Our Lady of Ville-Marie, Pray for Us

By Brother Daniel Leckman, S.J.

The cross on Mont-Royal soon after Pope John Paul II's death.

I don't have many good memories of my childhood, especially those associated with school. Most of the memories I have of those years point to how imperfect, and even inferior, I felt compared to my more athletic and "intelligent" peers.  And yet I'm surprised that to this day there are still some good memories that manage to emerge from that period of my life.  One of them is really nothing spectacular but stays with me.

Martyrdom: Testifying to Love

canadianmartyrsparish.ca

This homily was preached at the Martyr's Shrine in Midland by Fr. Peter Bisson, Provincial of the Jesuits in English Canada, on Saturday, September 22, 2012, for the Feast of the Canadian Martyrs. The actual feast was celebrated this past Wednesday.

Thee hundred and sixty three years ago, here in this place, Christ did a new thing in North America. Just as His own identity was fully revealed in His death and resurrection, so too was His life made manifest here in the lives and deaths of Sts. Jean de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalement, Noel Chabanel, Antoine Daniel, Rene Goupil, Jean de LaLande, as well as in the lives and commitments of their Huron and French companions. True life and true human flourishing - which is to be a friend of God's - is to be found only through the death that is to give yourself away in love.

This is the message that has attracted you here!