St. Paul in the Square

On May 17th 2009, Archbishop Thomas Collins and several priests, religious and laity from the Archdiocese of Toronto filled Dundas Square with prayer, praise and joyful song. Based on the account of St. Paul's preaching in the public area called the Areopagus of Athens, the Archdiocese reserved the Square for a prayerful use.
Toronto's own Susan Hongkook Taylor sang, Matt Maher a Canadian born musician who now resides in Arizona provided an upbeat music concert. The group prayed the rosary.
Neil McCarthy the Archdiocesan director of communications, proved a very able emcee along with Father Robert Mengella. The sun was bright, but temperatures were on the cool side. Then Archbishop Collins lead all the group in a "Lectio Divina" based on the account of St. Paul in Athens from the Acts of the Apostles. Even though brisk shafts of air kept pummeling us all day, people stayed to the end
clapping to Matt Maher's music, and praising God at the same time. We Paulines, myself and a good number of Pauline Cooperators, Holy Family members and volunteers staffed two book tables. We brought Bibles and St. Paul titles especially.
Here are some photos of St. Paul in the Square.
With the help of Pauline Cooperators and friends, we held a book display very near the stage. The Archdiocesan Icon of St. Paul was strapped to the tent posts next to our first book table. Friends of our stopped to have their picture taken with the St. Paul Icon. May St. Paul accompany all of us as we finish this year dedicated to him and begin the Year of the Priest.
Have a beautiful Trinity Sunday.

June A Month of Feasts

The photo is a long shot of the bell tower at St. Paul Church in Burlington, Ontario.
The entire Easter Season rushed by and I never blogged once! I missed communicating with all my blog readers. My apologies for not scheduling in the time to post.
For me, June is filled with anniversaries and feast days. I graduated from High School on June 5th many years ago. I entered the Daughters of St. Paul on June 15, just as many years ago. I entered the novitiate on June 29th; I received the religious habit on June 25th; I made my first profession of vows on June 30th. I have a brother and a sister whose birthdays fall on June 2nd and June 12th. Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity, Three Persons in One God. Next week will be the Feast of Corpus Christ, the Body and Blood of Christ. Then we will have the Feast of Jesus' Sacred Heart on June 19, and the Immaculate or Sacred Heart of Mary on June 20.
On June 29th we celebrate the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. And, for us members of the Pauline religious Family, we celebrate a special Feast of St. Paul on June 30.
The Pauline Family observes a solemn Novena in honor of St. Paul during the nine days prior to June 30.
On the afternoon of June 27th, we Sisters and a group of young women are planning to have a special hour of Eucharistic Adoration or other prayers for our solemn closing of the Year of St. Paul.
The Archdiocese of Toronto celebrated the end of the Pauline Year by reserving the pubic space in the heart of Toronto's downtown Dundas Square. I will blog again about the St. Paul in the Square event.