Lent Begins

Each year the church invites us to reflect on how we live our Catholic faith. Lent is a time for us to reflect and to review our life in light of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Gospels. One of the prayers that may be used as the priest imposes ashes on our head is the words of St. Mark Gospel, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”, Mark 1:15

As we begin our journey through Lent, I encourage all Catholics to continue our traditional Lenten practices: increased prayer, appropriate fasting, penance, and a continued effort to undertake and to foster charitable giving.

During our journey through Lent, I encourage each one of us to reflect on how we conform our lives to the principles and to the values of the Gospel. How good it would be if each one of us spend some time reading the Gospel and reflecting on how we conform our lives and attitudes to the Heart of Christ.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict in his Lenten message spoke about the culture of justice and reminded us that evil and injustice many times comes from our own hearts. It is my hope that we would all place special emphasis during this Lenten season on the virtues of justice and charity. That we would respect each other for who we are, “children of God created in his likeness and image”; and that in all our relationships that we would treat each other as Jesus treated the people with whom He had contact with, and as revealed to us in the Gospels. Let us continue to look to Jesus as our hope and as an example of how we should live our lives for He is “the way, the truth and the life.”

Catastrophic. Devastating. In ruins.

These terms cannot begin to describe the destruction that the 7.0 scale earthquake has caused in the island nation of Haiti, and especially its hard-hit capital, Port-au-Prince.

In many areas nothing is left but widespread devastation. The major infrastructure has been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are expected to be dead. Survivors are in shock and wandering the streets, homeless, hungry and hopeless. Haiti needs massive amounts of supplies to care for the millions of people affected from the quake.

We must respond at once to prevent enormous loss of life from thirst, starvation, disease and untreated injuries.



How You Can Help Haiti
In response to the recent devastating earthquake, St Mary of the Visitation Parish will be working hand in hand with the Sisters of St Joseph of Hamilton Diocese (who are present in two hospitals in Haiti) and Canadian Food for Children with partners already on the ground in Haiti.

You can get involved in three ways:

Pray: for the people of Haiti and for relief workers. A special Prayer has been prepared and all in the parish are united in this prayer - copies available

Give: Make your donation out to St Mary’s and designate it for Haiti Relief. We will be partner with the Sisters of St Joseph of Hamilton Diocese who have assured us that 100% of donated funds will be going to Outreach Efforts in Haiti where they have been present in two hospitals for over 20 years.

Spearheaded by our high school youth group - Da Crew- we will Assemble Haiti Health Kits. All parishioners will be invited to gather these over the next two weekends and Canadian Food for Children will transport them directly to Haiti.

Haiti Health Kits:


Canadian Food for Children is able to be most efficient by having a precise system for kits. Please follow these instructions exactly and don’t add anything to your kit as this will delay shipment.

Place these items inside a sealed plastic bag:

1 washcloth

1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)

1 bath-size bar of soap

1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, no child-size brushes)

Box of adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

Drop off kits at the "Donation Station" located in our Parish Centre. Members of our High School Youth Group - Da Crew - will be present to collect these and ensure they are packed and sent to the Canadian Food for Children.


Please help the nation of Haiti recover from this terrible blow by making a donation



Our Schools & Youth are Helping Haiti !

Our parish, which already along with Our Lady of Fatima School, sponsor three children - Darby, James and Franceska in Haiti, remains committed to finding information and providing for the needs of these three children.

Our two parish elementary schools of Our Lady of Fatima and St Elizabeth are working with the parish in a collaborative effort to raise funds. Our Lady of Fatima School has established a goal of $3,000 to be raised before the end of the month to help the Sisters of St Joseph.

Our Children's Ministry and Kids Klub will be holding a special "Pennies for Haiti" appeal. The goal of $500 to be raised

Our High School Youth Group - Da Crew - is spearheading the Haiti Health Kits appeal

Celebration Weekend!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. One year ago on this Feast, we presented the idea of a Place for Everyone! This weekend, with the Dedication of our Parish Centre by Bishop Bergie, that Place for Everyone is a reality! As we gather, first and foremost we rejoice and give thanks to Almighty God who has made this all possible!

I am immensely grateful to all who have been a part of making this a reality. To all at Schiedel Construction for their diligent work. To our Finance Council and Fundraising Committee members, project team and parishioners who helped with demolition and helped move out last Spring and move in last week. To so many of the subtrades and construction workers who have all laboured to bring this project to this day. All gave of their time and talent to do the little extras we marvel at today.

Yet, my hardiest thank you goes to you, the parish family of St. Mary of the Visitation. With the favourable support of 93% of our parish, we undertook this journey - and due to your faithfulness, spiritual and temporal, because of your patience, daily and weekly, and as a result of your goodness ... we truly today have a Place for Everyone - accessible, ample and accommodating for our growing community. Today is a day of Abundant Joy! May Our Lady of the Visitation continue to be our inspiration, model and guide.

Only 6 more sleeps !

We are in the final days before the Dedication of Our Parish Centre on November 21st at 5:00 p.m. by Bishop Bergie - please join us. Until then; the pictures will do the talking

Only Two Weeks Away

The excitement is building and here are the details for our awesome celebration weekend on November 21/22, 2009 - Feast of Christ the King

PARISH CENTRE DEDICATION WEEKEND
November 21/22, 2009
A Time to Celebrate - Abundantly!

Mass of Dedication - November 21, 2009,
at the 5:00 p.m. Mass with Bishop Bergie.
Reception to follow in the Parish Centre.

Parish Breakfast - November 22, 2009
after the 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m. Masses
at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

- JOIN US! -

★ 9:30 a.m. Mass - Kids Klub Members will be doing the readings and our Kids Khior will lead us in song.
★ 11:00 a.m. Mass - We will formally welcome 11 adults who wish to be members of the Catholic faith and who are participating in the R.C.I.A. process.
★ After each Mass - Members of our High School Youth Group - Da Crew - will be selling handmade Advent Wreaths which they made last weekend during Da Nerve to Serve Weekend

IT WILL BE AN ABUNDANT WEEKEND OF CELEBRATING !

All Saints Day

The Gospel for the Solemnity of All Saints is the Beatitudes from Matthew’s narrative. In eight great statements, Jesus declares blessed the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the merciful – so many of those whom the world holds in contempt. Each of them will receive the kingdom, expressed in a wonderful variety of ways: they will be comforted, satisfied, shown mercy; they will inherit the land, they will see God, they will be children of God. The Beatitudes show us the way to holiness in an incredibly simple yet challenging way. The last of the Beatitudes is perhaps the most challenging of all. “Blessed are you,” Jesus says at last, when you are persecuted and falsely accused. Rejoice and be glad. For then, you most closely resemble the saints. Today’s solemnity reminds us that the saints are beyond all counting: God is generous. Among them are surely members of our families and friends who have helped us on our way to faith. Let us remember them today and always. Saints of God, pray for us.

On Monday, November 2, the Church celebrates the Commemoration of all the faithful departed. This feast, as we know it, can be traced to Abbot Odo of Cluny (France) in the tenth century, but prayer for the dead has been our custom from the earliest days of the Church. The belief that our prayers can be of assistance to the dead is a treasured tenet of our Catholic faith. All Souls Day commemorates all those who have died, who, we pray, may one day join the saints in the heavenly kingdom. These are the faithful departed who, we pray to God, in his great love and mercy, takes to himself. On this day we pray for all the dead. We pray that they be admitted to the banquet of heaven with all the saints in glory.

Our annual Parish Memorial Mass will be offered at 7:00p.m. on Monday, November 2 - all are welcome to join us.

Now for a few pictures of our Parish Centre

We Are Getting Excited

There is excitment in the air at St Mary of the Visitation Parish - we are entering our few weeks and soon our Parish Centre will be open - all in time for our dedication on November 21st. We will let the pictures - lots of them this week - do all the talking ....enjoy !