Everyday For Life Canada: October 2013

Catholic guidelines for electing school trustees

The next Election Day for all municipalities in the Province of Ontario, and this includes Toronto, will be on Monday, October 27, 2014. The time to begin preparing for them is now. The Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories recently released a Pastoral Letter on the importance of Catholic education and the responsibility that Catholic school trustees have. Theirs is the ministry of governance as well as the promotion and defence of the faith. We welcome and support this document. Parishes should make every effort to inform the faithful about this Letter. It's titled, "Reflecting on the Ministry of Catholic School Trustee." We do encourage visitors who care about Catholic education to read the Letter.

Oct

Have a holy Hallowe'en

The origins of the word Hallowe'en go back to the mid-18 century and have nothing to do with pumpkins, costume parties, masks, Jack-o'-lanterns, playing tricks, horror films, haunted attractions, trick-or treating and sharing scary stories.

Hallowe'en has Christian roots to the mid-16 century. On November 1, presently the Church's liturgy celebrates All Saints' Day. At one time, the evening before, October 31, was called All Hallows' Eve.

Oct

40 Days for Life is alive and well

40 Days for Life is about to conclude another campaign next week. This Campaign Life Coalition initiative to raise community awareness about the evil of killing pre-born life, sadly, is still with us and needed. However, we should be thankful that we have it and for the people and volunteers that make it all possible. We should be thankful that there are people who are willing to organize it.

Oct

Stratford Festival responds and defends its anti-Christian scene

In a previous post, I shared with our readers a message of concern, which I sent to the Stratford Festival here in Ontario. I wrote to the Festival's Board of Governors pointing out that their 2013 production of The Three Musketeers contained a scene that is sacrilegious and anti-Christian. The play’s "altar scene" desecrated a host and trivialized what's at the heart of Catholic belief, the Eucharist. I have received a response from the Chair of the Board of Governors, Dr. David Goldboom.

Oct

Servant of God John Paul I and the graces of the Rosary

Servant of God John Paul I loved to pray the Rosary. Remember that he was pope for just 33 days. In this posting, I want to share with you a wonderful meditation that he gave on the devotion to the Rosary and the graces that can obtained by praying it. Since this is the month of the Rosary and the Year of Faith, we share the reflection with our readers. We hope it encourages us all to pray the Rosary for peace in our families and the world.

Oct

Archbishop of Ottawa defends Catholic education

We welcome and post the speech recently given by the Archbishop of Ottawa Terrene Prendergast on Catholic education. We hope the talk will inspire the Conference of Catholic Bishops to make the message known to the priests and the faithful in the pews. Especially in Ontario, Quebec, the Yukon, Alberta and other provinces where where the faith has been under attack.

Oct

Let's not forget this Rosary warrior

The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. So it's fitting to remember the Servant Of God Fr. Patrick Peyton. He was truly a Rosary Warrior and known because of his Marian devotion as the "Rosary priest." He was born in 1909 and died in 1992.

Fr. Peyton coined the now famous sayings, "The family that prays together stays together" and "A world at prayer is a world at peace." It 1938, as a seminarian he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in his right lung.

Oct

Remembering Blessed John Paul II

In the United States, the Church's liturgy today celebrates Blessed John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005) was a poet, philosopher and teacher. He became pope and served faithfully and courageously for twenty-eight years. Born in Poland and having experienced the hardships of World War II he knew much about suffering and defending the faith from hostile forces and harsh communist governments. Let's hope that this celebration will soon come to Canada and the universal Church.

Oct

If Catholic schools are like public schools: why have them?

The Yukon Government has forced the Catholic Diocese of Whitehorse to remove the Church's teaching on homosexuality in Catholic schools. The publicly funded Catholic schools have essentially given in and will no longer teach what's in the Catechism of the Catholic Church about same-sex attractions.

Oct

Wojtyla Summer Institute: the perfect holiday

This past August, we attended the third annual Wojtyla Summer Institute for teachers offered by Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy (OLSWA) in Barry's Bay Ontario. The theme of the Conference or Institute was "Vatican II and Continuity: Always the Same Spirit". It was also aimed at supporting the current Year of Faith and to mark the 50th annivarsary of the Second Vatican Council.