“’Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.” 

1 Kings 19

Dear parishioners,

Once again, in this Sunday’s summery readings, we see an evocation of God’s manna, God’s Providence, in the lives of his disciples. The lesson is simple: God provides what he knows we need to achieve his ends.

And indeed he does. Fr. Gabriel tested negative for Covid-19 on Tuesday, but as a precautionary measure, he was asked to self-isolate for ten days. So you will see new, different faces in the coming days. In his Providence, God has provided us with Fr. Herve Tremblay, a Dominican  colleague who also happens to be the dean of our faculty of theology in Ottawa. He will be presiding some of this Sunday’s masses. And for this week’s weekday masses, God has provided Bishop Monroe. Next Saturday, Fr. Gabriel will be back with us.

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the door will not close soon or definitively on this pandemic. It will be a long, protracted affair. We need now more than ever a deep-down certainty of God’s Providence, of his presence to us. By the grace of God, may we all know this abiding, deep-down assurance of his presence, of his Providence.

Unless the situation demands that I stay here in the parish, God willing, I will be leaving on August 17th for three weeks to be with my family in Saskatchewan. Again, God has provided. Fr. Gustave Nsengiyumva, another Dominican colleague, will be here for the duration of my absence, to help Fr. Gabriel out with the ministry. You will enjoy him, I am sure. He is an immensely likeable person. I will return September 7th.

Next Sunday’s parish bulletin and pastor’s corner will be the last fresh edition for a few weeks. The next edition will appear on September 12th.

In the remaining weeks of summer, “lest the journey be too much for us”, let us stock up on sunshine, rest, refreshment, and energy, so that, come fall, we can “go in the strength of that food” into the fall season, and resume, with serenity, our “ordinary lives”.

Keep safe, God bless,
Fr. Guy