News 25 - July - fun filled with BBQs, Festivals, Martyrs' Shrine, Boating, Visitors but the highlight is of having started Our Mother's Prayer Group - July 2012

Dear All

 News 25 - August 2012  -  Hello from Jack and Mel in Canada

It is so pleasant to have your breakfast
 a drink and  also your eveing meal

 The flowers in the garden were growing beautifully in early July.

It has been nearly a month since I wrote the last email and I just cannot figure out where July has  gone and now August is nearly coming to the end of it.  Hope you all have had a good summer so far.  Well, for us in Canada, it has been very hot and I am not complaining.  

Laura and Ian

It has been a very busy time so far.  We have not had a BBQ since the 15th July (and that is a long interval without a summer party) after entertaining my good friend Laura and her hubby Ian.  Since then she has been in UK for a long holiday of 5 weeks.  I miss her but I understand she deserves that break along with her 3 teenage children.

It has been a lovely summer spiritually because my friend Marzena and myself meet every Wednesday morning after Mass in my home and pray the Mother's Prayer for our children, and husbands etc.  We love it and we hope it will increase.

Every summer in July Oakville celebrates 'Midnight Madness' which is a weekend (Friday to Sunday) of extended shopping in Downtown Oakville when all the High Street shops are open till midnight and the cafes spread out into the street which is closed to traffic.  Buskers and street performers are out and crowds come out to enjoy the festivities.  It was an experience for us but we made the most of the evening with different stalls, food and drink.  Different genres of music played at a number of stages.  The Beatles group was very popular.  I really enjoyed singing and dancing to the old songs.  Finally it was time for a cup of coffee so we entered this coffee shop selling cakes.  I spotted the macaroons like the ones in Paris and went straight for them.  I smiled at the person next to me and she spoke in broken English.  She happened to be in Canada for nearly 50 years, from Greece so I asked her why she could not speak English and her answer was simple but I understand.  She wanted to teach her children the native language but in the process she did not master the language of the country.  Anyway somehow we clicked and now we chat and I am sure with my chatting she will surely improve.  This is one of the many cases I have encountered in Canada and in the ethnic groups in England where immigrants seem to keep to themselves and not integrate.  By the way my new found friend is a lovely and warm, friendly person.

In July we visited visited the Martyrs Shrine in Midland about 3 hours drive from Oakville.  You can read about it right below.  The church is surround by vast grounds and garden and especially at this time of the year the flowers were blooming  It looked wonderful.  There are large stations of the cross like Lourdes walking from one to the other and each one had a garden.  There are many Saints statues too.  That day there was a huge group of Indo-Pak people gathered to pray and then have a picnic on the ground sharing food. We enjoyed some of it. The walk in the town is very pleasant as many of the buildings are painted with scenes from the local history and they all looked lovely. 

 In Penetanguishene (the main town) there is a statue of a giant - The First Nations myths call him Kitchikewana.  The story goes that he was broken-hearted by a woman and in his rage, gouged the earth with his hand creating the Great Lakes and flung the soil into the sky which fell and formed the 30,000 Islands in Georgian Bay.  There is a harbour nearby too which is breathtaking where we sat enjoying the peace and my ice cream.  I would recommend any one to go and visit the church, Sainte-Marie museum and the town with its murals and the harbour. 

 

That very evening we went to our friend's place Nora and Vincent in Barry.  We had a lovely evening with their family but I had a bad night with temperature and generally very cold.  I think this had to do with the strong heat the previous day at The Martyrs Shrine.  The next day after brunch we went on Lake Simcoe in their boat.  The heat was still strong but the views from a boat are amazing.  The lake is like a sea with sandy beaches, town promenades and fabulous houses with private launching jetties and even helipads.  Vincent and Nora are experienced boaters.  We returned home and I slept but when when I woke up at 5pm I just could not walk. I was in agony.  After a BBQ dinner we left for Oakville our home.  
All through the night I was in pain and the next day Jack had to take the day off  to take me to the doctor as I could not walk.  She recommended physio.  So Jack and I went knocking on the doors of Massage Parlors, Physio, Chiro but none had an appointment on offer till the end of the week.  Finally a Chiro had a 10 minute slot the next day and he did do wonders so at least I could walk.  I am now in treatment with Chiro and Physio.  Getting stronger and learning to cope with pain which they put down to wear of the joints in back and knees.  

Vincent our Spanish left at the end of July and in August we had another Spanish girl called Carol (who is just like Maryann - warm, fun loving, caring, beautiful)  This year we have been to Niagara 5 tives with the students and relatives.  Niagara by night and day are two different views and atmosphere.  Carol left on the 29th August and I am really missing her very much.  

We had my cousin Christopher/Brenda's daughter Lillian and their 7 month old baby Adrian staying with us for a week from Houston, USA.  It was such fun having young ones and baby in the house and made me feel so useful.  We went again to Niagara and had a picnic.  It was a beautiful day and when I say beautiful mean not hot like an oven. We attended a wedding reception (Friday, 27th July 2012) of Christopher's sister Jenny/Wilbert's daughter Ruth.  Ruth/Peter had their wedding in Denmark in May.  The venue was a boat club at our local Harbor front, fantastic music, good food, good company and met new relations and got to know more new people.  We got together a group and sang our local Konkani songs for the benefit of Ruth's husband Peter and for his parents who traveled all the way from Denmark.  Something to remember.  Weddings and Receptions are such lovely occasions to meet people.

On Saturday the 28th July I had organised a picnic for the Friday Prayer Group at Lowville Park  It was a lovely day with good company and food and little Adrian was loved thoroughly.  On the 31st July I went to the  Knee Specialist.  She has confirmed that my left knee will have to be replaced but she is trying to put off as I am young and will see me again in January 2013.

Well many people are on holiday (vacation) now and everything is quiet.  My garden is doing well but unlike England, the temperature is too hot even for the plants and they wilt very quickly.  

Take care and keep in touch.

God Bless

x

Jack and Mel

Here's a bit of history if you are interested.

Martyrs Shrine in Midland 

We visited the Martyrs Shrine in Midland - The first shrine to the Canadian Martyrs was the parish church of St. Ann, built in 1886 in nearby Penetanguishene.  Then the Jesuit Fathers took over the Parish of St. John's in nearby Waubaushene in 1907, they built a small shrine church in honour of the Martyrs on a site about 15 km from there but finally the present Shrine church was built under the direction of Fr. John M Filion, S.J., and the Beatification of the Martyrs in 1925 was the impetus to purchase the present plot of land for a new Shrine.  So in October, 1925 the construction began, Fr Filion begged lumber from local sawmills, obtained donated windows, pews and a high altar from two churches that were being renovated during that year.  So four pews came from the 1907 Shrine.  The interior is finished in plywood, it was one of the earliest commercial uses of that material.  The facade is of local limestone.  By early summer of 1926 the church was complete and it was blessed on June 26 by Cardinal O'Connell of Boston.  The outside is very traditional as it is made of stone, inside it is lined with birch panels and the ceiling is shaped like an upturned canoe which represents the First Nations people.  

Hence there is a history

to this church and it is to honour the memory of the heroic missionaries - Jesuit Father, Brother and lay volunteers who laboured between 1625 and 1650 to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the Huron - Wendat peoples.  Eight of these missionaries are recognized as Martyrs and Saints.  There is a main portrait above the main altar in the centre of the Sanctuary but otherwise in the vast grounds and gardens that the church is surrounded with you will see the Eight as individuals with their names and when and where they were born and how they gave their life.  It comes alive and you can actually picture yourself what their lives could have been in those very early settlement times in Native Indian country.  The Shrine is open from Mid May to the Thanksgiving Weekend in October.  The church is also known as A HOME OF PEACE.  The Feast of the Canadian Martyrs is celebrated annually at the Shrine on the Saturday closest to September 26th.

Sainte-Marie among the Hurons - Museum history

This site has been turned into a museum telling you something about the Medicine of the 17th centurey,  the Waterway - one of the most intriguing features at Sainte-Marie ... the locked waterway system, Historic Clothing Demonstrations - being in style over 300 years ago, Music Presentation, Fire Starting, 17th Century cooking, story telling - experience the wisdom of Native people on a journey through some of their beliefs and finally the Native Games.

There is a museum next to the church a lovely walk away.  It is called Sainte-Marie among the Hurons.  Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was founded by French Jesuits in 1639 in the land of the Wendat, or Huron people.  The mission headquarters was designed as a retreat for missionaries and a refuge for Christian Wedant.  It also stood as an example of French culture in the isolated heart of New France.  The Wendat shared their knowledge with the European newcomers and the little mission struggled to become self sufficient.  On the other hand the Frenchmen planted gardens and imported Livestock from Quebec by birchbark canoe.  In 1648 Sainte-Marie was home to one-fifth of the European population of New France (Canada).  

Although Sainte-Marie appeared to prosper, despair and resentment grew in many Wendat communities.  Cultures and ideologies were in almost daily conflict.  Epidemics of influenza, mealses and smallpox proved deadly to the Wendat.  The situation was compounded by the rekindling of traditional rivalries between the Wendat and the Iroquois.  (Indian tribes).  

In July of 1648 the Iroquois attacked the village of St. Joseph.  Father Antoine Daniel and many Wendat lost their lives.  A year later, Fathers Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, along with hundreds of Wendat were captured and killed.  Survivors scattered.  Sainte-Marie waited tensely for an attack that never came.

Later that spring, the Jesuits and some of their Wendat followers abandoned Sainte-Marie and set fire to the mission headquarters.  Travelling by raft and canoe to St Joseph's Island (today called Christian Island), they established Sainte-Marie II.  After a winter of terrible hardship and starvation at Sainte-Marie II, the Jesuits decided to abandon their mission in Wendake.

Accompanied by a few hundred Christian Wendat they returned to Quebec in 1650.  The wilderness claimed the ruins of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons.

Three major groups of people were integral to the story of Sainte-Marie; the following provides you with a short review.

The Wendat

A highly organised people with a complex spirituality, the agriculturally-based Wendat nation was divided into four main tribes: Bear, Cord, Rock and Deer.  The name Wendat has been translated as meaning 'Island dwellers' or 'dwellers on a peninsula'.  The European term 'Huron', possibly meaning 'ruffian' may refer to the bristled hairstyle sported by some of the men.  The region they inhabited, Wendake, is today known as HURONIA.

The Wendat were well situated for trade with the French, and acted as middlemen with other tribes.  Their sedentary lifestyle was favourable to missionaries, who had learned the difficulties of working with nomadic peoples.  The generally accepted estimate on pre-contact Wendat populations is about 22,5000.  By 1650 war and disease had reduced this number by over 70%

The Jesuits

Founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus was a religious order dedicated to teaching Christianity throughout the world.  Armed with comprehensive education and rigorous discipline, the Jesuits were well suited to mission work in the new world.  In the native nations of New France missionaries saw peoples long separated from God, a situation they wishes to remedy by converting them to Christianity.

The Labourers

Offering their skills to the Jesuits was a small group of religiously motivated men known as 'donnes'.  From the French verb 'to give', these men received only food, clothing and shelter in return for their labours.

Other workingmen at the mission were the 'engages' or hired men, and educated, non-clerical members of the Jesuit order known as 'lay brothers'.  Young boys served as workers' apprentices, some only 10 or 11 years old.

European women did not travel to Sainte-Marie; the Jesuits believed the journey too difficult and dangerous.  It was hoped Sainte-Marie would develop into a full community once the Wendat had been largely converted and peaceable relations existed with the Iroquois.