UPCOMING EVENT
- The Annual “Aid to the Missionary Church in the World” collection is taken up throughout the Eparchy of Edmonton on Pentecost Sunday.
Christ died for our sins on the life-giving wood of the Cross. His message of love, mercy and forgiveness is needed ever more in our broken world. As Christians, we are called to continue Jesus’ mission of spreading the Good News, each according to our ability and means.
Concretely, the Church invites us to collaborate in the mission of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, by giving generously to the following international collections:
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- Peter’s Pence (Pope’s Pastoral Works or Papal Charities),
- World Mission Fund,
- Collection for the Holy Land,
- Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and
- Aid to the Church in Ukraine.
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- Catholic Education Week is celebrated from May 5-10. This year’s theme is “Rejoice and Be Glad,” inspired by Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the same name which speaks to the call to holiness in the world.
The Catholic Bishops in Alberta and the Northwest Territories have issued a pastoral message to mark the occasion, as well as Divine Liturgy intentions.
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- A “Moleben for Life” will be celebrated at 7:00 pm, May 6, at Saint Josaphat Cathedral, to coincide with the annual National Week of Life and Family and the annual Alberta March for Life. This year’s Alberta March for Life takes place on May 9, starting with a 10:00 am Pro-Life Divine Liturgy at Saint Joseph Basilica, followed by program and speeches beginning at 12:30 pm at the Alberta Legislature (albertamarchforlife.com).This year’s Week for Life and the Family will be observed from May 12-19, with the theme, “Listening to the Gospel as a Family.” The material for the 2019 National Week of Life and Family is now available on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’s (CCCB) website: www.cccb.ca
This material has been prepared by the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). The material, which can be freely downloaded and reproduced by parishes, includes: a poster; a prayer card; a proposed plan for pastors and lay pastoral workers on how they might organize the Week; a message from the CCCB President, the Most Reverend Lionel Gendron, P.S.S.; proposals for homily notes and Prayers of the Faithful; and suggestions for related events and activities
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- 2019 Presbyteral Council Meetings: (2:00 – 5:00 pm, Pastoral Centre): May 13, October 28.
- Clergy Conferences: (10:00 am – 4:00 pm): May 14, November 1.
- Annual Clergy Retreat – June 10-14 (Sanctum Retreat Centre, Caroline). Retreat Master Rev. Roman Dusanowskyj, Pastor, Descent of the Holy Spirit Parish, Sydney, Nova Scotia (Eparchy of Toronto).
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- The 10th Annual “Bishop’s Prayer Breakfast” will take place 7:30 – 9:00 am, Wednesday, May 29, at Saint Josaphat’s Cathedral Hall – Verkhovyna (9637 – 108 Avenue), Edmonton. The event supports, through prayer, our clergy, religious, monastics and laity in their leadership roles in continuing the mission of Christ in sharing the Good News among the people of God. This year’s theme introduces us to Pope Francis’ invocation of an Extraordinary Missionary Month – October 2019. The Holy Father invites us to live out each day Jesus’ The Commissioning of the Disciples, where he says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28: 19-20). Tickets $25.00 per person. $200 for a table of 8 persons. For tickets and more information, contact the Chancery Office at (780) 424-5496; [email protected].
a - Annual Clergy Study Days: October 28-31 (Providence Renewal Centre, Edmonton). Led by Dr. Stéphane Saulnier, Newman Theological College (Professor, Head of Scripture, History, Foundations Department, Director of Undergraduate Programs).
a - Each year, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, as part of its 10 year spiritual renewal program “Vision 2020, The Place to encounter the Living Christ,” produces a Mission Days Guidebook: From the Ascension of our Lord to the Descent of the Holy Spirit
These ten Mission Days are intended to help us discover and understand anew that our parish communities and families (domestic churches) are missionary in nature. From the feast of the Ascension to Pentecost, together with our entire parish community, let us pray that the Lord might renew our life in God by the grace and intercession of the Holy Spirit. a - Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Missionary Month to be celebrated October 2019: Baptized and Sent, the Church of Christ on Mission in the World.
The Holy Father invites us to live out each day Jesus’ The Commissioning of the Disciples, where he says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28: 19-20). Pope Francis writes: “May the Extraordinary Missionar Month prove an intense and fruitful occasion of grace, and promote initiatives and above all prayer, the soul of all missionary activity. May it likewise advance the preaching of the Gospel, works of Christian charity, and practical works of cooperation and solidarity between Churches, so that missionary zeal may revive and never be wanting among us.”The Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
In 2019, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, Pope Francis announced the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019.
The Theme of the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
For the Extraordinary Missionary Month, the Holy Father has chosen the theme “Baptized and Sent: The Church of Christ on a Mission in the World.” Awakening the awareness of the missio ad gentes, and reinvigorating the responsibility of proclaiming the Gospel with new enthusiasm, are themes that combine the pastoral concern of Pope Benedict XV in Maximum Illud with the missionary vitality expressed by Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: “Missionary action is the paradigm of every work of the Church” (EG 15).
How to Live the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
There are four dimensions, specified by the Pope, to live more intensely the journey of preparation for the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019:
- A personal encounter with Jesus Christ living in His Church through the Eucharist, the Word of God, personal and communal prayer;
- Testimony: missionary saints, martyrs and confessors of the faith, as an expression of the Church scattered throughout the world;
- Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual and theological;
- Missionary charity.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Pope Francis issued his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Christus vivi – Christ is Alive, addressed to young people and the entire people of God.
The Papal Synod on “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment” took place October 3-28, 2018, in Rome.
The Apostolic Exhortation is available online from the Apostolic See of Rome at:
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit
- Bishop David, in consulation with the Presbyteral Council, revised an eparchial policy on Cathedraticum, retroactive to January 1, 2019 (attached). The previous policy dates back to January 1, 1993.
Cathedraticum is a means of financially supporintg the mission of the Church, in particular, the pastoral care of the laity, religious, deacons, priests, and parishes within the Eparchy of Edmonton. It helps to provide programs such as religious education, youth ministry, marriage tribunal, counselling, sacraments, ecumenism, vocations, seminary, and priests ministry and education.
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NOTEWORTHY
Rev. Ephrem Kardough led a Lenten Mission at Dormition of the Mother of God Parish/ Saint Nicholas Melkite Parish, Edmonton, during which an Akathist Prayer was prayed for the protection of oppressed Christian around the world. An article covered the event:
Prayer proposed by Pope Francis for the Extraordinary Missionary Month October 2019
Heavenly Father, when your only begotten Son Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he commissioned his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations” and you remind us that through our Baptism we are made sharers in the mission of the Church.
Empower us by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be courageous and zealous in bearing witness to the Gospel, so that the mission entrusted to the Church, which is still very far from completion, may find new and efficacious expressions that bring life and light to the world.
Help us make it possible for all peoples to experience the saving love and mercy of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever.
Amen.
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