Leave behind your nets and…

Posted on January 26, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under General posts, Sunday Reflections

In Mark’s Gospel we hear about Jesus walking along the beach and inviting His future apostles to come and follow Him. I’d like to share with you a short reflection, which really spoke to me;

“From St.John’s Gospel we know that Jesus had already met and spent time with the four apostles whom he calls so suddenly in this passage. It’s important to keep this in mind: far from unexpectedly demanding an irrational abandonment of family, career, and previous plans, Jesus built up a relationship of mutual knowledge and trust before he invited Peter, Andrew, James, and John to become His full-time disciples.

Likewise only as we cultivate a true friendship and an intimate and ongoing exchange of hearts with our Lord will we be able to hear and heed his call in our life. This is not a God who demands blind obedience to his awesome power; this is Jesus Christ, true man, who meets us right where we are and walks along the shore of our lives, who wishes to get to know us, to spend time with us, and to call us by our names. This is a Lord and God who wants our friendship, so that he can share his life with us.” *(taken from ‘The Better Part’ p.347)

This reflection speaks so closely to my heart: “…as we cultivate a true friendship and an intimate ongoing exchange of hearts with our Lord we will be able to hear and heed his call in our life.” In my own life I can look back and recognize many of these moments. I would like to share one such example with you today; why I (along with my family) am here (in Telegraph Creek) today. I share this, not out of a self-righteousness (that I am so close to the Lord) but, from the joy of my heart and to give glory to God for how he has worked in my life, and in the life of my family, and how he can work in all of our lives.

Denise and myself first felt God pulling us to serve as missionaries, about 6 years ago, after hearing a priest share about the northern Catholic missions and the shortage of priests (and even the lack of a spiritual presence) in many of these remote locations, even within our own province. As we thought and prayed about this we came to the realization that our family was our first missionary territory; that we need to be rooted in love and hope in order to share that with others. We joined a group of other like-minded people; seeking to enter into the heart of Jesus. We felt a continual pull to the idea of reaching out to others in a remote community, but we continued to wait on God’s timing.

Reading the line from Mark’s Gospel, “…[James and John] left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed Him”, struck me today as I read it, because this was much of my experience. Being involved in the family business, I almost literally dropped the “net” and followed. This was my biggest struggle. It was a “net” that I had a hard time letting go of and giving to God; “Should I leave the family business high and dry? What about my future in the family business? How would we provide for our family, and meet their needs?” It came to a point where I/we had to open myself/ourselves to a deeper trust in God’s plan. This decision led us to a point where we told the Bishop, of the Catholic Diocese of Whitehorse, that we would go wherever the greatest need was. This symbolized, especially for me, a letting go of that “net” of control and of our own plans. Moving to Telegraph Creek was also the first time we had ever been there, but what a glorious abandonment.

Our time here has already been filled with so many blessings; everyone here has been so generous and hospitable, we feel welcomed as a part of the community, we have had more time to spend with our children, and God has provided so much for us financially. We feel that the biggest blessing is being able to serve others and to be a witness to God’s love for us, as our ‘job’. I am, we are, in no way perfect, but continue to be open and active in my/our relationship with Christ, that He may transform my/our heart/s.

In sharing this I realize that we are not all called to serve in the church, as Denise and myself are, but in our relationship with the Lord He leads us to where He needs us. It is through this relationship with Christ that even something as simple as a smile or a “hello” can be ways of bringing Him to others.

I would encourage you today, even right now, to take a look at how you have been led through your relationship with God, or maybe you haven’t; either way, take some time to sit with this scripture passage (Mark 1.14-20) and envision yourself as one of the apostles, sitting in the boat, as Jesus asks you, “Come follow me.” And think about what nets you are being called to leave behind for Him.

The scripture readings for today;

Jonah 3.1-5, 10

Psalm 25

1 Corinthians 7.29-31

Mark 1.14-20

…remind us that God wants to be a part of our lives, He can work amazing things when we are open to Him, and He is never very far away.

*Excerpt taken from: “The Better Part: A Christ-centred resource for personal prayer”, by John Bartunek

New Page!

Posted on January 23, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under General posts

We have posted our December Holy Family Apostolate reflection here.

It’s a little late, but includes timeless wisdom and spiritual food for thought and reflection!

Blessings to all.

Aliz is crawling!

Posted on January 8, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under Video

Aliz has been crawling for a couple weeks now, if you don’t count her army crawl , and she’s starting to get pretty fast:) We thought we would share some video footage with you! Along with candid moments from the other kids as well. Enjoy.

A smile from one (y)ear to another

Posted on January 7, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under Life in Telegraph, Photo Album

It was 30 below here today, and has been hovering between this and 25 below over the past 3 days. It is very interesting to see your windows turn into big ice cubes along the bottom, which usually starts happening around 20 below. It is wonderful to experience a northern winter, and is much drier than a winter in the south. There hasn’t really been any wind yet so the cold is bearable. The snow doesn’t pack well, so there hasn’t been any snowmen, but it looks like it is supposed to warm up to close to 0 degrees by the middle of next week so maybe there will be soon.

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Now that the festivities of Christmas, New Year’s, and Epiphany are past, and things are back to a mostly regular schedule with Denise going back to cooking at the school(for the mornings) and the girls back at school, there is some time to share with all of you some of the highlights that have taken place over the course of the last couple weeks.

Christmas day arrived rather quickly this year. I am not sure why, but I suppose it might be because we have just been kept busy with kids. Thanks be to God, everyone was past all of their major sickness, with the climax being Kateri having a blown ear drum. But besides a few sniffles, we were all in great spirits, especially with the visit of Denise’s sister, Diane. We celebrated Mass here on Christmas morning, with the blessing of Fr.Robert arriving from Edmonton! He celebrated two Christmas Eve Masses at the nearby(2-3 hours drive) communities of Dease Lake & Iskut, before arriving out here in Telegraph Creek on Christmas morning, accompanied by the pastoral administrator at Iskut, Rob Lacroix. We had a lovely celebration and felt very blessed. For the community here I think they had been used to a Christmas Eve Mass, and so the attendance was down, along with quite a few people having left town for the Christmas break.

Fr.Robert placing his ‘heart’ at the feet of Jesus

Fr.Robert celebrating Mass

Celebrating Christmas Day Mass

Aliz & Denise placing their ‘heart’ at the feet of the baby Jesus

“Our hearts are mangers to receive the newborn Christ-child!”

Merry Christmas!

We have really felt, as a family, that we were really able to enter into the meaning and the spirit of Christmas this year; being away from the hustle and bustle and just feeling like we had more time to be together and do things together. We were shared a neat idea for celebrating the 12 days of Christmas so we thought we would try it this year. With the kids we had grabbed a bunch of our Christmas books and wrapped, and numbered, them for the 12 days of Christmas. Along with the gift that we had got from my brother and sister-in-law(which was done in the same manner) we opened one on each day of Christmas, reading the book and sharing the gift. It is a joy to see the excitement on the kid’s faces in the simplicity of receiving stickers or hot chocolate mix. It was actually quite humorous as well, that both Denise & myself also got each other “12 Days of Christmas” gifts, without even collaborating, many of which are based around quality time, and so we have had lots of time to ponder and enjoy simply the gifts we have in each other and in our children. It has been different being away from family, although with Skype and FaceTime you never feel too far away, and so it has been nice having the opportunity to connect at least in some manner, even when distance seems to create that physical barrier of being present bodily.

Down by the river, at Glenora

The sledding hill

Auntie Diane did a pretty spectacular job with the set of face paints that the girls got for Christmas

Isaiah, in his new bathrobe, working the numbers at his new work bench

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Josh drove Diane back down to Terrace on the 29th, a 16 hour round trip, staying with the Vandenberg’s again! The weather was beautiful and the roads were great for travelling.

Aliz is now fully mobile, moving from a crawl to a sit, and back again; tearing around the house on her hands and knees. If you can’t find her anywhere, just look under the kitchen table and chairs. For some reason she enjoys hanging out in confined spaces.

We woke up on New Year’s Day to find about 9 inches of freshly fallen snow, and with 3 hours to do something about it before people would be arriving for the communion service at 11:30. So I went next door and the neighbour’s (The RCMP) were kind enough to lend us a snow blower. Needless to say, the whole driveway and parking lot(if you could call it that) were in ship-shape condition and ready for traffic with enough time to spare! About 4 more inches of snow fell the following day, and just today, as I am writing this, we are receiving a bunch more. With 4 inches overnight and another 4 inches expected throughout today and into the evening.

Snowblowing the driveway!

The girls’ lovely window art!

Handmade window art, by Kateri & Gianna

Kateri & Gianna’s new doll house, crafted by daddy, painted by mommy and daddy

Doll house!

Out for a walk

“I’m happy in the snow”

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It has been a great opportunity getting to lead communion services for the community. It has created opportunities to go deeper into scripture and really apply it to our lives. Last Sunday, for the feast of the Epiphany, we had an Epiphany party. After the service we had a potluck lunch, and the three wise men came bearing a spiritual gift for each of us. We then prayed an epiphany home blessing.

Our Pastoral Study Days, or days of recollection, have been bumped from February to January, so next week we will be in Whitehorse taking time to reflect, meet up with friends, do a grocery shop, and maybe even get out to see the new Hobbit movie at the theatre.

Difficult Journey

Posted on January 5, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under Sunday Reflections

Christmas brings out the generous spirit in people. Partly, gift-giving is a natural way of celebrating, but I also see it as a supernatural response to God’s gifts to us. It seems to me that at this time of year we are particularly aware of all our blessings, and we are reminded of the greatest gift, Jesus Christ, the dawning brightness that the ancient prophets longed and hungered for, as we hear in the book of Isaiah.

In the gospel of Matthew we are reminded, by the actions of the wise men, how great this gift truly is. Bearing their gifts to Him, the wise men paid homage to Jesus. They made the sacrifice of a dangerous journey, using their knowledge of the stars to find the way, and they gave Him gifts that were precious and sincere. The wise men’s response is profound and enlightening, and begs a crucial question from us: what is your response to Christ?

The story of the wise men from the East shows us three very different responses, or attitudes, towards Christ. The one we choose will determine the path our life will follow.

The first path is fear. This is King Herod’s response. He fears the loss of the throne to a rival king. He fears what he doesn’t know and what he can’t control. And so he rejects the truth that could have brought him peace, leading down a path of lies and murder.

None of us here are murderous tyrants, but we can still be tempted to fear Jesus. He can challenge our selfish ambitions and desires. He can seem to be an obstacle to the life we want, or to our own ideas of comfort and security. Who Jesus is can frighten us to the point that he’s as threatening to us as he was to Herod.

The second path is the way of indifference. Look at the experts that Herod sought for advice and direction. They are religious scribes and pharisees, they know the scriptures well and give Herod the correct answer to his question, but it makes no difference to their lives. We hear nothing further about them. They don’t ask the wise men to accompany them in their caravan; they’re not interested in seeing for themselves wether the Messiah has been born nearby.

We too can be tempted like this: not really to deny the Lord but, to refuse to do anything much about Him. We subscribe to faith, but not to the demands of discipleship, of living it out in our daily lives.

Happily, there is a third way and the wise men show us where it leads. Their attitude is one of readiness; they are ready to be inconvenienced, ready to meet the Lord where He is and not where they want Him to be. This can be a model for us.

The truth is, we need the feast of the Epiphany to complete Christmas. It should inspire us to leave our comfort zone and get moving on the road that takes us to the life Christ came to bring, a life of sharing our most sincere gifts of service and charity towards others, and of receiving Him intensely into our own lives and hearts.

Only those who give truly receive; only those who surrender become free; and only those who make a difficult journey truly see the Lord and experience the radiant joy of His presence in their lives. All this, and more, waits for us if we can rediscover the awe and wonder of those wise men from the East.

Scripture references for reflection taken from:

Isaiah 60.1-6

Psalm 72

Ephesians 3.2-3, 5-6

Matthew 2.1-12

*Main ideas for reflection taken from Monsignor Smith’s blog post, “Wise Stewards”.

Happy New Year! Happy Feasting!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by joshuaanddenise under General posts, Sunday Reflections

Today, as Catholic Christians, we celebrate Mary as the Holy Mother of God, along with the world day of peace.

To reflect on this great feast you may want to refer to this article here, by a great friend of mine! I have used this for my reflection for our service. Hopefully there is no copyright on it:) Here are the scriptures used for the reflection:

Numbers 6.22-27

Psalm 67

Galations 4.4-7

Luke 2.16-21

In the words of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, “Let us ask Mary, the Mother of God, to help us to welcome her Son and, in Him, true peace. Let us ask her to sharpen our perception so that we may recognize in the face of every human person, the face of Christ, the heart of peace.”

Blessings to all of you, for a happy and peace filled new year!

The Holy Family

Posted on December 29, 2014 by joshuaanddenise under Sunday Reflections

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. How appropriate that the first Sunday after celebrating the birth of Jesus we celebrate his family. We can see here the importance that God places on the role of the family, in sending His son to be born into one.

We are all part of a family. On Christmas day Fr.Robert talked about this very thing: Jesus, as God made man, grew up in a family. He learned a trade, how to be a carpenter, under his father, and I am sure learned many more things. As God though He submitted to family life. And we catch a glimpse of this in the Gospel, that they went back to their hometown, where Mary had grown up, “and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom.” They went back to a normal life, from what we hear. But before returning to Mary’s hometown Joseph and Mary present Jesus at the temple, to the Lord God. Having participated intimately with God in bringing forth this gift, this new life which they had been entrusted with, they offer this gift back to God. This is a model to us of entrusting what we have received as gift back to God, that it may become holy and set apart. In this we are shown that it is not the earthly things that truly matter, but rather the spiritual.

As believers, having received the gift of faith, we are faced with the choice of placing God as the King of our lives and our families, or not; in offering all that we have received back to God, or in responding with indifference, clutching to our own little kingdoms. This is what family is about, that family life can lead us to a deeper trust in God, a school of love towards others, and a movement towards becoming holy. It is a learning to live in God, our Creator, and all that He desires for us, in creating us to be happy and to be with Him.

We see a beautiful example of this faith in God in Genesis. We hear the story of Abraham and Sarah, who placed all of their trust in God, even above the needs and desires of their family. Even though we hear God’s response to their faith in making Abraham and Sarah the father and mother of generations, in receiving their son, Isaac, they go so far as to offer Isaac back to God by sacrificing him. What a powerful image to us.

Let us remember today the gift that we have received, that of our families, the opportunity to find our Creator in our daily activities and duties where He wants to be with us, and to offer the gifts we have received back to him as we look to the model and example of Abraham and Sarah, and also that of the Holy Family!

Scripture references taken from:

Genesis 15.1-6; 17.3-5, 15-16; 21.1-7

Hebrews 11.8, 11-12, 17-19

Luke 2.22-40

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Merry Christmas

Highlights

Posted on December 25, 2014 by joshuaanddenise under Life in Telegraph, Photo Album

It seems like time has flown by since we last posted our happenings, and it has! Our biggest highlight was the surprise we got when Josh’s parents pulled in on Friday night(Dec 5) while we were visiting with a member of the community. We were visiting and decorating cookie tree ornaments when all of a sudden a vehicle came barreling down our driveway. Looking out the window we were shocked to see a vehicle, let alone Josh’s parents, driving up to the house. It took a few seconds before we even registered, well maybe it took a little longer than that. But what an incredible surprise. The kids were also very shocked. We realized what being away from family for that long does, especially when you are used to seeing them so often. The big eyes and strange looks didn’t last too long though. We were able to spend lots of time together over the weekend, one of the beauties of living somewhere where there isn’t really any other distractions or places to go. Jordan and Josh took a trip down the road to the Tahltan River, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, and the ‘lava beds'(rock formations/terrain, along the road, formed by old lave flows), about a 50 minute round trip, as it was Jordan’s first time up and had arrived during the night. Two of Josh’s siblings, Elijah & Shaelyn, were eager to get in board games, as they were my two regular gaming partners and I think were feeling a little bit of with withdrawal. It was great having the family addition to our regular Saturday games night. We also got to spend time tobogganing, painting in the snow, gingerbread house making, impromptu adoration, and enjoyed an early Christmas feast. What a true blessing it was; the best Christmas present ever!

Like the mini-wheat beard?

We had the opportunity to attend a skating party/potluck in Glenora. It was really neat because it was a very family oriented event, with 11 kids in attendance. We had a fire on the frozen pond, skating, and a great potluck dinner! We had a family with 2 little ones join us, from i think about 25 kms downriver, where they live in a cabin. What a neat story to hear about, and so if you think we live at the end of the earth…

celebrating Denise’s baptism anniversary!

Making gingerbread houses at the Rec Centre!

We attended the Community Christmas Dinner, last week, and had a great time! Santa Claus showed up and brought gifts for all the children. He was vey generous this year:)

Kateri’s prize for winning the primary colouring contest at the school!

Isaiah’s cookie and bean pole concoction!

Josh drove down to Terrace last Friday to pick up Denise’s sister, a 16 hour round trip. They stayed with the Vandenberg’s, a Catholic home-schooling family that were friends with our friends:) One of the great things about being up north is the opportunity we are getting to meet such amazing people.

We haven’t really got much more snow here, only 4 to 5 inches in total. The ice rink recently got finished, so we took the opportunity to go skating and sip some hot chocolate.

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We got together with a couple of people from the church community to decorate the church for the Christmas season. Afterwards we had a light lunch!

The Great Rescue!

Posted on December 22, 2014 by joshuaanddenise under Sunday Reflections

As we reflect on the scripture readings today, from our celebration, we hear about a Creator and a God who is madly in love with His people, with His creation. He is seeking us out, like a lover would seek out and pursue the desire of his heart.

I don’t know how often you think about the story of God’s saving action as a love story, but it is. And the scriptures today paint a pretty straightforward picture for us of this idea. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we hear about a God who has made known to the world “the mystery” (the good news of Jesus, God made man) through the prophets. And we further see this in action as we hear in the prophet Samuel about God’s promise to David of his fidelity and faithfulness, that he will be established forever. As David worries about building God a house, and making plans for this, God responds in telling David not to worry and that He has a plan that has been unfolding already, quite obviously, in David’s life. These are the words of a lover to his beloved, wooing him, “I will stay true to you.” He has committed to his people.

And I find it so interesting and amazing how God goes about things, as we hear in the Gospel reading about God sending his messenger to Mary, inviting her to be the mother of God-made-man. To set the picture, God is planning this great rescue of mankind; to heal brokenness and sin, the division caused by the original fall of Adam and Eve. He has sent His prophets, ahead of this, proclaiming His plan and His continued desire for His people, as we see throughout the Old Testament, and even though they continued to turn away He never stopped pursuing.

I am intrigued especially by how God goes about this rescue. Is not going to come through force or power but, in a sense, with vulnerability. He allowed and chose His saving power to hinge on the decision of this young girl, in the town of Nazareth. Really, Mary here is representing all of humanity as her response charts the course for God’s love made manifest to us in human flesh. So it is that Mary sees God’s plan, maybe doesn’t fully understand it as she says, “How can this be?” But we can also see that she is already close to God, as the Angel creates her, “Hail, full of grace.” And so out of that relationship with God trusts in His plan, not knowing the details, but knowing and trusting God’s faithfulness. So it is, that Mary’s decision, her ‘yes’, makes way for the healing of the original fall of Adam and Eve. Mary reverses Eve’s ‘no’ and makes way for Christ’s undoing of Adams fall.

I see one thing in particular that is important for us to remember here, as we enter into this last week, in preparation for Christ’s birth: Mary’s trust in God’s faithfulness, her ‘yes’. Mary made the initial ‘yes’, but it didn’t stop there. As I was reflecting on this I thought about the Lotto ‘Get Set For Life’ advertisement, their slogan being “So you can afford to relax!” And I was thinking about the influence of our society of instant gratification and instant results, that we want control and plan our future so as to alleviate as many surprises as we can. But our response to God should be nothing like this. He’s not asking for a one-time investment. It’s not like, “OK God, I said yes now you do the rest and I’m going to relax”. It is quite fitting as we enter into these last few days of Advent that we see the example of Mary’s ‘yes’, that we see it as a beginning. Just take a look at what happens next; Mary and Joseph travel while she’s pregnant to Bethlehem, she gives birth in a stable because there was no room at the inn. No sooner after Jesus’s is born they are forced to flee to Egypt, as fugitives. As Jesus grows up, in one instance, he gets lost when they travel to Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph, having left town, realize that Jesus is not with them and then take three days to find him. Jesus’ ministry, later, leads him to carry the cross to his own crucifixion as Mary looks on, and then finally burying her own son. This is only a quick snapshot of where Mary’s ‘yes’ led her. But it was Mary’s trust in God’s faithfulness, that there was a bigger picture, that brought her hope.

Our ‘yes’ may not seem like it would be as extreme as Mary’s, but it is truly that decision, that choice, to open our lives to our creator, our lover, which opens us to His promise that he will not abandon us and to His perfect love for us. He promises us and assures us, as he did with King David, “Your throne will be established forever.” Our creator is a God of power, yet he chooses to make himself manifest to us, to be vulnerable and to be one with us. This opens us to the possibility of intimacy with God. It is truly a beautiful and powerful story and we are a part of it.

I would encourage you, as we enter these last few days of Advent, to take this opportunity to walk with God, to be with Him in the silence, to be real with Him, to give Him your ‘yes’ and ask Him to draw you closer to Himself.

We are reminded today of God’s great love for us, as He offers himself to us as a lover to his bride, in the sacrament of the Eucharist. May we come to open our hearts and our lives to Him, as He seeks to be a part of our lives and as He invites us to be a part of His story.

Scripture references & reflections taken from:

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

Romans 16:25-27

Luke 1:26-38