News from Visitation Province
Welcome to Flight 2022
Good morning and welcome to Flight 2022!
We are prepared to take off into the New Year. Please make sure your Positive Attitude and Gratitude are secured and locked in the upright position.
All self-destruct devices; pity, anger, selfishness and resentment should be turned off at this time.
All negativity, hurt and discouragement should be put away.
Should you lose your Positive Attitude under pressure during this flight, Reach up and pull down a prayer.
Prayers will automatically be activated by Faith.
Once your Faith is activated, you can assist other passengers who are of little faith. There will be NO BAGGAGE allowed on this flight.
God, our captain has cleared us for take-off.
Destination – GREATNESS!
Wishing you a New Year filled with new HOPE, new JOY and new BEGINNINGS!
Stay Blessed!
And welcome in 2022.
contributed by Charlotte Lockhart, CND
Mass for Shut-Ins, from Sydney, Nova Scotia, (CTV) to be aired on Sunday, January 9, 11:30 Atlantic Time. (Liturgy taped in December).
Mass can be accessed on YouTube – Mass for Shut-Ins – Diocese of Antigonish. This Sunday’s Mass will have the Congregation of Notre Dame Sisters and Associates on the occasion of St. Marguerite’s Feast Day and the 40th Anniversary of Associate Relationship.
Celebrant: Father Bill Burke, of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys Parish
Theresa Ann MacNeil, Associate Coordinator
On being light
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” … would seem to invite holding darkness and light as wholeness, not as opposites. There are so many kinds of darkness, so many waves of it in our world today.
Yet, the darkest night is so pregnant with possibility.
Because of, not in spite of the darkness, what small light can I offer? What small light can I be?… Can I dare to be light at all?
“Be all that you were meant to be and you will set the world on fire” … (Saint Catherine of Siena)
It takes courage and deep believing, doesn’t it?
Lorraine Costello, for the Beacons of Light Spiritually Committee
Book: The Stranger in the Lifeboat, by Mitch Albom. (Harper; November, 2021, 288 pages).
What would happen if, when we called upon God, God actually came to us? What would be our response? In this new book, a novel about survivors from a lost yacht, Mitch Albom writes an intriguing story of hope, faith, pondering, struggle, compassion, loss and perseverance.
He keeps the story’s conclusion right up to the very last sentences. This is definitely a book for readers who enjoy open-ended questions, such as What really did happen? Is God really here?
Eleanor McCloskey, CND
One small gesture
“… a vast immunization gulf between the richest and poorest countries of the world jeopardizes the health of everyone on the planet.” So says Dr. Joanne Liu, former president of Doctors Without Borders. (Montreal Gazette, January 3, 2022)
Would it be fair to say that more and more Canadians are recognizing the reality that the global pandemic will continue as long as people from poorer countries are without access to vaccines?
It is time to share our surplus doses with Africa and other poor countries. It is time to support the lifting of patents on vaccines and diagnostic tests so that poorer countries can produce their own as soon as possible. Canada must act NOW before it is too late. We have the capacity. We will all benefit.
The World Health Organization includes a Vaccine Equity Open Letter that one can sign online to G20 leaders here ( https://www.who.int/campaigns/vaccine-equity/vaccine-commitments-open-letter) An email to our PM at pm@pm.gc.ca , who took the lead in encouraging vaccine equity at the last G20 meeting, would also be good.
Maura McGrath, CND, for the JPIC Core Committee