Our Parish Update - Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | St. Pius X Parish

June 2, 2020

OUR PIUS UPDATE
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020

I continue to be consoled by the open, pleasant reception of homebound parishioners who receive an email and/or telephone call from our parish front office staff. We continue to search and find ways to remain in touch with one another. Sometimes we meet accidentally at a store or while taking some recreation. However, I am deeply concerned that some members of our parish continue to live in ‘isolation’ and are perhaps beyond the reach of neighbourly outreach. What to do…?

Perhaps we might yet realize another or others from whom we have been separated for too long and simply renew our good habits of socializing including telephoning one another. We might share with others our parish updates and bulletins. Perhaps we might reassure another with a promise of prayerful solidarity. While we are separated from church we console our hearts by doing what is within our means.

Parish Finances

We are able to pay our bills, thank God AND thank you for your continuous weekly/monthly donations. We are currently aided by a month by month federal government subsidy. Please continue to remain generous. There are ongoing expenses including the payment of staff wages, the upkeep (and some upgrades) of our property, and not to be forgotten is our substantial financial support of MacMorran Community Centre. Thanks!

Prayer Bowl

Many of us have everyday and special prayer intentions that would otherwise be placed into our prayer bowl that sits before the altar at St. Pius X Church. If you wish for me, Fr. Earl, to place your prayer requests you can phone 754-0170 or email me esmith@jesuits.org. You might even consider having your own prayer bowl at home.

Church Re-0pening???

Our Archdiocesan leadership continues to meet and consult about the future of in-church gatherings including Mass. However, there are no dates to open our church for Mass or even prayerful devotions as we abide by provincial health protocols.

PROPERTY UPDATES

Parish Hall

The stage on our parish hall has long needed a safety railing that has finally been installed. Two tempered safety glass panels will be inserted to finish the barrier. This means the stage is also ‘up to code’ and covered for insurance requirements. Thanks especially to Karl Wight, our property manager, who facilitated the installation of the railing.

Association for New Canadians
Medical Clinic

Eastern Health and Association for New Canadians (ANC) have approached our Parish to open a June-July medical clinic in two offices off our Parish Hall stage. This interim clinic will move to an permanent location off our property later this summer. There is a great need for this clinic as some refugee and immigrant students and families who require medical attention are special needs patients.

Church Windows

A decision has been made after a wide informal consultation to take down the weathered amber covers on our clear double-thick windows. This will be done during the summer months. It will allow more light throughout the church as was intended when it was built in 1976.

JESUIT NEWS

A CALL TO KEEP LOVING:
JESUITS SCHOLASTICS CARE
FOR THEIR ELDER BROTHERS DURING COVID-19 OUTBREAK
By Oliver Capko, S.J., Gilles Mongeau, S.J., and Adam Pittman, S.J.

May 27, 2020 — COVID-19 has made its way to every corner of the world. And, as we know, it has shut down economies, created “physical distancing”, and even altered our religious practices. Throughout the growing pandemic in Canada, many of us felt untouched by this virus until we received word that our most vulnerable brothers had contracted the disease. On Wednesday, 22 April 2020, Erik Oland, Provincial of the Canadian Province, received notice that an outbreak of COVID-19 had been declared at our infirmary in Pickering, Ontario. Even before a request could go out to the Province, two scholastics, then a third and a fourth, had already volunteered to go. By Monday, 27 April, five Jesuits had arrived to provide personal care and custodial support – a much welcomed addition to a dwindling staff.

During the first week, five Jesuits died, two of which died in hospital. The remaining three were accompanied by the Jesuit volunteers, so that not one of them died alone. As staffing continued to be a concern, three more Jesuits arrived to help, as well as the sister of one of the scholastics, who is a nurse. But despite our best efforts, we were losing the battle against the virus, and a sixth Jesuit died accompanied by his younger companions.

As of this writing, there has been a seventh death, but the remaining Jesuits are returning to health. It is true that being present to our dying companions brings much sadness. There has been abundant consolation as well. Because of geographic distance, few of the scholastics had met the Jesuits of the infirmary before coming to help. But in these past weeks, graces of genuine friendship in the Lord have been given, as the young men sat with their older companions. As one scholastic said to his dying Jesuit brother: “We have become good friends, and I am grateful to have known you. I love you.” Most of us had similar experiences of deep fraternal love. One of the infected Jesuits, now recovered, gave us at the height of his struggles the only thing he could: his blessing.

There were moments of real powerlessness: sitting at the bedside of a Jesuit struggling for breath, losing the fight against infection. But these moments opened onto a deep freedom and humility, in our suffering companions and in ourselves, to receive the help being offered by others. All of us were deeply attentive of the movements of the Spirit in our hearts, among us as we shared in spiritual conversation, and around us in the generosity of so many.

We have also become conscious of ourselves as an apostolic body sent by the Lord. More than one of us has been aware that this time together has been our “Venice experience*.” The fraternal love we have known with our older companions and among us is a call to keep loving. Yes, seven of our brothers were taken home to the Lord, but we don’t leave this place in sorrow. The charism of “friendship in the Lord” first experienced by Ignatius and his first companions and lived out in community - regardless of age, stage in formation, or grade - has borne fruit to be shared with the Canadian Province and our partners in mission.

* The experience of working together in hospices for the poor and sharing prayer and a simple life together in the city of Venice, Italy, in a time of plague was foundational for the first Jesuits.
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Br. Joe Frechette, SJ

Br. Joe Frechette, SJ, continues to live a quality of life while living in Pickering. He breathes with difficulty and with a ready supply of oxygen. A stint allows a quick release of fluid in his lungs. He no longer needs to visit a hospital for this treatment. He is now living at the Rene Goupil Infirmary where he can get additional medical care.

COVID-19 PRAYER HELP

Open Yourself to God

To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension that squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, prayer is a way of life that allows you to find stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbour, and your world. In prayer, your encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, on the distress and joy of your neighbour, and in the loneliness of your own heart.

Henri Nouwen, You Are God’s Beloved, April 27

OUR ‘PIUS’ SMILES ‘BOUT MARRIAGE

★   Sign seen outside a church:
   “Love is grand.
        Divorce is 20 grand.”


★   A priest momentarily forgot the names of the couples he was going to marry, and said from the pulpit,
   “Will those wishing to be united in holy matrimony, please come forward?”
   Eighteen women and one man approached the altar.

★   A four year old boy told his father:
   “Dad, I’ve decided to get married.”
   “Do you have a girl in mind,” the Father asked.
   “Yes,” the boy replied. “Grandma! She said she love me. I love her too, and she’s the best cook and the storyteller in the whole world!”
   “That nice,” the father replied, “but we have a small problem here. She happens to be my mother. How can you marry my mother?”
   “Why not?”, the boy replied. “You married mine!”

SOURCE: The Joyful Noiseletter, Vol. 35 No. 4 July-August 2020

ODE TO OUR PETS IN THE PANDEMIC*

Pets can be a nuisance, but now that our family is staying in place, I love them. They've transformed from creatures I tolerate into family members I adore. Our pets add structure to our day with walks, feeding and care. They snuggle and offer unconditional love, and mostly, they just make us laugh. I'm so grateful for their loving presence. It's not unusual to find one of my kids snuggled up with a dog, cat or even a chicken!

Stay-in-place orders throughout the country have sent pet adoptions through the roof. Folks who didn't have time or energy to care for a pet are now taking the plunge, adding dogs and cats of all ages to their families and discovering that there are mental health benefits to our furry friends.

Family therapist, Ilene English says that pets are providing a calming effect on her clients' fears and anxieties during this difficult time.

"This is particularly true for those sheltering alone. In a family situation, the family pet can help focus everyone's attention on the love each member has for the pet, which again is a wonderful way to refocus everyone's attention towards more positive feelings," English said.

Research shows that pet owners reap physical and psychological benefits, including reduced stress, lower rates of anxiety and a greater sense of well-being. One analysis reviewed 17 studies to explore the impact of pet ownership and determined that “qualitative studies illuminated the intensiveness of connectivity people with companion animals reported”, ultimately finding that pets “provide benefits to those with mental health conditions”.

Dr. Cheryl M Meola, an animal assisted therapist who often works in a farm setting practicing equine therapy, concurs that this unprecedented historic moment has brought us closer to our pets.

“They've become emotional support animals, connecting us to feeding routines, the outside world and providing emotional connection”, Meola said. She added that pets help us on a neurobiological level because petting and holding our animals causes our bodies to release oxytocin — also known as the “cuddle hormone” because it's released when people snuggle.

But pets don't just make us happier; they can actually make us healthier. Research from 2017 shows that the presence of a pet can lower heart rates and blood pressure and even prolong life. According to the 12-year study, dog ownership was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in single-person households and lower mortality in the general population. In fact, dog owners had a 20% lower risk of dying and 25% lower risk of dying from (CVD). Interestingly, owners of hunting dogs in particular had the lowest risk of CVD.

Indeed, our pets are exactly what we need in this moment for so many reasons, some that defy rational explanation: They somehow know just how to make us feel better.

And now, I'm off to give all of our pets a grateful hug and a squeeze.
These are excerpts from an article written by Marika Lindholm, www.healthywomen.org, May 27, 2020.

SOURCE:   healthywomen.org

HealthyWomen reminds you to carefully consider the decision to adopt or foster a pet.
Marika Lindholm founded the social platform Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere (ESME).

Blessed Louis-Zephirin Moreau
(1824 - 1901)

Marie-Marguerite Moreau, a Quebec farmwife, went into early labor with her fifth child on April 1, 1824. The baby, named Louis-Zephirin after his father, survived but remained sickly and frail. What he lacked in physical vigor, however, he made up for in remarkable inner strength.

As a boy, Louis-Zephirin was too weak for farm work, so his parents took the advice of their parish priest and sent him to school. He entered seminary at age 15, but five years later, health problems forced him to interrupt his studies, and the archbishop advised him to give up his desire to be a priest.

Undeterred, he traveled to Montreal and pled his case with Bishop Ignace Bourget, who took him under his wing. The coadjutor, Bishop Jean-Charles Prince, supervised Moreau’s studies and ordained him in December 1846.

Father Moreau worked closely with Bishop Bourget and was deeply influenced by his leadership abilities and spiritual life, including a love of prayer an Scripture and devotion to the Eucharist and Mary. He later served as special assistant to Bishop Prince of the new Diocese of Sainte-Hyacinthe where Michael McGivney began his seminary studies in 1868. Coincidentally, in 1874 Moreau organized the Union of St. Joseph, a mutual aid society similar to the Order that McGivney would later found.

Ordained bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe in l876, Moreau took as his motto the words of St. Paul: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Phil 4:l 3). He was a very effective administrator, and in 25 years he led the construction of a new cathedral, served the poor, built up vocations, founded several religious orders and created dozens of new parishes and schools.

"Good Bishop Moreau”, as he was known, died May 24, 1901. He was beatified in 1987.

SOURCE:    Columbia, May 2020, Page 5