St. Romuald - Towards Healing in Canada - Canonical Visit to Our Lady of the Visitation Parish

St. Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolese Order, could not decide for a considerable time whether to serve God in a religious life or to remain in the world. After his father killed a relative in a duel at which Romuald was forced to be present, he went to the monastery of St. Apollinaris, near Ravenna, and did penance for forty days.

Later, he entered this same monastery as a monk. Then he became a follower of the hermit Marinus in Venice. In the course of time he founded an order of hermits which received its name after the most famous of his foundations, Camalduli in Tuscany.

Romuald's was one of the strictest orders for men in the West (a branch of the Benedictine Order). Members live isolated in small huts, observing strict silence and perpetual fasting, constantly praying or engaged in manual labor. Our saint enjoyed the grace of bringing sinners, particularly those of rank and power, back to God.

When he died, he was a little over seventy years; he had never used a bed, had always sought out ways of practicing severe penances. 15 years later his pupil, the holy doctor of the Church, St. Peter Damian, wrote his biography.

"His greatness lies in the rigorous and austere character of his interpretation of monastic life-an approach that was quite singular and unique. In the deepest recesses of his being, Romuald was an ascetic, a monk; not perhaps, a monk of that serene peace and self-possession exemplified by St. Benedict in his life and described by him in his Rule.

Nor was Romuald an organizer who through prudent legislation enabled his spirit to flourish and affect great numbers. He reminds us of the stolid figures inhabiting the Eastern deserts, men who by most rigorous mortification and severest self-inflicted penances gave a wanton world a living example of recollection and contemplation. Their very lives constituted the most powerful sermon. It is in company with men like these that St. Romuald continues to live."

Romuald was not at all a fluent reader. Whenever he made another of his many mistakes, Marinus, his teacher, beat him on his left cheek. Finally it became too much for Romuald. "But, dear master," he said modestly, "hit me on the right cheek in the future. My left ear is almost deaf." The master was surprised at such patience and thereafter acted more considerately.

The saint loved to say, "Better to pray one psalm with devotion and compunction than a hundred with distraction."

When the holy man felt his end was near, he retired to the monastery at Val di Castro. After so many journeys he was eager to begin his final pilgrimage to an eternal resting place. Before the reform of the Calendar in 1969 his feast was celebrated on February 7, the anniversary of the translation of his relics in 1481. His feast is now June 19, the day he died in 1027. In the Calendar reform the Church has tried to move the feasts of the saints to their "birthday" — referring to the day on which the saint died and celebrated his/her birth into heaven. --Excerpted from Pius Parsch, The Church's Year of Grace

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TRUTH, RECONCILIATION, RESTORATION, HEALING

This week we have seen powerful images and reports of the wounds and on-going suffering of those who attended the Indian Residential Schools. The process begun will continue over a five-year period, in attempt to help the general public understand and empathize with the suffering endured.

May the stages of truth-telling prepare the ground for reconciliation among all those affected--and that should include, in some way, every Canadian--and, ultimately for restoration of dignity in the equilibrium of right relations (justice) so that true healing may be effected.

On Thursday, I met with John Corston, who with his wife directs the Kateri Native Centre (on Bronson Avenue) and established cooperative ventures with other First Nations parties (the Odawa Centre, the Golden Lake and Sagamuk reserves, etc). We are considering how the healing process can be furthered in the Archdiocese in particular and in the Ottawa area generally.

Let us remember this intention in prayer.

Mgr Gerald Lacroix (auxiliary of Quebec), Mgr Jacques Landriault (emeritus of Timmins), John Corston (director Kateri Ministries, Ottawa)

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Photos from the Canonical Visit to Our Lady of the Visitation Parish, South Gloucester

Last week, Father Joseph Muldoon (who had been its pastor 1982-87) and I engaged in the Episcopal Visitation of the Parish of Our Lady of the Visitation, South Gloucester.

The area is a growing one and the church one of the earliest erected in what is now the Archdiocese of Ottawa. Recently, the church has been restored and refurbished, a new rectory was constructed on the site of the old one and a new parish hall complex has just been built and our visit coincided with the new hall's dedication and blessing in the presence of a large number of parishioners, an honour guard of the Knights of Columbus and several civic dignitaries.

Photos from the dedication itself will be part of tomorrow's post; here are photos from the visit to St. Mary's School on Thursday, the weekend liturgies and the Saturday evening dinner and discussion with representatives of the parish pastoral and finance councils and other parishioners: