A Beautiful Day for Skating on the Canal - The Primacy of Peter (Domus Galilaeae Part II)

Colin Kerr came down from Barry's Bay on Wednesday to do some research at the Ottawa university libraries (this is Reading Week at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy), so I told him to bring along his skates as I had not yet been out on the World's Largest Skating Rink this year.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the conditions were ideal. Some pix of our adventure:



 

 

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First Days in Galilee

The Galilee is a beautiful land around the Sea of Tiberias (Lake Gennesaret/Sea of Galilee), with a wide variety of mountainous terrain (Nazareth, the Upper Galilee) and fertile plains.  The many flowers brightened up the day for us escapees from the Canadian winter. 

As we were presented the history and major directions of the spirituality of the New Catechumenal Way, we mixed activities at the Domus Galilaeae, with excursions nearby. 

On the first day, our first activity was a communal celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (common prayers, personal self-examination, individual confessions) that last just about an hour and a half, presided over by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia.

As I was one of the residents in the Domus (others we taken back and forth to hotels in Tiiberias by bus), I was one of those designated a confessor, a most moving experience as I heard the confessions of five bishops from five different countries (in a couple of languages):

Confessors preparing for their penitents

A session in the main conference hall

 

Preparing for the Eucharist

Founders/leaders of the "Way": Don Mario Pezzi, Carmen Hernandez, Kiko Arguello (backed up by musicians)

Renewing the Call to be Shepherds of Christ's Flock

On the second day, we ventured down to the shore of Gennesaret, next to Tabgha, the traditional location of the multiplication of the loave and the feeding of the 5000. This spot is held to be the place where Jesus met his disciples the third time after the resurrection (John 21), fed his "children" with a breakfast of fish and bread, then invited Simon to three times confess his love of the Lord.  On hearing each declaration of love, Jesus confided to Peter the feeding and pasturing of his sheep, his flock.

Cardinal Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Sicily (fhe Papal Nuncio to Canada between Archbishop Carlo Curis and Archbishop Luigi Ventura) presided at the Eucharist and at a touching ceremony at the close of Mass where each of us bishops was asked to say our name and our affection for the Lord and heard Our Lord, in the person of the Archbishop, charge us again to 'feed my lambs, feed my sheep'.

Toronto Auxiliary Bishop William McGrattan renews his commitment to serve God's people before Cardinal Paolo Romeo

Left to right: Bishops Brian Dunn (Antigonish), Richard Grecco (Charlottetown) on the shore of the lake