Fr. Bob’s Corner

Today Williamstown is a quiet country village, but in days gone by, it was far much more. One of the local villagers, Monique Major, put together a  76 page pictorial essay for the 200th Anniversary of Williamstown. I scanned this wonderful document filled with pictures and various clippings etc., and posted it on the parish website: www.bvmparish.com.  It is posted as a slide show on Flickr. (The cheapest way I could make it available for viewing and reading.) Take a look, and have a little read by visiting my Flickr posting. (See if you can identify the buildings in this websites header.) Make sure to manually control the slide show, and have it fill your whole monitor. This way you will be able to proceed at your own speed, and fully read and digest the clippings. Enjoy, here is the Link: Beautiful Historic Williamstown by Monique Major

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For as long as anyone can remember the Ladies’ Guild of St. Mary’s Parish have held a tea in November. At one time, before the parish had a suitable hall, the tea was held in private homes. In those days, women from the parish would volunteer to host this annual event, and the women of the parish would bring their fine china, silver teapots and cutlery to serve tea, home baked cakes, cookies, squares, and special party sandwiches. Today, many years later, the Ladies’ Guild still sponsors the event in our small parish hall, and numerous women still provide the baked goods and sandwiches. (Years ago the Guild acquired the fine dishes to serve the tea.)

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Lent Is Not Just About You and Me, or
The Here and the Now,
It Is About Our Eternal Destiny!

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“We had had so much fun together, did so many FIRSTS together? Not all parents are lucky enough to travel to an exotic location with their children and enjoy the experience with them? Not all parents get to share in their children’s honeymoon either. We felt very blessed.” Annie Richard wrote during her recent visit (with her husband Paul) to Thailand to visit their son Mark and and his wife Val. View pictures and the full account of their adventure on her post of March 25th, 2007 on Mark and Val’s Asian Stir Fry
Paul and Annie are parishioner’s of St. Mary’s Parish.

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Sometime during the month of May in 1931, Fr. Alex MacDonald, the Pastor of St. Mary’s Parish (1929-1958) called together the Altar Society and the women of the Parish to enlist their help in the Parish. The meeting resulted in the formation of the Guild:

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I have been a little under the weather in the last few weeks, and have not posted very much. This weekend we will be celebrating the First Sunday of Lent and the Second Sunday of Parish Alive. Our Ash Wenesday celebration was very well attended, and most of the Parishioners at both Parishes are participating in the Diocesan Parish Alive Project. Very gratifying and inspiring - I hope and pray for an abundant harvest - so many seeds being planted! We owe a word of thanks to our Bishop, the Pastors, the Diocesan team, and our PLT’s across the Diocese for all their hard work in initiating and organizing this project. And , a special word of thanks to all the parishioners of St. Mary’s and St. William’s who have committed themselves to this faith venture. May the Lord bless us now, and in the years to come, with a renewed, committed, and strengthened Faith.

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Prayers and best wishes from Sr. Mary and Sr. Christine in the Philippines

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Every year at this time, the Ladies’ Guild of St. Mary’s sponsors, and coordinates a Harvest Supper. In the coming days I will share with our visitors some pictures of this special annual event.

This weekend Sr. Christine Gebel (Our Lady’s Misssionaries) spoke at St. Mary’s and St. William’s on her work in the Philippines, and updated us on the work of Our Lady’s Missionaries. I will complete this blog with additional pictures, Sr. Christine’s message, etc. in a few days.
OUR LADY’S MISSIONARIES (OLM) is an international community of women who have devoted their lives to service, by sharing life with the poor and least privileged, while focusing on women’s concerns and working for global justice, peace and care for the earth.Link to OLM website

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When I began this blog at the beginning of this week , I did it to publish various celebrations on our Parish Web Site. I set up this blog because it provided an easy venue for posting pictures, and writing brief articles. I’d like to share with visitors to our Website and Blog a few pictures from the Wedding rehearsal of Philip Schipilow, and Tanya Lapierre (daughter of Keith and Jeanette Lapierre of St. Mary’s Parish) who will be married at St. Mary’s at 2:00p.m. this afterenoon. I apologize for the rather poor quality of the photos, but I just started using a camera I got a little over a year ago. I hope that the old saying, practice makes perfect, will apply in my case, or atleast that I will improve. Later today, I will post a few more pictures from the rehearsal, and maybe a few from the wedding.

Let us remember to pray for Tanya and Philip, as they begin their married life together. May the lord bless them abundantly, and may they live to see and enjoy their children’s children.

Pat Cloutier, a parishioner of St. Mary’s Parish, gives generously of her gifts, and talents to bring the Christian message alive in this world. For eleven years she has helped raise food, shoes, medication, toys, hygiene products, and clothes for the poor of the world. CFFC (Canadian Food for Children) founded by Dr. Antoine Simone and his wife, Joan.
Each day, five days a week, CFFC sends out one, and sometimes two, 12 metre long containers to impoverished families around the world. “My own involvement,” says Pat in a recent artile she wrote, “began about eleven years ago upon reading a newspaper article about the group. I began collecting a few odds and ends and bringing them to the warehouse. My collecting has since mushroomed into full-time volunteering for CFFC. When you realize how so many in the world have so little, you begin to see everything in a new light. For instance, if I see even just an elastic band on the sidewalk, I pounce, knowing full well that missionaries are hard up for elastic bands. What great excitement I get too, in finding a Dollar bag of linens or blankets that can be shipped. …….Over the years, I have come to know Dr. Simone and Joan, who have raised 13 children. They are truly humble people wishing to do everthing for Jesus. A banner on the warehoue wall sums it up: ‘Jesus is our Strength’.”

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Not sure how this blog will develop. I’m hoping to use it to add thoughts, suggestions and Web Links to the Parish site:http://www.bvmparish.com/

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