Canada Day/Indepence Day

Yesterday Sister Marlyn and I went downtown to celebrate Canada Day by taking part in the multicultural festival at Dundas Square. That's in the heart of Toronto's downtown. The weather was unseasonably cool, so it was providential that we both took our jackets. Sister has a white Roots sweatshirt with the red maple leaf design on it. She was very much Canadian. I too wore a little stickpin with the Canadian flag. We were able to see dances from Egypt, Ecuador, and Indonesia. There was limited seating, so I ended up on the steps leading up to the stage. All the dances were lively. The Egyptian Pharaoh dance was truly beautiful. It reminded me of scenes from Cecil B. De Mille's Ten Commandments. We were asked to wish one another "Happy Canada Day" several times. Little children were handing out maple leaf stickers to remind us what day it was. It was the 140th anniversary of Canada as a nation. Being still a "newbie" here, I have to check out what that really means. Many of those at Dundas Square were obviously not native born Canadians--the audience was truly multicultural.
Later, Sister and I wandered into a large used book store where I found some titles for my brother who is interested in Canadian history. One book is about German U-boats which had been active in the St. Lawrence river area during World War II. I learned about an aspect of both Canadian and American history of which I was totally unaware.
Our Superior left for a meeting in Los Angeles on media. Since we live in "Hollywood North" Sister heads up our Toronto Centre for media. She has been doing that by holding monthly "Movie Nights." She uses a regular feature film, and finds a connection to a gospel passage. She reads the passage and then projects the entire film. After a brief intermission, the group is invited to discuss the film in relation to the gospel. We have been getting a steady audience each month. Her LA meeting may bring other elements into the "movie mix." Some of the movies we watched in the past year were "Holes," "Ladder 49," "Bend It Like Beckham," "The Spitfire Grill" and "The Guardian." Then Sister will make her annual retreat and what we call an "encounter"--an updating session of about 5 days.
Sister Marlyn leaves soon for a three week encounter in Brazil where she will be join other Sisters from the Americas. Since we are an international congregation, there are occasional meetings like the Brazil encounter that gather Sisters from many countries who share the same ideals in a variety of cultures.
For all the Americans who read this, my best regards for a safe and happy July 4th holiday. I pray that God will bless America, and continue to keep us free and good.