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SIXTH SUNDAY
OF EASTER
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CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST |
| Our Lady of Victory |
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St. Malachy |
| Sunday - 9:00 A.M. |
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Saturday - 7:00 P.M. |
F O O D F O R T H O U G H T
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| Reading I
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Acts 10.25-26,34-35,44-48 |
| Responsorial Psalm
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The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power. |
| Reading II
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1 John 4.7 -10 |
| Gospel
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John 15.9-17 |
| Food for Thought
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- Is it really worthwhile spending time listening deeply to what Jesus said, “I chose YOU’’?.
- This is addressed to me in all the particular details of my life.
- If I have difficulty appreciating that, I should ask for light to understand it.
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Pastor |
William Marrevee s.c.j. |
Email |
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Rectory |
490 Charles Street
Gatineau, Québec J8L 2K5 |
Secretary |
Monday and Thursday 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
Telephone |
(819) 986-3763 |
Fax |
(819) 986-9889 |
A sincere welcome to those who are new among us. We hope you find a warm and welcoming faith-home with us. Please introduce yourself after Mass and call the Rectory to register.
| MASS SCHEDULE |
| WED. |
May 24th - 9:00 a.m. |
OLV |
Deceased family members & friends by Norah Renwick |
| SAT. |
May 27th - 7:00 p.m. |
St. Malachy |
Theresa Buongiorno by her husband Bernard |
| SUN. |
May 28th - 9:00 a.m. |
OLV |
Bertina Gorman by John
Deceased members of the McFaul family by Hugh
Denis Tremblay by Betty Filiatreault |
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SUNDAY JUNE 11 - OUR GETTING TOGETHER WITH OTHER PARISHES:
Let us make it a real get together of all Catholics who belong to O.L.V., St. Malachy, St. Gregoire and St. Luc. It all starts at 10:30 a.m., at the Community Center (180 Joseph Street) with our getting together around the One Jesus Christ at his Table: our Sunday Eucharist.
Various social activities will follow.
Various social activities will follow.
DO WE NEED MORE ON THE Da VINCI CODE?
Some may be surprised to find mention made of the Da Vinci Code in our church bulletin. On the other hand, many have read the book (I have) and a good number may go to see the movie. So can we simply ignore it? I take the liberty to copy for our bulletin an editorial from the Tablet and some reflections by the Archbishop of Canterbury also found in the Tablet. In case anyone is interested, I have lots more of it. In fact, the book and the film, fictional as they are, could indeed serve as “a starting point of many a good conversation about the real content of faith.”
LIES, TRUTH AND THE CODE
Editorial
A perfect media storm seems to have blown up surrounding the novel and film Da Vinci Code. One of the world’s best-selling novels is about to become one of the world’s biggest block-buster films, and the rest of the media are caught up in its accompanying multimillion--dollar publicity machine. The Catholic church, if one believes the more lurid headlines, is shaken to the core by the revelations at the heart of the book and movie, and is busy issuing angry--if somewhat futile-denunciations.
Unfortunately, that is exactly how many people would expect the Church, to react if the bizarre allegations in the Da Vinci Code contained a grain of truth. Calls for boycotts and legal actions that have been emanating from the Vatican add to an impression of panic. Rather than all this frantic anxiety, a little bit of common sense would go a long way. Dan Browns work is fictional, as he himself declares in his novel. Even if the film’s distributor, Sony, fails to carry an equivalent disclaimer in the film it is about to release, as it should, the public should recall how Samuel Taylor Coleridge defined the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’: this is the state of mind with which to approach fiction. The adaptation of historical events for literary purposes is as old as literature itself.
The fact that there may be some people who believe The Da Vinci Code, and plenty who are made curious by it as to what Catholics believe, makes it a starting point of many a good conversation about the real content of faith. This opportunity offered by the novel is being exploited by the Da Vinci Code media rebuttal unit, coordinated by Dr. Austen Ivereigh, director for public affairs of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. Since it was launched a week ago, it has attracted much media interest and secured plenty of studio time. It is almost too easy to show that there is not a single shred of evidence for The Da Vinci Code’s suggestion that Jesus did not die on the Cross but married Mary Magdalene and lived happily ever after (in France) where his descendants eventually became king and spawned a royal line; and that the Vatican, apparently well aware of this unsettling flaw in the seamless robe of faith, allows and encourages Opus Dei to protect the secret by assassinations.
Many people like conspiracy theories, and a few gullible enough to believe them. But all that needs to be acknowledged is that there are many and various wild theories surrounding the beginnings of Christianity, of which The Da Vinci Code is the latest. An honest assessment of the material will quickly lead to the view that the version given in the New Testament is a lot more credible than any other. It requires the least suspension of disbelief of all of them. And that is really the only rebuttal necessary.
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WILLIAMS SAYS DISTRUST OF POWER FUELS CONSPIRACY THEORIES
PUBLIC ENTHUSIASM for The Da Vinci Code and the recently published Gospel of Judas characterises a society suspicious of power and the power of words, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said in his Easter sermon.
Dr. Williams said people today were inclined to regard the Easter message as “spin’’ as it came from the Church with its historical proximity to the Establishment and political power. “ Anything that looks like the official version is automatically suspect.”
But the Bible, he went on, is the set of human words through which the call of God is still uniquely immediate to human beings today.”
Holy Communion ‘is an event where we are invited to meet the living Christ as surely as did his disciples o the first Easter Day.”
Everything the Church did ought to be in the service of this contemporary encounter. It ought to be transparent to Jesus, not holding back or veiling his presence.
The New Testament was the product of a community of people who lived at great risk, convinced that being in the company of Jesus was the way to become fully and effectively human.
Christians believed that they had been given the gift of showing society what justice, mutual service and gratitude might look like in a world that was a very dangerous place because of our incapacity for these things. “Whatever this is, it is not about cover-ups, not about the secret agenda of power,” he said.
To understand the Gospel, Dr. Williams argued, we needed to look at the risk-takers of today; to martyrs and mystics and those living lives of intense prayer.
He paid tribute to the BBC2 documentary series The Monastery, shown last year: “Where we saw some very ordinary human beings faced with the demands of a life in which you had to be truthful, where you had to be silent, where you had to search for reconciliation at all costs.” Still more important were those who put their lives at risk and strove for reconciliation. “There are places in our world where conversion to Christianity is literally a matter of putting your life o the line.”
Beyond the confusion and betrayal that tainted much of the church’s history lay a rock-line conviction.” The mystery of the Resurrection has ‘everything to do with how the powerless, praying, risking, their lives for the sake of Christ and his peace, are the ones who understand the Word of God... To accept that… is to choose life, to choose to belong to the life-giver.”
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PPC MEETING:
- Monday May 22nd, 7:15 p.m.
CONGRATULATIONS:
- to Norah Renwick who celebrated her birthday on May 14th.
- Veronica Belter who celebrated her birthday on May 20th.
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| Date |
Collection |
OLV |
St. Malachy |
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| May 07th |
Regular |
$ 598 |
$ 466 |
| May 07th |
Support |
331 |
132 |
| May 14th |
Regular |
669 |
180 |
| May 14th |
Papal Charities |
313 |
73 |
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