from Mexico, Charif from Lebanon) who met here, so I got to hear about how they met, how they started dating, how Charif proposed, and so on. Charif and his mother (who was also present) also shared some stories of their experiences during the war in Lebanon — of being shelled, of being robbed, of being terribly burned in a gasoline fire…..wow, it was compelling stuff.
And yet, here they are, and now a new generation has begun.
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Aggravating bureaucracy
Post for March 14, 2008
One of our foreign priests has been having trouble getting his Social Insurance Number renewed. Just to explain the way this works: when a guest worker is in Canada he does not obtain a permanent S.I.N. (gotta love that acronym) but a temporary one that must be renewed periodically. Fr. Cameroon (we will call him) went to a Service Canada outlet to do exactly that…..twice…..and still got nowhere. So he contacted me to see if I could help him. I looked through some files, printed off some info from the Government of Canada website, and headed out this afternoon.
The basic problem, I have come to realise, is that Service Canada and Immigration Canada do not seem to be on the same wavelength for these things. I arrived At Service Canada with a copy of the Immigration Canada regulations which clearly state that, as a priest working in a parish, Fr. Cameroon does not require a work permit. One would think that this would make issuing a S.I.N. a snap. Alas…..
Fr. Cameroon’s visa indicates he is a student at a university, and points out that this gives him the right to be employed on the campus of the university. The clerk we were dealing with, however, was interpreting this right as a restriction, saying that he was ONLY allowed to work on the campus of the university (which is patently false). When I pointed out to the clerk that I represented the Archdiocese of Montreal, that Fr. Cameroon was one of our employees and that there were 20 other priests like him in the same situation, she got nervous because we weren’t just going away. When I handed her a copy of the relevant paragraphs of the government regulations regarding employment in Canada, in which it clearly stated he didn’t need a work permit, she started to panic and resorted to the final defense of the bureaucrat: “But you don’t have the right papers!”
I didn’t budge. “We don’t need those papers,” I said, “the law itself says so.” “Yes, but our procedures say you do!” she replied. To which I explained that I didn’t really care what her procedures said, the law was the law and it stated that no work permit was necessary.
She then said, “Perhaps this means that he can work without needing a Social Insurance Number.” (Translation: “Go away so I don’t have to give you a Social Insurance Number”.) To which I replied, “Do you honestly mean to suggest that he is going to be allowed to work in Canada without having to pay taxes? Are you honestly suggesting that this is now government policy?”
So she did what any other low-level bureaucrat confronted with the contradictions of the system would do: she phoned Ottawa. She explained the problem to one person, and then to another, and then to another. Now they were putting *her* on hold. She invited us to take a seat, but I smiled and replied that we would rather stay where we were, standing right in front of her. As she remained with her phone glued to her ear, I started pulling out paper after paper, including emails from people *within her own department* indicating that we had a right to the thing we came for.
I wish I could report that we left with a renewed S.I.N., but it was not to be. Our friendly neighbourhood bureaucrat made photocopies of our documents and faxed them to her superiors in Ottawa, but that was all that could be done because, it would seem, no one higher up the food chain was ready to make a decision either. As we left I let her know, quite plainly, that Fr. Cameroon was going to continue to use this old Social Insurance Number, expired or not, and that we were going to continue to pay him for his work.
Oh, and as we left I politely said I looked forward to seeing her again. She tensed and replied that we didn’t need to come back again, as Ottawa would contact us directly with its decision. “Oh no,” I said, “I don’t mean I’ll come back for Fr. Cameroon. Like I said, I have at least 20 other priests who are in the same situation. Assuming your procedures aren’t fixed, I’m sure I’ll be back again and again…..”
One of us had a smile at that point. One did not. I’ll leave you to guess who it was that did.
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Supper with a friend and her family
Post for March 13, 2008
This evening I visited with a friend of mine, someone I’ve known since my college days. Yael is now a doctor, is married to a fine man (he must be a fine man, he has an excellent scotch collection) and has 3 kids. We go way back, as I say: she actually got me my first real job back in 1988, scooping ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins. Mmmmm….ice cream…..
We had an excellent meal and even better conversation. Yael is Jewish and we always have interesting chats about religion, and this time was no exception. One topic that came up was Pope Benedict’s lengthy discussion of Rabbi Jacob Neusner‘s book A Rabbi Talks With Jesus in his own book Jesus of Nazareth. So of course, a few moments later Yael’s husband is handing me the copy he himself received from his wife’s own rabbi. I’ve added it to my reading pile, and I’m looking forward to tackling it with great eagerness!
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Course on the Apostle’s Creed (Week 8)
Post for March 12, 2008
The eighth week of my new course was on the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Here are the audio files:
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Welcoming foreign priests
Post for March 11, 2008
One of my major responsibilities is to coordination the welcome given to foreign priests coming to the diocese, and to help them integrate with us. This is not always easy, given legal and cultural barriers that sometimes exist. So today, I presided over a very interesting gathering: a group of missionaries, immigrant priests and diocesan officials whose common purpose is to find a way to make the proper welcome of our brother priests from other lands. The shared experience we possess is really awesome, and I felt really good about the common sense of compassion and purpose that was expressed. If we can propose something truly worthwhile I suspect the diocese and even the province will run with it. Another meeting will be held in April to follow up on the results of this meeting and keep things moving forward. I’m looking forward to it.
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Martha, Mary, and faith
Post for March 9, 2008
My latest homily, for the 5th Sunday of Lent.
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On the spirituality of snowstorms
Post for March 9, 2008
We had a massive snowstorm last night, so much so that it took me 25 minutes this morning to get out of the parking lot of the Cathedral (where I live) in order to reach St. Brendan’s parish (where I was preaching). I dug my car out, backed up 10 feet, dug my car out again, backup up another 10 feet — you get the picture. At one point I was actually asking myself if this was worth it, given that the pastor *had* offered that I could stay home, but I nevertheless managed to make it to the parish by 9:01 (mass normally starts at 9). We were good to go, even there weren’t a whole lot of other people there!
We have a bit of a break between masses, so I offered to drive over to a local Tim Hortons and pick up some coffee. While I was waiting at a light on my way back, I heard a knock on my driver’s side window. A young dark-skinned woman who was clearly not dressed for the weather wanted to speak to me. I rolled down my window and we chatted in French:
“Excuse me sir, you are a Christian, yes?” she started with a distinctly African accent.
“Well, yes. Why do you ask?”
“I see the rosary hanging from your mirror. I am trying to get to my church to pray this morning, and my bus has not come for over an hour. Are you going in [she pointed] that direction?”
I thought about this for a moment — here is a total stranger asking for a lift. But I loved her story, and besides she clearly *was* freezing. From experience I know that in many cultures hitchhiking like this is perfectly normal behaviour. So I said, “Sure, hope in, I’ll get you at least a bit closer.”
As we were driving, I asked her where she was from, and she said Rwanda. “Rwanda! I know a Catholic priest from Rwanda. His name is Father Raphael. He is from Butare.”
She smiled broadly. “There is a Catholic priest from Butare in Montreal? I did not know that. Are you going to his church now?”
“No,” I replied, “I’m going to my church. I am a priest also, and I am going to St. Brendan’s parish.”
“I am Catholic, too,” she said. “But I have only been here 6 months, and I still don’t know my way around. A friend invited me to her church, and that is where I have been praying to God for the last few weeks.”
Hmmm….
“Well, my church is on the way to the one you are trying to get to,” I explained, “so I will park my car there. Why don’t you come in and see it?” She was happy to do so.
Now one thing you need to know about St. Brendan’s parish is that it is a very friendly and welcoming community. I introduced her to the pastor, and to a few other people who were already there (even though it was 1 hour before mass, not everyone had reset their clocks for daylight savings the night before!) She was so cold she took off her boots just to warm up her feet by a radiator. I got out an extra cup and poured some of my coffee into it for her, to help her get warm. We chatted a bit, and I discovered that she spoke English as well. She told me that she had actually come to Canada as a refugee, and was now living alone as her roommate, who often helped her find her way around, was now in the hospital. I told her the story of how many years ago, before I was a priest, I had moved into this neighbourhood and how the people of this parish had become like a second family to me, helping me in the same way.
Slowly, people began to arrive, and my young Rwandan was introduced to French Canadians, Italians, Philippinos, people from the Caribbean, and so on (St. Brendan’s has quite a mix). I had to go get ready for mass, but of course I invited her to stay with us. She seemed to be making friends. When mass started, though, I looked for her and did not see her — until I looked over at the choir, and found her standing there with others and singing along.
Given the small numbers at mass, as well as the visible addition to the choir, I introduced my guest to the congregation. When I mentioned that she was from Africa and that this was the first time she had ever seen snow, the community laughed and burst into applause. After mass I drove her back to where I originally picked her up, and gave her my name and email address. I have since gotten a thank you, who which I have replied with an invitation to come and visit me at the Cathedral. Who knows, maybe the whole purpose of this snowstorm was to help a young refugee woman, far from home, find her spiritual family.
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Spiritual direction day
Post for March 8, 2008
Today was a day devoted to spiritual direction: I had one appointment after another for people coming for counsel and (in some cases) confession. Obviously I can’t get into details, but let me confirm that it was a day full of blessings.
One method of spiritual direction I developed some time ago that has actually been very useful was something I call the My personal scriptures approach. Check it out, you never know if it might be useful to you.
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Re-booting the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism
Post for March 7, 2008
In my post of February 25 I mentioned how the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism recently held its annual general meeting, and how it was not easy to organize. One of the steps I proposed recently to the Board of Directors was to have an ad hoc committee take a look at how we can increase the membership in the Centre and streamline the requisite processes. I’ve been taking care of the legwork for those meetings, and today was another one. The committee met over lunch at the Cathedral residence, and I’m really pleased with how things are turning out. A consensus is emerging on how to open up the Centre to greater participation which at the same time preserving is purpose and core values.
I realise that must sound terribly boring to some, and in some respects it is to be honest. Having committee meetings is *not* the purpose of the Centre, nor is it the purpose of my priesthood. That being said, given that we are trying to get things in place to allow people to work together better to promote good things like Christian unity and mutual understanding between adherents of different religions, it is part of the process, and if I can help make it happen, so much the better.
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Building a new database
Post for March 6, 2008
One of the key challeges of working in diocesan human resources is the sheer size of those resources: we have over 600 priests on our lists, and then the deacons and mandated lay people as well. And this does not count, of course, the thousands of committed Christians active in their parish (and other) milieus. We want to be able to support all these people, but just getting to know who they *are* is already a challenge in itself.
But then again, that is why God invented database software.
Well, ok, maybe not. But I must say, it sure can be useful nonetheless. I’ve been working with one of our priests to try and build a database to track basic information on our priestly personnel (e.g. name, address, age, date of ordination, that sort of thing), and so far it is going well. The real goal, however, is to expand the database to include things like training and skills. We would then be able to plan out our continuing education needs, and act accordingly. The challenges facing priests have always been great, and I am not convinced we’ve always been able to get our guys ready for what is coming next — even in those rare occasions when we’ve actually *known* what was coming next. That has to change.
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Course on the Apostle’s Creed (Week 7)
Post for March 5, 2008
The seventh week of my new course was on the death of Jesus, with a bit on his descent among the dead. Here are the audio files:
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Parish mission at Holy Name of Jesus
Post for March 4, 2008
I’ve been spending the last 3 nights preaching another parish mission at Holy Name of Jesus parish, my old stomping ground in Laval. HNJ was the first parish I was assigned to as a newly-ordained priest, and I still have very fond memories of the people there. It was nice to preach to the “home crowd”, so to speak.
We had intended to record this mission on video, but I could not get a videographer in time and the lighting was too poor for my video camera to do a proper job (we ran tests, and they did not turn out well). The audio also left something to be desired, and to cap it off the bulb on the projector started to go. I’m sure there will be a next time, mind you, and in the meantime people can always follow a previous edition of the same parish mission over at Adventus.org. The major difference is in the last evening, which I have since adjusted to focus more on the sacraments, a previous version of which was preached at Holy Family parish late last year.
Finally, if you really want to get the PDF files of this parish mission, they are now available at Adventus.org.
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Preaching course for future deacons
Post for March 1, 2008
Today I gave a special training session to a group of diaconal candidates. The topic? Preaching!
To put this course in context, you should know that last week I offered part I of the training session, giving the theory of what a homily is, and some tips on how to craft one. You can find those lessons in two parts:
Today, we put all this good stuff to use. I brought a video camera, and each diaconal candidate presented a 10-minute homily on the texts of next Sunday. We then began to review the homilies one by one, offering our critiques.
I must say, the guys did well. They all claimed to be nervous, but I didn’t really notice at all. Granted, there is a certain ease that comes with experience, as well as the ability to “get to the point” and not try and say it all, but in all honest I was really delighted. I’m hoping that we can repeat this process, as one Saturday of practical training is simply not enough to help people become good preachers, and the guys themselves seemed to want that. Of course, that means more work for me, but it is fun work, and I think it would be worth it.
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