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One day early in the year, after Mass, an older woman in a wheelchair made a gesture to call me over. She handed me an envelope and wished me a Happy New Year. She had a look on her face of pure serenity and peace. It made an impression on me.

How many times I went with my dad to P. A. Gouin, Pascal, Handy Andy, Léopold Duplessis or Canadian Tire to pick up a tool, some paint, a car part or all sorts of materials to repair, renovate or build something!

His workbench was just as carefully organized as the shelves at the hardware store: the nails and screws were categorized by their size and type. Everything was neatly ordered, and finding things was a snap.

Brother André had, like many people still today, his share of misery and misfortune. Orphaned by father and mother at the age of 12, sickly and uneducated, he had to work hard to earn his living and make his way. But he wasn’t destitute for all that.

One day I was visiting an old friend of mine. Long before I met her – when she was a mother of eight children and pregnant with a ninth – she lost her husband in a car accident. She was distraught and threw herself at the foot of her crucifix, begging, “Lord, don’t let me down! “At over 85 years of age, Alice was testifying to me that the Lord had never abandoned her. She told me, “You know, even though I live alone in my house, I am not afraid. In fact, I am never alone. The Lord is there, I feel Him very present at my side and with Him I am never worried about what may happen.” Her heart was full of hope and serenity about the future.

One day, Jesus led the apostles up a high mountain and he was transfigured in their presence. A voice was heard, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” The apostles felt within them such strength that they eagerly descended the mountain, ready to follow Jesus, putting their trust in him in their everyday life. They had understood the import of “Listen to the Father’s beloved Son.”

Since its foundation in 1904, the Oratory has closed its doors to the public only three times. Aside from the current closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Oratory also closed its doors for one week during the 1998 ice storm.

Father Marcel Lalonde, CSC, died on May 26, 2020, at the age of 93 years and 11 months, following a long illness at the Maison Basile-Moreau, a residence of the Canadian Province of Holy Cross in Montréal. With tireless zeal, Father Lalonde was the leader at Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal, of which he was rector for 30 years.

The month of May makes me recall a beautiful memory I have from my childhood — a hymn: Tis the month of Mary, the loveliest month; to the Dearest of Virgins let us sing a new song. In many homes, a statue, a picture, a rosary evokes her presence. Let us call upon her motherly protection, given the human drama we are presently experiencing.

Mary in the midst of our sorrow. Mary in the midst of our current preoccupations. A discreet presence, yet how reassuring and beneficial. Just as on the road leading to Calvary, the presence and the gaze of Mary gives us the stamina not to flail about despairingly in the face of the terrors of COVID 19. Mary’s gaze illumines and transforms every Way of the Cross into a Way of Hope, Resurrection, and Life.

“’Tis the month of our Mo-ther; the bless-ed and beau-ti-ful days.” When I was a child I often sang this well-known hymn with my family and neighbors on Collines Lane in the little village of Brébeuf where I was born.

Every evening during the month of May, we gathered around the Cross by the roadside with the neighbors to pray to Mary.
We recited the rosary, sang hymns, made prayer intentions, and had a good time together.

It was on May 13 1917, while they were tending a flock of sheep and goats, that three children aged ten, nine, and seven, saw a lady above an oak tree. The lady, they said, was clothed in light brighter than the sun, yet whose rays did not dazzle, but were rather soothing to the eyes and imparted a sort of serenity. It was difficult to describe because they had never experienced anything like it before. These three little sheepherders were named Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta.