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Students from St. Gregory School were handing out Christmas letters with positive messages to people at Northgate Mall on Monday. Some of the people who received the letters were brought to tears, and said it was the highlight of their day. Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/2kLqxkU
By Frank Flegel
Members of the Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association (SCSBA) and the Catholic Health Association of Saskatchewan (CHAS) met in conference together from October 20 to 22, 2017. The conference was themed Ministering to God’s Beloved: serving and learning from those who are vulnerable.
All the keynote speakers spoke to the sub-theme of vulnerability. The opening keynote speaker was Anne Butler, Executive Director and Founder of Interior by Design Associates: Cultivating Wholeheartedness in Healthcare. She talked about the beauty of vulnerability and described her own struggles with imperfectness. “We need to cultivate the vulnerability in ourselves, and recognize the beauty in that. It’s a good reflective practice,” she said. “We resist vulnerability because it reminds us of our frailty.” She reminded her audience that we are born with an inner beauty, created in the image of God. In Session 2 the next day, she talked about embracing the...
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By Frank Flegel
Regina Catholic School Board Trustee Vicky Bonnell was elected President of the Saskatchewan Catholic School Board Association (SCSBA) at the association’s annual meeting held October 21 at the Doubletree Hotel in Regina. Bonnell has served in various positions with the SCSBA, most recently as Vice-President in 2016-17. She was elected Regina Catholic School Division trustee in 2006 and re-elected in 2009, 2012 and 2016. She has served as Chair and Deputy Chair of the Division over the course of her 11 years on the Regina Board.
“Our goals remain: To help Catholic School Divisions in their role to provide a faith-filled education and prepare our students as future leaders in society,” she said in thanking members for their support.
Saskatchewan Catholic School Divisions have, in general, met and exceeded government established academic goals as well as graduation rates for all students, including specific graduation rates for First Nations,...
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By Frank Flegel
Grade seven and eight students at St. Dominic Savio School in Regina expressed surprize at how quickly life on the prairies changed for the Indigenous people after the Europeans arrived. They participated in a Blanket Exercise accompanied by a couple of short videos that said an estimated 20 million people lived on what they called Turtle Island (North America); they had their own social, commercial, cultural, and government structures.
Joanna Landry, Regina Catholic School Division Coordinator of First Nations, Métis, Inuit Education (FNMI), aided by Residential School survivor Susan Beaudin, described how laws were passed that took away their land, language, and culture in an effort to solve the “Indian Problem” as it was described by some politicians of the day.
Blanket Exercise participants place blankets on the floor roughly in the shape of Turtle Island, an example of which was shown on a video. With the floor completely covered, they...
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By Frank Flegel
A computer programmer researching artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); a senior bank executive; a voice and performance professor at Memorial University; a Fellow Chartered Accountant; all with a long list of community and professional involvement were recognized as Campion College’s Alumni of Distinction at the College’s centennial celebration held October 4-8, 2017. All recipients credited Campion and the Jesuit influence for giving them the base values that carried them through life and the successes they’ve achieved.
Natasha Jaques graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She obtained a Masters Degree in Computer Science at UBC and is currently working on a Doctoral Degree at M.I.T. Along the way she earned several scholarships and interned at both Microsoft and Google. Her internship at Google included...
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ARCHBISHOP BLESSES THREE NEW REGINA SCHOOLS
By Frank Flegel
Archbishop Donald Bolen was kept busy in early September blessing three new schools that officially opened for 2017-2018 school year.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha School was blessed September 19, Saint Elizabeth School on September 20 and Saint Nicholas School on September 22. Each of these new Catholic schools is partnered with a public school as part of the Saskatchewan Government’s joint-use schools dictum that saw 18 new schools built throughout the Province, in Regina, Saskatoon, Warman and Martensville. All were built under a Public Private Partnership (P3) Model.
Archbishop Bolen spoke briefly at each school prior to the blessing, giving a bit of history of the Saint each school is named for. The ceremony began with students processing into the gymnasium with the school’s cross and placed it in front of the podium. Then the Archbishop and Deacon Joe Lang began the blessing ceremony. ...
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By Frank Flegel
In 1913, Father Henri Metzger looked at the sloped hillside of Manybone Creek near Kronau and envisioned a Shrine to the Blessed Virgin, similar to what he saw at Lourdes, France.
He mobilized the tiny community of St. Peter’s Colony to dig into the hillside and haul rocks from the surrounding fields to build his dream. Four years later, on August 15, 1917, the first pilgrimage was held to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. Archbishop Olivier Mathieu celebrated the inaugural mass.
One hundred years later the tradition of an annual pilgrimage to the Shrine, on the second weekend of August, has lived on and flourished.
More than 1,000 people registered for the August 12 and 13 Centennial celebrations this year. It was a two-day celebration, was well attended, but most attended Sunday when Archbishop Donald Bolen celebrated the mass.
The weather co-operated for both days – cloudless skies, hot, but with a...
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Regina Archbishop Donald Bolen told a church full of educators that teaching is one of the most fundamental human tasks there are. He celebrated the opening mass for the Regina Catholic School Division to start the 2017-2018 school year. “It is the duty of family and community to teach a newborn child how to live and love and how to be human,” said Bolen. His homily focused on the school division’s theme for the 2017-2018 school year, Let Your Light Shine.
The Archbishop stated, “In the Gospels Christ told his disciples to be the light of the world.” Then he “unpacked” that gospel in terms of the role a teacher plays in Catholic education on behalf of the community and the Church.
What is the light you are to carry? he asked of the more than 1,100 teachers and staff who filled Resurrection Church. “That light is the joy of being alive; it is a deep abiding sense that life is good, that life is blessed. You are beloved sons and daughters of God...
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Over 1000 people gathered at the 76th Annual Pilgrimage at Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine on August 14 & 15, The Feast of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Little did Fr. Anthony Sylla OMI realize that through his inspiration in 1939, when he decided to build a grotto in a small hill west of St. Anthony's Church that 78 years later, it would still be a spiritual attraction to so many pilgrims! He felt that when World War II broke out in 1939 that there was a need to pray for peace in the world so a grotto was the place where people could gather to pray. Summoining his parishioners that very evening, he asked that they haul their fieldstones so that the construction could begin. Thus, today, a beautiful Shrine, which is a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France, exists in the Village of Rama attracting thousands of visitors, not only on August 14 and 15, but throughout the entire year.
However, this year was very special and significant as it marked another...
Read MoreThis summer I definitely needed some time to come away and rest awhile.
So, I decided to take a few days on my own at the cabin. I took a couple of things to do, a couple books to read, my Bible (and a study guide), my journal.
The first few days were about settling in and watching a couple of movies. Some time was spent in praise and prayer for my family and for a couple of others who came to mind. I read a lot too, novels, and at late night, read scripture and mulled over it a bit before turning out the light.
Part of my plan for my time away was to have food at the ready in case people dropped by. So I made plenty of spaghetti sauce, a beef roast and cucumber salad to keep in the fridge. That, I decided, with salad and cold canned peaches – I’m ready for company.
Strolling around the lanes and walking down to the beach is a restful part of life there. On one evening, down at the community boat launch there was a lone pelican drifting out on the...
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