Here is the full list of celebrations for Holy Week and Easter 2024.
Easter Message from Archbishop Damphousse
Here is the Archbishop’s Easter Message.
Easter Bulletin – March 31, 2024
May you be blessed during this Holy Week and Easter! Here is the March 31, 2024 Bulletin.
Bulletin for Palm Sunday
Here is the March 24, 2024 Bulletin, including the Holy Week and Easter schedule.
Family Fun Night Saturday April 20th, 6pm
St. Phillips Ladies Auxiliary is hosting a family fun night on Saturday April 20th at 6pm in the Parish Hall. We will be serving Shepherds pie and a fun evening of Bingo. Cost is $15/person or maximum $35 per-family. For more information or to purchase tickets contact Veronica Gervais at [email protected] or 613 791 2723. Tickets will also be available to purchase after masses in April. Please purchase by April 17th. Click HERE for the poster with full details.
“A New Covenant People” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, March 17, 2024
You know, of course, that the Bible is divided into two parts, called the Old Testament and the New Testament. In fact, the two parts could also be called the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant. Covenant is a word that describes an alliance or agreement between two persons, or parties, whereby each party pledges loyalty and support to each other and agree to certain consequences if either should prove unfaithful to the covenant terms. Covenant-making was the usual way in which two nations would pledge allegiance to each other in biblical times, and went beyond a legal contract in that each party pledged a personal commitment to the other.
The language of “covenant” has found its way into a description of the marriage bond in the last thirty or so years. Before, wedding vows in the Church were considered as a kind of “contract” between husband and wife, whereby each gave to the other certain rights over themselves and their goods. The act of sexual intercourse, on the wedding night, was considered the moment at which the contract was “sealed” by the couple, and, after that, the marriage could not be dissolved by divorce. It came to be realized, however, that the legal idea of a “contract” was inadequate for describing the marriage bond between husband and wife, being too cold and clinical. So moral theologians turned to the idea of a “covenant” instead, drawing on the biblical understanding of the term. A covenant between husband and wife speaks of a partnership, a sharing of life and love together. Marriage break-up, then, means much more than breaking the terms of the marriage contract. It means a break-down in the personal intimacy of mind, heart and spirit between the couple, and that is why it is so devastating to the couple.
God has always sought to form relationship with us, and the manner in which he has done so is described in the Bible as forming, or literally “cutting” a covenant with us.… Read more...
Bulletin of St Patrick’s Day – March 17, 2024
Happy St Patrick’s Day to all! Here is the March 17, 2024 Bulletin. This weekend’s bulletin also includes the full schedule for Holy Week and Easter.
“Remaining in God’s Good Graces” – Fr. Bob’s Homily for Sunday, March 10, 2024
Note how many times the word “grace” appears in our second reading from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “it is by GRACE you have been saved”, “the immeasurable riches of God’s GRACE in kindness towards us”, and “for by GRACE you have been saved”.
There is a tendency to think of grace as some kind of spiritual currency. This attitude is, perhaps, more prevalent among Catholics as our tradition has used phrases like “storing up grace”, as though putting money in a bank account. In seminary, I was used to our teachers analyzing and dissecting grace in different ways, such as actual grace, supernatural grace, sanctifying grace, sacramental grace, etc. That is okay for study as when we dissected frogs in biology lab in high school. The one thing that we could NOT see in the dissection, however, was life… the one thing that gave what we studied meaning as far as the frog was concerned. So it is with grace. The one thing that gives it meaning is a living relationship with God.
The word “grace” from the Latin word “gratia” shares a common root with the words “gratis” (free) and “gratuity” (free gift or tip). So grace is a freely given gift from God to us, by which we share in the life and blessings of God. As St Peter describes it in his second letter: through God’s grace, we become “sharers in the divine nature of God” (2 Peter 1:4). Imagine that brothers and sisters, we actually share the very nature of God, which is divine, supernatural, heavenly, infinitely surpassing our own human nature. This happens to us when we are baptized; spiritually we are instantly “transported” to the right hand of God with Christ, and seated with him there in glory. As far as God is concerned, that is his destiny for us, where he wants us to be for all eternity, where, in his mind’s eye, he already sees us reigning.… Read more...