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September 30 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day honours the children who never returned home and survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Wear orange Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led commemorative day to raise awareness of the individual, family and community impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations. Wear orange on September 30 to honour  Survivors of residential school and those who never returned home.

Prayers and intentions for September and October 2022

75 years: Mary Van H 70 years: Judy 65 years: Helen, Angela, Sheila 60 years: Mary Di, Mary M, Anne 50 years: Norma 40 years: Gill We express our gratitude to God for the presence of these women in our Institute and for their many years of faithful dedicated service as vowed religious women. We also remember today with special love and gratitude, the life and ministries of our recently departed sister, Caroline D, a faithful IBVM sister for 65 years. Thank you for your many years of loving service. God's richest blessings be yours.

This July 31 marks the close of the year celebrated by the Society of Jesus to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the conversion of Ignatius Loyola from courtier and soldier to founder and saint. During this time we have been treated to a surfeit of riches as the Jesuits, here and abroad have generously shared with us, laity and religious, their heritage and spirituality. The companions that Ignatius gathered around him were dedicated to “the greater glory of God and the aid of souls.” To facilitate this they were to be free from enclosure, from office in choir, from a distinctive religious habit and from local episcopal authority. With their own centralized form of government they were free to be sent as missionaries to the ends of the earth wherever the needs were greatest and finding God in all things. A century later and in another country Mary Ward a woman who had unsuccessfully tried another form of religious life was discerning with her companions how they might best serve God when she was gifted with an experience: “I heard distinctly, not by sound of voice, these words: ‘Take the same as the Society,’ so understood that we were to take the same both in matter and in manner. . . . These are the words that cannot be valued. They made known what God would have done.” And more centuries later and in yet another country, here we are! St. Ignatius Loyola and Venerable Mary Ward pray for us! Many thanks to Sr Angela for preparing this message

July 30 is World Day Against Human Trafficking. This year focuses on the role of technology as a tool that can both enable and impede human trafficking. Learn more https://youtu.be/k2asBvW8REU https://youtu.be/noOkZOmPGaM United Nations

Pope Francis' prayer intention for July 2022 - For the Elderly.

Prayers and intentions for July and August 2022

Get back to nature and give back to the earth Loretto Maryholme welcomes volunteers each Tuesday from 10:00am - 12:00pm (noon) May 10 - September 27 2022 to help out with the gardens. Learn more About Loretto Maryholme

The action of IBVM Canada is an answer to the call to respond to "the cry of our many brothers and sisters who yearn to be freed from the yoke of poverty, violence and injustice …" Pope Francis, 2019 The commitment to justice is a commitment of love and respect for all those who suffer the tragedy of persecution and exclusion. All people are called to become aware, and to respond from love, with compassion, devotion and a commitment to justice. Eva Rodriguez-Diaz, Mary Ward Centre. Toronto, June 20, 2022 World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to celebrate the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. Refugee - An expression of human tragedy A refugee is a person, family or group of people who leave their country of origin as an alternative or the only possibility to protect their life. Violence, political, religious and ideological persecution are the most frequent causes by which people are forced to leave their countries, placing them in refugee status. During the last decade humanity observes how sexual orientation has become a vector of persecution and threat, causing people with diverse sexual identities to become refugees. Learn more about refugees in Canada Download the Mary Ward Centre statement

World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5. “Only One Earth” was the slogan for the 1972 Stockholm Conference; 50 years on, this truth still holds – this planet is our only home. With nature in emergency mode, the Only One Earth campaign for World Environment Day 2022, wants you to celebrate the planet through collective environmental action. Only One Earth advocates for transformative environmental change on a global scale. The campaign shines a spotlight on climate action, nature action and pollution action while encouraging everyone, everywhere to live sustainably. GOD’s CHILDREN By Rosemary Albon, ibvm There is a story to be told about God, Earth, Children and their children’s children. Out of Good, God birthed Earth. God laughed, clapped and danced with joy. And all the children laughed, clapped and danced with joy. The children played gleefully in Earth’s messy mud and splashes covered their hands and feet. And all the children laughed, clapped, and danced with joy. Until one day, the mud dried up and cracked hard beneath their feet. And the children cried and hid in fear. Then the children played hide and seek in the rain forest and sang sweet songs. And all the children laughed, clapped and danced with joy. Until the fires came. And the children cried and hid in fear. Then the children looked up to the blue sky and named the clouds drifting above. And all the children laughed, clapped, and danced with joy. Until one day, came the grey in the air. And all the children cried and hid in fear. Then early one morning, God’s wisdom touched and embraced Earth. And all the people began to shout: “No more To save our children Can we not change our lives?” And God clasped all the children and they laughed, clapped and danced with joy. Take Action Support the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, which calls for no new fossil fuel infrastructure, the protection of indigenous rights, and a just transition to clean energy for all. Sent letters to your Member of Parliament holding Canadian Mining companies accountable for how they conduct their business in the global south. Sample letters to follow

“Today is the Church’s birthday ... the most brilliant feast in the liturgical cycle. If there is ever some time when the feast of the Holy Spirit takes on an element of urgency, then I believe that time is now when we experience so much confusion, so many false voices of redemption, so much materialism and selfishness, so much hatred and violence. It is a wonderful time to experience a longing for freedom, for justice and for truth ... a profound desire of the human person that can only be filled by the Spirit of God who ... fills the emptiness.” (St Oscar Romero, Homily 1979) The more contemporary writer, Anthony Gittens, (A Presence That Disturbs, 2017) expands on Romero: “It has been suggested that the history of Christianity can be largely read as tales of defeats of the Holy Spirit. Triumphalism, imperialism, the use of force and fear are not what God’s Spirit had in mind. The Spirit is trying to break through ... but humanity is muzzling the Spirit as we resist the cries of the poor, blame victims, justify our own comforts and separate the “us” and the “them”. He says that the Spirit wants to instill in us a hunger and thirst for justice that will stimulate us to disturb the status quo by fighting for the transformation of our unjust world, the restoration of human dignity for all and hope in a better future. The Holy Spirit comes to instill resolve in human hearts. Gittens then asks: “Where are the indications in our time that the Holy Spirit is trying to make all things new? Does God’s Spirit seem to inspire or animate any institutions that we know?” In the Church, is Pope Francis in his words and example and especially his encyclicals Laudato Si! and Fratelli Tutti and in his promotion of “synodality”, an instrument of the Holy Spirit? In society, is the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its action plan expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals, an instrument of the Holy Spirit? Is this true of other organizations like the Laudato Si! Movement? Are they not advocating for “a renewal of the face of the earth”? Are we promoting them? For us Ontarians, as we approach the Provincial election in June, is there any political party that we can trust to address the issues that have always been there but have been made more visible by the COVID pandemic? Among the vying Political Parties, which one seems to offer the best prospect for new life arising from the current crisis? We hear people saying that there is no sense in voting but our vote DOES matter because it can turn our Members of Parliament and hence our Government toward greater justice. The Catholic Charities’ 2019 election guide “For Heaven’s Sake Vote” is worth a look. As we celebrate Pentecost, let us be open to this “presence that disturbs”. For Gittens “the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ promised legacy to the Church, invisible to all but those with the eyes of faith, silent to all but those who listen attentively and overlooked by all but those who live in hope.” For Romero “At Pentecost, the glorified Christ, the Spirit of God, comes to the people who want to follow Him. The Holy Spirit makes the Church a new creation, renews the actual world and fills the hearts of the faithful.” If Christianity must be caught rather than just taught, can we spread it as easily as we spread COVID?