SACRAMENTAL INITIATION SANDY LAKE ON

On Saturday, August 27, our volunteer pilot Ted Dodds flew me into Sandy Lake, Ontario (a three hour flight by float plane) for the sacraments of initiation there. We joined Fr. Bart Burke who at the age of 82 is doing tremendous work preparing the young people all week for this great event in their lives. The celebration went well and was followed by a pot luck lunch. Fr. Bart will be celebrating his 83 birthday on August 29th, so the congregation sang Happy Birthday to him. The young people were both confirmed and received first Holy Communion as this event followed the restoration of the order of the sacraments (Confirmation followed by Holy Eucharist).

A high point for me was giving the cnadidates a retreat on being human, Jesus Christ, the challenge of forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit. They were quite attentive and surprisingly good singers. All 18 candidates showed up for the retreat.

As it was four years ago, my arrival happened to be when the annual Berry Ceremony was taking place. After the retreat with the candidates, Fr. Bart, pilot Ted Dodds and I went to the location at the sand pit 8 kilometeres in the bush for the feast. The elders spoke at lenght about the ceremony, I spoke briefly and blessed the food; a drum was given to a young girl who then followed an elder around the lodge so that each person could drum the large ceremonial drum while the girl drummed her drum at the same time. A pipe ceremony took place, after which everyone feasted on moose meat, goose, sturgeon, bannock and berries, as well as a special medicinal tea.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD IN THOMPSON

Note: I am finally starting to blog again with the help of our webmaster, Rusty Gardiner, though not yet out of the woods regarding blogging problems.

On Thursday, August 25th, the parish of St. Lawrence in Thompson bid farewell to Fr. Eugene Whyte OMI who had served the parish and the surrounding area (6 missions) for six years. Teh gathering was an informal pot-luck supper with a tremendous amount of great food and a capacity crowd. The plan was to simply have a gathering without a program to allow folks ample time to visit with Fr. Eugene. Here Fr. Eugene is picture cutting the cake. He is planning to go to the Oblate renewal experience at Aix-en-Province in France, followed by the Oblate renewal program Ministry to Ministers in San Antonio, Texas. Certainly his sabbatical is well deserved after serving not just Thompson but the missions of Gillam, Lynn Lake, Souoth Indian Lake, Nelson House and Thicket Portage. In this task he wasgreatly helped by ministry of Sr. Maraget Sadler in Lynn Lake and Srs. Susan Gardner and Ellen Kennedy in Nelson House.

Fr. Eugene passes on his fur hat to Fr. Prosper, with the hope that he might return to experience some Manitoba winter.

Wollaston sacramental initiation and wedding

On Saturday, August 20, our volunteer pilot Ted Dodds flew me into Wollaston Lake just in time for a retreat with these confirmation candidates. They were attentive, sang out loudly, and knew their faith quite well. I shared a power point presentation with them on Human Needs and the Great Commandment, Learning to Forgive, a Jesus Quiz, the gifts, fruits and names of the Holy Spirit. Despite the wedding next door in the church at the same time, they were very present to the retreat. The celebration on Sunday was a joyful mixture of Dene and English, including the whole congregation singing our Returning to Your Roots theme song.

Here are the candidates who received their First Communion. They were prepared by a group of dedicated catechists.

A wedding of John & Mary Jane Josie took place the same time as the retreat with the candidates, as it had been postponed by a funeral the previous day. Above is a shot of the wedding cake, part of the first class decorations.

Sacraments of Initiation, God's Lake Narrows, Aug 15, 2011

Here is where Ted Dodds, our volunteer pilot who donates his plane, time and gas for amonth to fly me to our isolated missions, flew me for the celebration of initation in God' Lake Narrows.

The group of newly initiated candidates posing with Fr. Bart Burke and me.

The outdoor fish following the celebration of confirmation and First Communion.

On August 15, feast of the Assumption of Mary, I joined Fr. Bart Burke, a saintly 82 year old diocesan priest, for the celebration of the sacraments of initation in God's Lake Narrows in north eastern Manitoba. FR. Bart flies a circuit between four communities, SAndy Lake ON, GLN, God's River and Oxford House. Like Jesus, he literally has no place to rest his head in a way, always on the road, with almost no place to call home.

With perfect weather, the volunteer pilot Ted Dodds, flew me in for a retreat with the candidates in the afternoon, the celebration following, and an outdoor fish fry following that. I was even able to sneak in a swim in the lake upon arrival, and early in the morning the next day before we left to try and beat the inclement weather to St Theresa Point, where we were weathered in for a day.