The very first blog by a Canadian priest of the Roman Catholic Church

Getting back to my pilgrimage

Post for July 13, 2009

Some of you may remember I did a pilgrimage back in May to Rome, Assisi, Medjugorje and San Giovanni Rotondo. I last left off with a description of my thoughts regarding Medjugorje. I thought I should pick things up again, starting from our next stop after Medjugorje: the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

dubrovnik-harbour

We only had a few hours in the spot, which is really a shame given its great beauty. Still, we made the most of it, starting with a visit to the old city.

dubrovnik-oldcity

There was plenty of hustle and bustle, as many tourist cruises were in that day. The streets are quite narrow, preventing good panoramic photos from within the old city — but nothing prevents photos of the narrow streets full of hustle and bustle!

dubrovnik-street

We weren’t there just for sightseeing, mind you, so we made sure to take time for mass. This is from inside the chapel where I had a chance to preside:

dubrovnik-mass

Finally, it was time to take the ferry. This turned out to be a bit of an adventure, as the ferry we were *supposed* to take had apparently broken down, and another one was being sent in its place. We had to wait in the terminal for quite some time, but eventually we were able to get on board our boat:

ferry

Some dolphins travelled with us on our way across the Adriatic. They were too quick for me to get them on camera, but prior to heading to dinner + bed I did manage a photo of the sun that I found too beautiful not to share.

sunonwater

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Homily: The Meaning of Life (15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)

Post for July 12, 2009

Yeah, yeah, I know: as homiles go, it has an ambitious title. But Ephesians is an ambitious Pauline letter.

You can listen by clicking on this link.

» Filed Under Preaching | Leave a Comment

Visiting a piece of heritage

Post for July 11, 2009

I had a chance to visit a historic home, the Manoir Christie on the Richelieu river (in Iberville, facing Saint-Jean). The current occupants were hosting a garden party, which acted also as a fundraiser for the local palliative care centre. While this fundraiser is an annual event, this was my first ever visit there, so I got the grand tour. Lots of the conversation was the usual polite chatter, but I did have a chance to chat with a couple of people about some deeply spiritual subjects, which was very gratifying.

» Filed Under Order of Saint Lazarus | Leave a Comment

Is it Satan? No, just spammers

Post for July 8, 2009

History is repeating itself: spammers are using my mass intention form to send me junk. It is just gibberish, which means it is probably coming from either Russia or China (as those nations use a non-Latin script that my form is translating into gibberish). It probably isn’t humans, but robot programs designed to post any old nonsense. I’m going to try and tweak my program to prevent this from happening further, but if my system does go down temporarily you know why.

» Filed Under Pastoral work | Leave a Comment

The Pope has published a new encyclical

Post for July 7, 2009

Called “Charity in truth”, it is a commentary on economic justice. A very a propos message, I would say, given the economic and financial crisis we are presently living throughout the world.

You can read it here.

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Happy anniversary to my parents

Post for July 5, 2009

I was in Ottawa over the weekend for the 40th wedding anniversary of my parents.

40th wedding anniversary

I had the honour of presiding, of course (part of being a priest in the family). It was a small celebration, with a strong spiritual focus. One special bonus was a chance to see some of my parents’ wedding video — except that, in those days, it was 8mm film! I had never seen it before, so that was a lot of fun.

Happy anniversary, Mama and Papa!

» Filed Under Personal tidbits | 1 Comment

Blogroll update: The Recovering Choir Director

Post for July 4, 2009

We both began blogging many moons ago, and I’ve visited his site more than once these past few years, so it is my pleasure to (finally) add The Recovering Choir Director to my blogroll. If you have a passion for sacred music in the best of the Roman Catholic tradition, be sure to check it out.

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Mass intention requests are back

Post for July 3, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I posted an offer to my readers, to have their intentions remembered at one of my daily masses. That post originally read:

Because I don’t have a parish of my own, I also don’t have a regular way of being asked to say mass for particular intentions. While this is a bit of lemon, perhaps there is a way to turn it into lemonade, for the sake of my blog readers.

If you know of someone needing prayers, whether living or dead, feel free to send me an email and I’ll remember that person in one of my daily masses. If the intention is for someone deceased, a few details about the person would be appreciated, to help me formulate the intention in my mind. If the intention is for someone living, a few details on what exactly we are asking for that person would also be helpful. While the person’s name would normally be mentioned at mass, I will keep all such additional information confidential.

I want to be absolutely clear on something: I AM NOT ASKING FOR MONEY. While there is a tradition of making an offering when asking a priest to say mass for a particular intention, this is not the case here. This is my offering for my blog readers, and I am happy to do it.

Unfortunately, spammers ate my mass form, so I had to withdraw the offer (or at least, the web form that made it easy to do).

But now it’s back, and (hopefully) better than ever! I designed my own form to help with the process, so now (once again) you can…

REQUEST A MASS INTENTION

As well, I’ve placed a small notice at the top of the blog, above the name banner, so that even as this post disappears in time the link will remain, easy to find.

» Filed Under Pastoral work | 1 Comment