January 2022

Thursday, January 20, 2022 – 7:00 pm in the Upper Room

Old Business:

Courses

· St. Joseph Consecration by Fr. Galloway, consists of 33 days of meditation with ten group sessions on Wednesdays, starting February 16th.

· Fr. Nathan will begin announcing the course at masses this weekend

· Invite parishioners in person.

Retreats

· Ada is preparing a page of links to Canmore attractions to give out to groups looking to schedule events at the Shrine.

· Holiday Inn is presently closed due to flooding. Once they are open, they offer to give a discount to couples who are getting married at the Shrine.

OLS School

· The Epiphany mass was cancelled due to COVID outbreaks

· At one time 11 to 12 teachers were out sick.

· Fr. Nathan had a zoom Question & Answer session with the Grade 9 class.

Hearing Assist

· Marta reported that the system was not working so Richard will look into fixing it.

Website Report

· Ada has written a page for the website devoted to Parish Council report to keep parishioners informed. We will use it to recruit new members for council.

· Upcoming Events still has links to the Christmas and New Year pages. Must remove.

New Business

Finance Committee

· Held a meeting on January 19th.

· Last year, the Shrine did well with donations.

· $750,000 was paid against the building load. $8.1 million is still owing.

· They will send out a financial report with the tax receipts.

Consecration to Mary

· This year is the 75th Anniversary of the Consecration of Canada to Our Lady Mary by the Marian Congress in 1945.

· Marta will give us a link to the events that are planned in Ottawa.

· Marta and Fr. Nathan will contact Fr. Wilbert about a Diocese involvement.

· Can the Shrine plan something special around June 22, the Feast of the Sacred Heart?

· A Procession of Mary statue on the downtown paths will need a permit from the Town.

· A procession on our property would not need a permit.

· Fr. Nathan likes the timing as we catch families before they leave for summer holidays.

· We will prepare a celebration to present to the Diocese.

· Council members are asked to come up with plans by next meeting.

Newsletter

· January Email newsletter will be sent out this week.

· Dave asks that we publish a hard copy of the monthly newsletter for those who prefer printed copies.

2022 Schedule

· Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on March 2nd. We will plan for adoration hours with different themes for the Saturdays in Lent.

· Fr. Nathan will ask the Seeds of the Word Sisters to start us off.

· Corpus Christi Procession around the church building on June 18th.

Docesan Synod

· Peter indicated that after receiving the invitation to participate in the recent synod zoom meeting, he had read the Synod Booklet, the Synod prayer and opening Synod address delivered by Pope Francis. After reading this he was confused about the point and purpose of a synod on synodality. Peter remarked that it was noteworthy that a plea for the intercession of Mary our spiritual mother, the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the mother of the Church to assist us in this process was missing in the synod material he had considered. If a family was looking for clear direction one would think that the assistance of its’ mother would be sought.

· Fr. Nathan suggests that these concerns should be given to the Diocese.