St. John of God - Catching One's Breath - Fêting Madame Lise Bourgeois

Today's liturgy permits an optional memorial of St. John of God, in Spanish: San Juan de Dios, Portuguese: São João de Deus (March 8, 1495 – March 8, 1550), a Portuguese-born friar and saint, who has become one of Spain's leading religious figures.

John of God was many things in his long life: a shepherd, a soldier and mercenary, a book seller, a servant, and a hospital administrator. Everything he did seemed a little crazy. He ran away from home when he was very young; he ran away from being a shepherd to join the army; he reformed his life overnight after he fell off his horse; he decided to help an exiled family by being their servant the first day he met them; he started a hospital to take care of all the sick and poor in the city.

In everything he did, no matter how crazy and impulsive it seemed, John of God was following the will of God. Every time he saw a need, he saw one of God's children in need, and he jumped to serve them and God. Finally, after years of wandering from one country to another, from one job to another, from one need to another, he rented a house in Granada, Spain, and began caring for the sick, poor, homeless and unwanted. He gave what he had, begged for those who couldn't, carried those who could not move on their own, and converted both his patients and those who saw him.

His motto was: "Labor without stopping. Do all the good works you can while you still have the time."

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Today is recovery day after a very busy weekend at Holy Redeemer Parish, Kanata: vists to five nursing homes, hearing confessions, preaching, presiding at three Masses, hanging out with the youth, chatting with Fathers Pierre and John, going out for Chinese food, etc. Uploading and sorting photos will take a few days. Meantime, the blog for the next couple of days will catch up on a few events from last week that have not yet been accounted for.

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Au Revoir Lise Bourgeois

Le Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (www.ecolecatholique.ca) for the last seven years has been headed with great enthusiasm and success by Madame Lise Bourgeois.

Recently, she accepted to take on a new challenge as President of La Cité collégiale. Here is the report from the school board's website, with pictures taken on that occasion:



Le 3 mars dernier, le CECCE a organisé une soirée-hommage à Lise Bourgeois, directrice de l'éducation, pour souligner sa très grande contribution à la réussite de milliers d'élèves au cours de ses 7 années passées à la barre du Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est. Le cocktail au Centre Shenkman a permis à près de 250 invités de souligner l'apport de Madame Bourgeois au monde de l'éducation. Rappelons que Lise Bourgeois quitte le Conseil à la fin mars pour occuper le poste de présidente de La Cité collégiale.