Contemplative Haven

Congratulations to the members of the Madonna House Apostolate (see links in my sidebar) for their decision to return Catherine Doherty’s “Order of Canada”, in protest against its having also been recently awarded to abortionist/abortion rights crusader Henry Morgentaler (as I outlined in this post). 

The media is covering the story today. The CBC has an article here, and CTV News has an article as well as an excellent video interview with Susanne Stubbs of Madonna House at Rideau Hall.

Catherine Doherty, whose writings I have often quoted here at the Haven and also at my other blog, “Consecrated to Mary”, received the Order of Canada in 1976, for “a lifetime of devoted services to the underprivileged of many nationalities, both in Canada and abroad”.  There is no doubt in my mind that if Catherine were alive today, she would have walked from Combermere to Ottawa to return the award, if there had been no other way.

Let us be done with human respect that bites so deep in our human hearts.  Let us cease to be bothered about what people think and worry only about what God thinks.  That is all that matters.

[Catherine Doherty: Bogoroditza, pg. 118]

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NATIONAL CONSECRATION OF CANADA
TO THE SACRED HEART

The prayer I am posting here is taken from a little yellow booklet entitled, “Prayers and Hymns in Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Crusade of Prayer for Victory and Peace”, published in 1943 by an Ottawa newspaper, Le Droit.  On the inside of the front page we see: 

Nihil obstat:
R. Limoges, ptre., censor liborum, Ottavae, die 24 Aprilis 1943.

Imprimatur:
J.H. Chartrand, Vic. Gen., Ottavae, die 26 Aprilis 1943.

The booklet itself is actually dated July 4, 1943 (which I did not verify, but am presuming was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that year).  This is all the information I have.  I googled the title, as well as the specific prayer I’m using in this post, but to no avail. The booklet came into my possession through either my mother or father, both of whom are deceased; I have many of their old Catholic missals, prayer books, holy cards, booklets, pamphlets, etc. 

It is entirely possible that I am the only person in Canada who still has a copy of this booklet.  For all I know, I may also be the only person in Canada who has even seen this prayer since World War II.  But since the Morgentaler debacle which I outlined in my previous post, I want to ensure I will not be lying on my deathbed still being the only one who knows of its existence and its importance.

So any Canadians reading here, please take this prayer.  Pray it.  Blog it.  Distribute it.  Get it into your parishes; give it to your priests; mail it to your bishops and archbishops.  Do you see that word “crusade” in the booklet’s title?  Let’s begin one, together.

National Consecration of Canada to the Sacred Heart:

“O Divine Saviour, Who, to console the sorrows of Thy Church and to heal the ills of society, hast deigned to reveal with radiant clearness the immense goodness of Thy Sacred Heart; O glorious Leader of the army of Thine elect, Thou Who hast made of Thy Heart the symbol and channel of Thy Love, the banner and pledge of our victory; O Christ, Who lovest Canada and Who hast chosen it to be the centre from which this devotion has spread throughout the New World, deign to accept the prayers of Thy servants who desire to respond to Thy invitation and to merit for our country the fulfilment of Thy merciful promises.

We consecrate ourselves entirely to Thy divine Heart; we offer Thee the homage of our souls and bodies, all that we are and all that we possess. We know that we are already Thine, O Jesus, because we have nothing for which we are not indebted to Thy Love. But we wish henceforth to belong to Thee in a special manner, to submit ourselves unreservedly to Thy reign, to keep our eyes constantly fixed on Thy Heart that we may imitate Its virtues, make Its wishes the rule of our private and public life, and use all our influence for the triumph of Its divine interests. May the blame be not ours, O Jesus, if in the future Thou shalt not reign by Thy love in our families, our cities, and throughout the whole nation.

O Mary, sweet Mother of Jesus, O Queen of Canada, thou who alone dost perfectly and worthily know and honour the Heart of thy Son, help us to put into practise with a boundless and unshakeable constancy this consecration which we now make. Do thou offer us to Him; dedicate to Him this country which has been thine since its discovery, and make of it, under the influence of the Heart of Jesus, the right arm of the Church and the instrument of His great works of love. Amen.”

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Normally when I use the tag “Canadian” on a post, it is with a sense of joy and a feeling of pride.  Sadly, this is not the case today, on our country’s 141st birthday. 

Today, to our eternal shame, the Order of Canada, the highest honour Canada awards to anyone, was presented to Henry Morgentaler (I refuse to use the misnomer “doctor” in front of his name), Canada’s abortionist/abortion-rights crusader par excellence and the dead-man-walking epitome of the culture of death. 

The Order of Canada “is the centrepiece of Canada’s honours system and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country. The Order of Canada’s motto is DESIDERANTES MELIOREM PATRIAM (They desire a better country).”  Well, apparently not anymore.

The Order of Canada was awarded to Henry Morgentaler (despite a huge outcry from a cross-section of Canadians several months ago and also over the last forty-eight hours) by Governor General Michaelle Jean (who herself just a few short days ago attended the 49th International Eucharistic Congress).  Is there a stronger word for shame?  It just doesn’t seem to cut it.

So much dishonour.  Dishonour to the voice of the people.  Dishonour to Saint Joseph, our patron saint.  Dishonour to the millions of murdered babies.  Dishonour to thousands of other worthy recipients of the Order of Canada for promoting a culture of life through their efforts in all walks of life, including the sciences, the arts, and heroic efforts to save the lives of complete strangers.

Where shall the word be found, where will
the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough
silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain
land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not
here
No place of grace for those who avoid the
face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among
noise and deny the voice.”
[An excerpt from T. S. Eliot’s Ash Wednesday]

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During this period leading up to the Feastday of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, I will be making the novena I posted about last year here and here, in which different aspects of Our Lady’s beautiful Icon are meditated upon each day.  To all those who are making a novena at this time, may you be filled with trust and confidence in Mary’s love and solicitude for all her children. 

I also wanted to share with you today a beautiful video I just discovered.  It is of etched-glass windows at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Foremost, Alberta, Canada.  The windows were created by Mary Mehlen, and there is one representing each of the Seven Sacraments, as well as one in honour of Mary and another in tribute to all who minister.  Many thanks to the YouTube channel allsaintsparish for providing this beautiful footage for all to enjoy. 

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(it takes about 30 seconds to start)

And if you want to know why Owen (yes, he’s back, with a new blog!) will be riding his bicycle this coming August, just head on over here and find out all about the Ontario “Cycling for Children” fundraising bicycle tour.  Be sure to scroll down to see how dashing he looks in his Canadian t-shirt.

But Onionboy, 180 kilometres?  Better you than me! (Better anyone than me.  I don’t want to say I’m unbalanced, but…)

Good luck, eh?  I’ll be thinking of you training as I’m sitting on the back step swatting mosquitoes away from my ice-tea.

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A headline caught my attention the other day:  “Canada’s worst neighbourhood”.  I won’t link to the article, but it got me to thinking that as dangerous and heartwrenching as the location mentioned may be, the fact of the matter is that the magazine got it wrong.  The most dangerous place in Canada to be living today is in the womb. 

As Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast stated in a recent message:  “Where is the most dangerous environment in Canada?  The answer is the womb!  Since the 1969 amendment to the Criminal Code concerning abortion, over three million Canadian children have been denied the right to life.” 

What do we do when faced with such staggering and brutal statistics?  Some are specifically called by God for active work in the Pro-Life cause; all of us, hopefully, are called to prayer.

In terms of sanctity of life, we are faced not only with the abortion epidemic, but with human embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, threats to the lives of the mentally or physically-challenged, abuse of the elderly, disregard of the homeless; the list goes on and on.  Everyday, as Catholics, we are called to protect and promote the sacredness of life.

One who has recently discerned the call to a more active involvement is Hush, of Mother of the Life Within.  Currently in formation as a Lay Missionary of the Gospel of Life, Hush’s blog will undoubtedly bring us many keen insights and beautiful reflections as the sanctity of life is explored, from conception to natural death.

We have all been adopted by the Father.  Mary is our Mother.  Everyone’s Mother.  There are no,

ORPHANS OF GOD
[A beautiful and powerful song.  This is not an abortion video.]
   

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As I was listening to some lovely Celtic music on YouTube a few days ago, I came across this video taken by a lad here in Ottawa, of St. Patrick’s Basilica.  I’m really excited to show it to you, because it’s the kind of thing I just never think of doing, and now you’ll be able to see my “stomping grounds”, so to speak.  St. Patrick’s Basilica is not my parish, but I work just a few blocks from it, and it has become my downtown sanctuary and more. 

The little door that the filmmaker enters, to the left side of the front of the church as you’re facing it, is the door I usually use too.  No matter what time of the day you go, there are usually people sitting quietly praying or meditating, others making the Stations of the Cross, or simply walking around quietly venerating the many beautiful statues.  Every day at three o’clock there is a holy hour.  I love getting away from the office for Mass and/or confession during lunch hour, and often I am able to stop in after work for a while, just to sit, or to light a candle for someone.

You will see in the video, after showing us the beautiful stainglass window above the altar, the filmmaker scans the large painting of Jesus on the left as you’re viewing, and then quickly scans the one on the right, which is actually a most beautiful painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.  Then we see the little alcove with the statue of Mary and all the blue votive candles - that is exactly where I made my consecration on the Feast of the Assumption this past August 15th.  You can even see where I go to confession!  How about that? 

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Not long ago I posted the words and music to Leonard Cohen’s beautiful song, If It Be Your Will, which touched our hearts in many different ways.  Recently I came across something closely related that I would like to share with you here.

In the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) archives, I found a series entitled, “Leonard Cohen:  Canada’s Melancholy Bard”.  Number Six in the series, “Cohen at 50″, is an archived radio broadcast from 1984, in which he is interviewed just after publication of his, “Book of Mercy”.  The whole interview is wonderful; about one-third of the way into it, spiritual mercy is the focus of the discussion.  Cohen describes what he simply refers to as a “wipe out”, but in the way he speaks of it, and of course, with “Book of Mercy” as the outcome, my feeling is that we are listening to him speak about something more akin to the dark night of the spirit rather than a burn-out.  Just to give you a little taste of the conversation (forgive me if I did not transcribe it perfectly - I hope you will listen for yourselves if you are interested in this topic) here is a bit of what Leonard says: 

Re the writing of the book:  “…where there’s no other form of expression possible… and you can’t speak, and the only thing you can say is a prayer, then this is the kind of work that follows.”

Re the experience he went through:  “…something like being stopped, something like walls, something like not being able to function in the way that you have been accustomed to, something like that.  Just the point where all the laws of necessity and relativity no longer make sense and you want to address the absolute source of things if you can locate it, and you try to locate it.” 

When the interviewer, Peter Gzowski , comments to Leonard that the book resulting from this experience is “not necessarily the work of a believer, this is not…a demonstration of faith or conviction, is it?”, Leonard responds:

“Those kinds of questions - I believe or I don’t believe - those belong to the mind, and, appropriately to the mind…but…when you find yourself in that landscape where the only thing you can do is prayer, it doesn’t matter whether you believe or not, because you’re not using that faculty that evaluates the reality of faith or the reality of God or not - it’s a completely different landscape; it is a cry, and there is an object of the cry, and it’s a certainty in that place.”

“One is not interested in proving or not proving the existence of the object; if you address yourself to the source of mercy, you might have the good luck to discover that there is a source of mercy… There is a source of mercy as I experienced it, and these poems are the document of that address and that kind of deliverance.”

Leonard Cohen’s, “Book of Mercy” is a collection of fifty psalms.  I do not have the book myself, but here are two of the psalms that I found online: 

Number 1:
I stopped to listen, but he did not come.
I began again with a sense of loss.
As this sense deepened I heard him again.
I stopped stopping and I stopped starting,
and I allowed myself to be crushed by ignorance.
This was a strategy, and didn’t work at all.
Much time, years were wasted in such a minor mode.
I bargain now. I offer buttons for his love.
I beg for mercy. Slowly he yields.
Haltingly he moves toward his throne.
Reluctantly the angels grant to one another permission to sing.
In a transition so delicate it cannot be marked,
the court is established on beams of golden symmetry,
and once again I am a singer in the lower choirs,
born fifty years ago to raise my voice this high, and no higher.

Number 50:
I lost my way, I forgot to call on your name.
The raw heart beat against the world,
and the tears were for my lost victory.
But you are here. You have always been here.
The world is all forgetting,
and the heart is a rage of directions,
but your name unifies the heart,
and the world is lifted into its place.
Blessed is the one who waits in the traveller’s heart for his turning.

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All around the world, Christians have been waiting for the birth of the Christ-child.  Although Christmas is a universal Christian celebration, unique cultural/historical experiences are brought to it from each country.  Emmanuel, God-with-us, is always true in a very intimate way, touching the lives and souls of peoples of all nations and cultures in ways closest to their hearts. 

William Kurelek [1927 - 1977] was a Canadian artist and writer of Ukranian descent.  He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1957.  The Niagara Falls Art Gallery houses Kurelek’s The Passion of Christ, a series of 160 paintings based on the Gospel of St. Matthew.

The following video presents many of William Kurelek’s beautiful nativity paintings, which portray a uniquely Canadian perspective.  The accompanying music is Chris de Burgh’s haunting, “When Winter Comes”.

From Canada, ” M E R R Y     C H R I S T M A S     E V E R Y O N E ! ! ! “

” J O Y E U X     N O E L ! ! ! “ 

Direct to YouTube for this video is here.

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