Today we want to highlight Anishnabeg Outreach, a local Indigenous organization which focuses on Healing and Reconciliation.

Anishnabeg Outreach is a really remarkable group of Indigenous people and partners working in our community to provide services which support Indigenous persons from birth to death. Services such as EarlyON programs, employment centre, Spirit Bundle program, medicine garden, Healing and Teaching lodges, and so much more. During the pandemic they have provided a safe and accessible environment for Indigenous people to receive the vaccines.

Here at Anishnabeg Outreach, we are building a centre of healing where we are able to offer a centralized healing space for Indigenous people to grow. This includes partnering with local Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations to create services and programs that serve people at all stages of life.

Anishnabeg Outreach website

We encourage you today to spend some time exploring the Anishnabeg website by clicking the button below. The link will take you to their page on Reconciliation, which seems like a good place to start. We pray that we can heal and learn together, and create a better future for all of Canada.

Visit their facebook page by clicking here. There you can view many events that are taking place, including as Mush Hole Voices, a video series presented by survivors of the Mohawk Institute Residential School.

Anishnabeg Outreach is located in Kitchener and Guelph, and they are accepting donations of various items. Look on the Donations page of their website for all the many options. We recently had a large quantity of children’s sized masks donated to St. Francis of Assisi Parish, more than we could possibly use, so some of those were donated to be part of Spirit Bundles. Let us stand together with our Indigenous brothers and sisters, right here in our community.

Breaking the Chain: What Have We Learned?

Questions about the cause of this pandemic force us to reflect on the topics of integral ecology and environmental ethics. How can we prevent future pandemics and ensure the well-being of human populations and the natural ecology? This panel conversation focuses on ethical lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please enjoy the KW Ecumenical Service with Taizé songs from June 27, 2021. The theme for this service was a lament.

Each Wednesday in July we invite you and your children to listen as author Christine Way Skinner reads one of her children’s books. Today we listen to We Follow Jesus.

Here is the final guided reflection on Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Patris Corde, With a Father’s Heart. You can use this series on your own for person reflection, or you can use it with your family or friends. It works very well for short zoom gatherings online!

Joseph, A Father in the Shadows

Opening Prayer

With a father’s heart, you showed your love for Jesus by helping him to grow in wisdom.  With a chaste heart, you did not seek to possess or hold him back. 
You are a model for parents who desire to help their children grow
and acquire what they need to live healthy and fruitful lives.
St. Joseph, help us to become parents who love our children freely. 
Intercede for us so that we may know the Father’s love freely offered and given to us.
In Jesus’ name, we pray!
Amen

Video Reflection

In this video clip, Dr. Anne Jamieson, Executive Director, Institute for Catholic Education, reflects on St. Joseph as a father hidden in the shadows.  She considers questions such as
– What qualities of love do we see in Joseph’s approach to fatherhood?
– How does St. Joseph’s as a person in the shadows inspire us in our lives, work, relationships?

For further reflection

Take some time to consider these questions. If you are reflecting on your own you may wish to journal. If you are using this reflection with a group, perhaps give time for personal reflection as well as optional sharing.

Pope Francis speaks about how we have learned how interconnected and interdependent we all are during the pandemic. He suggests how we are learning how important those who have worked and walked in the shadows are. Anne lists some of those people.
– Who would you add to the list?
– How might the pandemic help us to reflect on our interconnectedness with those in other countries?

Closing Prayer

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.

Prayer: © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Thank you for joining us for these guided reflections on Pope Francis’ apostolic letter, Patris Corde, With a Father’s Heart.

On July 6, 2021 Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Mary Simon, an Inuk leader and woman of great experience and qualifications, to be Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General.

Mary Simon was born in Nunavut to an Inuk mother and southern father, and grew up learning both the Indigenous and southern ways of life. With such a background, and with all her many professional and lived experiences, Mary hopes to build bridges as our Governor General, and help to create a better Canada for all.

We encourage you to read the article and watch the videos produced by CBC by clicking the button below. This is an encouraging and promising step for Canada!

Don Bosco City in Medellín, Colombia, welcomes and accompanies hundreds of minors every year with an integral educational formation that is directed towards environmental sustainability and respect for our common home, in order to gradually reduce the ecological impact and encourage small business activities that assist the livelihood of the entire community.

Watch the video below, or read the whole article from Vatican News by clicking here.