The opening six weeks of a new school year have come and gone
culminating with two wonderful days of faith development and
affirmation. We
welcomed New Orleans priest, and world-reknowned speaker, Fr.
Tony Ricard on Oct. 8 and then celebrated Thanksgiving on Oct. 9
with a liturgically –based celebration of praise and
thanksgiving.
With regard to the former, Fr. Tony certainly captivated our
students’ hearts and minds with a powerful message centred on
two key elements.
First, to remember who you are – that is, that you are a child
of God, made by love and for love.
Second, as Fr. Tony so eloquently put it: “Don’t be
Stupid”. In this
regard, Fr. Tony spoke to the difference between ignorance and
stupidly saying that when one makes a mistake out of ignorance
it is understandable, and much more easily forgiven.
However, true stupidity, like sin, is when we know that
something is wrong but choose to do it anyway.
Further, as young adults we more often than not know the
difference between right and wrong so everything comes down to
our own choices. Fr.
Tony’s message then, when it comes to making choices, was quite
simple – “Don’t be stupid”.
As for our Thanksgiving celebration, it was certainly wonderful
in many ways as we said our “thank-you” for so many blessings in
our lives, reflected on the message of Fr. Tony from the day
previous and focused on prayers for peace.
However, it was also a little bit disappointing for our
veteran students and our staff as for the first time in decades
the spirit of St. Joe’s, Fr. Michael Troy was unable to join us
for our celebration.
Simply put, with an already very busy week-end ahead of him
coming in for our Thanksgiving celebration on a very cold and
wintery day was just a little too much for us to ask of our 92
years young dynamo.
As such, we gave Fr. Troy the day off with assurances that he
will be joining us in the not too distant future for a weekday
mass and to, of course, have the honour of reading the roll call
at our Remembrance Day Celebration in November.
On the horizon, we look forward to social justice initiatives in
support of Catholic Social Services around Halloween, for the
Royal Kingsway Legion in November and our annual Advent Food
Drive in December to mention our 3 primary projects, but there
are always many, many smaller projects either on the go or in
the works in this very dynamic place.
Until next time, Dominus Vobiscum – May the Lord be With You!
Rob H. Schaan – Chaplain
The Week of Dec 7th to Dec 11th
Religion 15 seminars:
Wednesday, December 9
Block 2A/B: Pack A
– Seminar #2 --- Advent/ Christmas/Epiphany
Thursday December 10
Block 2A/B: Pack D
– Seminar #1 REPEAT ---- Addictions
Religion 35 seminars:
Tuesday, December 8
Block 2 A/B:
Sacrifice through the Ages
Thursday, December
10 Block 3 A/B: 2012,
Revelation, and the
Apocalypse
Please note that Friday Dec 11 ---
Religion CA blocks are cancelled due to dept. PLC
during this time.
