Jack and Mel's Adventures: How was your Easter Celebration? News 21 from Canada

Dear All

How are you all and how was your Easter Celebrations?

Well it was a very different experience for us after spending 35 years in England. This is our 2nd Easter in Canada to watch how things ae organized. Jack and I used to be so involved back in England but we have not yet got involved here. I thought of you all in Our Lady of Peace in Reading.

On Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) the church was full 30 minutes before the start and the choir fantastic. I was given the task to minister the chalice. Can you imagine about a thousand people for Communion, of course we were 8 in all. It is really overwhelming. After the service there was the Adoration except that it was in the Narthex and a bit noisy as people were leave so we decided to come back later. I did mention it to Fr Mark and he admitted that he usually would have mentioned before the service but it skipped his mind. The Silent Prayer finished at 11pm with Fr Mark's presence and he did a wonderful job of leading the Night Prayers. GOOD FRIDAY - we missed having the WALK OF WITNESS. There was one a bit further than our church and I suggested to Fr Mark that it would be nice to start working on it for the churches near our church. Hope we will be able to get involved in this. I miss my Churches Together meetings, The Inter-Faith and also getting involved in The Re-Inspired with the local schools. Never mind I just have to pray and ask for guidance and be more involved with Fr Mark. The 3pm Service was really really full. The Veneration of the Cross was done at the end where the ushers guided bench by bench and went out quietly. That was nice. Do you remember how Joan Dill and me worked so hard for nearly over a month to get a lot of people involved and we had such variations of voices and Ministers of Communion. Well I have not found out yet how it works here but I found that over the 3 days there were the same people that read and did Ministers of Communion. I missed the variations. Of course Joan and I only got guided through Fr Shaun for which we thank him. Mother's Group - who are reading this, let me tell you that I did manage to stay off alcohol and behaved very well on Good Friday. Thanks for your prayers.

On Saturday Jack booked 20 tickets for a Passion Play and treated my Brother and the family, their friends and one of Jack's colleagues children. It was a fantastic play and I hope to encourage to take a group next year again. You should have seen The Ascension. Check this web site http://www.torontopassionplay.com/PP2010newsite/index.html It was done beautifully. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon before getting ready for the Vigil service. There were 12 who were received into the church and 4 confirmation. The service lasted 3 hours but I was really touched by it all and also we even had a person who represented God for one of the Readings in deep voice and I could not see him but finally at the end of the church I was introduced to him. I liked him straightaway. Following that we had a Easter gathering in our house till 1am breaking our Lenten fast from acohol and sharing some nibbles. I missed our American Supper in Our Lady of Peace church where I used to get the parish people to bring in something to share and then enjoy the Easter Celebration.

We went back to church on Easter Sunday as Jack was doing a Reading as the person who was supposed to do that got a heart attack.

Once again the church was so full that Jack's colleague's wife Dawn and her children had to go back home.

We spent the day at my brother's and his family. The weather was not that good compared to last year but none the less we played indoor games like Taboo and Charade. It was an enjoyable day. It did stop the children to go for the Easter Egg Hunt.

Our PARISH PRIEST FR MARK has turned 50 so there have been surprise dinners for him. We attended one and it was indeed a very enjoyable evening meeting new people. On Saturday we went to a house warming party and had a great time with more new people and then on Sunday I had my brother Angelo and his wife Maureen, 2 new couples and Rudy from our Parish and a couple who are related to Jack. It was a group that talked, mixed and it was full of laughter. In the evening, my neighbour Mary Ellen came to join all of us with her Banana cake which is my favourite and a cup of tea. It was a nice way to end the evening, full of fun and fond memories.

Not much mere to add except that I am busy putting 2000 photos printed in UK into albums. I hope to finish it by the end of this week.

I missed our Maryann, John and of course all my friends especially the ones in England. Who is coming out next here for a holiday? I am waiting.