Canadian Martyrs

In the nave, back, epistle side

The Canadian Martyrs shed blood, sweat, and tears for the conversion of New France.  

It is thus very depressing to consider the state of aggressive secularism into which much of Quebec has fallen in recent decades.  May the blood of these martyrs be the seed of the Church in Canada.

St. Jean de Brébeuf, St. Isaac Jogues, St. Gabriel Lalemant, St. Antoine Daniel, St. Charles Garnier, St. Noël Chabanel, St. René Goupil, St. Jean de Lalande...

                          priez pour nous.   

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

nave, gospel side

Our Lord at 12 years old centrally placed among the teachers in the temple. One hand holds a scroll, the other forms a conventional rhetorical gesture. Read the gospel account at Luke 2:42-47.

The dedication across the bottom of the tryptic: In loving memory of Helen Charlotte O'Keefe.  Mrs. O'Keefe was the wife of Eugene O'Keefe, founder of O'Keefe Brewing Co., a forerunner of Molson Coors Brewing Co.  

The O'Keefes have left a stunning legacy of their Catholic philanthropy in Toronto at St. Michael's Cathedral, St. Augustine's Seminary, and elsewhere. If God gives you great wealth do you likewise.

Catholic Boys' School

Boys' school:  It's a Catholic classic.  The St. Michael's Choir School is about two things: 

1) Turning boys into Catholic gentlemen and

2) Giving Holy Mother Church gloriously Catholic sacred music.  That's right.  The good stuff (114-116).

  

Do something you'll never regret.  Send your sons to a (truly) Catholic boys' school where they will learn Christian fraternity and Gregorian chant. 

Religious and Historical Patrimony

Every community therefore has the duty to take special care of its own sacred buildings, which are a precious religious and historical patrimony.
                  - Pope Benedict XVI, 9 November, 2008


Don't deny your children their patrimony.  Give to the St. Michael's Cathedral Restoration Fund.  

The Confessional

We're Catholic.  We go to confession.  We kneel before a priest in the darkness of the confessional, whisper our sins by number and kind, and hear anew those precious words of absolution.

We must go AT LEAST once per year (Can. 989).  Mother Teresa and John Paul II went to confession once a week. So does yours truly.

Maybe it's been a while for you.  Maybe you even forget how to do it.  Make an examination of conscience, remind yourself what to say, and then go.  Just go.  Go today as if your soul depended on it because, dear catholic, it very well might.

                                                                                                      

La Pietà

In the narthex.

Never was a work of art more aptly named.

Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio.

See Sr. Wendy Beckett on Michelangelo's masterpiece here at 5 min. 26 sec. Better yet, go to Rome and ask jp to show it to you in person.

Episcopal Consecration

His Excellency Vincent Nguyen, ordained Auxillary Bishop of Toronto in St. Michael's Cathedral, January 13th, 2010. Read His Excellency's amazing story here.

Me? I'm nobody. But now that he's a bishop I'm his nobody.