Dear brothers and sisters,
Tonight I am in Machias, Maine and will make the rest of the journey to Moncton in the morning.
Here is my homily from this morning, followed by the itinerary for my pilgrimage to New Brunswick.
Stay tuned to this blog for daily videos and other updates. All times are rough estimates. I ENCOURAGE ALL THE FRIENDS OF SAINT CECILIA TO JOIN US FOR THE MASS AT ThE MONCTON CATHEDRAL ON FRIDAY!
Monsignor Moroney
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily
I leave after Mass this morning for a week in Acadia, a real spiritual pilgrimage, to pray at each of the places where the faith of so many of your ancestors was first formed and nourished. And I must admit, I have been looking forward to it for weeks.
One of the things I long for is the opportunity to visit each of the churches and pray quietly. Although, as one who prays for a living, I sometimes wonder if God gets tired of hearing me!
But I hope to pray not only with words, asking him to give you what you need and to look with mercy on all those who have gone before you, perhaps m best prayers will be in silence. Just sitting there, me and God, looking at each other with love.
We get a hint of that in the first reading today. as the great prophet Elijah listens for the voice of God. At first he heads a strong squall, then an earthquake and finally flashes of fire. But he does not recognize God’s voice in any of them. But then, there is a quiet breeze, and, all at once, he hears God’s voice.
God’s voice often comes to us most clearly in silence: when we stop asking him for things or telling him things. When we turn away from all that noise that fills our day: the constant carcophany, the billious barrage of static with which we fill our souls from morning to night.
So, I look forward to silence by the Ocean, with just me and God, both thinking of you.
I ask you to pray for me in silence, too. Asking him to keep me safe and to help my heart to understand and to fall in love with that land that means so much to so many of you.
I go there this week because it is feast of the Assumption. Do you remember how the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin became the patronal feast of Acadie?
In goes back to the first decades of the seventeenth century, when the parents when King Henry IV of France and his wife, Marie de’Medici were trying to have a child. For years they tried and the prospect of an heir looked impossible, until they asked everyone in France to intercede with the Blessed Virgin of them on the fest of the Assumption. A short time later, Louis XIII was born, and the Assumption was made a national holiday in France.
So when Louis XIII sent your Acadian ancestors to the Maritime provinces, he commended them to the protection of our of Our Lady of the Assumption.
So, trusting that the great Mother of God, through whose mighty intercession the faith of Acadie has perdured, that same faith through which God raised up this mighty temple on French Hill, join me in saying a quiet prayer this, week that God might preserve his faithful sons and daughters for years to come.
ITINERARY
(Slightly Revised on 15 August)
Tuesday, 15 August
10am Mass - Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption
226, St. Georges Street, Moncton
Wednesday, 16 August
PARISH VISITS ON THE NORTHERN ROUTE
10am depart for Saint-Jean-Baptiste
1 Irving Blvd. Bouctouche (20 miles, 27 mins)
10:45am depart for Sainte-Anne
7611, Road 134, Ste-Anne-de-Kent (5 miles, 10 mins)
11:30pm depart for Saint-Antoine-de-Padoue
3794, route 505, Richibouctou-Village (9 miles, 13 mins)
12:15pm depart for Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague
9440 Main Street, Richibucto (25 miles, 30 mins)
1pm depart for Saint-Louis-des-Français
10565, Principale Street, Saint-Louis-de-Kent (10 miles, 15 mins)
1:30pm depart for Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola
1921, St. Ignace Road, St. Ignace (10 miles, 15 mins)
2:30pm depart for Immaculée-Conception
4049 Road 480, Acadieville (18 miles, 25 mins)
3:15pm Rogersville Shrine
Rue St Joseph, Rogersville, NB E4Y 1V4, (10 miles, 12 mins)
4:30pm depart for for Saint Paul
6476, Road 515, Saint-Paul (41 miles, 44 mins)
5:30pm depart for Saint-Antoine-l’Ermite
24, Eglise Ave, St-Antoine (18 miles, 24 mins)
6:15pm depart for Saint Marie de Kent
2350, Road 515, Sainte-Marie-de-Kent (6 miles, 10 mins)
6:30pm return home
Thursday, 17 August
PARISH VISITS ON THE SOUTHERN ROUTE
9am depart for Saint-Joseph
415, Main Street, Shediac (11 miles, 20 mins)
9:45am depart for Saint-Anselme
1014 Amirault St., Dieppe (17 miles, 24 mins)
10:30am depart for Holy Family, Moncton (6 miles, 14 mins)
52, Falkland Drive, Moncton
11:00am depart for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Moncton (3 miles, 8 mins)
854 Mountain Road, Moncton
lunch
noon depart for Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation
1021, Principale Street, Pre-d’en-Haut (16 miles, 31 mins)
12:45 pm depart for Saint-Thomas/Saint-Joseph
576, Central Street, Memramcook (4 miles, 7 mins)
1:15pm depart for Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation (Chapelle de Beaumont)
643 Beaumont Road, Memramcook, New Brunswick (8 miles, 15 mins)
2:00pm depart for Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur
3091, route 132, Scoudouc (32 miles, 32 mins)
3:00pm depart for Sainte-Thérèse-d'Avila
2648, Acadie St, Cap-Pelé
(20 miles, 27 mins)
3:45pm depart for home
Friday, 18 August
10am - Mass for deceased members of Saint Cecilia Parish
Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption
226, St. Georges Street, Moncton
