Good day,

I’m coming to you from a chilly, snowy South Porcupine, ON today.   It’s going to warm up into the “pluses” later on today. Anyway, here are a few upcoming events…

Monday, May 1st, 9:30am at St. George, Echo Bay: free continental-style breakfast with O.P.P Constable Peter Van Dem Diepstraten (don’t worry, you can just call him Constable Peter). He will be talking to us about scams. More and more scams – sometimes difficult (or impossible) to detect are out there. Find out how to protect yourself and what to do if you are scammed.

Saturday, May 6th, 8am – 2pm at St. George, Echo Bay: Echo Bay For Sale! Come check out our treasures, hot dogs, sandwiches, drinks, and baking!!

Saturday, May 6th, Accessory Boutique 10:30am – 3pm at the cathedral. Jewellry, purses, scarves, and more! (for men and women)

Saturday, May 13th: Men’s Breakfast, beginning at 8:30am at the Trinity Centre. Good food and fellowship!

A Liturgical Note For You:  The Gospel reading for this upcoming Sunday is the beginning of the Good Shepherd discourse (John 10:1-10). Interestingly, Jesus names himself as the gate in this part of the discourse, not as the shepherd. I hope you hear a good sermon on why this may be the case. 🙂  Also, what I find curious is that, rather than continue this discourse over consecutive Sundays so that we hear all of it in a row, this discourse is continued over consecutive years. On each of our Fourth Sundays of Easter in Years A, B, and C, we hear a chunk of this Good Shepherd discourse (the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and United Methodist congregations do this, too).  Because of these Gospel readings, the Fourth Sunday of Easter has come to be known as Good Shepherd Sunday. This eventually led us to pray for the vocations of all the ordained and those who have dedicated their lives to the church by becoming Sisters and Brothers of various religious orders.  In fact, this Sunday is now the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It would be very appropriate, then, to acknowledge this in The Prayers of the People. We should include, too, the ministries of all the baptized in our prayers this day.  

For Your Devotions:

Monday, April 24th is the memorial of the Martyrs of the Twentieth Century. This may seem hard to believe but, in the 20^th century, there were more martyrs – those who died for their belief in Christ and the way of God’s kingdom – than at any other time in our history. There are too many to list here…those who died in the Soviet Union, in Germany, and in dozens of other places around the globe…so please read more on p.150: http://c2892002f453b41e8581-48246336d122ce2b0bccb7a98e224e96.r74.cf2.rackcdn.com/ForAlltheSaints.pdf

Tuesday, April 25th is the Holy Day of St. Mark the Evangelist.  Mark – the author of our earliest Gospel, in the 60’s AD – is a name mentioned a number of times in the New Testament.  He is believed to be a traveling companion of Paul and he is also speculated as being one of Jesus’ 72 disciples as well as the young man who runs away at the time of Jesus’ arrest.  The Egyptian church names Mark as its founder and legend has it that Mark died in Alexandria. His symbol is a lion. Scholars believe Mark was writing during the first period of really intense Christian persecutions so for some interesting thoughts on how this shaped his Gospel, please read p.152:  http://c2892002f453b41e8581-48246336d122ce2b0bccb7a98e224e96.r74.cf2.rackcdn.com/ForAlltheSaints.pdf

Saturday, April 29th is the memorial of Catherine of Siena, Reformer and Spiritual Teacher, died 1380.  Okay, I know it was a different world back then but, still, I find this amazing…Catherine was the 25th child born to her mother and her mother was just 40 years old at the time (I had two and felt that was plenty. Different world, indeed). Catherine was a twin, actually, but the other baby did not survive. From a young age, Catherine had religious visions and “entered” a Dominican monastery at 16  (She was a tertiary which means she took vows but stayed at home).  She secluded herself for the first three years and saw only her confessor. News of her visions spread and people began traveling to her for advice. She never learned to write but dictated her well-known Dialogues and many letters. Her death, at age 33, came as a result of a fast she held in reaction to the schism that arose when two “popes” both claimed the title. She was going to fast until the church became unified again. We would all be a whole lot thinner if we tried that. Perhaps, learning from Catherine, it is not such a great idea but we can certainly strive for unity in other ways. For more:  https://www.thoughtco.com/catherine-of-siena-3529726

In the joy and hope of the risen Christ,

Susan