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St. Joseph, our guide in times of trouble

1/13/2021

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​Hope — St. Joseph must have had a lot of it, leading his very pregnant wife through the hill country from Nazareth to Bethlehem to give birth to his son. I imagine it was an arduous journey filled with uncertainty. Sometimes amidst hard times, I’m tempted to let discouragement steal my hope; I forget that my circumstances will change in time.

I crawled over the 2020 finish line, exhausted and tired, only to be met with the dead of winter. January is an isolating month in the best of times, nevermind government sanctions restricting social contact. 

The reality is that life is hard for a lot of people right now; so much change and instability due to the ongoing pandemic. But what is unchanging is that our faith always gives us reason to hope. As Catholics, we carry the Good News of the Resurrection within us. With the eyes of faith, no time is wasted to perfect ourselves in love. And we can look to the great examples of the saints to help guide our path. 

In a special way this year, Pope Francis invites us to renew our hope by placing an emphasis on Our Lord’s foster father. He has declared Dec. 8, 2020 to Dec. 8 2021 — The Year of St. Joseph. 

What St. Joseph represents in my life is a husband and father who is a faithful, patient, humble, courageous protector. Joseph didn’t utter a single word in the Bible, rather he communicated volumes through his attentive presence.  

The Holy Father Pope Francis encourages each of us with these words found in his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde: “Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.”

My hope is to seize this opportunity to take a deeper dive into what St. Joseph’s secure, strong, safe, steadfast fatherly presence means in my life and the life of my family.

Our family has set a few goals for the coming year to get to know St. Joseph better, and grow in relationship with him. I hope a few of these ideas will inspire you to think of ways to discover the presence of St. Joseph in your life and keep you anchored in hope.  
  • Read the Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter Patris Corde 
  • Make a pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Church in Calgary and/or St. Joseph’s Church in Vauxhall
  • Visit the St. Joseph Chapel at Our Lady Queen of the Rockies in Canmore.
  • Make a 33-day consecration to St. Joseph using the book Consecration to St. Joseph by Donald H. Calloway
  • Receive an indulgence 
  • Attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19 as we mark the beginning the Year of the Family 
  • Attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1
  • Reflect on the importance of St. Joseph in the life of Canadian Saint Andre Bessette. 
  • Prepare a St. Joseph Table, according to the old Italian tradition. To find what this is all about and for more inspiring ideas visit: yearofstjoseph.org  


Written by Sara Francis for Faithfully
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Five reasons to take St. Joseph as patron for 2021

1/12/2021

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​Aames Abanto from Catholic Sunday Best offers five great reasons for Catholic gentlemen to adopt St. Joseph as their 2021 patron saint. 
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  • St. Joseph had the original Dad Bod 
    Ancient images depict St. Joseph as an old man, to protect the virginity of Mary (the lily he traditionally held), but this is not so. The Ancient Greek term for carpenter was a tektōn (Mark 6:3), an artisan/craftsman. Not only was he a carpenter, but he was a builder, stonemason, and engineer. The best depiction of his strength could be in the sculpture of the Holy Family in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. The titles of Terror of Demons and Protector of the Virgin would not be appropriate for a frail old man, but for a strong, physically gifted man. Where else could our Lord endure lifting a 300 lb. cross from Jerusalem to Calvary if not learning from his foster father’s trade? Consider him as a patron of your 2021 fitness goals.

  • He relied on God in fear
    The first years of Joseph’s married life were chaotic. He was a righteous man (Matthew 1:19) and feared for Mary’s safety. If he disgraced her publicly for being pregnant outside of marriage, she would have been stoned to death. He also feared for the life of Jesus when Herod killed children in Judea (Matthew 2:16). He had to lead his family to escape for Egypt and find suitable employment to provide for his family (in Egypt and Nazareth). Most men would be paralyzed by this kind of marriage, but St. Joseph relied on God and protected his family. I’ve been laid off three times since 2012, and looking for meaningful employment to ensure my family had a place to live and food on the table was challenging. St. Joseph was a great role model in those seasons. Perhaps if you’ve lost employment, are afraid of uncertainty, or facing great challenges, he can be yours too.

  • (Spiritual) Fatherhood is good
    Imagine what Joseph felt when he found out that his wife was pregnant, and the son was not his own. I’m sure his desire to become a biological father was great, especially since he descended from King David. I would like to imagine that Joseph embraced this role well, but I’m confident that he took Jesus as his own son and became a true Spiritual Father. I have a replica of the statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus from the Basilica of Mary Queen of the Universe on my desk at home. It shows Joseph teaching his foster son carpentry, but it also shows Joseph’s wonder at Jesus’ delight. Joseph’s eyes had a Father’s tender gaze. As a husband carrying the cross of infertility for many years, it gives me hope that Joseph was gifted with grace in his Spiritual Fatherhood. It is my prayer that I gain that same grace if Spiritual Fatherhood is my lifelong vocation.

  • We can have a hidden life and still be a saint
    Pope Benedict XVI had a great devotion to St. Joseph. He said that Joseph’s “greatness, like Mary’s, stands out even more because his mission was carried out in the humility and hiddenness of the house of Nazareth” (Angelus, March 19, 2006). It is an incredible contrast from our Blessed Mother, who had a more predominant appearance in the Gospel because Joseph protected her and Jesus in their hidden life. Isn’t it a wonder that from those thirty, quiet years in the Galilean hill country that Jesus emerges to preach the Good News? The sculpture of the Death of Joseph at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rockies inspires us that even with a quiet & faithful daily life, free from social media prominence, Christ & Our Lady will take our hand at the hour of our death to share in the Heavenly Banquet.​
  • Naps are awesome
    Joseph did not speak a word in the New Testament. However, he was spoken to in his dreams four times. The first was to take Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:20) and the second was when they needed to flee to Egypt (Matthew 1:13) and the third prompted him of Herod’s death and return to Israel (Matthew 1:19-20) and finally, to settle in Galilee (Matthew 1:22). It is something to keep in mind that many husbands (including this one) enjoy occasional naps. Who knows, maybe our Lord could be speaking to us in our dreams, gentlemen. Perhaps this is a point you can share with your wife next time.
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Written by Aames Abanto.

​Aames has been involved in Ministry since 2002. After immigrating to Canada in 2001, he joined the Couples for Christ Youth and was involved with the group until 2010. He met his wife of 8 years Angela in the group. A veteran of pilgrimages, he attended World Youth Days in Germany, Australia, Spain and Poland. Aames currently attends St. Joseph's Church in Calgary and serves as a member of the Parish Pastoral Council and Safety Team. His patrons are St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. John Paul II and the Blessed Mother. Follow Aames in Instagram @catholicsundaybest
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Photos courtesy of Aames & Angela Abanto
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Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

12/5/2019

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The Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples is celebrated annually on December 12th and it normally falls during the second week of the Advent Season.  This initiative was started in 2002 by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ through the work of Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council.  This Day of Prayer encourages the faithful to pray for the needs and intentions of Indigenous Peoples and to seek from God the wisdom that will inspire and guide us in the efforts to address the past with justice and to walk forward together in peace. 

In his homily to Native Peoples of Canada in 1987, St. John Paul II said, “Life in God’s kingdom is based on a true sense of solidarity, sharing and community. His is a kingdom of justice, peace and love. It is our task to build a society in which these Gospel values will be applied to every concrete situation and relationship. … It is a time for reconciliation, for new relationships of mutual respect and collaboration in reaching a truly just solution to unresolved issues.” (Homily of His Holiness John Paul II, September 20, 1987)
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In 2016, Our Lady of Guadalupe Circle was founded to develop and further relations with Indigenous peoples.  The Circle takes its name from Our Lady of Guadalupe who Saint John Paul II named the Patroness of the Americas. This devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe demonstrates how the Catholic faith is to be celebrated and lived in Indigenous cultures. 

The Circle brings together representatives from the Catholic Church in Canada - Indigenous peoples, bishops, priests, lay associations and members of institutes of consecrated life. The Our Lady of Guadalupe Circle includes membership from seven national Catholic organizations and four Catholic religious orders. Member-at-large positions were created to allow for additional Catholic Indigenous representation. The Circle is committed to making a conscientious effort to ensure a balance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices who are united by their common baptism and faith as Catholics.    

The members of the Circle are engaged in renewing and fostering relationships between the Catholic Church and Indigenous Peoples in Canada.  The vision of the Circle is “Catholics Engaging in Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.” The Circle describes its mission and purpose to be in four key areas:  
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  • To provide a forum for dialogue to encourage a deeper understanding of the relationships between the Church nd Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous spiritualties in Canada,
  • To serve as a united Catholic public voice on relations and dialogue between the Church and Indigenous Peoples,
  • To assist Catholics in engagement with the Truth and Reconciliation process and its Calls to Action, and
  • To carry out agreed upon initiatives and concrete actions. (OLGC)

These four dimensions of the Circle speak to the importance of listening, of entering into prayer, dialogue, the understanding of indigenous spiritualties, an openness to reconciliation, and the commitment to concrete action. The coming together to form a Circle also serves to communicate the symbolic image of God’s presence in their midst and the desire for its members to be united in one voice. 

On the First Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis spoke of Advent as a season of awakening to the needs of our brothers and sisters, “The sleep from which we must awake is created by indifference, by vanity, and by the inability to establish genuinely human relationships and to take care of our brothers and sisters ...” (Pope Francis, December 1, 2019)  The Our Lady of Guadalupe Circle seeks to bring about this awakening of the need to be in solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters and to speak with one voice in their initiatives to bring this about. 

As we celebrate this Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples during the Advent Season, let us embrace a new spirit of accompaniment with our Indigenous brothers and sisters so that we might seek a deeper understanding of one another and thus respond with charity and generosity which is a sure sign of our mutual faith in Christ. As we seek to journey together in Christ, is this not what the Advent Season invites us to do as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas?  

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A message from
Bishop William T. McGrattan,
Bishop of Calgary

Written by Bishop William T. McGrattan | December 5, 2019
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A saint for today

12/4/2019

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Faithful Catholics take great comfort in reaching out, through prayer, to the communion of saints, triumphant and penitent. Many Catholics even keep a kind of on-call list of favourite saints based on namesakes, vocations and intentions. We invoke Mary for issues related to motherhood, we plead Peregrine’s assistance for loved ones with cancer, we call out to St. Anthony of Padua for all things lost, from keys to causes.

​Fr. Myles Gaffney wants to add Saint Kateri Tekakwitha to the list of saints Canadians call on when they seek God’s help. The current vicar of Indigenous Affairs, Fr. Gaffney now serves the Calgary Diocese as the pastor of St. Michael’s parish in Pincher Creek. 

There, he spends much of any free time researching and writing about Saint Kateri. While her indigenous heritage makes Kateri a somewhat obvious choice as a protectress of Canada, the environment and ecology, Fr. Gaffney says contemporary Catholics have much to learn from this saint’s experience of advanced prayer. “That’s something a lot of people don’t know about her, but it should really strike a chord in today’s world. Kateri could be the greatest contemplative that we know about in North America.” 

Fr. Gaffney learned about Kateri when writing his first book, Signposts of our Faith: Canadian Witnesses to Vocation and Mission. That book was published in 2010 and by the time Fr. Gaffney took a 2016 sabbatical to study her life further, the priest was recognized as a Kateri scholar. During his sabbatical, the priest visited Kateri shrines in upstate New York and studied almost 400 pages of biographies and letters, including reports from first-hand witnesses of her life and miracles.

That research informs a presentation the priest has given at international Kateri Conferences, seminaries in the United States and Canada. He’s also presented to smaller groups of indigenous peoples and Catholics who want to learn more about the first Native North American Saint. Fr. Gaffney says the presentation is a work-in-progress that may eventually be published in book form.
A saint for today
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Also known as the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri (baptized Catherine) was born in Iroquois territory before the United States was formed. She died near present-day Montreal in 1680 at the age of 24. Although badly scarred by a smallpox, her face cleared within minutes of her death. Since then, hundreds of healings have been attributed to Tekakwitha. The second miracle in her cause of canonization involved the sudden healing of a young indigenous man in Washington state in 2006. Afflicted with Necrotizing Fasciitis (flesh-eating disease) and near death, he was healed after his parents and a Catholic nun called on then-Blessed Kateri for intervention. The nun also placed a Tekakwitha relic, a fragment of bone, against the boy’s body.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized in 2012, 300-plus years after the first miracles were attributed to her intervention. While some debate why her cause for canonization took so long, Fr. Gaffney sees God’s hand in the delay.

“The way Kateri’s Jesuit mentors describe her experience of contemplative prayer, may be without precedent,” says Fr. Gaffney. During his sabbatical, he discovered “some strong connections between her and Divine Mercy.” A devotion to Jesus Christ associated with the apparitions of Jesus to Faustina Kowalska in Poland in the 1930s, Divine Mercy captures the desire to let the love and mercy of God flow through a prayerful heart to those who need it most. While Catholics widely recognize St. Teresa of Avila as a contemplative, or one who prayed with great intensity and devotion, “I think we’re just starting to understand this about Saint Kateri,” says Fr. Gaffney.

In addition to her life of prayer, Fr. Gaffney sees contemporary value in recognizing Saint Kateri as a patron for those who are persecuted for their faith.

Fr. Gaffney encourages Catholics to read about Tekakwitha’s life. “When canonized by Pope Benedict, he entrusted to her the renewal of the faith among the first nations in all of North America. St. John Paul II compared her to the great female saints of history and while there is significant devotion to her in places all over the world, I don’t think she’s well known on our own continent,” says Fr. Gaffney.

“I think the timing of her canonization was providential,” he adds. “I believe that we are just beginning to discover how relevant Saint Kateri is to our times. Her love of prayer, the way she dealt with the distractions of life, her chastity and her intense focus on the world to come are some of the way in which her life speaks to us with force today. We have much to learn from her example.”
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Only known portrait from life of Catherine Tekawitha, c. 1690, by Father Chauchetière
Saint Kateri Prayer
by: Harold Caldwell
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O Saint Kateri, Lily of the Mohawks,
Your love for Jesus,
so strong, so steadfast,
pray that we may become like you.

Your short and painful life 
showed us your strength and humility.
Pray that we may become 
forever humble like you.

Like the bright and shining stars at night,
we pray that your light 
may forever shine down upon us, 
giving light, hope, peacefulness
and serenity in our darkest moments.

Fill our hearts, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
with your same love for Jesus 
and pray that we have the 
strength and courage 
to become one like you in heaven.
Through Christ our Lord. ​Amen.

Written by Joy Gregory
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Newman's Canonization

11/7/2019

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Celebration of the Canonization of St. John Henry Newman at St. John the Evangelist, Calgary
Tens of thousands of Roman Catholics converged on St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Oct. 13 for the canonization of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. Medical doctor Thomas Bouchard of Calgary was one of many Canadians in the jubilant crowd. A week before the event, Bouchard admitted he was not sure where he’d be seated. “I’m happy to be where ever I’m placed,” said Bouchard, who was grateful to bear witness to the canonization of a saint whose work informs his own intellectual, professional and personal life. 

Newman, who died in 1890, will be the patron saint of seekers. He converted to evangelical Christianity as a young man and was later ordained a priest in the Anglican church. Renowned as an Oxford academic, theologian and poet, Newman was received into the Catholic church in 1845 at the age of 44. Newman embraced the Catholic tradition as a call from God, but acknowledged his conversion, a controversial move in the United Kingdom, ended some relationships with friends and family.

Introduced to Newman’s theology at Newman Centre of McGill University, Bouchard attributes his intellectual formation in the faith to the Catholic academics who lectured there. Friends from that period of his life include Fr. Kim D’Souza, a Toronto priest who is studying in Rome. Bouchard was D’Souza’s guest at the canonization.

“The miracle that led to Cardinal Newman’s canonization is incredibly beautiful,” says Bouchard, who says the story has special resonance for him as a family doctor who delivers babies. The miracle involves an American woman who experienced severe bleeding during her fifth pregnancy. Alone with her other four children, Melissa Villalobos realized she was bleeding so badly she was likely to die. Devoted to Cardinal Newman since her days at university, she called out to Newman for help. The bleeding stopped and an ultrasound done later the same day confirmed her placenta was no longer torn.

The miracle, which occurred in 2013, was formally accepted by Pope Francis in February 2019.

To Bouchard, the miracle demonstrates the universality of the saints. “They care about everybody and I just think it’s beautiful that Newman, who is an academic, is also interceding on behalf of this woman.”

St. John the Evangelist
Back in Calgary, Newman’s canonization received special attention at St. John the Evangelist parish in Inglewood. A Roman Catholic parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, St. John offers a special welcome to Anglicans who seek to join the Catholic Church.

Fr. Robert Bengry, who came to the Catholic Church through the Anglican tradition, recognizes a kindred spirit in Newman. “Unless one is entirely an adventurer, it helps to know someone has already successfully made a journey one is about to embark upon. Newman made the journey home to the Catholic Church and gives others the courage to walk in his footsteps.”

Newman teaches that “one must be prepared to lose everything in order to follow Christ,” adds Bengry. “This certainly happened to Newman—loss of friendships, status, identity—but of course one gains everything of what is truly important. Chiefly the salvation of one’s own soul.”

To celebrate Newman’s sainthood, St. John the Evangelist invited Bishop Fred Henry to give the homily at the 10 am Mass on Sunday, Oct. 13.

The parish will welcome a first-class relic of the new saint on Friday, Nov. 29. The relic will be exposed at 6:30 pm with Sung Evensong. That will be followed by individual veneration. The relic will then be placed in view for collective veneration for an hour. During that time, a number of reflections from St. Newman’s writings will be shared. The evening will feature Newman hymns and will end with Sung Compline at 8 pm.

Fr. Bengry says the event is open to anyone who wants to attend. The veneration of a Saint John Henry Newman relic has special meaning for his parishioners since the event marks 10 years since the Anglicanorum coetibus was promulgated, providing a process for Anglicans to return to the fold.

Newman’s story
Details of Newman’s life and canonization can be found at www.newmancanonisation.com. Dr. Thomas Bouchard encourages people to read Newman’s story. Like Pope Benedict, Bouchard views stories about the lives of saints as a kind of second gospel. “Because they live out the gospel in their lives, reading about the lives of saints is really like reading the gospel.” 
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St. John Henry Newman
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Bishop Emeritus Henry & Fr. Bengry after the Canonization Celebration at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Calgary.

Written by Joy Gregory for Faithfully
​Photos courtesy of St. John Evangelist, Calgary 
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Canonization of Blessed John Henry Newman

10/10/2019

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Tens of thousands of Roman Catholics will converge on St. Peter’s Square this Sunday, Oct. 13 for the canonization of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. Details of Newman’s life and canonization can be found at newmancanonisation.com. To celebrate Newman’s sainthood, St. John the Evangelist has invited Bishop Emeritus Frederick Henry to give the homily at the 10 am Mass on Sunday, Oct. 13. Weather permitting, Mass will include a procession around the block. 

Mass at St. John the Evangelist
St. John's Parish priest Fr. Robert Bengry encourages Roman Catholics who do not come from the Anglican tradition to attend services at St. John the Evangelist in Inglewood. “Any and all are certainly invited. Our Mass is a form of the Roman Rite and satisfies one’s obligation to attend Mass. While our chief goal is to make a special welcome to Anglicans who want to become Catholic, we do the same for other Protestants and have a ministry to ‘reverts’ as well; those who might have wandered from the Catholic Faith but who, again, want to come home.”

Mass attendees may notice a few differences. “Our Mass, in many ways, is the old Sarum Mass used in England before the Reformation, conducted in Sacral English. There are a few prayers which come from our time as Protestants, most notably: The Prayer of Humble Access. Despite its origin, it is a thoroughly Catholic prayer beloved by so many Anglicans—and now available for all Catholics to pray.”  

Learn more about Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman:
  • Joint Statement by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Anglican Church of Canada on the Occasion of the Canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Download.
  • Word on Fire feature length film on St. John Henry Newman
    https://wordonfire.institute/newman/#screening 
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Our Beacon of Hope

7/24/2019

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Standing inside the steel frame of the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of the Rockies under construction in Canmore, the fresh mountain breeze intermingles with the scent of burnt metal, plaster and cement. This time next summer, the doors of the shrine are expected to open for both parishioners and pilgrims.

Last spring, 144 screw piles were being drilled into a hole in the ground to help secure the foundation.

“I entered into the project right on the cusp of it really beginning to move forward. It was a really exciting moment to be there,” said Fr. Nathan Siray, who was transferred to take over as pastor in April 2018. 

Today, construction is well underway: the entire steel structure erected, some framing for the walls and windows in place and the concrete floor poured. 

When Fr. Siray stands inside the skeleton of the church, he imagines a feeling of overwhelm and splendor, but also connection and closeness. “It achieves this wonderful balance between grandeur and intimacy, which I think people are really looking for in a church building. I’m really excited that spirit is captured within the architecture,” he said.       

Some key design features will be a larger-than-life custom-made stained-glass window of Our Lady of the Rockies in the apse of the church. It will depict Mary holding the Christ Child amidst images of the Three Sister Mountains and Canmore’s coal mining heritage.

“The moment you walk through the doors into the nave of the church, this window is going to blow you away. I think it’s going to be the centrepiece of the shrine,” said Siray. 

Large clerestory windows on the upper portion of the church roof will bring in an incredible amount of natural light, explained Fr. Sirary. As the sun rises and sets you will have a different play of light and shadow in the building.  
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The official feast day of the shrine will be Aug. 22 — The Queenship of Mary. A marble statue depicting Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth holding the Christ Child will further highlight Our Lady’s centrality.  

Another marble statue will feature the passing of St. Joseph with Mary kneeling beside him and Jesus extending His hand over in blessing.   
 
“It is a very consoling image for someone who has lost a loved one, or is currently going through the grief of anticipating the death of someone they care for,” said Fr. Siray.  
 
A rosary chapel will host a statue of St. Catherine of Sienna. The front of old altars placed in the wall will showcase the infancy narratives of Jesus.   

“It’s going to be an incredible place,” said Siray. “I think it will entice people to want to come in and spend quiet time in prayer and reflection, and really help people to have a deep sense of the presence of God and the Holy Mother of God in their life of faith.”

Calgary Bishop William McGrattan discerned that Our Lady of the Rockies should expand its reach, becoming a diocesan marian shrine. He envisions it as a spiritual base camp located at the gateway to the mountains. He hopes it will also have the potential to be a gateway to an experience with God. 
 
“In our tradition a shrine is a church or a sacred place to which members of the faithful make pilgrimage for special reason of piety and prayer,” he said in a statement. 
 
“The Rockies, by their natural beauty and grandeur, have the power to draw us out of our busy lives and lead us to contemplation and prayer.”  
 
The Bow Valley Corridor draws people from around the world to experience the majesty of the mountains. While Canmore has a relatively small parish community, it welcomes an impressive amount of visitors. Fr. Siray said the hope is this shrine will encourage people to not simply come to the area as tourists, but pilgrims making a spiritual journey. 
 
“The nature of our parish has always been to welcome people for weekend Masses,” said Fr. Siray. “The Bishop’s inspiration was to take this and honour the local parish community, but really give it a very universal dimension; by being a shrine we are able to achieve that.”

The infrastructure to make pilgrimages is already in place with the extensive trail system within Canmore and the Legacy Trail linking Canmore and Banff. Fr. Siray dreams there could even be a Calgary to Canmore pilgrimage, but he is clear he wants to leave room for the Holy Spirit to guide. 

“We want all the people of our diocese to feel like this is their second home. They may come for days of recollection or to hold a special Mass.
 
“I hope people from all over will have a sense like here’s a sanctuary, here’s a place where I can gain some peace in my life. I think Christian and non-Christian alike are looking for that, that’s what our shine can be for them.” 
 
Fr. Siray has kept a detailed photo journal of all the construction milestones on the parish website: www.rockiesparish.com. First and foremost, he welcomes prayers of protection for the construction workers and the entire site, and secondly for excitement and support for the shrine. Any financial donations can be made directly through the parish website or by calling the office at 403-678-5022.
 
“We are always asking for a spirit of charity first with prayers and then to whatever degree financially,” Fr. Siray said. “If people can assist us in that way, it will help us move ever closer to paying down our mortgage eventually, and to allow the shrine to thrive and to grow.”
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The amazing view of Our Lady of the Rockies in Canmore.
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Holy Mary and the Christ Child Statue.
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Life size statue of the Death of St. Joseph.
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Stained glass window of Our Lady of the Rockies, which will be installed in January 2020.

Written by Sara Francis
Photos courtesy of Our Lady of the Rockies Parish 
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Fatherhood Fast Forward

6/6/2019

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The landscape of family roles is challenged by contemporary shifts in our culture and society. Fatherhood is not exempt from the impact of these changes. However, there are promising trends in the lives of faithful men who are called to the vocation of marriage and family.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) affirms the vital role of the father in the family, “The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor owed to parents.” (CCC, 2214)  I want to encourage fathers who in striving to be authentic examples for their children live this important calling in our present culture.
 
Statistics Canada reports that there are about 8.5 million fathers in Canada and that in contrast to previous generations, they are beginning to assume a more engaged role in the family. I have witnessed a growing number of fathers becoming more active in their faith life through gatherings such as our annual God Squad Men’s Conference and programs that support men's spiritual growth and fraternity like That Man is You, Exodus 90, and others. Additionally, they are assuming a greater share of the household tasks which reflects the loving, caring face of fatherhood that we see in Scripture.  
 
Inspired by these changes, some fathers are also beginning to reshape the relationship between family and work.  Data from Statistics Canada reveals that in 1976, 1 out of every 70 families with a stay-at-home parent was the father.  By 2015, that number grew to about 1 in 10 fathers representing a significant increase over those years.  For the majority of fathers employed outside of the home, they are striving to balance home and work commitments as a priority. This change in focus is reflected in being more present to their family, supporting the relationships that are essential to its growth and maturity while forging a true masculine identity in their midst.
 
With a deeper focus on prayer, living and witnessing to the Faith, building the strength of the marriage covenant and taking on more day-to-day responsibilities, our fathers are walking in the shadow of St. Joseph.  In 1989, Saint John Paul II issued the Apostolic Exhortation, Guardian of the Redeemer: On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph in the Life of Christ and the Church.  This apostolic exhortation articulates the Catholic understanding of fatherhood and reflects these current promising trends. 
St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church's Liturgy teaches, he "cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation" and is truly a "minister of salvation." His fatherhood is expressed concretely "in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it; in having used the legal authority which was his over the Holy Family in order to make a total gift of self, of his life and work; in having turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of self, an oblation of his heart and all his abilities into love placed at the service of the Messiah growing up in his house." (Redemptoris Custos, 1989, No. 8.)
Pope Francis reemphasized the link between fatherhood and St. Joseph during a papal audience in 2015 saying, “For the younger generations, fathers are the irreplaceable guardians and mediators of faith in the goodness, of faith in the justice, and faith in the protection of God, like Saint Joseph.” In the same year during a series of talks on the family, His Holiness speculated that a wise and mature father would be able to say to his adult children, "I taught you things that you didn't know, I corrected errors that you did not see. I let you feel an affection that was both deep and discreet that perhaps you did not fully recognize when you were young and unsure. I gave you witness of rigor and willpower that perhaps you did not understand when you just wanted complicity and protection."
 
There have been and are many challenges in fulfilling the role of a father in the past, today, and foreseeably, into the future. As I have come to see in my own life, the gift of a father’s presence is both formative and an instrument of blessing.  Let us pray with gratitude for the men of faith in our lives who are loving husbands and fathers, leaders in parishes, wise stewards in communities and above all, humble disciples of Jesus Christ.

Written by Bishop William McGrattan, June 2019

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Most Rev. William McGrattan, Bishop of Calgary
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