Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

With my classmates Fr. Steve (L), Archbishop Prendergast, and Fr. Dean (R). Every year seems to be a different kind of Saint Patrick’s Day celebration. Indeed, Irish Catholicism and Irish culture are worth celebrating. The celebrations began already the weekend before the 17th when I visited my community in Montreal. They prepared a lovely dinner on Sunday the 16th ensuring that the tablecloths and napkins were all Irish colours. They even went shopping for bars of chocolate in green wrappers which was really sweet of them (excuse the pun!). That same evening, I returned to Ottawa and together with another Irish student, we prepared to host a St. Patrick’s Day party for our student companions and some of the other residents of Deschatelets. It was lovely to see our friends from the various corners of the world turn up in their green or yellow clothes. Our friends from the Hispanic Parish had also made a cake for the celebration which was greatly appreciated. After some tasty pizza...

Basilica of St. Patrick This year was my first St. Patrick’s Day outside of Europe so I didn’t really know what to expect! Whilst I was in Italy, I never really celebrated it but when I was in Poland, with the help of my sister Andrea who came over for a few days from Germany, we had St. Patrick’s Day in style. However, I soon realised that St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal here. It started a few weeks ago with all the decorations and ads in the pubs advertising green Guinness and live Irish music. I even spotted a promised ‘ceili’!   I subsequently found out that there was a special Mass in the Basilica of St. Patrick here in Ottawa, followed by a parade!   So on Saturday the 16 th , I went with one of my classmates for Mass celebrated by Archbishop Terence Prendergast. A sole bagpiper greeted us on the steps though the poor guy really had my sympathy as the temperature must have been about minus 10 or 12 Celsius. Definitely not kilt weather! When I entered the Chur...