“O Lord, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory abides.” Ps 26

“I rejoiced when I heard them say ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’. And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.” Ps 122

Dear parishioners,

These words from psalm 26 and from one of the psalms of pilgrimage, or of “ascent” as they are better known, have never tasted more bittersweet to me as now. For some reason today I am experiencing the ache of being separated from you all more than usual. In the day to day, I’m not actually aware of how much I miss you, but when I see a face that I haven’t seen in months, my heart leaps up into my throat and I think: “O my God, she still exists! He’s still here!” And I feel a kind of relief, mixed with joy. What will be our joy then, when in several months from now, we will be able to gather in the church in uncontrolled numbers, side by side, without having had to pre-register. That day is real. It will come. And when it does we will feel the joy of the Israelites arriving at Jerusalem from all corners of Israel, and it is we who will say: “I rejoiced when I heard them say ‘Let us go to God’s house. And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.”

In the meantime, just a few things.

For the time being, our current schedule for live streamed masses and confession/communion times remains the same.

Exceptionally this Sunday, the Tagalog mass will be in English! This is because we are celebrating the Rite of Election for our catechumens during this mass, and they’re not all Filipino. The event will be more meaningful for all of them if the mass is entirely in English.

40 Days for Life, a 40-day Respect-for Life prayer campaign that began on Ash Wednesday, is on-going. You can find instructions on how to participate on our parish website and also, I believe, on our IG and FB sites.

This Lent, Development and Peace has organized online activities for each week in Lent. Information on these events and activities should also be available on all our sites.

Fr. David will be giving a talk organized by our Padre Pio Prayer group this coming Saturday, March 6th at 7:00 p.m. Here is the link to his talk: The upcoming prayer meeting of St. Mary's Padre Pio Prayer Group (PPPG) - ST. MARY'S PADRE PIO PRAYER GROUP (saintpadrepio.ca) When this site opens for you, you will see a link with “March 6 zoom invite” written on it. Click on it, and you will access the talk.

Archbishop Miller has written a letter to all parishioners of the Archdiocese. It should be available on all our sites.

Since we are still asked to stay apart, and probably will be for some time, just a reminder of things you can do to pass the time of day. We have a parish subscription to Formed.org, a website that offers ressources of all kinds for faith formation. I am told that the resources are bottomless in quantity, and excellent in quality. It’s no longer necessary to provide the parish password to get it. All you need to do is go to the site and provide an email address and, I believe, a password, and you’re in.

Also, we are subscribed as a parish to Shalom World TV, an online, Catholic television station with programming from all parts of the world. It’s easy to access. Just go the very bottom, right hand corner of the main page of our parish website. You will find there a small orange circle. Just click on it, and you’re in.

For those of you who are feeling like God is very remote and very silent in this tough time, I leave you with the incredible words of today’s gospel of the Transfiguration, the words that came from the cloud, the voice of God: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” At all times, but especially when the Father goes silent on us, focus on the Son. He won’t let you down.

God bless us and keep us all safe, Fr. Guy