32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - November 6, 2022

Our Lady of Peace Parish
Also Serving Our Lady of the Smile parish, Waterhen Lake and St. Jude’s Parish, Green Lake

Office Hours: Closed Monday
Tuesday - Friday 1-4:00 pm
Office Phone:  306-236-5122 
Cell Phone: 306-304-7271

Parish Email: [email protected] Pastor Email: [email protected]
Facebook: Catholic Church Meadow Lake
Website: https://www.meadowlakecatholicchurch.com/
Address: 504-3rd Ave. East, Meadow Lake, SK S9X 1H5  
 
I shall be satisfied, Lord, when I awake and behold your likeness. Psalm 17 Refrain
 
November 6, 2022 - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
Our Vision:
A Community of Disciples

Our Mission
We commit to form disciples who joyfully and faithfully
live out the mission of Jesus Christ by enriching our relationship
with God and neighbour through the intercession of Our Lady of Peace.

Pastor: 
Fr. Doug Jeffrey, OMI
Parish Secretary:
Pat Bencharski
Pastoral Council Chair:
Doris Beaubien


Mass Intentions

When there is a funeral, the daily mass will normally be cancelled.  Check Facebook for the most up-to-date information.  On Tuesday to Friday and on Sunday, Our Lady of Peace masses will be livestreamed on Facebook.

Mon., Nov. 7 – No mass 

Tues., Nov. 8 – No mass

Wed., Nov. 9 – No mass

Thurs., Nov. 10 – 9:30 am (Our Lady of Peace Church & Facebook) - +Minnie Hofer by Jane/Ed Weber

Fri., Nov. 11 – No mass - Remembrance Day

Sat., Nov. 12 – 5:00 pm (St. Jude Parish, Green Lake) - People of God

Sun., Nov. 13 – 10 am (Our Lady of Peace Church & Facebook) - People of God

Sun., Nov. 13 – 3:00 pm (Our Lady of the Smile, Waterhen) - People of God

 
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH

1. Please exercise caution – COVID is still present in our communities. The flu and other respiratory illnesses are on the rise and causing concerns for many people; especially the elderly and those with immune issues.
2. Saturday, November 5, Fr. Doug will be attending a Liturgical Commission meeting via Zoom.
3. The parish office will be closed Friday, November 11 for Remembrance Day.
4. There will be no mass on Friday, Nov. 11.  Fr. Doug will be at the Civic Centre for the Community Remembrance Day Service.

 

Sunday Collection – October 30:  Meadow Lake $945.00    Green Lake $124.25
 
The Pope’s Prayer Intention for November – For children who suffer:  We pray for children who are suffering, especially those who are homeless, orphans, and victims of war; may they be guaranteed access to education and the opportunity to experience family affection.

Please Pack a Shoe Box – When you pack and donate a shoe box, they are delivered to children living in war, poverty and disaster around the world. Each box is an expression of our hope, and love for these kids who probably have never received a gift. This is Christmas. If you need more information, please contact Pat and Rhys Beaulieu at 306-236-5959.  All shoe boxes must be at the church on or before November 13, 2022.
 
Thank You! Thanks to all who gathered in Green Lake and Meadow Lake to pray with and welcome Bishop Stephen. This was the first visit of Bishop Stephen to our communities. Thanks to all those who helped prepare the prayer and helped to lead the prayer at noon and in the evening. Thanks to those who prepared the lunch in Green Lake and the potluck supper in Meadow Lake. We had great food. We sent food home with the Bishop too! We will be looking at a time for Bishop to come to Our Lady of the Smile in Waterhen in the near future. Again, thanks for your welcome, your visiting, your prayer, and your presence. Bishop Stephen expressed his appreciation for the prayer and the opportunity to meet parishioners informally!
 
November 8/9 – Fr. Doug will be away in Saskatoon for Oblate Leadership Meetings.
 
DPC Meeting in Prince Albert: On October29th Bishop Stephen gathered pastors, pastoral leaders and the faithful from across the diocese to reflect on the Synod. A committee gathered all the submissions from across the Diocese and summarized them into six points. Each parish was invited to pick two points as priorities. We were then invited to list a few things that we would commit ourselves to doing to make real the priorities we had chosen. During the course of the day we heard from each of the parishes in the Diocese. We also had the opportunity to listen to Abbot Peter Novecosky OSB, from St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster who spoke to us about discernment and prayer and how prayer is key when we are making important life choices. Abbot Peter shared with us various types of prayer that can help us focus on God and the needs of God’s people. Abbot Peter stressed the importance of nurturing our relationship with God so that we can do what God calls us to do! In the coming weeks I will be sharing insights from Abbot Peter’s talk with you in the bulletin and in the homilies I will offer.
 
Bishop Stephen shared with us the Synod Process and how it continues to involve. He also spoke about the synthesis made by the Western Canadian Bishops and how information from that synthesis can be found in the Canadian Synthesis. The next step will be a gathering involving representatives from Canada and the US – the Continental Phase of the process. The final gathering will take place in Rome in 2024. Thanks to Chris and Pat Bencharski from our Meadow Lake Synod Committee who accompanied me to the gathering.
 
Papal Visit – This summer in response to requests from various groups of people Pope Francis came to Canada and made a few stops in various places so as to encounter Indigenous, Metis and Innu Peoples. His talks and homilies are available to us, and they provide us with a rich treasure of ideas, actions and principles to further our reconciliation as God’s people. I encourage you to make use of these resources to help grow the spirit of reconciliation in our hearts and in our communities! These works can be found at: https://www.cccb.ca/indigenous-peoples/pope-francis-penitential-pilgrimage/speeches/
 
November  20th – Please reserve this date as the Knights of Columbus plan to have one of their now famous Pancake Breakfasts at the Parish Hall after the 10:00 am mass. Please join us for some good food and visiting. Please take precautions if you are sick or feel vulnerable as Covid and various flus are circulating.
 
Scripture Insights – Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time   
Taken from Source Book for Sundays, Seasons and Weekdays 2022:  The Almanac for Pastoral Liturgy, LTP Liturgy Training Publications Copyright 2020, 3949 South Racine Avenue, Chicago, IL 60609, pg. 384. 
 

• Anyone who is a parent, guardian, or caretaker of children knows the many demands of childrearing: feed, educate, entertain, inspire, and, above all, keep the children as safe as possible. Given this reality, many of us may have listened to today’s first reading with horror. The mother is forced to choose between sacrificing her children and meeting imperial demands. Later verses in 2 Maccabees expand on the mother’s choice and her wisdom. She remains faithful to the covenant of her ancestors, a covenant with God that she trusts with all her heart.

 

• Intense family dynamics are on full display in today’s readings. The Sadducees – in an attempt to corner Jesus – ask him about a particular marital situation in which a brother-in-law marries a widow to keep the family’s land and name. Jesus responds by teaching about the resurrection in the Jewish tradition and how resurrected life is not bound by any earthly rules.

 
Bishop’s Annual Appeal: “Walking Together in Hope”
October 16, 2022 – December 31, 2022
Every gift is greatly appreciated!
 
Bishop’s Annual Appeal
Stewardship is a gift from God that enables us to share with others what He has entrusted to us. When we give, it not only benefits those on the receiving end, but it sows something even GREATER into us. It is a cycle that was designed never to be broken. The Bishop’s Annual Appeal is a perfect means of channeling parishioner support to essential ministries that provide care to those in need and support for our mission of evangelization in the Diocese of Prince Albert. Consider giving to this year’s campaign. Thank you.
 
As of October 31st the diocese has received 13 pledges from Our Lady of Peace Parish for $5149.00; 0 pledges from Green Lake for $0.00 and 338 pledges from the whole diocese for a total of $117,896.00 for the Bishop’s Appeal.
 
DIOCESAN NEWS & BEYOND
War in Ukraine – Our Oblates who are working in the Ukraine are asking us for help as they struggle to help feed the countless people who come to their door seeking assistance. The devastation of the cities is visible, and the needs of the people are many. Often those who are able, have fled the cities to fight or to make a new temporary home elsewhere. At the Oblate houses in Obukhiv and Tyvriv they try to provide food and shelter for as many people as they can. If you have the resources to help them Fr. Witalij Podolan, OMI and his Oblate companions would be so grateful. Fr. Witalij shares how hard it is for them to turn people away when they run out of food. You can make a donation on-line through our Mission website: www.omilacombe.ca/mami/donations ;   E-transfer to [email protected]. Call our office directly 1-866-432-6264; send a cheque payable to AMMI Lacombe Canada MAMI or bring to Parish Office. Mail to 601 Taylor Street West, Saskatoon, SK S7M 0C9.  Income tax receipts are available for all donations.
Please see the Poster at the back of the Church for further information.
 
Development and Peace – Caritas Canada invites you to join us in celebrating 55 years of solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the Global South!
Our friends and partners once again request our support in their fight for justice and human dignity, which represents a call to continue our campaign: People and Planet First. Learn about the status of ongoing calls for corporate accountability in the Canadian investment and mining sectors and join us for in an inspiring discussion on Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti (All brothers and sisters).

Come out for some good fellowship and help us put People and Planet First!
The City of Prince Albert workshop will take place on November 5th at St. Joseph's Parish, 260 25th St E.,1:00-3:00 p.m. To register, please contact Leroy at [email protected]
Our North Battleford workshop will take place on November 6th at St. Joseph Calasanctius Parish, 1942 98 Street 1:00-3:00 p.m. To register, please contact Mike LeBlanc at [email protected]
 
How To Pray When We Don’t Feel Like It
By Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
 
If we only prayed when we felt like it, we wouldn’t pray a lot.

Enthusiasm, good feelings, and fervour will not sustain anyone’s prayer life for long, good will and firm intention notwithstanding. Our hearts and minds are complex and promiscuous, wild horses frolicking to their own tunes, with prayer frequently not on their agenda.

The renowned mystic, John of the Cross teaches that, after an initial period of fervour in prayer, we will spend the bulk of our years struggling to pray discursively, dealing with boredom and distraction. So, the question becomes, how do we pray at those times when we are tired, distracted, bored, disinterested, and nursing a thousand other things in our heads and in our hearts? How do we pray when little inside us wants to pray? Especially, how do we pray at those moments when we have a positive distaste for prayer?

Monks have secrets worth knowing. The first secret we need to learn from them is the central place of ritual in  sustaining a prayer-life. Monks pray a lot and regularly, but they never try to sustain their prayer on the basis of feelings. They sustain it through ritual. Monks pray together seven or eight times a day ritually. They gather in chapel and pray the ritual offices of the church (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Vespers, Compline) or they celebrate the Eucharist together. They don’t always go there because they feel like it, they come because they are called to prayer, and then, with their hearts and minds perhaps less than enthusiastic about praying, they pray through the deepest part of themselves, their intention, and their will.

In the rule that St. Benedict wrote for monastic life there’s an oft-quoted phrase. A monk’s life, he writes, is to be ruled by the monastic bell. When the monastic bell rings, the monk is immediately to drop whatever he is doing and go to whatever that summons is calling him to, not because he wants to, but because it is time, and time is not our time, it’s God’s time. That’s a valuable secret, particularly as it applies to prayer.

We need to go pray regularly, not because we want to, but because it’s time, and when we can’t pray with our hearts and minds, we can still pray through our wills and through our bodies.

Yes, our bodies! We tend to forget that we are not dis-incarnate angels, pure heart and mind. We are also a body. Thus, when heart and mind struggle to engage in prayer, we can always still pray with our bodies. Classically, we have tried to do this through certain physical gestures and postures (making the sign of the cross, kneeling, raising our hands, joining hands, genuflection, prostration) and we should never underestimate or denigrate the importance of these bodily gestures. Simply put, when we can’t pray in any other way, we can still pray through our bodies. (And, who is to say that a sincere bodily gesture is inferior as a prayer to a gesture of the heart or mind?)

Personally, I much admire a particular bodily gesture, bowing down with one’s head to the floor which Muslims do in their prayer. To do that is to have your body say to God, “Irrespective of whatever’s on my mind and in my heart right now, I submit to your omnipotence, your holiness, your love.” Whenever I do meditative prayer alone, normally I end it with this gesture.

Sometimes spiritual writers, catechists, and liturgists have failed us by not making it clear that prayer has different stages – and that affectivity, enthusiasm, fervour are only one stage, and a neophyte stage at that.
As the great doctors and mystics of spirituality have universally taught, prayer, like love, goes through three phases. First comes fervour and enthusiasm; next comes the waning of fervour along with dryness and boredom; and finally comes proficiency, an ease, a certain sense of being at home in prayer that does not depend on affectivity and fervour but on a commitment to be present, irrespective of affective feeling.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer used to say this to a couple when officiating at their marriage: Today you are very much in love and believe that your love will sustain your marriage. It won’t. Let your marriage [which is a ritual container] sustain your love. The same can be said about prayer. Fervour and enthusiasm will not sustain your prayer, but ritual can. When we struggle to pray with our minds and our hearts, we can still always pray through our wills and our bodies. Showing up can be prayer enough.

In a recent book, Dearest Sister Wendy, Robert Ellsberg quotes a comment by Michael Leach, who said this in relation to what he was experiencing in having to care long-term for his wife suffering from Alzheimer’s. Falling in love is the easy part; learning to love is the hard part; and living in love is the best part. True too for prayer.