The Smallest Among Us

Ontario Lake: one of many!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Feast of St. Joseph! The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker is such an important feast that in the traditional calendar it takes precedence even over a Sunday Mass. So since this year May 1st fell on a Sunday I had the blessing of celebrating this morning a high Mass for the feast of St. Joseph. It was wonderful to offer the Holy Sacrifice for all in need of St. Joseph's patronage, but especially for all men and all fathers of families in particular. At the end of Mass we exposed the Blessed Sacrament and I had the double-joy of giving benediction. The altar was nicely decorated and it was a joy to kneel for some moments looking up at the Lord, adoring Him, and then to grant benediction.

I had a nice 36-hour break from studies this week. On Thursday afternoon, after morning classes, I drove a few hours west to the area near Barry's Bay. The above photo is one of many beautiful lakes in Ontario. I took the photo from the edge of a playing field where I had the blessing of playing... ultimate frisbee! 

I had traveled to the Barry's Bay area to meet with a pro-life family. After celebrating Mass for them and having dinner the kids offered me a chance to play ultimate frisbee. So, thanks to an extra pair of gym-clothes lent by the father of the family and some hiking boots I'd brought along, I headed down to this large field and spent a good hour running around with about 10 young men and the dad, chasing down and throwing frisbees. It was a lot of fun. Moreover I was impressed with the attitude of the young men. Sports is often a "moment of truth" when even in the best of us the desire to win can bring to the surface some vices that we thought had been stamped out... But this game was played in a very good spirit. As we were preparing to head down to the field an 18-year old told me, "When we play we try to get the younger ones involved too. For example we try to pass to the 6 year-old who is playing. Ultimate frisbee is a good game because you wind up passing to everyone and getting everyone involved," etc. 

This made for quite a fun game. I think in the end my team lost by 1 point (10-9 I think), but we played until the sun went down and we couldn't see anymore, and then reluctantly headed home. After talking late into the night with the parents, the next day I offered Mass again and then spent time talking with various members of the family, and learned a game called "Wahoo" which involved marbles and a wooden board with a bunch of holes in it. It was a very enjoyable visit. More importantly it allowed me to connect with the good pro-life work being done in Canada.

If you are not already familiar with LifeSite News I really encourage you to make a habit of checking their site (not updated though on Sunday's or Mondays as their staff takes a break): https://www.lifesitenews.com.  With 60 million visitors a year it spreads the pro-life message to many, many people. I have also found it quite helpful for its reporting on current events in the Church as well as issues such as the struggle for marriage or religious liberty in the U.S. I have been particularly impressed by the way the site combines charity and truth. It can be easy to either try to be charitable at the expense of proclaiming hard truths (which in the end is not being charitable), or to communicate hard truths and toss charity out the window (which in the end winds up not being fully truthful as it often criticizes too quickly before discovering the truth). 

After hours of discussing current issues with my gracious hosts, I took some time to visit the Madonna House "Island Chapel" which some of you would be familiar with. I prayed for you there! I had some time for adoration, a rosary walk in the crisp clean country air, and a brief visit to Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy http://www.seatofwisdom.org . 

Then I hopped in the car to drive back to Ottawa, joined in a  local "Hike for Life" with the parish young-adult group Saturday morning, and then got back to studies.

I hope your weekend was blessed. I was praying for you all this morning! and will be praying for all mothers in a special way next Sunday.

Until then, may Our Lady watch over each of you.

In Corde Mariae,
Fr. Anthony Pillari