Visit to the Cathedral

WOW! WOW! and WOW!!! On a bright and sunny day, over 50 families from Saint-Luke's Confirmation group joined many other families from the Montreal area at the Cathedral today, Sunday March 25th - 2007. In fact, I estimate that we were over 800 people gathered today at the Cathedral. By the time I got there at 1:08 pm - I could see families waiting outside - looking forward to the visit. Each family received a tour package with instructions and a quizz (worksheet) to guide them along and help them discover the many riches at the Cathedral. It was wonderful to see the families working together and learning about our Cathedral. During the whole visit, Bishop Mancini met the parents and the many grandparents who also attended the event. Around 2:45pm the Bishop had a chat with the group - he spoke about his call to be a bishop - he put on his own style of "fashion sow" in order to demonstrate the different vestment that the Bishop wears and then he answered several questions from the youth.

Mrs. Aitken took many pictures that we will be part of the retreat presentation and I might be able to post a few to this site. Comments from the families will be sollicitated and I will post them as well.

For me it was just so great to see the church full of life - full of the young people who just by being there make a difference in our church but who one day will take on leadership roles in our faith communities. God is Good! God has planted in our hearts the seed of faith - sometimes we just have to tend our gardens daily to see the garden grow.

LA Religious Education Congress

Spring Break in LA.

What's in LA - well, in fact it's Anaheim, California. Every year the Diocese of Los Angeles hosts the largest Catechetical Conference in the US and most probably the world. You can see photos of this year's conference at www.recongress.org.

Attending events such as this, allows catechists to gather not only for formation but also for a sense of Church that is alive and well! Imagine 10,000 adults in an arena celebrating mass - signing in 3 languages (english,spanish & vietnamese) - WOW! Who could of imagined!!! it's my third visit to this event and I don't tire of it. In 3 days, one can choose 8 workshops from a total of 166 - other events such as keynote speakers , evening concerts , lunch time entertainment, and eucharistic celebrations that touch the soul....

I come back refreshed and ready to face the next part of our programs - Now if Spring would only show up - I would be ever grateful.

Video | MediaWise.org

In one of my recent newsletter, I referred parents to a web site that deals with media and families. If you click on the link you can listen to interviews that were done with Dr. Walsh in the media talking about the difficulties in raising our children in today's culture. Take the time to have a look - it's worth it.

Video MediaWise.org