This past year was filled with excitement!  Between parish activities, leading a group to World Youth Day in Madrid and completing Teacher’s College at OISE in Toronto, it was certainly a full year!

While I have now left the Parish, I look forward to connecting with you all again when, God willing, I become employed as a Chaplain or a teacher with the Toronto Catholic District School Board.  God bless you all and thank you again for all your support at the Parish.  Please continue to keep me in your prayers, as I will continue to keep you all in mine.

Feel free to look at our stories from World Youth Day as well;  http://stbonaventureyouth.wordpress.com/

God bless,

Rachel Nazareth

Goodness!  We’ve been doing a lot of volunteering for the past few months.

We have;

• Volunteered for the homeless

• Volunteered for victims of human trafficking through our book sale

• On August 14, I pray that many of you will volunteer for ‘Linda’s Walk’ for St.Clare Inn and volunteer to help homeless women with mental health issues.

But what about taking care of our other brother’s and sister’s, the furry ones, the fluttering ones, and the green leafy ones?

St. Francis of Assisi told us that we are a family of created beings made by God, so we are in a relationship with creation!

This means all forms of creation need our time, our care, our love, too.

This Saturday, 6 young people, 11 – 25 yrs, will volunteer to collect butterflies for the Carden Alvar Butterfly Count!!

Click here to see the details.

Three more volunteers are welcome to join us! Check out the butterflies that we might see!!

Here’s a Delaware Skipper Butterfly!  (Below)

Here’s an Acadian Hairstreak!  (Below)

Here’s a Coral Hairstreak! (Below)

Here’s a Baltimore Checkerspots!  (Below)

Here’s  Grey Comma!  (Below)

Here’s an Eastern Comma!  (Below)

Here’s a Question Mark!  (Below)

Here’s an American Painted Lady!  (Below)

We’ll see three species of Duskywings!  (Below) Like this one;

I hope that many of you will join us to count the butterflies to make sure that their habitats are keeping them safe.  To learn more about why statistics and counting is important for different butterflies in Canada, join us!  We’ll be pros when we return from this trip!

We will meet at the office at 6am Saturday morning July 17 to travel together to Dalrymple at Carden Recreation Centre to care for butterflies and their habitat and then return to St. Bonaventure Church by 7pm. I hope to have you with us!

THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO ALL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES IN THE GTA!

Email Rachel to sign up! rachel@st-bonaventure.ca

Exams are almost over and for many students the end of high school spells one thing…f-r-e-e-d-o-m!

The beginning of university, college, or a job  is so full of endless possibilities.

Yes, there is the learning side; if you go to university or college you will be faced with a full work load and high expectations.

And if you are off to work, you will be learning the lessons that life in the workforce will teach you, such as the importance of arriving on time and getting the job done.

But back to the freedom part.  Yes, this new adventure is going to open you up to many things.

Whether you leave home or whether you stay home, you are a young adult now and your parents will set new boundaries for you.  If you are leaving home, for the first time you’ll have to set new boundaries for yourself!

So what does this mean?  It means you are going to have the freedom to choose what you want to do in the next few years.

You’re going to be faced with opportunities to socialize all the time (day and night), you will be making your own decisions around drinking, drugs, handling your own nutrition, and dare I say it, yes, you will be living in a community that is trying to understand how to carry themselves as sexual beings.

It’s going to be fun adventure, but before anyone goes on a big journey they take some time to get prepared!

Of course this means packing your bags, buying books, getting a TTC pass or even a car, getting some dishes for your new place, or a new computer…but this also means taking some time to talk about what you can expect in these new environments and asking yourself,

how am I going to make these decisions for myself?  What will I do or where will I go when things don’t go perfectly?

And so I am offering a safe space for us to reflect and talk about the feelings that surround this time of transition.

We will be having some guest speakers, students from various universities, who will share their words of wisdom and who will answer some of your questions.

It will also be a day for us to consider, where is God in all of this?

You are now going to be at the point where your parents no longer wake you and drive you to Church.  What will that mean for you? How will you take your faith with you on this next step?

High School students, I do promise that this retreat will be a beneficial day for you.  Bring your friends too!

Join us Saturday, June 26th at 9:00am - 2:30pm and gather your thoughts before you head off on this new adventure.

Registration is only $10 and will include lunch and free gifts, see you there!

Yes, my title is controversial.   But honestly, this is what many people think.

“Starvation only happens in Africa/India/China”

“Human trafficking of sex slaves only happens in Brazil, Philippines, India”

But of course, this isn’t true. Recently I started asking my colleagues in Christian circles about organizations that are putting the spotlight on the serious problem of human trafficking in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Unfortunately I found an organization that is helping victims, and I found out a little more than I wanted to.

An organization called Walk-With-Me was started by a young Hungarian woman with hopes and dreams, who was trafficked from Hungary to Toronto when she was only 20 years old.

On April 18, 1998, Timea arrived at Terminal 3 in the  Pearson International Airport.

After being told that she would be working as a housekeeper, nanny or nightclub dancer, instead Timea was stripped of her identification, and told that in fact she would be working as an exotic dancer.

Here starts the journey of an immigrant sex slave.

Timea was forced to work as a sex slave in Toronto, Canada for the following 3 months including numerous occasions of sexual assault at her employers hands as well as a Canadian agent - a living nightmare.

(quotations taken from www.walk-with-me.org)

After getting out of this situation, 12 years later, Timea decided to give back to the community and to educate Canadians on this terrible crime.

Today Timea counsels sex slave victims and educates the police in various Ontario regions on how to identify victims of human trafficking.  She also gives guest talks to young people and adults so that her story will help others avoid this nightmare.

On Saturday, June 19^th at 11am @ St. Bonaventure Church in the Parish Hall Timea Nagy is coming to share her story with us and to educate youth and young adults about how not to get involved in dangerous situations.

God bless you all.  Please pray for the victims of human trafficking and their captors (even evil people can change their ways and their hearts can be transformed with God’s help).

Human Trafficking Prayer (www.franciscansinternational.org)

Lord of freedom and love, we are saddened to know that more than one million people are trafficked into slavery each year.

Fill us with the wisdom and courage to stand in solidarity with the victims so that we may all enjoy the freedoms and rights which have their source in your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

Back in May the Confirmation Class of 2010, Friar David, their teachers and I went on a retreat at St. Jude’s Academy.

St. Jude’s Academy is a school for adults with mental and physical disabilities, however, it’s a place where all the adult students give and receive love and care.  It really is a place full of love, friendship and laughter (not to mention AWESOME music!!).

At St. Jude’s Academy, Angie and one of the other staff members educated us on the miracle of the Shroud of Turin.

For those of you who don’t know about the Shroud, it is the cloth believed to be the cloth that wrapped Jesus in the tomb.

The cloth has an imprint on it that can only be detected with special photographic technology.  Many believe that this cloth is here today so that we can see and believe, to give proof to those who need proof of Christ’s existence today.

The staff at St. Jude’s Academy gave me some links to share about the shroud.

Recently a documentary has been made about the shroud and it is iPod ready, take a look for it;  “The Real Face of Jesus” Documentary.

Here are the other links;

www.Shroud.com

www.shrouduniversity.com

www.shroudstory.com

www.shroud.wikispaces.com

Personally, in my life, both my answered (and my unanswered) prayers have been evidence enough for me of God’s existence and Christ’s real love for me…

…..okay if I didn’t believe in God I certainly wouldn’t be doing this job as a Youth Minister for the fame and fortune!

But, take a look at the links and do explore your faith.  If this is how God can touch your heart, then good job to all the scientists that are out there working on the shroud studies!

God bless you all, remember, if you have any questions, come talk to me or one of the Friars, we can chat about the importance of miracles in the Christian faith!

What was St. Francis like?  Have you ever wondered?  For that matter, what was any saint like?

Sometimes saints seem really really far away in our minds, like fictional characters from comic books or something.

But remember….saints were real and they still are real, they belong to the communion of saints, and so do we!  The communion (like community) of saints include all Christians both living and dead who are united to God.

So just like them when they walked the earth, YOU are a saint in the making! (Yeah, I said it, even though you just called your sister a fathead or talked behind someone’s back….I said in the making, I didn’t say you were there YET!)

St. Francis was actually a simple man who just decided he wanted to live out the Gospel through service of others.

And honestly, I think he got a thrill out of sacrificing for others, because every time he did, he became more and more like someone he loved, Jesus.

The other week, we too took a step forward to carry out an act of service.  We went to St. Francis Table downtown to be waitresses and waiters at a restaurant for homeless women and men!

Doing the food preparation, serving the food and serving each table was really a joy.  Every student who participated said that they had a fantastic time and they wanted to serve more in the future.

I really do think Jesus started a big movement when he said “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31), because shoot, it fills one more stomach, creates one more smile and it creates one more genuinely happy person in the world.

And to me, that’s what bringing God’s kingdom on earth is all about.  Good job everyone!

The Mother’s Day Brunch was fantastic!!

We had a lovely afternoon together. Thank you to everyone who joined us. God has really blessed us with wonderful mothers, so it was nice to give them an afternoon off that was just for them!

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped set-up, cook the food, and clean-up, you were all amazing!

God bless you all.

Also, two of our young ladies wrote a speech for their mom, but because we got so busy playing games, they never got to say it!

So here’s their lovely speech….this one’s going out to all the mothers (remember, read it like two young ladies are giving the speech):

Whenever there is a birthday in my class, my teacher asks us if our mom gave us the birthing speech.

The birthing speech is when our mothers tell us about how “I was in labor for 5 hours” or how “ I was in pain during and after your birth.” But it always ends in “I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl/boy.”

Good afternoon mothers, ladies, germs, and Rachel. My name is Natalie and I’m Mitchell aka Michelle.

First I’ll start off with MY story. Let’s put it this way, I LOVE dinner. You mean you love interrupting dinner. Oh ha ha!!! Actually she loves doing it soooo much she did it twice. The first one was in Alabama and. . . um can I tell my story? Sure? !

Like Nat said I interrupted my mom’s dinner in Alabama at a restaurant!  Luckily, there was a nurse nearby who took my mom to a hospital. Sadly, my mom wanted me to be Canadian.

The second time my mom wasn’t able to finish dinner was in Peterborough but this dinner was a bit more spiritual than the first. It was Easter dinner!!! Just call me Easter bunny.

We all have our own story that our mother has told us once or twice. You know I have a pretty good story about how my mom figured out if I was a boy or a girl. It all started when my mom went for an ultrasound.

The doctors could tell from my heartbeat that I was going to be a BOY!!! They were way off!!! They could tell I was going to be a boy because my heartbeat was slow and steady. Girl’s heartbeats are faster. So the doctor told my mom that I was DEFFINITLEY going to be a boy.

You should have seen their faces when I turned out to be a girl!!! Luckily my mom and dad brang a yellow outfit with them. But no matter what your birthing story is you should get a chuckle or two out of it.

Mothers are great, no there wonderful, no theire extraordinary, no their… well you just can’t put it into words. We all remember one time that we fell off our bike, had a bad dream, lost our first tooth, or even got a paper cut. Now tell me who did you go too?

My mommy. Well we can’t help it, it’s instinct.

Now what did they say? “suck it up kid?”

NO!!!

“build a bridge and get over it?”

NO!!!

They said “it’ll be all right. Now come here and give me a hug!!!”

I like the previous options (I think she meant latter) better.

When your in their arms everything seems to not matter. All you feel is safe, warm, calm, strong, and most of all you feel happy.

Come to think of it Moms work soooo hard for us. They take us to school. . . like I’d actually want to go!, they cook our meals. . .oh so that was what she was doing while I played on my video games!

They took care of us while we were sick. . . over rated!, they love us. . . well they have to do that it’s in the “how to be a good mother for morons guide book”! Man they cook, they clean, they care for us. . . now your getting the idea Nat! . . . Ya their like our own personal pack mull! Way! Way! Off!!!!! Ok, ok!!!

We love you ma!!!!!!

What a great speech!  Thank you Nat & Michelle!

Yes, our mothers are amazing and we simply must thank God for them every day.

In fact if you’re reading this, try to go give your mom a hug right now!

Or give her a call and say thanks for all those things she did for you as a kid.  Moms, you rock!!

This comic is awesome.  Sometimes we complain about the smallest bump in the road and we don’t always see how God is protecting us all the time!!  Jesus is like “are you okay?”  Such a sweet comic

It’s a funny thing, lots of people both teenagers and adults dread confession. The dark confessionals, the speaking to a priest who’s sometimes a stranger, actually admitting our sins (and the fact that we are not perfect) to another person.

Yup, it’s the kind of sacrament that doesn’t have the “feel good” element like the other sacraments….you know, Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, they all have a celebratory, joyful feel to them.

However, let me suggest that even confession can be a time for celebration…..IF we approach it in a new way.

In the past few months Friar David & I were preparing our Confirmation Students to receive the Holy Spirit and the topic of confession came up more than once, in retreats and in discussions. The idea was focused around the fact that we all make mistakes and confession is the sacrament that allows us to let go of those mistakes and make sure that they do not continue to drag us down!

Yes, confession allows us to reflect on our lives, admit that we fail, but that God wants us to get back up and continue on our journey…and after confession we do it a little lighter, with a little less baggage.

In a Grade 8 classroom debate about confession one of the students noted that confession is important because “we want to listen for God’s voice, but sometimes the world is so loud that we can’t hear God’s voice, so we spend time with a priest so that God can speak through him, to us”

I thought it was an excellent argument!

Indeed when we act out against others or against ourselves, we are in need of being cleansed.

On our Confirmation Retreat, Angie, our speaker, told us that just like our bodies, it is important to take care of our spirits. We have to feed, exercise, and clean our souls and our bodies. While we take care of our bodies every day, we must do the same for our spirits, especially before we receive the Holy Spirit at Confirmation.

She taught us that;

-we feed our spirit through the Eucharist

-we exercise our spirit through prayer, attending mass and taking care of others

-and finally we clean our spirit through confession

You may ask yourself; why on earth do I , a teenager or a child, need confession?

In an article I was reading recently, it noted that youth need reconciliation,

“Because they just yelled at their mom, fought with a friend, gossiped about a classmate and said cruel things about someone they envy. They kicked a hole in the wall, turned their back on a peer in need, ditched a group of friends for a ‘better’ group and heaped ridicule – just for ‘fun’, on the school outcast.”

While these things happen because teens are human and we all sin, they also happen because they are going through adolescence.

“Adolescence is a time of stress, and teens do not handle stress well – like the rest of us adults. They act out their stress in negative ways against others, and sometimes themselves – suicidal thoughts, drugs and alcohol, eating disorders, cutting. Teens are stressed because they worry about everything…they worry about conflicts at home, their grades, their looks, their friendships, and their popularity.”

So it seems that confession is perfect for children and teens, because it is the kind of sacrament that helps us look at where we have acted badly, but it then helps us to learn from our mistakes and to grow!

Yes, while confession used to be something that was dreaded, it can actually be the cause for celebration!

Because once we let go of our sins in confession, we are completely forgiven and are now ready to follow Jesus Christ better.

I took a lesson from Angie and I invited 4 priests to come and hear confessions on the rehearsal day before our Confirmation.

I was honestly astounded by the number of youth, parents and sponsors who took the opportunity to go to confession. Afterward, many of them said that they were pleasantly surprised and confession wasn’t as scary as they thought it would be!

Honestly, many priests are very loving people who are simply looking to make their fellow Christians lives better, and more free and joyful!

I’ve learned a lot from journeying with this Confirmation group this year, and if there is one thing I take with me, it’s that confession can be a really joyful and freeing sacrament!

I challenge you to try it this summer.

Yes, it was a very sunny day when our small “Reach Out!” Acts of Service group from the Parish went off on our Poverty Walk.

Jonathan, our Franciscan Friar-in-training noted that the whole experience made him think of this passage;

Matthew 25: 34 - 40

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will say “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

-F³⁵or I was hungry and you gave me food,

-I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

-I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

-³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing,

-I was sick and you took care of me,

-I was in prison and you visited me.”

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him,

-“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

-³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

-³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”

⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you,

Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,^* you did it to me.”

Thank you God for inspiring us and instructing us to Reach Out beyond ourselves and care for your children. The whole experience was really incredible.

From making the sandwiches in the morning (and then making sure they tasted good too!) we really felt happy that we were caring for individuals that needed some extra love and care on a Sunday afternoon.

While walking along and actually approaching individuals who were homeless was very challenging (and a little scary at times), we overcame our nervousness and fed a number of people in the Sherbourne/Queen area in downtown Toronto.

All of us noted, that the people we met were very friendly and very thankful for the food. We enjoyed each other’s company and really felt like we were fulfilling God’s request to care for each other on earth, so that every day we are building up God’s Kingdom on earth.

We also stopped at St. Michael’s Cathedral downtown to light a candle and pray for all the people whom we met today.

Thank you to everyone who came out and volunteered. It was a real blessing to work with each of you and we look forward to working with you again in the future!  Peace!