Refugees
Progress of Syrian family sponsored by St. Basil's Parish, Ottawa: Nabil and Manal and their four children arrived last August. Since then they have worked hard improving their English, transitioning to school and work and adjusting to life in Canada. The neighbouring Dovercourt Recreation Centre provided the family with free passes to all programs for a year and 9 weeks of summer camp for the children. Nabil is a skilled body shop technician and has been helped using means other than written ones to receive his apprenticeship papers. He noticed the many discarded bicycles and retrieves, repairs and sells them. Manal is participating with others in the community garden at St. Basil's that will provide the family and others with fresh produce. The parish is in the process of discerning whether to undertake the sponsorship of another family.
Celebrating our Jubilarians
The Activity Room at Andrews of Charlottetown was bursting with life and activity from 2 to 4 PM on Sunday, June 19. We celebrated the jubilees of Sisters Sally MacPherson, Marie Fernande Arsenault and the Florence O'Keefe. (Although Sally's name is not on the Jubilee list, she entered with this group, then became part of the January ceremony. She wanted to celebrate with them.) Several of their family members were present as well as the PEI sisters. Other residents dropped in to offer their congratulations. They received flowers and other gifts and many cards containing glorious tributes to their life as CND's. A beautifully decorated Jubilee cake contributed to the festive atmosphere and refreshments were enjoyed by all. We are grateful to all who attended. Informal celebrations continued with our local community in the evening.
St. Mary Magdalen
This month we learned that the July 22 memorial observance of St. Mary Magdalene is now a major feast in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. In recent years, the feast day has been promoted and celebrated as a significant way to help us learn about women leaders in our church history and to promote gender balance in scripture proclamation. According to Future Church (http://ncronline.org) every year 200 – 300 Magdala Day celebrations are organized around the world. We are fortunate in our area to have experienced this for several summers, on or close to July 22 in different churches close by. Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote in a 2001 article in NCR that “for the first five centuries no writer misinterpreted Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. Rather she was seen as a leading disciple and image of the church.” Deborah Rose-Milavec, Executive Director of Future Church writes: “It is gratifying and heartening to learn that this message is now echoing from the Vatican and that they now recognize her for her role as the primary witness to the Resurrection and a key figure in our salvation history with equal standing to her male counterparts.”
