I've been trying to catch up on mail (opening it, and responding to it) and I came across a package of "welcome to the diocese" cards that some kids at Saint Paul's elementary school had written to me. I usually try and respond to people one-on-one, but how was I going to do this here? And then it hit me: do a video!

J'ai eu la chance de célébrer la messe à la paroisse Sainte-Anne-des-Pins ce midi. Cela a été diffusé sur Youtube. La procession d'entrée commence à 13:10, et l'homélie à 21:30.

Back when I was a student at Concordia University I had Professor Mahesh Sharma as one of my teachers. At that time I was also very involved in student life. One weekend, as we were leaving the building after working late, we ran into Professor Sharma leaving his office. It turned out he had been in all day, meeting students in his office and helping them with their studies. Not long after we have Professor Sharma a special award for his dedication as a teacher.

Last weekend we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, and so to commemorate the Magi who visited the infant Jesus I decided to cook a Persian dish: Noodle Soup! Although, to be honest, it turned out to be more of a noodle vegetable stew. But it was still delicious!

I started by frying some red onion in olive oil until it was nice and crisp. This was to serve as a garnish later, and really helped make the dish.

I was going to write that this was my 15th visit to a church so far, but I realised now that Holy Redeemer was actually my second visit to a parish in this diocese! When I first came in November 2020 I stayed at Saint-Jean-Brébeuf parish, and at the end of that week I also went for a social visit at Holy Redeemer.

Visits to churches continue! This weekend I was at Our Lady of Hope. I started to the do math: my 14th church visit so far!

I have to admit,  I love the name of this parish. Hope is at the heart of my personal spirituality, and we often don't realise how Mary's faith was not just a faith in God but in his providence in his plan. In other words, Mary, the model of our faith, is also the model of our hope.

Many thanks to Fr. Larry for his warm welcome!

The title of this blog post has a bit of a double meaning. On the one hand, I am referring to the parish church that I visited this evening (the last of 4 for today). But on the other hand, I mean that Saint Andrew the Apostle can literally be found in Sudbury (well, a piece of him!)

After Mass at Saint Peter's in North Bay I hit the road for Sudbury. That said, given I would be in the area I thought it would be a chance to visit other visit churches along the way. So I called ahead to Fr. Tensingh Alexander in Sturgeon Falls to see if he'd be free. Happily, he was!

Day 3 of my journey back to Sudbury brought me to Saint Peter the Apostle parish, also in North Bay. Although this parish is not equipped for streaming the service, the pastor still made sure to offer mass even if only a maximum of 10 people could be present. This led to a moment of amusement: as I pulled up in the parking lot, parish greeters came to warn me that there was no more room. They quickly recognized me, though, and we had a good laugh about my presence: "I guess you can go in, Bishop!"

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, December 31 is the eve of a high holy day (what we call a "solemnity") in which we honor Mary as Mother of God, and in which we pray for peace throughout the world. As part of my project to visit the different churches of the dioceses sooner rather than later I started visiting churches as I made my way back to my home in Sudbury. The government-ordered lockdown meant that only a maximum of 10 people could attend a mass, but thankfully the parish of Holy Name of Jesus was offering the mass via streaming.