St. Ambrose & St. Catherine Twinned Parish
1513 23rd Ave T1M 1E2 Coaldale, AB, Canada

I expect today is an awfully hard day on social media if you (like so many millions) have had an abortion. You see pictures of unborn babies, stories of women w...ho chose life, and mourn. You read glib declarations about what pregnant women ought to do (and feel) and wish these two-dimensional assertions could be stretched and shaped by an understanding of the fear and the helplessness and the confusion and the certainty that you do *not* have a choice. You read well-reasoned statements ringing with conviction and wish you'd known, wish you'd had the resources and the support, wish a thousand things to take back that one thing. You read cruel, dehumanizing attacks on women who've had abortions and feel shame and rage and loneliness and sorrow. If you've come to oppose the evil of abortion, you're probably glad that people are being told the truth. But you also see how even that can be tied in to the toxic purity culture that pushed you into hiding, or the racism that couldn't find resources for you, or the vengeful rhetoric that alienated you, or the misogyny that raped you, threatened you, forced you into that clinic. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for your grief. I'm sorry you didn't have the support you needed. I'm sorry we made you feel ashamed. I'm sorry for the ugliness that's so often spewed in the name of life, and I'm sorry for the well-intentioned people who say true things kindly but hurt you just the same. I hope you know that you belong here. This is your Church. He is your Father. Jesus lived for you and died for you and rose for love of you. He offers mercy in the confessional and he offers himself in the Eucharist. To you. Because he loves you just as much as he ever did. Your baby loves you. If you need to, please seek healing through counseling, through confession, through aProject Rachelretreat. And please forgive us for the times we hurt you by forgetting your pain in our zeal for the unborn. We love you. There is healing. There is hope. You are not alone. (For more help, check out@rvhealing. Feel free to log off for the day if that's what you need. And the rest of you? Be kind. Hurting people are reading.)

Lent is coming up...

Announcements from The Office of the Bishop: St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy The St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy for university students and young adults in the Di...ocese of Calgary, first established in St. Bernard's Parish, Calgary, will now be headquartered at St. Mary's Cathedral and remain under the direction of Fr. Cristino Bouvette, Vicar for Vocations and Young Adults, effective February 21, 2021. The Chaplaincy will expand its operations to include outreach to university students and young adults in the City of Lethbridge effective January 21, 2021. Priest Appointment Fr. Derek Remus, in addition to being the Associate Pastor of All Saints Roman Catholic Parish, has been appointed Associate Chaplain to the St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy in Lethbridge effective January 21, 2021. #CatholicYYC

SQUIRREL DETERRENT The Presbyterian church called a meeting to decide what to do about their squirrel infestation. After much prayer and consideration, they concluded that the squirrels were predestined to be there, and they should not interfere with God’s divine will. At the Baptist church, the squirrels had taken an interest in the baptistry. The deacons met and decided to put a water-slide on the baptistry and let the squirrels drown themselves. The squirrels liked the sli...de and, unfortunately, knew instinctively how to swim, so twice as many squirrels showed up the following week. The Lutheran church decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creatures. So, they humanely trapped their squirrels and set them free near the Baptist church. Two weeks later, the squirrels were back when the Baptists took down the water-slide. The Episcopalians tried a much more unique path by setting out pans of whiskey around their church in an effort to kill the squirrels with alcohol poisoning. They sadly learned how much damage a band of drunk squirrels can do. But the Catholic church came up with a more creative strategy! They baptized all the squirrels and made them members of the church. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter. Not much was heard from the Jewish synagogue. They took the first squirrel, circumcised him....and haven’t seen another squirrel since.

The Christmas Day Mass at Noon with Bishop McGrattan will be live-streamed from St. Mary's Cathedral here: https://www.stmaryscalgary.ca/christmas #CatholicYYC

The greatest gift you have ever received was given to you on the day of your confirmation. I am discussing the gift of the Holy Spirit today on Made For Glory! ...Thanks to Glory and Shine for sponsoring this week's episode of Made for Glory! You can view their line of handcrafted Catholic personal care items here: https://gloryandshine.com/ Support Made for Glory by becoming a patron on Patreon! Visit https://SaintDominicMedia.com/Patreon for more information.

Day 26: The others were always happy when it was Balthazar’s turn to make camp.

St. Michael Ho Dinh Hy struggled mightily with scrupulosity. Except during the years that he struggled with adultery. He was a pillar of the Christian community... and an adulterer, a man of great charity and a traitor. Michael was a Vietnamese bureaucrat, in charge of all silk manufacturing. Though married, he took a mistress and fathered 3 illegitimate children. Still he considered himself a Catholic, though a tortured one. Finally, Michael repented and began a life of service. He adopted 2 enslaved girls and cared for an opium addict until his death. He smuggled missionaries throughout Vietnam and became a leader in the local Church. But there was a fear driving Michael. He couldn’t grasp the enormity of God’s mercy that had made him new. "We have to do as many good deeds as possible to atone for our sins, he said, failing to understand that only the blood of Christ can do that. All his good works weren't enough. When Michael was arrested, he broke under torture. His confession resulted in the arrest of 29 people. Even then he was still worthy of God’s mercy. A priest managed to visit Michael in prison to hear his confession. After all he’d done, still this Father was willing to risk his life to bring him the Father’s mercy. After this, Michael no longer had a frantic spirit, a desperate need to earn forgiveness. He didn’t weep or beg for his life. On the day of his execution, he smoked one last cigarette and knelt to pray, transformed by the power of grace. St. Michael Ho Dinh Hy is a beautiful witness to those who’ve betrayed their marriage vows. But his story is most powerful for the scrupulous, who worry that they haven’t repented well enough or done enough good deeds to atone for their sins. If you struggle with scrupulosity, you are not alone. The path to peace lies not through countless acts of charity or perfectly-recited rosaries, but through repentance and grace. This is what St. Michael Ho Dinh Hy finally learned. Through his intercession, may all who fear that they’re unworthy of the love of God come to know that his love and mercy are given freely for the asking. On this feast of the Vietnamese Martyrs, St. Michael Ho Dinh Hy, pray for us!

Anyone else? Thank goodness for screens and projectors and misselettes.

I was, some years ago, alone in a foreign country. Terribly alone, as it seemed, my meditation turning into something of a pity party. All I could see was what ...I didn’t have: a home or a family or anyone who loved me best of all. Whether or not any of that was true is irrelevant. What mattered at the time was that I believed it. I wallowed all through the Mass. As I knelt in the pew after communion, a sob escaped my lips. Jesus! I prayed. I’m just wandering! I’m just wandering! Then I heard the words the congregation was singing, a song I’d never heard before: Mother of Christ, Star of the Sea, pray for the wanderer. Pray for me! It was like Mary had reached right down out of heaven, pulled my head to her chest, and kissed me on the forehead. You may be wandering, dearest, she seemed to say, but I’m right here beside you. It was the beginning of my devotion to Mary, Star of the Sea. I began advocating the name Stella for babies, even calling my new car Stella Maris and buying her in a lovely Marian blue. I saw Mary as my guiding star when I'm adrift, the light that leads me back to Christ. Of course, Jesus is the light of the world, Mary just a star. Jesus calmed storms; the Stella Maris just guides us through them. But in those moments of fear and confusion, when God himself seems distant, there is still a glimmer of light. He has given us his Mother, the Star of the Sea, to call wanderers back to him. If 2020 has made you feel far from Christ; if your personal life is a shambles and you can’t find your way out of the mess you’ve made; if you’ve fallen away from practicing your faith, or even if you’ve run; if you worry that the Church itself is being shaken from the rock it was built on; if you're terrified of what might be coming next, ask Our Lady, Star of the Sea to be a light in the darkness to lead us all to our heavenly home. (I LOVE this shirt from @brickhouseinthecity, a reminder not only of Mary's guidance but also of her strength, her refusal to fit in boxes. Mary wasn't just sweet and silent, she was a warrior, a strong woman who made waves. She is a tremendous gift to those of us who have been called to do the same.)

"On this Sunday which closes the liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe . . . He, the obedient Serv...ant, is King because he has 'the keys of death and Hades' (Rv 1:18). And, because he is the conqueror of death, hell and Satan, he is 'the ruler of kings on earth' (Rv 1:5). In fact, everything on earth is subject to death. Instead, he who has power over death opens the prospect of immortal life to all humanity. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the fulfilment of all creation (cf. Rv 1:8), so that every generation can repeat: Blessed is his kingdom that is coming (cf. Mk 11:10) . . . The Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, invites us to repeat with faith the prayer of the Our Father, which Jesus himself taught us: 'Thy kingdom come'." Pope St. John Paul II, Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King, 23 November 1997