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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2011-05-12, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011. By Mikenna Lane This past week at St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School, the students and staff celebrated Catholic Education Week. To celebrate our Catholic education, the St. Anne’s community gathered together on Thursday, May 5 for a wonderful Catholic Education Liturgy. The students were thankful for this 20 minutes of reflection as they have now entered ‘the May Crazies!’. At St. Anne’s May is notoriously known for its hectic nature of students participating in spring sports/activities, handing in QAT’s (large assignments commonly worth 15 per cent of the students final grade in each course), and preparing themselves for their finals tests. To provide an idea of ‘the May Crazies’ to the community, St. Anne’s participated in the following this week alone: a French immersion retreat to the Visitation of the Major Reliquary of St. Andre Bessette, co- operative education supervisors’ appreciation breakfast, hosting the Huron Arts Festival for 300 elementary students, Skills Canada at Waterloo RIM Centre, Me-to-We ventured to Toronto, Students for Social Justice Film Festival, Van Egmond House Spring Grounds Clean up and tour, hosting a Track and Field event for 10 high schools, a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Education Week activities and Student Cabinet Prime Minister elections. All of these events occurred amidst all of the athletics and academics which the students are involved in. By Rev. Gary Clark Blyth United Church Welcome back to Mental Health Week part two. As I said last week the key to good mental health according to the Canadian Mental Health Association is ‘resiliency’. That ability to handle the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” (Shakespeare) Life is filled with ups and downs and resiliency is having the skills to deal with or ride out the many downs of life. Something the Mental Health Association doesn’t really highlight is the place of faith in developing resilience. I cannot help but share with you how important I feel having a relationship with a loving God when it comes to building resilience. People may betray, belittle, and abuse you, but God will not. People may let you down but God will lift you up. People will see only what is and often focus on the negative but God sees you through the eyes of love and focuses on who you are becoming. God has infinite hope, patience and grace. It does not matter how many times we fail, God is always there to help us pick up the pieces. As a parent I certainly try to have an unlimited capacity for love and acceptance of my kids but I am only human. It is great to know that God is there when I falter and that God supports not only our children but also ourselves. Actually that is a subtle part of the celebration of Baptism. In Baptism the parents are asked to place their child into the arms of the minister. This is important because symbolically it recognizes that no matter how dedicated you are to your children at some time you will have to let them go. It certainly feels better to let them go into the hands of those who are dedicated to protecting, guiding and empowering them. For me the church is a place where we teach our children hope, forgiveness, love, patience, forbearance, self-reliance, trust and humility. The way we teach these spiritual gifts is that we, as adults, try to live and therefore model them. Our example is the life and ministry of Jesus. The better we model these gifts the closer we, and our children come to living as Christ taught. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Jesus was a great healer. If 90 per cent of all illness can be traced to mental health and Jesus shows the way to being resilient, then health is a natural outcome of faith. It would be great if society was a healing and healthy place too, but I see the exact opposite happening. It seems that more and more people are being chewed up and spit out in our society. Suicide has become too popular an option to living in the world that we have created. I don’t know if we can blame the increase in suicide rates on the lack of interest in the church. But to me when we as parents avoid the church and by example keep our children away from God, we remove what can be an important support in their lives. Maybe the churches have failed to be the examples of faithful wisdom, compassion and co- operation. Our infighting hobbles our ability to teach the very gifts the church was created to offer. However I have felt a new breeze of the Spirit blowing in our churches. It has refreshed us all and healed us of past hurts. We are ready once again to work together and pick up the challenge of not only teaching the way of Christ with our words but also the faithful living out of his example in our deeds. As this becomes a reality in our churches we once again may be places of healing and wholeness that we were meant to be. Our gifts of spiritual health can add immeasurably to mental health. I pray that our churches will be the places of faith and health for all in our communities and that you may find your way to one of them. God bless. May crazies begin at St. Anne’s THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS. OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m. 17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m. 220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph Sunday 11:00 a.m. 1025 Wallace Avenue N. Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, May 15 Brussels Public School at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday School for children 4 to 11 years of age (mornings only) Childcare provided for infants and toddlers Coffee & cookies after the morning service For additional details please contact: Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 Chris McMichael 519.482.1644 BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA Sandra Cable, Worship Leader Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - beunitedchurch@gmail.com Sunday, May 15 Ethel United Church Worship Service and Sunday School - 9:30 a.m. Brussels United Church Worship Service and Sunday School - 11:00 a.m. Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Rev. Elwin Garland SUNDAY, MAY 15 Wheelchair accessible ~ Nursery care available 519-887-2664 10:00 am - Sunday Morning Worship - Sunday School getlivingwater.org Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848 Living Water Christian Fellowship 10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School at Blyth Public School, corner of King & Mill Tuesdays 7:30 pm - Wingham Small Group 1st & 3rd Wednesdays 7:30 pm - Women’s Ministry Fridays 7:00 pm - Youth Group May 15: Acts 10: 1-35 “Welcoming those different from us” Potluck! Evangelical Missionary Church Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m. CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS MINISTER Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div. All Welcome MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224 May 15th ~ The 10 Commandments and You - Watch the Speed Bumps May 22nd ~ Please, Won’t You Be My Neighbour THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA Welcomes you to come and worship with us Trinity, Blyth 9:15 a.m. Church Office: 519-357-4883 St. John's, Brussels 11:15 a.m. 519-887-6862 Sunday, May 15 Rev. Perry Chuipka www.nabcom.ca/church Please join us for worship Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743 www.blythcrc.ca SUNDAYS Morning Service 10:00 am Evening Service 7:30 pm BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH 119 John’s Ave., Auburn 519-526-1131 www.huronchapel.org 9:30 a.m. Sunday School 10:30 a.m. Morning Worship Service Guest Speaker: Rev. Eugene Neudorf From the Minister’s StudyFaith is key when developing resilience ON $6.00 THURSDAYS Drop into either of our offices any Thursday with your word classified (maximum 20 words) and pay only $6.00 + HST (paid in advance). That’s $1.00 off regular rates. The Citizen