“The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.” 1 Kings 17,16

Dear parishioners,

In today’s first reading from the book of Kings we see God’s hand reaching out to provide food and drink to a starving non-Israelite widow and her son, through the mediation of his prophet, Elijah. This passage is beautiful because it is an act of redemption, and because it is extended to a woman from outside the Jewish fold. It is a prophetic gesture announcing God’s will to widen the circle of the redeemed to include people from outside his chosen people. May our Church always be steadfast in reaching out in acts of redemption to people who are not of our fold.

With Advent fast approaching, I’m guessing that many of you are looking for resources for spiritual nourishment. We will be distributing two different Advent booklets starting next Sunday at the end of all masses. But I also want to point out two very useful online resources. One is Behold. It is an archdiocesan platform which hosts, on a regular basis, an incredible amount of online faith-formation activities and events. Go to the archdiocesan website, rcav.org, and look for “Behold”. Or go to “Beholdvancouver.org”. You will find a bewildering array of resources of all kinds, not just for Advent and Christmas, but for all year long. A second very useful site is the “Friday Report”, which will soon be made readily available also on the archdiocesan website. We will post here and on our other sites the link to the Friday Report as soon as it’s made available to us. This Friday Report also contains a long list of activities and events, most of them online, at both the archdiocesan and parish levels. And thirdly of course, there is always Formed.org, with which many of you are familiar. We are blessed to have so many sources of faith formation. Let us avail ourselves of them… 

Remember to turn back your watches and clocks one hour sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning!

Keep safe and God bless,

Fr. Guy