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What if religious life is for me?

4/23/2023

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I did not think much about the question the first time because I was confident that religious life was not for me. 

I have been actively involved in the Church and a charismatic community called Singles for Christ. I was trying my best to walk the talk and live the faith. I want to be a living witness to how I overcame trials and used them to fuel the desire to become a better version of myself. 

I never mentioned the stirring within about religious life to family or friends but to my spiritual director. At the time, I was advised to process the idea: know the reasons for pursuing the vocation and that I was not running away from something. I took the advice to heart. Yet at the back of my mind, maybe this is just a phase in my life, and eventually, this question will gradually disappear from my thoughts. However, in the past six years or so, the question stayed. It lingered. I would ask this question during my quiet time, prayer time, when I am on the bus, train, or driving, especially when I see religious people, and I would laugh at myself every time. There is no way I am heading in that direction!
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Azenette being blessed by the Sisters of Providence community at Providence Centre Chapel on February 18.
At a retreat organized by CFC-Singles for Christ, I had the opportunity to hear a Sister of Providence speak about their mission. Their charism of serving the underprivileged - those who are ignored, victims of injustice, marginalized, and voiceless - spoke deeply to me.

Over time, the asking, “What if religious life is for me?” became frequent. I want to believe that the best tool for discernment is action. So, I mustered the courage to act and reached out to the Sisters of Providence. 

In November 2021, I started my Come-and-See journey with the Sisters in Calgary, and by February 2022, I moved to Edmonton to continue the journey. I was immersed in community life. The experience became an occasion of growth and self-knowledge—an opportunity to understand others and myself. I felt loved and supported by the Sisters, and it caused me to appreciate the vocation to religious life. 

On February 18th, 2023, I entered as a candidate and the ceremony was held at the Providence Centre Chapel in Edmonton, with friends, family, Sisters of Providence, and Sisters from other congregations present. 
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As I continue to learn about myself in the context of religious life, I trust in divine providence in this journey of unfolding the question that led me here, “What if religious life is for me?”.
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Azenette and the Sisters of Providence

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Azenette Trongco, Candidate
Written by Azanette Trongco, a new candidate with the Sisters of Providence community. Azenette grew up in Bukidnon, Philippines and immigrated to Canada in 2010. She is both a teacher and a healthcare worker, most recently having worked in the healthcare field in Calgary. 

Photos courtesy of Sisters of Providence.
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A future of hope

4/16/2023

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Click here to read the Impact Report (Web or printable)
The Diocese of Calgary is pleased to announce the release of the 2022 Impact Report, which highlights the fruits of your generosity and of our work together over the past year. Your financial donation and service have made a significant difference in the lives of those in our community and beyond.⁠ ⁠

Please take a moment to read the 2022 Impact Report by visiting catholicyyc.ca/2022impactreport -⁠⁠ We hope that it will serve as a testament to the incredible work that we have accomplished together and as an inspiration for all that we can achieve in the future.

​Thank you again for your unwavering support and generosity towards serving our community and spreading the good news of God's unconditional love! 
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Fr. Tim's Holy Week in Gamètì

4/16/2023

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Located 200 kilometers north of Yellowknife on the shore of Rae lake, Gamètì is a vibrant and colorful village settled in the early 1960s by people like Fred and Mary Ann Bantia of the Tłı̨chǫ Dene peoples. His parents picked the location due to its accessibility to their trap lines, plentiful fishing, and proximity to migrating caribou, at least until six years ago. Before settling in Gamètì they lived on the land following a familiar trail across the north. Gamètì was their  first permanent home. In contrast, Brendan and his wife Crystal, along with their five children, were born and raised in Gameti; it is their only home. Their eldest daughter will leave for university in the upcoming fall.

​These are some of the people that Fatima Lee introduced me to when we landed at the little airport outside the village for Holy Week.  Fatima is the pastoral coordinator for the area. The only way in and out of Gameti in the summer is through its airstrip, and during the rest of the year, the winter road brings in larger supplies but is only open for two months. Easter weekend was the last weekend the people of Gameti could make the six-hour drive to Yellowknife. Many said they were taking advantage of the nice weather to make one last trip before it was shut for the summer. So we were warned attendance at church might be slim. 
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Picture of the Winter Ice Road to Gamètì (above), and Gamètì's colourful homes (below).
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Fred and Mary Ann Mantla, first ones to build a home in Gamètì, and Fatima.
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Fr. Tim and Fatima, Pastoral Leader
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Brendan and Crystal
Fatima visits the community every month. The last time a priest had been in Gamètì was July 2022. On most Sundays, they have a lay-led Sunday celebration of readings. Fatima knows the community well and she filled me in on the different families and the challenge of building a faith community in such an isolated place. We prepared the church for Holy Thursday but no one came, so Fatima and I celebrated the beginning of the three days on behalf of all the missing members!
Good Friday was a beautiful spring day. I went looking for wood for the Easter fire, and stumbled upon a snow-covered cemetery. I stopped a passing truck to inquire about kindling and met Cory and his wife, the parents of one of the babies to be baptized that Sunday. Cory later delivered a bag of kindling to me. Before the Good Friday service, I joined a small group of locals who carried the cross around the village on this holy day. A few more people came for our Good Friday service.
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Caribou carcasses on tarp.
Holy Saturday brought good news! The son of Therese and Louie brought home three caribou from the trail. This will provide food for many in the community. Fatima and I met with two families to help them prepare for their children’s baptism this Sunday. We invited the community to come to the Easter Vigil and proposed that we begin with Feeding the Fire. Done regularly across communities in the north, this event is designed to remember their ancestors and ask them for strength. A small bowl was prepared, and Gabriel lit the fire. Some brought food for their ancestors. We blessed the fire and sang a Litany of the saints. We added the names of many of their beloved dead to our chants and asked them also to remember us. We then lit the Easter candle and gathered around the flame, sang a shortened Exsultet, and listened to some of the stories of our faith journey, rewritten in simple language. Finally, we renewed our vows, and a pine bough was used to sprinkle us with Easter water. ​
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Cory bringing wood for Easter fire
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Gabriel and Therese by the Easter fire bowl
On Easter Sunday, almost fifty members of the community gathered. We sang an Easter hymn and a refrain to the Gloria. Therese, fresh from preparing the caribou meat for drying, translated the Gospel and homily into Tłı̨chǫ. We went on to celebrate the baptisms of Cory junior and Talina, and the genuine smiles on their faces were signs of Easter joy!
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Therese translating the Gospel to Tłı̨chǫ during Easter Mass
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Welcoming Cory Junior!
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Worshipping community during Easter Sunday Mass

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Written by Fr. Timothy Boyle, Vicar for Clergy, Diocese of Calgary.

​Our Diocese supports communities like
Gamètì and others across the North. If your parish would like to get involved with one of these communities, please contact Fr. Tim Boyle at timothy.boyle@calgarydiocese.ca.
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Our Resurrection Faith

4/10/2023

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Today we enter the Octave of Easter. The days of this coming week are celebrated as Solemnities which invite us to relive liturgically the experience of Easter.
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This week will be especially significant for the 32 individuals who received the Sacraments of Initiation at St. Mary’s Cathedral Easter Vigil. That evening we heard the Gospel of Matthew proclaimed and how the women who were going forward to see the tomb as the first day of the week was dawning. They discovered that the stone had been rolled away, they entered the empty tomb and thus came to believe in the resurrection. This was the first way in which the faith and belief in Jesus’ resurrection was received. The empty tomb is the first step in their journey of faith. 

Then the Angel instructed the women to go forward and to tell the disciples to return to Galilee where they will see him. It is through these post-resurrection appearances of the risen Lord that the women, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Peter by the shore of Galilee, Mary, Thomas and the apostles gathered in the upper room came to believe. This was the second way in which their faith in Jesus’ resurrection was confirmed. 

Gradually as the disciples came together and shared these experiences of the risen Lord, they were drawn by the Holy Spirit to remember their first encounters with the earthly Jesus in Galilee. They began to recall what he had taught them, that he must first undergo his passion, a death on the Cross and be raised up on the third day. In rereading the Old Testament scriptures in light of the risen Lord they also both confirmed and strengthen their resurrection faith. This was the third way in which they came to believe and give witness to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

These pathways of experience allowed for the disciple’s hearts to be strengthened in the faith of the resurrection and how the Holy Spirit empowered them to pass this witness on to successive generations. Pope Francis in his Easter Vigil homily reflected on why it was so important for the disciples to return to Galilee. First, it was necessary for them to leave the enclosure of the upper room. To let go of their fear, to emerge from hiding and a state of paralysis so as to embrace a new future in going forward. Secondly, they were being led to retrace their steps, to return to where they first encountered Jesus in Galilee and where they received the personal call to follow him as his disciples. He noted that this signifies a return to “the grace of the beginnings, to regain the memory that regenerates hope, the ‘memory of the future’ bestowed on us by the Risen One.”

Each year during Holy Week I make it a pastoral priority to meet with those who will be baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. It is an opportunity for me to listen to their Galilee experiences and how they had come to know the Lord personally. It is sometimes the circumstance of one’s life. For the young adult or university student it may be the simple search for meaning and purpose. In others it is the example of a person’s faith such as the witness of a spouse, friend or family member. It is when we recall in our lives this encounter with the Lord, the beginnings of the foundation of our faith and belief, that we respond like the first disciples to the Lord’s call to return to Galilee to celebrate the Risen Lord. This can strengthen each of us in moving forward in lives of faith and our belief in the resurrection.

The Gospels which we will hear proclaimed during this upcoming Easter Week recall the richness of these post-resurrection accounts of Jesus to the disciples in Galilee. This is the Easter experience which caused the disciples not to proclaim the tragedy of Jesus death but rather in sharing their resurrection faith in the promise of eternal life with a joy, hope and confidence given through the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

As we move forward together in this Easter season let us be remined of Pope Francis exhortation that, “this is what we are asked to do: to remember and keep going forward,” and, “rediscover the grace of God’s resurrection within (us)”. It is through the renewal of our baptismal promises at Easter, and in receiving and believing the Word of God during this Easter season that our ‘resurrection faith’ can be strengthened. 

+Most Reverend William T. McGrattan 
April 10, 2023
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