The Story of Our Marguerite Feast in Montreal

In late November, COVID numbers were pretty stable in Montreal. Plans were underway at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel to have two feast day celebrations – one in English, the other in French. We seized on this opportunity and were interfacing with the chapel team to include our Associate Relationship 40th anniversary celebrations and the welcoming of our new associates. What venue would be more fitting than Marguerite Bourgeoys’s Chapel, right?

The plan was set (a schola was recruited, readers, intercessions written, etc.). Just before Christmas, Omicron arrived, and daily cases went from about 600 to 16,000 overwhelming testing capacity. The government declared a shutdown, including churches, as of New Year’s Eve. So, we decided to take the whole celebration online. The result that you might have witnessed on January 15 on Zoom exceeded our wildest expectations. Not only was it dignified, prayerful, and intimate, it also allowed us to add many leaves to the eucharistic table, to bring so many of you who would most certainly not have been present had it been in-person. For that we are wonderfully grateful.

Thank you to all of you who joined us from near and far in the wider Congregation de Notre-Dame family. It allowed us to see that we are all connected; affording us a glimpse of the internationality and intergenerationality of this community.

We were also grateful to Fr. Kevin Kelly, a Jesuit living in Montreal who presided the eucharist. He had initially intended to join us as a concelebrant at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. His simple and relaxed style, combined with his wonderful insights in the homily really set the tone for the liturgy. The readings for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time really dovetailed well with this celebration. As Fr. Kevin noted, they spoke about relationship – how God calls us into relationship, where we come with the gifts so freely given to be a voice of transforming love to a world in need of it.

After the homily, we welcomed our two newest associates, Carmen and Miguel, who had been in (virtual) formation for the past year and a half under the faithful witness of Peggy and Carl, two of the members of the 1982 original group of associates. We have yet to meet them in person! Hopefully, soon. The new shoot which appeared on the tree of the Congregation in 1981 continues to be full of life and promise.

After Communion, Sr. Ona Bessette, our Congregation Leader, left us with a modern-day reflection in the form of a letter from Marguerite Bourgeoys and what she might be saying to each of us in this place today; a message of hope and a call to action inviting us to stay connected and to use our gifts for witness, prayer and greater solidarity with the vulnerable, the wounded, and the little ones.

And we concluded, as we often do in Montréal celebration to the strains of Handel in the words of “O Marguerite.”