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For Mass times and dates, and to register to attend, please click here.
To register for a guided tour, please click here. To financially support our parish, please visit the DONATE section of the parish website, mail donations to: Our Lady of the Rockies, 2 Silvertip Trail, Canmore, AB, T1W-2Z7, or bring them to the parish office Tue-Thur 9:00am-3:30pm and Friday from 9:00am-1:00pm. Click here for the current parish financials. Please scroll down this home page for spiritual reflections and homilies by Fr. Nathan. PRIVATE PRAYER AND DEVOTIONS The Shrine Church is open for private prayer and devotion at the following times: Tuesday-Thursday 9:00am-11:30am Friday 9:30am-12:30pm Due to Masses, Weddings and other Sacramental celebrations on the weekends, there are no scheduled times for private prayer and devotion, though if the church doors are open and no celebrations are taking place, you are welcome to visit the church. Out of courtesy to others, please observe reverent silence during these scheduled times of private prayer and devotion. ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT Adoration will take place on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm with the Holy Rosary and time for silent contemplation. SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION Confessions will take place on Tuesday Evenings from 7:00 -7:45pm and by appointment. Please contact Fr. Nathan at frnsiray@gmail.com to arrange a time. Anyone requesting the celebration of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and the Last Rites for the dying can contact Fr Nathan via the emergency parish line at 403-675-5044, please do not hesitate to do so! |
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Spiritual Reflections from a Priest in the Rockies
To watch Live-streamed Sunday and Weekday Masses from various parishes and at different times in the Diocese of Calgary, please click here
Homily Notes for the 15th Sunday of OT, Year A (2020): Rom 8:13-23
It will only take a small amount of your day to volunteer in this capacity, for example, helping to clean the church after Mass only takes about 15 minutes. But more than volunteering it is a way to offer an act of charity and service to Our Lord and His Holy Mother in assuring we can offer the Eucharist for the Glory of God and the spiritual nourishment of His People.
I invite you to take time today to make a Spiritual Communion, using the following formula or one of your own choosing:
My Jesus,
I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen."
St. Alphonsus di Liguori
In Jesus through Mary, Fr. Nathan
To watch Live-streamed Sunday and Weekday Masses from various parishes and at different times in the Diocese of Calgary, please click here
Homily Notes for the 15th Sunday of OT, Year A (2020): Rom 8:13-23
- As a missionary apostle who walked tens of thousands of kilometers proclaiming the Gospel to the ancient world, I like to imagine St. Paul spending those many long hours on the road pondering the mysteries of God, listening to the musing of the Holy Spirit and contemplating the beauty of the natural world around him that proclaimed the Magnalia Dei, the Magnificent Works of God.
- As he pondered the beauty of the natural world, that precious gift God gave to humanity so long ago in Eden, he realized that creation, once perfect and untainted by sin, also needed salvation through the One who had worked with the Father and Holy Spirit at the beginning of all things to bring creation into being.
- The sin of Adam did not only damn humanity, but also allowed its poison to seep into the natural world, causing discord in creation, violence among created beings, and humanity to forget its original vocation of caring for the Garden and being stewards of creation to exploiting creation for sinful purposes.
- The Cross of Jesus Christ was the necessary remedy to both wash humanity free of Original Sin but also as St. Paul told the ancient Roman to heal the creation that groaned for salvation from its redeemer and creator. The blood of God that was spilt on the cross was drunk by the earth and that blood healed a created world that had been in rebellion against its creator but was now redeemed, freed of its bondage to decay and able to become a means by which we could obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
- But What did St. Paul mean that the redeemed creation would be freed of bondage and be used to help the children of God know salvation and give glory to the Lord?
- The Cross of Christ restored creation back to its creator, and assured that created things could now be used to give glory God and lead people to the Lord. The reason God forbade images and statues to be made in His image in the Old Testament times was that, prior to our salvation in Christ, created things became idols and drove us further away from God. But once Christ redeemed humanity and the world, he assured that created things could now bring people closer to God and give the Lord His proper glory.
- That is why the first Christians and subsequent generations began to make statues of Jesus, Mary and the Saints and paint images of God, the angels and the saints in their churches, not as false idols and graven images that offended God, but images that brought people closer to God and showed the created things can now once again give God glory, help people to pray and walk what is sometimes called the via pulchritudinis, or the way of beauty, to be dazzled and struck with wonder by God.
- It is my hope that this way of beauty and appreciation of created things like marble statues, religious artwork, a beautiful altar and stunning stained glass within this church are not simply in place to be pretty decorations, but each of them are a means to draw us closer to God, and struck by beauty, know that God is near and drawing us to His Heart.
- Even the fact that within this church you can see the beauty of the Rockies outsides, while being within this beautiful church, cries out what St Paul taught: that Christ has restored creation to its proper place of giving God glory, and what better way to find God in the beauty of creation than to see that creation making this church building even more stunning, as if we have framed the mountains within humble pains of clear glass, letting them become natural stained glass to show that God is to be found in the mountains but also within the walls of a church. How beautifully they compliment and work together to draw us closer to our redeemer and creator.
- My friends, I pray this church building will lead you on the via pulchritudinis, on the way of beauty, to see that we created something wonderful to God, not to be pretty and nice to look at, but that everything in this building brings us closer and closer to the Lord and affirms us that he has saved us from our sins and restored creation back to Himself.
It will only take a small amount of your day to volunteer in this capacity, for example, helping to clean the church after Mass only takes about 15 minutes. But more than volunteering it is a way to offer an act of charity and service to Our Lord and His Holy Mother in assuring we can offer the Eucharist for the Glory of God and the spiritual nourishment of His People.
I invite you to take time today to make a Spiritual Communion, using the following formula or one of your own choosing:
My Jesus,
I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen."
St. Alphonsus di Liguori
In Jesus through Mary, Fr. Nathan
Our LogoAs a Marian parish, we entrust ourselves to her maternal protection.
Our Lady of the Rockies, Pray for us. |
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Catholic Academy Phone: 403-609-3699 Address: 3100A Stewart Creek Drive Canmore, AB T1W 3M6 Website: www.ourladyofthesnows.ca/ |