News from Visitation Province (Canada)
Wednesday, February 24 is Anti-Bullying Day in Canada. On this day, also called Pink Shirt Day, we are encouraged to wear something pink to indicate our support for all the efforts made to promote and encourage the message that we must treat others with dignity and respect. The weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the importance of helping one another. We want to “lift each other up,” individually and through programs and projects that build healthy self esteem. Bullying in any form – physical, verbal, or social and relational – can result in serious emotional problems, anxiety, low self-esteem or severe depression. Pink says empathy, compassion and kindness!
Eleanor McCloskey, CND
Kateri Ministry Cross Cultural Indigenous Experience Learning Event: June 18 to 20 at Galilee Centre in Arnprior. Note there is also an online participation option. For details see
https://www.galileecentre.com/kendaasawin-how-we-learn/
Kathy Kelly, Ottawa associate
This Sunday, the first in Lent, February 21, continuing until Palm Sunday, March 28, from 1:30 PM until 3:00 PM, discussion/reflection sessions will be offered on Pope Francis' latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. Charles Taker, Montreal associate, will follow the tech tasks; Kay Duffin, CND, has gathered the participants; Bill Curran, friend of Kay's will moderate the ZOOM meetings. We have a full house. Please keep us in prayer.
Kay Duffin, CND
Development and Peace: As the Lenten season begins, we are reminded that this is a special time to prepare for Easter, turning toward new life and better serving God and our neighbour. This Lent, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada focuses our attention on the Amazon region. We are called to stand in solidarity with peoples whose cultures and livelihoods are under threat. How can we help?
1) Donate on line at www.devp.org/give or give during the Solidarity Sunday collection on March 29, the 5th Sunday of Lent. Your generosity helps support over 149 projects in 36 countries around the world!
2) Read Development and Peace's Share Lent literature and watch the videos to learn about and hear from the guardians of the Earth.
3) Sign the Solidarity Letter addressed to two embattled Brazilian communities at http://www.devp.org/act
Development and Peace is encouraging us to go to the peripheries. Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." During this Lenten time let us pray for conversion within our hearts so that our efforts will be light for our suffering sisters and brothers everywhere. Let us continue to pray for all those working to build a world of peace and justice. Blessings of God's peace and joy to all.
Dorena Hall, Associate
Book recommendation. Someone brought me Jann Arden’s newest book: If I Knew Then: Finding wisdom in failure and power in aging. (Random House, Canada: 2020). Jann is so down-to-earth, totally this-is-who-I-am and this-is-what-I-know! Age-wise, she is in the downside of 50 and is looking, with gratitude, at her life, her decisions, and all the events that have been involved in making her a woman proud to call herself a crone. “I keep becoming,” she writes, “someone I always hoped I could be.” Jann is funny; her writing has lines that make a reader laugh out loud. And she is serious in her honesty and simplicity.
Eleanor McCloskey, CND
Coat? Boots? Hat? Mask?
This is how one does a Happy Hour at a good friend’s house in keeping with the 2021 pandemic protocols. The birds, chattering enthusiastically, were keeping close watch on the crackers and nuts on that table. Dog wants to be included?
