This weekend I has the pleasure of visiting Saint Thomas à Becket parish in Pierrefonds. This visit is part of the on-going thank you tour I have been on since my ordination as bishop. Basically, I have been making it a point to visit the parishes that have been significant to my spiritual and vocational journey, to offer thanks to God for the role they played in His providential plan of love for me. Saint Thomas à Becket was an important part of that journey, as it was at that parish that I spent my first three full years as a priest.

The weekend began with Saturday mass, followed by the chance to greet the people afterwards. As a surprise bonus, I learned that a NET Ministries team was present at the same time, leading a parish youth retreat. My own sister was part of NET for several years, at first on the road and then as a supervisor for other teams (including for a new foundation in Ireland). After all was done with the community, Father Rob and Father Mike (the pastor and the assistant, respectively) invited me in for supper. I always enjoy spending social time with brother priests.

The next day we had two more masses, which meant even more of a chance to reconnect with people I had not seen in a long time. What really caught me off guard was the kids — some of them had really grown, to the point that I didn’t recognize them at first!

After a bit of lunch I had the honour of baptizing little Penelope, the second child of a couple I had the honour to marry some years back. This was, of course, followed by what amounted to a banquet at a local restaurant, which was really a lot of fun. Still, by the end of the day I was pretty beat. It was good to get home and catch up on things… like blogging… :-)

Some time back I had a chance to chat with Rhonda Chervin regarding an ancient form of religious life called the order of consecrated widows. A consecrated widow is a woman who, after losing her husband, decides not to marry again but instead devote her life to the Lord through a special consecration. References to this state of life can be found in texts as early as the New Testament itself (see 1 Timothy, chapter 5), and Blessed Pope John Paul II encouraged the renewal of this form of consecration in his apostolic exortation Vita Consecrata (see number 7).

At the moment, the order of consecrated widows is found more in the Eastern Catholic churches than in the Latin Church. For example, canon 571 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches has a direct reference to consecrated widows (and widowers!), which the Latin Code has no corresponding mention. Also, unlike the other apostolic women’s order, the order of virins, there is no developed liturgical ceremony for the consecration of widows. This means that attempts to renew the order of consecrated widows depend on private initiatives, such as the one being attempted by the Society of our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (described somewhat in this blog post).

As for Montreal, I know of at least one group of women who are exploring together the possibility of living some sort of consecration as widows. I look forward to supporting them as they discern God’s call in their lives.

Shortly after having been called to be a bishop I received a copy of the Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops. One of the recommendations made in that document (see paragraph 46) was that the bishop take time each month for prayer and recollection. I’ve been trying to apply that suggestion, despite all the work on my desk, because I think it is important in order to keep connected with the Lord.

So what is a “day of recollection”, you ask? More and more we hear of employees taking a “mental health day” from work, just to get a break from the hustle and bustle. Well, for me this was a “spiritual health day”, in which I rested, read, meditated, went to confession, spent time before the Blessed Sacrament, prayed Vespers in community, and shared with a couple of brother priests on our life and ministry. Oh, I should also mention the excellent supper we shared — never underestimate the renewing power of a good meal! :-)

Can I afford to take time out from all the expectations I face to have a day of recollection? Anyone judging with the standards of the world would take one look at my task list and say “Absolutely not!” I certainly feel that temptation myself. But looking at it from the standards of the Lord, and what it means to be a bishop, can I afford to NOT take a day of recollection? After all, he’s still the one in charge, and I owe it to him (and to the people of God) to stay in tune with his will.

I bought myself a new gadget this evening: a Galaxy Tab 10.1. Now while it may be hard to believe, I am not actually one for new tech toys. Yes, I am a computer geek, but I am much more of a programmer than someone who has to have the latest gizmo. I actually held off from getting a tablet computer for some time. That being said, one of my ordination presents was partial payment for an e-reader of some sort (such as a Kindle), so I started shopping around.

I thought of getting an iPad 2, but then I came across the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Every review I read said that it was superior to the iPad 2 in just about every way: larger screen, sharper image, better cameras, and so on. I also am not a fan of the Apple ecosystem — Apple makes certain choices for the consumer up front, which works fine for most people, but given my programmer side I prefer to have more direct control over my machine. What clinched the decision was the question of price: I got a coupon by email for $75 off the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which (combined with the fact that it is already cheaper than the iPad 2) meant that I’d be saving over $100 on what is a superior machine. The decision was a no-brainer.

My ultimate goal in all of this is to put together the elements of a portable office, thus allowing me to get out of the chancery building and hit the road visiting parishes etc. This tablet is part of this process. There is no question that a tablet will never replace a true desktop/laptop, but as a portable email/browser machine (which is what I really need it for) I am pretty happy with it. Now all I need is a Galaxy Nexus to replace my current phone, and I’ll be one step closer to having my office anywhere I want.

I had the chance today to visit the parish of Saint Raphael in Outremont. This parish does not have a resident pastor, such that I will likely soon be appointed parochial administrator for the community. That being said, apart from visiting the grounds (which I had never seen before) my main purpose for being there was to establish contact the Board of Directors of the Saint Raphael Palliative Care and Day Centre, which is to founded in the same location. You see, this is an English parish in a part of the city where relatively few English-speaking Catholics live anymore. The parish is therefore exploring a change to its vocation.

Years ago I was once a chaplain at the West Island Palliative Care Residence, so I have seen the importance of this kind of work to help promote the culture of life. Palliative care, after all, is all about respect for the sick person — it sees someone who is dying as a person who is worthy of dignity, right up until the end. I am proud to see the leaders of Saint Raphael’s parish community taking the lead in setting up this new project, which (as you can imagine) is incredibly complex. They can count on my prayers and support.

This Sunday afternoon I had the honour of assisting at the special mass and celebration for the 25th anniversary of Father Paul Pomkoski of Saint Brendan and Saint Aloysius parishes. I use the word “assisting” because I did not concelebrate. You see, when a bishop is present at mass among a group of priests, he “outranks” the priests and therefore is normally the one to preside. In this case, though, it obviously made more sense for Father Paul to preside at his own anniversary mass, particularly given that there is a special mass in the Roman Missel precisely for such an occasion. I therefore put on my “choir dress”, consisting of purple cassock, cincture, rochet, and mozetta (along with skullcap and pectoral cross), and stayed to the side in the sanctuary.

Father Paul has been a good friend to me for many years. When I finished my degree in international business, and began my secular career, I moved to the Rosemont area of Montreal and found myself a parishioner at Saint Brendan’s. When I made up my mind to enter the seminary, it was Father Paul who wrote one of my letters of recommendation, and who offered me a place to stay the day before my studies began. When I began working at the diocese he welcomed me back to the parish as an unofficial parish assistant, and he was one of the two priests who accompanied me into the sanctuary for my episcopal ordination. I am very happy for him and proud of him for his 25 years of priesthood — ad multos annos, Father Paul!

This weekend (Saturday evening and Sunday morning) I had the opportunity to do a pastoral visit at Corpus Christi parish in the westernmost end of the diocese. This parish has not had a resident pastor for a few weeks now, such that different priests have been coming in to do replacement ministry to cover the various sacramental services. I felt it was important to also go myself, to be part of this ministry and to reassure the parishioners that they had not been “forgotten”.

As part of working with the people to chart a course for the future, I’ve planned with the leadership of the parish to undertake a pastoral visitation of the parish in the month of December. I’m going to preside at all the masses two weekends in a row, and during the week in between I am going to move my office to the parish and live in the rectory. I plan to meet with all the various parish groups, as well as visit key community leaders and institutions. By the end, I hope the process will allow us all — bishop, parish leaders, and parishioners — to be on the same wavelength regarding the current state of things, and thus have a solid basis to plan for the future.

This Saturday I had two celebrations of confirmation at Saint Edmund of Canterbury parish in Beaconsfield. I must say, I am quite enjoying this part of my ministry, as it gives me a chance to get around and see the life and vitality of our local parish communities.

For my homily, I used an adapted version of a homily I preached in 2006 on the feast of Pentecost:

In the new version, I use the analogy of the bicycle to explain the sacramental economy, particularly how baptism, reconciliation, eucharist and confirmation relate to one another. We’ll see if I can get a video of that one uploaded at some point.

Off to the morning session of day 4 (Thursday) the CCCB plenary (the French sector meeting).

As the last few days have been quite full, I’m a bit behind in blogging. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some time to catch up soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in the CCCB plenary, you can take in some highlights at Salt and Light TV, including a special page they have set up to cover the plenary itself.