Lord's Day Eucharists in Baysville, Dwight, ON - St. Henry

"Cottage country" parishes render a wonderful service to the People of God by assuring timely Masses for the influx of visitors.

On the weekend, I had the joy of presiding at Sunday Mass at two missions of Huntsville's St. Mary of the Assumption Parish:

--on Saturday afternoon at 4PM at the Seniors' Centre in Dwight, which operates from the first weekend in July until the Labour Day weekend, when there are so many more visitors in the Muskokas;





--and on Sunday morning at Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Church, Baysville, which operates year-round, but with greater attendance in summer.







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ST. HENRY, KIND AND EMPEROR

Today's optional memorial is of St. Henry, successively Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany and Emperor, who devoted himself to the spread of religion by rebuilding churches and founding monasteries.

Henry II, son of Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and of Gisella, daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy, was born in 972. He succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria, and in 1002, he was elected emperor. In 1014, he went to Rome and received the imperial crown at the hands of Pope Benedict VIII.

Henry worked hard to establish peace in Europe. However, to defend justice, he had to fight many wars. He was honest in battle and insisted that his armies be honorable too.

Henry married a gentle and loving woman named Cunegund (or Kunigunda) around 998. She, too, has been proclaimed a saint. The couple remained childless. Some sources claim the two lived chastely, but there is no proof of this.

Emperor Henry was one of the best rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. He promoted needed reforms in the monasteries and strengthened the various ecclesiastical sees of his kingdom, built churches and monasteries, and ruled wisely, tempering justice with mercy. He was a man of prayer and was greatly attracted to religious life, but accepted his role as husband and ruler and fulfilled his duties generously.

Henry was just fifty-two when he died in 1024. He was proclaimed a saint by Blessed Eugene III in 1146. Pope St. Pius X named Emperor Henry the patron of Benedictine Oblates.

O God, whose abundant grace prepared St. Henry to be raised by you in a wonderful way from the cares of earthly rule to heavenly realms, grant, we pray, through his intercession, that amid the uncertainties of this world, we may hasten towards you with minds made pure. Through Our Lord....

Father John Wickham, S.J. (R.I.P.)

FATHER JOHN F. WICKHAM, a fellow Jesuit, died at René Goupil House, Pickering, Ontario (The Jesuit Infirmary) after a long illness, on Wednesday July 7.

His funeral will be celebrated this morning in St. Ignatius Chapel, Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre at 10:30 a.m., with burial this afternoon at the Jesuit Cemetery in Guelph.

John was in his 84th year and 67th of religious life (he entered at the age of 16!)

I knew him as a professor of English literature at Ignatius College where he taught in the Juniorate. His classes were among the most informative, challenging and inspirational in my college curriculum. He had just completed doctoral studies on Jonathan Swift and was a master of literary criticism, which was useful to me later in my studies of Sacred Scripture. An approachable and affable person, he was much appreciated by his Jesuit confreres.

Later, when the Jesuit scholastics studied at the University of Guelph, he taught on the faculty there.

After his teaching career, he became a much-appreciated retreat director and served as director of The Ignatian Centre in Montreal. He was the author of books on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (one of his books may be accessed on line).

He will be missed by his Jesuit colleagues, friends and family; he is survived by his brother Arthur, sister Vickie LaPrairie and sister-in-law Enid Wickham.

In his memory donations may be made to the Jesuit Development Office, 43 Queen's Park Crescent East Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C3 for Jesuits in formation and for the care of elderly Jesuits.

R.I.P.

Fifteenth Sunday: "Who Is My Neighbour?"

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year "C") July 11, 2010, ON BEING A NEIGHBOUR TO ONE IN NEED [Texts: Deuteronomy 30:10-14; [Psalm 69 or 19]; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37]

The Book of Deuteronomy presents Moses speaking on the threshold of the Promised Land. Giving his final instructions, he begs God's people to be faithful to the Lord's ways. In today's reading, he insists that they listen to and heed, that is obey, God's Torah by putting it into practice.

Many centuries after Moses, readers of this deeply spiritual book--the one most often cited by Jesus in the New Testament--know that its message is addressed to them. In patiently attending to its message, they come to know they must be totally engaged in carrying out its divinely-inspired precepts.

For clinging to God's instruction will be the key to happiness ("the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart... More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb").

Moses somewhat rhetorically argued that Torah observance did not require one to ascend to the heavens, as Enoch had (Genesis 5:24) or Elijah would (2 Kings 2:1-12). Nor did one have to go across the sea to find it. Instead, in a passage anticipating the prophecies of Jeremiah (31:33) and Ezekiel (36:26-27), which foretell God's Spirit writing Torah on human hearts, Moses argued "it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe".

Moses insisted on God's holy people putting the commandment into practice, pleading it "is not too hard for you".

Luke's depiction of Jesus, which at times likens Him to a "second" or "new Moses", stresses the notion of faith in action, putting the emphasis on doing ("what must I do to inherit eternal life?" ... "Do this, and you will live".... "Go and do likewise").

Following in the footsteps of Moses, who received and handed on God's Law to Israel, Jesus came to teach it and interpret it.

Though the legal expert ("a lawyer") was considered wise in contemporary society, his motives are not pure (he "stood up to test Jesus"). Yet when Jesus asked him, in turn, how he read the law, he correctly answered, combining Deuteronomy's command of single-minded love of God (6:5) with a text from Leviticus (19:18) on love of neighbour -- a single commandment in two parts.

The lawyer tried to justify himself in light of Jesus' invitation to keep this double injunction. He asked about the identity of his neighbour. In reply, Jesus told one of the most shocking yet powerful of His parables, about a compassion Samaritan.

The parable is violent and provocative. One hears with horror, the injuries inflicted on the Jewish traveller: "he fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead". Perhaps more shocking was the behaviour of observant Jews who considered their own safety or concern for ritual purity (a corpse defiled) could lead them to "pass by on the other side".

For Jews, caring for one's neighbour meant first of all looking after one's fellow Israelite. But "a priest" and "a Levite" could not be bothered. Yet--contrary to every expectation--a despised stranger ("a Samaritan") took a chance, and made himself vulnerable enough to take a look and give a hand. The hated enemy showed members of God's family how to have a human heart.

The most stunning feature lies in Jesus' reversal of the issue at stake in identifying one's neighbour. Not who deserves one's attention and care. But rather Jesus' challenge to become the kind of person who can "be a neighbour". Being a neighbour means showing compassion to everyone encountered--however frightening, alien, defenceless or naked that one might be. Jesus invites His hearers to risk life and possessions, as the Good Samaritan did.

The extraordinary wisdom of Jesus' teaching opens us to Paul's declarations about Christ in the epistle to the Colossians. Colossae was a small city in the Lycus River Valley in Phrygia (the southwestern section of modern Turkey). This small church seemingly struggled with current pseudo-philosophies, showed exaggerated interest in ascetical practices and a preoccupation with angelology.

Paul urged them to look to the Lord as the source of all their wisdom, since all else exists "through Him and for Him". Indeed, he declared, "in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell".

Flying in a Float Plane

Morning Mass each day at 9:30 at St. Mary of the Assumption puts one in touch with the devoted faithful who love to take part as often as possible in the daily Eucharist.

One day, a parishioner asked if I'd like to take a plane ride around the neighbourhood, see the cottage where I'm staying from the air? I suggested Thursday or Friday if that fitted my sister Marion and brother-in-law John's other engagements. He said we needn't drive anywhere as he would drop in at the South Portage marina to pick us up.

Ted Dodds is a retired Air Canada pilot who has loved flying his 50-year old Cessna, particularly the chances he's had to fly northern bishops to their far-flung communities (Archbishop Peter Sutton, OMI, emeritus of Keewatin-LePas; his successor, Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie, OMI; and Bishop Douglas Crosby, OMI, when he had responsibilty for the Labrador City-Schefferville territory, which was enormous in size--he is now the bishop of the slightly reduced territory of Corner Brook-Labrador, NL). Now he's added a Jesuit ordinary of a territorially-small archdiocese.

We had a grand time flying over a beautiful part of the Muskokas as may be seen in the following pix:

Captain Dodds (as his cap shows, a proud member of the Knights of Columbus) and John Bayfield

The Bayfields, Marion and John

Spectacular view of Muskoka #1

Spectacular view of Muskoka #2 WOW!

Back on "terra firma", we pause for the official photo

Heading back home, on the other side of Lake of Bays ... Thanks, captain!

St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions, martyrs of China - Lazy days of summer

A recent optional memorial features the Martyrs of China canonized by Pope John Paul II in the Great Jubilee Year 2000:

The 120 Martyrs of China. Religious persecution has a long history in China, especially persecution of Christians, thousands of whom have died for their faith in the last millennium. On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 men, women, and children who gave their lives for the faith in China between the years 1648 and 1930.

The martyrs include 87 native Chinese and 33 foreign missionaries. The majority were killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. “Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives,” said the Holy Father during the canonization.

“Resplendent in this host of martyrs are also the 33 missionaries who left their land and sought to immerse themselves in the Chinese world, lovingly assimilating its features in the desire to proclaim Christ and to serve those people.”
Of the 33 foreign-born missionaries, most were priests and religious, including members of the Order of Preachers, Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan
Missionaries of Mary.

One of the more well-known native martyrs was a 14-year-old Chinese girl named Ann Wang, who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion when she refused to apostasize. She bravely withstood the threats of her torturers, and just as she was about to be beheaded, she radiantly declared, “The door of heaven is open to all” and repeated the name of Jesus three times.

Another of the martyrs was 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, who had been preparing to receive the sacrament of Baptism when he was caught on the road one night and ordered to worship idols.

He refused to do so, revealing his belief in Christ. His right arm was cut off and he was tortured, but he would not deny his faith. Rather, he fearlessly pronounced to his captors, before being flayed alive, “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.”

Augustine Zhao Rong was the first native Chinese priest to become a martyr. Born in 1746, he was served as one of the soldiers who escorted Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse to his martyrdom in Beijing.

The witness of the bishop led Augustine to seek baptism at age 30. He was ordained a priest five years later and was martyred in 1815.

During the canonization Mass, Pope John Paul II thanked God for blessing the Church with the heroic witness of the 120 martyrs, whom he called “an example of courage and consistency to us all.”

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COOLING OFF DURING THE HEAT WAVE

En route to the cottage, I dropped in on the Kerrs (Colin, Annmarie and children: Sarah Grace, Isaiah, Rebecca and little Stephen), who are learning to canoe in the Barry's Bay area

Algonquin Park features lots of opportunity for canoeing to cool off

The ducks show the way to keep cool

Priscilla and Aquila, holy companions of St. Paul - Renewed Catholic Herald website

Aquila was a Jewish tentmaker. He and his wife Prisca or Priscilla were forced to leave Rome when Emperor Claudius forbade Jews to live there.

They went to Corinth, where St. Paul lived with them during his stay there and may have converted them to Christianity. They accompanied Paul to Ephesus and remained there; Paul stayed with them on his third missionary journey.

They then returned to Rome, where their house was also used as a church and then went back to Ephesus. They suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor, according to the Roman Martyrology but a tradition has them martyred in Rome. Their feast day is July 8th.

St. Priscilla has become something of a feminist theological icon, on the rather slender grounds afforded in Acts 18 and St Paul’s Epistles.

On arriving in Corinth around 50 AD, Paul stayed and worked with a fellow tent-maker named Aquila, who, along with his wife Priscilla, had been forced to leave Rome by the Emperor Claudius’s persecution of the Jews.

In the Corinth synagogue most Jews strongly rejected Paul’s message, that Jesus was the Christ. Famously, Paul “shook the dust out of his garments, and said to them: ‘Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clear of it; henceforward I will go to the Gentiles.’ ”

So Paul went to live with one Titius Justus. Priscilla and Aquila, however, remained faithful to him over the next 18 months in Corinth, in testing circumstances.

For eventually the infuriated Jews dragged Paul before the proconsul Gallio to complain of his teaching. This official, though, loftily refused to concern himself with such a tedious internecine squabble.

When Paul departed from Corinth, he took Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus, where he left them. Subsequently a Jew from Alexandria, named Apollos, arrived in Ephesus, and preached about Jesus.

Priscilla and Aquila discovered – an interesting sidelight, this, upon the uncertain bases of early Christianity – that Apollos “knew of no baptism except that of John”. They therefore befriended him, and “explained the way of God to him more accurately”. Subsequently, in Corinth, Apollos would rival Paul himself as a teacher of Christianity (1 Corinthians 1:12).
Around 52 AD Paul returned to Ephesus, where he stayed with Aquila and Priscilla, and wrote of “the church in their household”. (1 Corinthians 16:19).

Later, in Romans 16:3-4, Paul eulogises this couple, “who have worked at my side in the service of Christ Jesus, and put their heads on the block to save my life; not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles have reason to be grateful to them.”

Some modern scholars have excitedly observed that, in most of these texts, Priscilla’s name is placed before Aquila’s. There can be nothing new, however, in the proposition that women played a vital role in early Christianity.

The longest conversation in the Gospels is that between Jesus and the woman of Samaria (John 4). Jesus is surrounded by women both while He is travelling (Luke 8:1-3), and on his way to the Cross (Luke 23:27). After the Resurrection Mary Magdalen was the first person to see Him (John 20:14).

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Catholic Herald Website Update

Occasionally I check in on the website of an outstanding English Catholic newspaper, where I can follow developments on the Holy Father's forthcoming visit to the United Kingdom, with stops in Scotland and England.

Their site CatholicHerald.co.uk contained information on an optional memorial on July 8 for Sts. Priscilla and Aquila, husband and wife in the tent-making business whose source of gainful employment they shared with St. Paul. This continues the focus on the early martyrs of the Church in Rome (June 30) and on St. Paul, who was remembered on June 30 in the 1962 Calendar.

Photos from the June "Quo Vadis?" Gathering

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send our labourers into his harvest,” was part of Jesus’ message on Sunday (Luke 10:2). Yesterday’s weekday Mass had the same quotation, but this time from Matthew’s gospel (9:37).

Both texts are found in mission-sending addresses give by Our Lord: to the seventy-two in Luke (symbol of the universal mission to the nations of the world) and in Matthew’s narrative, just before he calls the Twelve and sends them to evangelize.

Our Lord indicates that the mission leads to the Lord’s harvest but that we should ask Him for fellow-labourers. Hence, the reason for my reiteration to the Archdiocese that we need to continue to pray fervently our Prayer for Priestly Vocations and to do all we can to foster a culture of vocations in which each disciple will ask the Lord, “what would you have me do?”

Father Tim Mccauley assists me in this task of calling men and women to open themselves to a call from the Lord to serve Him in the priesthood, the sisterhood, the brotherhood. To foster priestly calls, Father Tim has been scheduling “Quo vadis?” [literally “where are you going?”] sessions each third Friday of the month. Here are some photos from the last meeting at which Father Matthew Goddard FSSP shared his vocational discernment.

Men who feel God is calling them to priestly service in the Archdiocese of Ottawa may contact him at tmccauley@archottawa.ca or by phone at (613) 738-5025.


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PRAYER FOR PRIESTLY VOCATIONS

Lord God, in every generation you have provided shepherds after your own heart and spiritual fathers for the family of the Church. Hear us in our day as we beg you: “Do not leave us orphans! Send us the Holy Spirit!”

Stir up in the hearts of those whom you have chosen to be priests an awareness of your call and the courage to say, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

By your Spirit, mould them in the heart of Mary to be the image of your Son, faithful stewards of your grace. Shape them into zealous apostles, who will preach the Gospel with boldness, celebrate the Eucharist with reverence and be living signs of your love for all people.

We ask You this through Christ our Lord. Amen.



PRIÈRE POUR LES VOCATIONS PRESBYTÉRALES

Seigneur Dieu, à chaque époque, tu nous as donné des pasteurs selon ton cœur et des pères spirituels pour la famille de l’Église. Entends aujourd’hui notre prière, alors que nous nous tournons vers toi. « Ne nous laisse pas orphelins! Envoie-nous ton Esprit saint! »

Suscite dans le cœur de ceux que tu as choisis pour être prêtre l’ouverture à ton appel et le courage d’y répondre généreusement en disant : « Que tout se passe pour moi selon ta parole. »

Par ton Esprit, modèle-les dans le Cœur de Marie afin qu’ils soient à l’image de ton Fils, fidèles porteurs de ta grâce. Transforme-les en apôtres dévoués pour qu’ils puissent annoncer ton Évangile avec audace, célébrer l’Eucharistie dans un profond respect pour devenir des signes vivants de ton Amour pour toute personne.

Nous te le demandons par Ton Fils Jésus, notre Seigneur. Amen.