Archdicoese of Regina Centenial Celebration

It's hard to believe that an entire year of preparations, recognitions, celebrations and feasting is over. It all started with our 'kick off' event, as the city deaneries of Regina invited everyone to Holy Rosary Cathedral for a city-wide picnic and vespers celebration in September of last year. We In our own parish we also began our 100th Anniversary celebrations at that time with a prayerful service centered around the Icon of Our Lady of the Rosary which had been commissioned by the Archdiocese CWL groups and created by Giselle Bauche.

We coordinated fundrasing through our LOOK project, Linking Orphan Outreach in Kenya. Together, we have forged a bond between our parish and the parish of Nyalienga, Kenya that will last well beyond this Centenial year. With the more than $10, 000 we raised, we have helped to create a fund for the School Sisters of Notre Dame so that they can begin helping orphan-run homes in that impoverished parish.

Through the course of the last year, we gathered on three separate occasions to celebrated 100 years of good works and the sharing of the Good News as several members of our parish were honored and received papal, diocesan and parish awards. These are men and women of our parish communities who have helped to build by stone and sweat the Church as it is now in the Archdiocese of Regina. Their selfless response to the Gospel led them to serve on building committees, volunteer boards, parish committees, visiting the sick, bringing communion to shut-ins, helping in our Catholic Schools and the myriad of other ways that Christ's presence has been brought to others.

All of these prayers, celebrations and recognitions moved us inexorably to the year's climatic event, an amazing faith-filled celebration of the Mass at the Brandt Centre in Regina where thousands upon thousands of the faithful from all over southern Saskatchewan gathered to give thanks and offer praise to God for supporting and building this Church on the prairies.

Of note to me were Canadian Primate, Archbishop Oulette's words at the end of the celebration. In Part, he spoke of the need for us to work closely with the media in partnership and embrace the new means and methods of communication afforded to us in our modern age. He spoke also about not endeavoring to criticism popular media for getting our Christian message wrong, or misrepresenting our Church, it's leaders or our faith. Rather, we ought to be more critical of ourselves and strive to more clearly represent the Gospel in our words and our actions to that there can be no misunderstanding what we are about.

This is a great challenge to all of us today and it struck me after the fact in connection with a question Fred Anderson asked me as we waited for the live broadcast to start. His question was with respect to the dwindling attendance of the youth and young adults in our churches and it is something that has been on my mind since.

At the time Fred had remarked that there are so many other distractions around, and he commented that it must be hard to keep young people wanting to be involved. On one level he's right, there are a lot of directions to be pulled in today and our kids and young adults feel the pressure very acutely.

I can't help but wonder at Archbishop Oulette's words though, and ask whether we have been as clear as we could be in presenting to our young people...heck, to the grown ups too, just what this Way of Christ is all about?

Peter summed up the Truth of the gospel when Christ asked him," ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.' " (Mk 8:29) a passage Archbishop Daniel addressed in his homily and later Peter speaks in John's gospel when Christ asks pointedly "‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)

Do we show this? Really show this, speak this and live this? Do we live it in such a way that our young people see clearly that we together are showing Christ to the world, that our Jesus and we, his Church indeed "have the words of eternal life"? I'm not talking here about the massive Institution of the Church that we point to more often and not when things are going wrong in the Body of Christ as a means of placing blame. Archbishop Oulette's words were not directed at Rome, they were directed at us, personally.

Am I clear in what I believe. Am I clear when I am living my faith?

Are you?

Is it obvious that we are Christian, that we know Christ and love him, that we have been given a share in his Word of eternal life?

Do I show this in the moments of my day?

Do you?

The Celebration on Sunday was momentous, extravagant, triumphant...and a challenge. The slogan for the year has been "Celebrating our past, hope for our future". We are the hope for our own futures, the future of this church...my church and yours and for our young people.

It's true, there are a lot of distractions in our lives today, a lot of 'glamor' and glitz to draw the eye and grasp our attention, but I have met Christ...we all did together this past Sunday and will again every time we gather to celebrate the Mass. I don't know a single person in the gospels who met Christ and did not have their lives deeply and irrevocably transformed.

The challenge of our celebration is this very thing; go into the world, into every facet of it's life and yours and show this transformation.

Peace and God Bless