A message to understand

Today I attended a prayer service which was held by the Archdiocese of Montreal, in Thanksgiving for the World Youth Days held in Germany. It was held at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, in downtown Montreal.

I took the train to get downtown. On my way from the train terminal to the Cathedral, I walked in front of St. George’s Anglican Church (I am familiar with this place because I have already attended a wedding there). I noticed that the gates that usually lock the front doors were absent, and that there was light inside the church. [I should add here, as a foreword, that my curiosity often gets me in trouble; but in this case, it served me well.] So I boldly went up the stairs, walked passed the first set of doors and stood at the threshold of the second set of doors that open onto the church. There was a group of people playing praise songs together. They smiled at me and continued singing. I lingered long enough for them to take a break, and for one of the members of the group to come and greet me. Before leaving, I sweeped a long glance across the otherwise empty church, and noticed a huge banner with the words “BEYOND OURSELVES” on it.

Then, later on in the evening, when I made it to the Cathedral, among other things, we listened to a talk given by Bishop Anthony Mancini. One of the points he emphasized is that there is a disease in our culture called “self-obsession”. We get so caught up in what we want that we forget everybody else. However, life is beyond just our own selves; it is about the other. He said that we must go beyond ourselves to touch our co-workers, our families, the church, the world!

The message was loud and clear, and it seems like all Christians are together on this, at this crucial time. Now, the only thing we need to figure out is how we are called to go beyond ourselves, each in our own lives. This is a mystery! May we find the grace to reach out of ourselves, to reach the fullness of God!

N.B. Here is the list of readings we had this evening. They are very beautiful (especially the last one):

-John 20: 24-29 -Luke 11: 9-10 -1 Cor. 10: 14-17 -Eph. 3: 14-20