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For Mass times and dates, and to register to attend, please click here.
*Please note the new Sunday Mass time at 11:30am 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 18th Sunday of OT, Year A (2020): Mt 14:13-21
During these summer months when we see more and more visitors, I invite you to please consider assisting our new shrine church by signing up not only to attend Mass but also to offer some of your time in a volunteer position to assure the Masses we have scheduled can take place. These volunteer positions are necessary for Mass to occur in this time to be in accord with the guidelines set forward by the Diocese of Calgary for the celebration of the Holy Mass during Phase 2 of the reopening of our province in the midst of this pandemic. All volunteers are guaranteed a chance to attend the Holy Mass they sign up for.
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 18th Sunday of OT, Year A (2020): Mt 14:13-21
- World travel has come to a grinding halt in the wake of the worldwide COVID pandemic, with many countries feeling the financial impacts of being unable to welcome tourists that in many nations form much of their economic wellbeing.
- Such is the case in the state of Israel, where the local Christians are feeling both the economic and spiritual deprivations of being unable to welcome pilgrims to the Holy Land to walk in the footsteps of Christ. It is incumbent upon us to keep them in our prayers, and if able, to financial support them, as they continue to be the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
- Upon reading this weekend’s Gospel, my thoughts turned to the Holy Land and the two occasions I had to make pilgrimage there. Specifically, I considered the place where it is said that Our Lord multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish into a superabundance of food to both feed the hungry crowds, but more importantly, to fed their hungry souls that were longing for the consolation and joy that the Messiah would bring into the world.
- The site of this miracle is known today as Tabgha and it resides on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, just a few hundred meters from the base of the Mount of Beatitudes. Little remains of Tabgha, but there is an impressive church built over a large rock that is said to be where Jesus placed the loaves and fish and multiplied them to feed 5000 men, not including women or children, meaning tens of thousands were fed.
- This church has an intricate mosaic tiled floors that dates back to the 5th century AD. The most striking portion of the tiled floor, right beneath the altar, is an image of two large fish and a basket containing loaves of bread.
- But there is something noticeable about this mosaic depiction of the miracle of Today’s Gospel: the basket has only 4 loaves of bread, not five.
- One wonders where the fifth loaf had gone? The custodian of the church who leads pilgrims throughout this holy place noted it was not a mistake of the artist that there is a missing loaf of bread. Rather, he reminds pilgrims that the 5th loaf appears within the church daily and is the most important bread of all: The Eucharistic bread. Once this humble bread is placed upon the Holy Altar and the priest utters those hallowed words “This is My Body”, than the living bread of God is once again present in the place that long ago saw the miraculous multiplication of loaves and fish.
- It is a far more wondrous miracle that ordinary bread is transformed into the Body of Christ than was the multiplication of the bread that feed the 5000! What happened long ago was a single miracle, one that came and went, but the Holy Eucharist is multiplied the world over in far great numbers, for over 20 centuries, feeding billions upon billions with the super-substantial bread that comes down from heaven and is the Flesh of God given for the life of the world.
- What a blessing it is that we are able to gather to partake of the Eucharist, though for many the resumption of public Masses in the Diocese has been a trying experience. The need to wear masks to receive Holy Communion, having to register to attend, being unable to sing during Mass, being unable to receive the Eucharist in either the hand or on the tongue, prevented from having social gatherings after Mass, feeling uncertain if we are comfortable being around others in the church building, and many other restrictive/preventive measures that are in place has not yet allowed us in this new Shrine Church to celebrate the Holy Mass with all the decorum, ceremony and liturgical beauty that adorns the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of Christ.
- It has been very difficult for many priests to celebrate the Eucharist in this manner, though inspiring to see how many are returning back to Mass, as they are able, to pray and worship God, while respecting why many are not yet ready to return.
- We can certainly be frustrated and disappointed that we have to continue to adhere to these restrictive measures, though we can also ask for a spirit of peace and acceptance to continue to worship God as best we can and rejoice that the Eucharist is among us, and if we discern we are prepared to receive the Eucharist or, if not, to know we are in His sacramental presence once again, we can know joy, great mixed with suffering and frustration, that the Lord has found us, is nourishing us and encouraging us to continue to pray. Let us never forget that every celebration of the Holy Mass is to behold the greatest miracle ever given: to stand in the presence of the Lord of all Creation who now reigns in the humility of the Host!!!
- May our Lord multiply many graces in our hearts in these trying times. May he intensify our love for the Eucharist, the Holy Mass and fill us with trust that He continues to guide His Church and her leaders, in ways we can perceive and ways that remain obscured and hidden to us.
During these summer months when we see more and more visitors, I invite you to please consider assisting our new shrine church by signing up not only to attend Mass but also to offer some of your time in a volunteer position to assure the Masses we have scheduled can take place. These volunteer positions are necessary for Mass to occur in this time to be in accord with the guidelines set forward by the Diocese of Calgary for the celebration of the Holy Mass during Phase 2 of the reopening of our province in the midst of this pandemic. All volunteers are guaranteed a chance to attend the Holy Mass they sign up for.
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
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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/ |