Archbishop Dennis T O'Connor, CSB

The likeness of His Grace Archbishop O'Connor, 3rd archbishop of Toronto, hangs in the sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

His Grace was the first Basilian priest to be consecrated to the episcopate and the first Ontario-born Bishop of Toronto. Let us pray for him and for the great mission of his episcopate (1899-1908): 

Truly Catholic education in truly Catholic schools.

Grace

His Grace, Archbishop Collins in St. Michael's Cathedral. His Grace is a great encourager of vocations and can occasionally be found having coffee at nearby Fran's Diner with a seminarian or someone else who is considering a call to Religious life or the Priesthood.

A religious vocation is the greatest grace that God can give a soul after Holy Baptism.  

                    – St. Mary Magdelene de Pazzi

On The Religious Life and Death

The grave marker of some of Toronto's first B.V.M. sisters in the basement crypt of St. Michael's Cathedral.

They [religious] live more purely, they fall more rarely, they rise more speedily, they are aided more powerfully, they live more peacefully, they die more securely, and they are rewarded more abundantly. 

              – St. Bernard of Clairvaux

All Saints' Day

A painting of the Canadian martyrs in the nave of St. Michael's Cathedral.  The frame was made from parts of the old reredos.

After Noon today, and until Midnight tomorrow, a person who has been to confession and Communion can gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, for the poor souls in Purgatory each time he visits a church or public oratory and recites the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father six times. This is a special exception to the ordinary law of the Church according to which a plenary indulgence for the same work can be gained only once a day.

Why not celebrate All Saints' Day by helping make some new saints? Oh think how gladly they shall return your kindness when they reach heaven on the wings of your prayers!

Obedience to Bishops

The likeness of Archbishop Denis T. O'Conner C.S.B. (1841-1908) hangs in the Sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Bishops are the successors of the apostles and are owed obedience (CCC 861-2). Want to stick it to the Devil? 

The Devil doesn’t fear austerity but holy obedience.
  – St. Francis de Sales

Pray For Sisters

A marker from the crypt of St. Michael's Cathedral.

SOROR

M.J. BONAVENTURA

Migravit ad sponsum

11° APRILIS 1849

Migravit ad sponsum – what a precious way to put it.  Religious do not have biological children to pray for the repose of their souls. Lucky for us they do have spiritual children, so get praying. If Sister is already with her Divine Spouse, she doesn't need your prayers but prays for you. Communion of saints, People. Communion. Of. Saints.

The likeness of Bishop Armand Francois Marie de Charbonnel, P.S.S. hangs in the sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

de Charbonnel was consecrated Toronto’s second bishop by Pope Pius IX in the Sistine Chapel on May 26, 1850.

A Frenchman and a Sulpician, he doubled the number of priests and parishes in Toronto, introduced several religious orders to the diocese, and used his personal funds to pay off the Cathedral’s debts.

Passionists

Note the Passionist symbol on his holy habit: a heart with three nails at the bottom, the words "Jesu XPI Passio", topped with a cross. Oh to wear the Holy Name over a consecrated heart!

While walking I was recollected in prayer: when I turned the corner to go home I was raised up by God to the heights of recollection to the point of forgetting everything else and sensed an interior sweetness: it was at this moment that I saw myself, in spirit, vested in black from head to toe, with a white cross on my breast and under the cross the Most Holy name of Jesus in white letters.      – St. Paul of the Cross

Guardians of Purity, Unselfishness, and Piety

Two sweet sisters leave St. Michael's Cathedral amid the faithful after Mass.

Especially you, consecrated virgins, in a world where egoism and the search for pleasure would become law, be the guardians of purity, unselfishness, and piety. Jesus, who has given to conjugal love all its plentitudes, has also exalted the renouncement of human love when this is for the sake of divine love and for the service of all.  

        - Closing Messages of the Council, 1965.

Making a Good Trade

A Sister of Life kneels in prayer at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Photo credit.

What a great and laudable exchange to leave the things of time for those of eternity. To choose the things of heaven over the goods of earth. To receive a hundred-fold in place of one, and to posses a blessed and eternal life.     

                                            – St. Clare

Is this your vocation?

Binding Up Wounds of Body and Soul

Perhaps you have also noticed two Sisters wearing their full, dark, holy habits around the Cathedral this week?  They are physicians and belong to the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. 

 Is this your vocation?

For St. Joseph

A Sister of St. Joseph outside St. Michael's Cathedral

This year Sister is celebrating her golden jubilee in la vie consacrée. That is a lifetime of poverty, chastity, and obedience in service of God and neighbour.  Thank you, Sister.

The Sisters of St. Joseph founded Toronto’s Food Bank. These days they care for the poor and disabled, visit the lonely, provide transitional housing to vulnerable woman, and do a good many other worthy and unglamorous  things for people.

Is this your vocation?  Go here.  You won't get an awesome habit but you WILL get a pretty good shot at personal holiness, community life, and quiet service.  Oh...and if you're really, really lucky, you'll get 50 years espoused to The Most High.