Blog

The month of April is a opportune time to have an encounter with Saint Joseph and to share with him in the silence and peace of his presence a face-to-face at the depths. A time for seeing and being seen by one who knows all too well God’s love. A gaze of goodness and confidence, the gaze of Joseph can sooth, promote trust and encourage. In this exchange of glances, Joseph can disclose to each their inner life, and it gives us an opportunity to confide in him.

For over a month now, we’ve been learning to change our habits in important ways. The difficult task of preserving the quality of life on earth is just as critical and urgent as combating the virus which is threatening us today. The future of our planet rests in our hands.

We must go forward in life with prayer and perseverance.

May Saint Brother André be a source of inspiration and hope for each one of us during this time when we are all under the influence of the coronavirus pandemic. Brother André reminds us that there are no dilemmas or hardships which cannot be surmounted or overcome. There is always a path of hope for those who have confidence.

To live resurrected is to let yourself be infused, be flooded by the gently refreshing light of the Risen Christ. It is the wellspring of hope which breathes new strength and life into our hearts, now shaken and bruised by loneliness, sickness, adversity, or worries of our days.

What we are living through with the Coronavirus, reminds us of the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. Brother André and his contemporaries felt the weight of it heavy upon them. Today, many families are living in restlessness vulnerability, causing real upheaval in their lives.

With his friend, Saint Joseph helping, Brother André planted hope in hundreds and thousands of people who were seeking a way forward. He showed them realities that we often have a tendency to forget.

Once the celebration of the passion and death of Christ is over on Good Friday, the liturgy seems to “hit the pause button.” The ensuing silence invites each to go inward. With the Blessed Mother, and Jesus’ disciples, we enter a time of mourning.

For some weeks now, the worldwide Covid-19 crisis has been on everybody’s lips. This pandemic is sowing fear, upending our daily routines and has struck down countless victims.

Despite the remarkable advances of science, human beings are confronted once more with their vulnerability. “Life is so fragile, so fragile,” Luc de La Rochelière sang.

Once the celebration of the passion and death of Christ is over on Good Friday, the liturgy seems to “hit the pause button.” The ensuing silence invites each to go inward. With the Blessed Mother, and Jesus’ disciples, we enter a time of mourning.

We contemplate the Cross, symbol of suffering for human beings, symbol of our suffering. Depending on the person, suffering might mean long illness, adversity, failure, violence, grief… Right now, for all of us it means: COVID-19 pandemic. But the cross of Christ is special. It is for each and every one absolutely unique. Victory of love, it is our only Hope. Today, we celebrate neither suffering, nor death. Today, we celebrate the immense love that Christ and God have for all women and men without exception.

Over the years, the Counseling Office of Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal, a space of welcome, of listening, and of compassion, has without question become a valuable service offered to people who are wounded, not necessarily physically – as was the case in the time of Brother André (1904 to 1937) — but rather psychically, psychologically, emotionally, affectively, morally, and religiously.

You know the popular expression, “Out of sight out of mind.” We could take advantage of this crucial time to adapt this saying to read,” Out of sight near to heart.” The important measures of public health oblige us to live at a certain physical distancing. We have to remain at a distance from others, even those that we used to rub elbows with. These practices are not easy… but this fact illustrates that humans like to live in groupings, that we have need of others, their help, their affection.