Author: AnishinabeSC

18 December 2022

Coming into our last week of Advent, the Gospel presents St Joseph, who is only found in the nativity narratives.  He was a man of faith, humility and integrity. The young woman he was to marry was pregnant with a child that was not his. We can only imagine his turmoil, because the woman he loved and trusted was seemingly unfaithful. Joseph’s own faithfulness and love for Mary were being challenged. When pushed, how many of us would be willing to accept a humiliation that was not ours, like he did? Joseph was unwilling to expose her to “public disgrace” and planned to send her away quietly. Once he made the decision to do this, he rose above his own desires and self interests, showing and putting into action his love for Mary. After he resolved to let Mary go quietly and rose above himself, loving unconditionally, the doors of grace opened for him. He was able to receive his mission and see God’s plan while sleeping. When we are awake, we get distracted by daily events, and when asleep we go into the depths of our unconscious, where our spirit resides.

St Joseph accepted his mission of walking with and supporting Mary, to help bring Jesus our Saviour to birth into this world. He too had been waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus, and little did he know the role God had for him. St Joseph lived and walked with Mary, while protecting, loving, and nurturing Jesus into the man he became. Jesus was born a baby and had to learn everything as he grew. What is the message for us here today as we come to the end of 2022?

Advent is a time of waiting, as St Joseph waited. Life was not easy for them then and it is still not easy for us now, as life is always laden with challenges. St Joseph welcomed Jesus into his life and built his life around the life of Jesus. Like St Joseph, we need to welcome Jesus into our lives and build our life around his, and in this way, we also bring and give Jesus to the world around us.

Let us ask St Joseph to bring Jesus to birth and nurture his life in our lives, building ours around his. St Joseph has always been a saint I felt close to and one who has always answered my prayer requests, and he will answer yours. St Joseph pray for us.

Sr. Terry (Kateri) Beaudry cps

By Fr. Antoni Baranowski, S.J.

The four weeks of Advent are not just an endurance and patience test before we
reach the Christmas joy of opening gift boxes. It is a privileged time to meditate
upon the true meaning of the upcoming Christmas.

The word “Advent” means “coming” and refers to three comings of Jesus: the first
one at Christmas; the second one at the end of time; and the third one is His daily
coming into our lives. The dominant liturgical colour is purple because preparation
also includes repentance.

The readings from the first Sunday of Advent draw our attention to the coming of
the Son of Man at the end of time, to judge and renew the world. The Word of God
during the second and third weeks of Advent focuses on the preaching of John the
Baptist, reminding us to repent and prepare the way of the Lord. While being called
to conversion, a joyful anticipation of Emmanuel-God staying with us is already
perceived on the third Sunday, known as “Gaudete” or “Rejoice” Sunday. On the
fourth Sunday, we contemplate the mystery of God becoming man at Christmas.

While participating in many different Christmas parties, let us set aside some time
for prayerful reflection on the birth of Christ bringing peace and joy into the world.

Jesus is king. He is “first-born”, which can be understood as meaning that he is divine. Christ the king, by his death on the cross, reconciled the world to God.

In the Bible, priests, prophets and kings were anointed with oil. We learn in the first reading that David was anointed, and in the Gospel reading, Jesus is declared “Messiah”, the “anointed one”. Two times and Jesus is described as King of the Jews.

David was anointed the first king of all the tribes, “anointed king of Israel”. God promised David a secure kingdom forever. The Lord told him he “shall be shepherd of my people Israel”. With this promise the Jews expected an anointed one from this lineage and one to come and save them from the Romans. Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to the house of David but a different kind of king with a kingdom which we can envision as truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace, a spiritual and not a physical reality.

Jesus is declared “first-born of all creation”, meaning he existed before anything else was created. Mary gave birth to her “first-born” son. Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is first-born of the dead.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is identified as King of the Jews, Christ of God, the Christ. We, as readers, already know that the words being spoken are true, but these groups of people unknowingly proclaim the truth about who Jesus is. The focus is not on Christ in glory, but the reading takes us to see Jesus as he is crucified and how he is taunted by groups of people. The leaders, the soldiers, the one criminal all ridiculed, scoffed, mocked, derided, and rebuked him. The other criminal rebukes the first one, realizing who Jesus is, calling him by name, indicating he knows or has heard about him. When he turns to Jesus, he asks him to “remember” him, asks for mercy. “Remember” means that only a king can give mercy or pardon. One group only stood by watching. Jesus did not come to save himself but to save sinners. Jesus had begun his ministry by bringing good news to the poor, and here he is at the end of his ministry bringing good news to the one criminal by telling him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise”.

Today, the feast of Christ the King, we “give thanks to the Father who rescued us from the power of darkness, transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”.

Rosella Kinoshameg, DOS

33rd Week in Ordinary Time – November 13, 2022

When a horrible injustice occurs, such as when 22 people were brutally slain in Nova Scotia a couple years ago, you might hear someone say something like, “there’s a special place in hell for persons who do such evil things.” I confess that I have used that expression myself on occasion.

The readings from the prophet Malachi and from the Gospel of Luke for this 33rd Week give us encouragements to live hopefully and without fear or judgement. On those who live in reverence “the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings”, Malachi wrote. In other words, we are encouraged to do good and let God sort things out.

The idea that Malachi had of an afterlife system of rewards or punishments was a later development among the Israelites. The author of the Book of Genesis, for example, refers to the “world of the dead” (Gn 37:35). The common name for that world was Sheol.

In Sheol the dead went into an underworld of stillness and lifelessness, regardless of how they had lived. It was only a few centuries before Jesus that Jewish scholars began to have the idea that the dead must pass into an afterlife where the good are rewarded and evildoers are punished. Jesus was also schooled in that thought.

However, Jesus was insistent that we are not to make judgements about persons. “Do not judge, or you will be judged” (Mt 7:1). And in the passage from Luke’s Gospel today Jesus encourages us to not live in fear. Rather, even if you suffer because of your belief in me, he said, “not a hair of your head will perish.” In other words, put all your trust in Jesus, and you have nothing to fear.

The good news in the readings today offers us the opportunity to renew our dedication to live fearlessly as part of the “beloved community” as we follow and imitate Jesus and rely on the loving kindness and mercy of Gtchi Manido. In “End Times” or any time of hardship, live in hope.
Always be kind and compassionate. Live fearlessly.

Fr. Mark Hoelsken, S.J.

 

Thank you to Fionna Pereira for sending us the following photos taken during her stay at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, a peaceful place surrounded by nature.

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The Jesuits of Canada are hosting their first-ever online Ignatian Spirituality Conference this spring!

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For those of us who think God is silent, let’s take the ear plugs out of our hearts to hear, because God is never silent.

The first readings this past week were about how to live and conduct ourselves. In the gospels, it seems Jesus was shouting at us, trying to wake us up from our complacencies and privileged attitudes, “woe to us”. The messages we hear every year have not woken us up because we continue to live today as we did yesterday. Even in a pandemic, we continue to live in luxury and in abundance, at least in our western society. We have everything we could ever want at our fingertips and if we don’t have it, we can manipulate our way around to get it.

The story of the wake-up call continues in today’s readings. Deuteronomy tells us: don’t add or remove anything to God’s commandments. Human nature tends to minimize or rationalize what we are told, to suit ourselves. God is saying: stop doing that. We cannot manipulate God. The psalmist invites us to be authentic, by walking blamelessly and in truth. The letter of James talks about the necessity of action when we listen to God’s teachings; otherwise, we have a deaf ear. Jesus in the gospel spells out in detail all the ways in which we are hypocrites because He can see right through us. We are good at doing lip
service but missing in action. Jesus says, “their hearts are far from me”.

We are living in a pandemic, not just COVID, but pandemonium in countries where people are fighting for power and control. The earth is also retaliating through fires, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, as we hear daily in the media. All of these exist because we put human nature first, or human traditions first, before God. Our actions are showing our distorted values and Jesus is calling out to us: “listen to me, all of you…”. Let’s listen with action and not just with words. Let us change our lives, our actions
and behaviors by walking our talk. Let’s be authentic Anishnabek Catholic Christians.

Let’s be honest and open enough to hear that still small voice inside of our hearts that is yelling at us: “wake up” and look around you. What are we doing to ourselves, our world and our future generations if there will be any? We need to return to our ancestors and our grandfathers’ teachings with courage to be respectful, honest, truthful, humble, and loving, thereby receiving the by-product of wisdom from a good and balanced life. We will be a “wise and discerning people” whose God is near whenever called upon.

~ Sr. Terry Beaudry, cps

By Fr. Paul Robson sj

This year, it is a treat and a blessing to have the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary fall on a Sunday. This feast day is always celebrated on August 15 th ; but when August 15 th is a Sunday, the Assumption replaces the usual Sunday in Ordinary Time celebration.

On this day we recall how Mary was “assumed”, body and soul, into Heaven. In other words, she didn’t suffer death the way we do. This belief is related to another one: that Mary was a specially blessed person. Mary’s unique blessedness is mentioned in today’s Gospel reading, such as when her cousin Elizabeth says: “Blessed are you among women” (or, in Anishnaabemowin, “Awashime ki kitchitwawendagos endchiwaat ikwewag”).

Another feast day which is closely connected to today’s feast of the Assumption is the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is celebrated a week later, on August 22 nd . (However, unlike the Solemnity of the Assumption, the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary does not replace the usual Ordinary Time Sunday celebration, and so isn’t on the calendar this year.) A connection between Mary’s Assumption into Heaven and her being crowned Queen of Heaven is found in one of the prayers for the Mass of the Assumption, which states that “she was crowned this day with surpassing glory.”

Maybe the image of a queen wearing a crown seems old-fashioned, or like something belonging to another culture. Well, the notion of Mary as Queen of Heaven suggests, again, that she is a specially blessed person, and that she now has a special place in Heaven.

Another image and a good description of Mary, one that perhaps we can relate to more than the image of a queen, is that of a mother. Mary is not only the mother of Jesus, but was given by Jesus to us to be our Great Mother. And Mary loves us as a mother, and is there for us, and intercedes for us and for our loved ones and our world.

Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us.

(based on John10:17-18)

 

I am loved by you God.

I lay down or offer my day for you God.

So, I take up my work & living 

for the service of others 

and as an expression of love.  

God, you have given me the power to offer my life freely

and I have the power to take it up again, 

this day 

and if you grant me a tomorrow, 

then so be it.

Amen

 

by Fr. David Shulist, S.J.

Anishinabe Spiritual Centre–Wasseaandimikaaning