Dear St. Joe’s parishioners,

Andrew Pump, our parish’s Coordinator of Faith Formation and Young Adult Ministry, provides us with this weekend’s video reflection. “Technology and communication, news and social media is our servant not our master. Christ is Lord, and we who share the faith and this connection find hope in living out our missionary call to discipleship by being present to one another; and the great gift of this connection is love. So let us continue to trudge through this time with hope, recalling once again the words of Jesus, our Lord, ‘remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age’.”

Please see Andrew’s video reflection below or read the full text version here: Andrew Pump – Ascension Reflection.

Pastoral/Liturgical Resources from St. Joe’s:

• Ascension of the Lord – May 24, 2020 – Liturgy of the Word for use at home
• READINGS FOR THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
• READINGS FOR CHILDREN – Ascension of the Lord
• Ascension of the Lord – 2020 – Prayers of the Faithful
• Mission Prayer

Music from St. Joe’s:

• Prelude on Darwall – Rejoice the Lord is King
• Finale In Hyfrodyl – Alleluia, Sing to Jesus

Thank you to Jamie Loback, Tom Fagan and Andrew Pump for this week’s pastoral resources!

Parish Update:

• Pastoral Day: Fr. Jim and I participated in a virtual Pastoral Day meeting on May 21, 2020 through Zoom. This was an opportunity to hear from the new Archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall, Bishop Marcel Damphousse, who will be installed on June 16th. Given the state of the pandemic, the nature of that installation and how people may be invited to witness it remains unclear at this date. We note in Bishop Marcel’s introduction the importance he placed on working as part of a team, in a collaborative environment, as well as on reaching people beyond the boundaries of the Church. At this meeting, we also learned from Archbishop Prendergast that the Archdiocese is working with a range of professionals and public health authorities to explore how an eventual re-opening of parishes may look like. Presently, there is no precise date on when such a resumption of public liturgies may take place and the Archbishop encouraged parishes to continue using digital technology to minister to parishioners.
• A used laptop for a home-bound parishioner: We are looking to hook-up a home-bound parishioner with an old laptop or tablet so that they can access the internet during this time. If you have a used laptop or tablet that you were getting rid of please consider donating it to us. Please contact Andrew Pump by email: apump@st-josephs.ca
• Thank you to St. Joe’s gardeners! Our volunteer gardeners worked hard this week, while physically distancing, preparing the St. Joe’s Supper Table community vegetable garden for the summer. Each year, we use fresh produce from our garden in our community meal service. Thanks so much for your passion and for caring for our parish home!
• Relaunching the St. Joe’s Supper Table: Ryan Mitchell and I spoke this week about finding a way to relaunch meal services in the Supper Table, supplementing the existing Food Bank service, beginning in early June 2020. It is our goal to launch a daily take-away meal service starting the week of June 1, 2020. Meals served would include simple, healthy dishes prepared fresh that day and served in take-away containers. As we look at the details of offering this community meal service, the requirement to physically distance, especially given the relatively small area of the Supper Table, the health and safety of guests, volunteers and staff will be a key priority. We will have more details available next week on the planned re-launch of this parish ministry.
• The St. Joe’s Women’s Centre offered an emergency food cupboard service to 12 women on May 21st and delivered food to three other clients who could not access the Centre. We are also pleased to report that the City of Ottawa granted the Women’s Centre an additional $30,000 in emergency response funding in light of the pandemic and to assist with a safe re-opening of the Centre in the coming weeks.
• Sunday offering for May 17, 2020: $5,880. Thank you for your continued generosity! If you normally use Sunday envelopes for your offering and would like to continue giving during the lockdown, please consider using Canada Helps. You may choose the Parish fund of your choice through this form: http://www.st-josephs.ca/about/donations/.
• LAUDATO SI’ WEEK and beyond:
  • Laudato Si’ Mass –Live from Kenya, Sunday, May 24, 9AM EDT; Organized by Global Catholic Climate Movement.  Join us here or or watch live at facebook.com/GCCM-Africa
  • World-wide Moment of Prayer – noon local time on Sunday, May 24
    • Bring solidarity to our world in a shared moment of prayer at noon local time on Sunday, May 24 because “everything is connected”.  Catholics from all across the globe will be united in spirit as together we recite the Common Prayer for the 5^th Anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.  Go to https://laudatosiweek.org/prayer/ to download your prayer card and to register.  Also feel free to share your own prayers for the Earth on social media using the hashtag #LaudatoSi5.
    • Webinar – Saturday, May 23 – Laudato Si’: heeding the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor five years on.  Organized by Development and Peace in conjunction with the Canadian Religious Conference and Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) Canada. Featuring: Stephen Bede Scharper, Associate Professor of Environment at the University Toronto and Toronto Star columnist; Rebecca Rathbone, Development and Peace – Caritas Canada Animator for Southwest Ontario and Caritas Youth Leader; Agnes Richard, Coordinator, GCCM Canada; Sue Wilson, CSJ, Office for Systemic Justice, Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada. Moderated by Kelly Di Domenico, Director of Communications, Development and Peace – Caritas Canada.
  • Laudato Si’ for Families – If you had the opportunity to write a letter to all of humanity, what would it say? Development and Peace is offering you a chance to do just that!  This spiritual reflection can be done as a family or between friends. Just watch this video, which will guide you through the activity, and learn about Laudato Si’ while you’re at it! You can also watch this short animated video to learn more about Laudato Si’!
  • Webinar – Laudato Si’ 101 – On Friday, May 29^th at 6:00 p. m., Development and Peace’s animators will be holding a special online session on the basics of Laudato Si’, allowing you to examine the main ideas and principles behind the encyclical and to better understand its key ideas. This is a great opportunity to learn more on the environmental crisis and to discuss the Pope’s concept of integral ecology.  Register here!
• In light of the Feast Day of St. Eugene de Mazenod on May 21st, we invite our parishioners to read a timely piece by Fr. Jarek Pachocki OMI entitled The relevance of St Eugene de Mazenod.

This week, the Parish signed up for a Zoom account and we tested the waters of meeting online with a Finance Committee meeting this past Tuesday evening, as well as a staff meeting Friday morning. We had a positive experience! As we are not certain when our physical parish facilities may once again be available for ministry meetings, please let me know if your ministry may have an interest in a Zoom get together. It can be arranged.

Have a wonderful, sunny weekend!

Chris

Christopher Adam
Executive Director