Condolences may be sent to condolencestevecarr@chri.ca and they will be passed on to Niki.

Maryvale Academy Cenacle

Hi everyone:

Sorry to say that the Cenacle on June 18th has been postponed.  Once a new date has been set, I will let you know. 

Until then, Peace and Blessings to you and your family!

Patricia Klambauer

Prayer Cover Coordinator
Maryvale Academy

A Special Memorial

ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH M. RAYA (1916–2005)

Former Metropolitan of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee

"I shall not die, I shall live, and recount His deeds." - Psalm 118

--------------------

Archbishop Joseph Raya, the first "Associate Priest" of the Madonna House Apostolate, died peacefully on Friday, June 10, 2005 at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry's Bay, Ontario, Canada after a long illness. May the memory of Archbishop Joseph Raya who is worthy of praise remain with us forever.

Dates and times of the funerals to be held in both Ottawa and Combermere this weekend can be found at the end of this e-mail.

--------------------

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH RAYA

“I was not yet born when my blood started praying. Our Melkite mothers believe that the water of their womb bubbles with the flame of the Holy Spirit. The day my mother knew she was entrusted with a new life, she started singing and praying every day the office of my Byzantine Church. She sang those melodies all during the nine months of that happy expectation... the time of the Resurrection that year must have been more glorious than glory, because my whole being, my flesh and my sinews, for the past seventy years of my life (and I hope this will continue until my last breath), have thrilled with a special tingling whenever I hear or sing, ‘Christ is risen!’”

Archbishop Joseph Raya was permeated with the Gospel message of love. Having heard the hymns of the Resurrection while yet in his mother’s womb, it is no wonder that, early in life, he committed himself to bear witness to the joy that is the very heart of Christian faith: the glorious reality of Christ risen from the dead. This conviction and this joy radiated from every cell of his being, in his preaching, writing and actions, in his dedication to the Byzantine Church, and his determination to live the arduous Gospel message of love at whatever cost to himself.

Born in Zahle, Lebanon on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, 1916, Joseph Raya was nurtured as a child by the Byzantine liturgy and traditions. After primary studies in Paris and seminary studies with the White Fathers in Jerusalem, he was ordained to the priesthood on July 20, 1941. After being assigned to teach history and philosophy at St. Anne’s Minor Seminary in Zahle, he was appointed by his Patriarch to serve as superintendent of schools in Cairo Egypt and later as director of the Patriarchal College there.

In 1948 Fr. Raya came to the United States, serving first as assistant pastor of St. Ann’s Melkite Church in Patterson, New Jersey and. from 1952–1967 as the pastor of St. George’s parish in Birmingham, Alabama. The new parish church, which he designed and built, won the prize for the best architectural design in the state for 1960.

More than a decade before the Second Vatican Council authorized the celebration of the Roman Catholic liturgy in the vernacular, Fr. Joseph recognized and responded to this need in his own rite. Byzantine faith is imparted largely through liturgy and the language of the Melkite Church in America, ever since its foundation 75 years earlier, had been Arabic. Its youth, however, were now primarily English speaking and were becoming increasingly alienated from a liturgy they could barely understand, if at all. But Fr. Raya first had to learn English himself! To acquire the tools for ministry in his new country, this university graduate and accomplished scholar joined the ranks of elementary school pupils for two years!

In 1958 his beautiful English translation of the Byzantine Missal was published by his close friend and collaborator, Baron Jose de Vinck. Ten years later, their joint Byzantine Daily Worship, covering the whole liturgical year, with an introduction written by the Orthodox Patriarch Athanagoras of Constantinople, found wide use not only among Byzantine Catholics, but also in Orthodox monasteries and theological schools.

From 1955–1965 Fr. Joseph was the official spokesman for the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem at the United States liturgical conferences and conventions. In 1962 and 1963, he was appointed to the Curia of the Melkite Holy Patriarch to serve as a research aide at Vatican II.

As a member of a minority rite in the Catholic Church, and as an immigrant in the United States, Fr. Raya was no stranger to prejudice. More than anything, however, his commitment to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s was a response to what he saw as the struggle for the freedom and dignity of the human being created in the image and likeness of God. Defying public opinion, he brought African-Americans into his Birmingham church. He was a friend of Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr., and several times marched at the latter’s side. Not surprisingly, he was twice beaten badly by the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1967 the Holy Synod of the Three Patriarchates elected Fr. Joseph Raya as Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee. His Episcopal consecration took place in Birmingham, Alabama on October 20, 1968. Haifa, Israel became his home.

The Archbishop later characterized his years in Israel as a time of rediscovering his oriental, Semitic soul. The Fathers of the Church became his daily bread. “Their writings,” he wrote, “illumined all that a priest of God wishes to have come alive in Him. Heaven left my head to dwell in my heart.”

Those were the years that followed the Six Days’ War, years of transition and turmoil for Israel. Archbishop Raya worked uncompromisingly to build peace, justice and love between Christians, Muslims and Jews. With leadership unusual for a Christian Arab cleric of that time, but fully consonant with his personality and convictions, he demanded that the Israeli government respect the rights of the Palestinians, especially those living in Israel. Never hesitating to translate ideals into action, in August 1972 he led 24,000 Arabs and Jews in the historic Peace March to the Knesset, demanding justice for the villagers of Ikrit and Kfar-Berem, who had lost their homes and property.

Committed as he was to a Gospel vision encompassing all peoples and races, it was not surprising that Archbishop Joseph was misunderstood and attacked by the very people he strove to unite. But his was a prophetic witness. When he resigned his See in 1974 over a matter of principle, he left seeds that would bear lasting fruit for the Melkite Church and for Israel. In the ensuing decades, the laypeople and priests he had formed would devote their own lives, in the land Christ had walked, to implementing the vision of Gospel love, service and forgiveness, which their beloved Archbishop had planted in their hearts.

Returning to North America, Archbishop Raya took up permanent residence at the Madonna House Training Center in Combermere, Ontario. In 1959, he had become the first associate priest of this community of lay men, lay women and priests founded by Russian-born Catherine de Hueck Doherty. From the beginning, Catherine had recognized in him a person who could help incarnate her vision of a Church that breathed with the two lungs of East and West.

The Archbishop not only celebrated and taught the Byzantine liturgy; he lived and breathed it with his whole being, which “overflowed with God,” as someone described it. “God is not an old bachelor in the sky!” he would insist,

“God is relationship! God is Trinity! The God of our Christian revelation is…a social Life, an infinite superabundance of life… He is the fullness of communion and thereby, the source of all communion.”

The Divine Liturgy, which he celebrated every second Sunday whenever he was in Combermere, was the expression of his whole faith.

“God-Trinity is so awesome that we can reach Him only through wonder, amazement and poetical celebrations. This is the main object of the Divine and Holy Liturgy. God-Love is the truth that can reveal, uncover and make clear and credible every tenet that Christianity believes and teaches.

“Through the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, the celebrant restores to the world its full spiritual dimension by opening it to God’s mystery: love. He confirms the divine dignity and infinite worth of the human person, body and soul, heart and mind.”

During the next seven years, Archbishop Joseph taught at Fordham University in New York City, St. Paul’s Seminary in Ottawa, Christ the King Seminary and Franciscan University in Buffalo, and at the Theological Institute of St. Paul in Lebanon. He wrote poetry, composed music in the Greek and Arab traditions, translated ancient liturgical works into English, and wrote articles in French, English and Arabic for religious periodicals. In 1983 he was delegated by the Holy Synod to renew theological studies in Melkite seminaries and monasteries in accordance with Byzantine traditions. He wrote an entire theological curriculum in Arabic, called Byzantine Theology, for Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Syria. He also served as president of the commission working for the establishment of Melkite eparchies in the United States.

At the call of his Church, Archbishop Raya returned to war-torn Lebanon in the 1980’s to look after the spiritual needs of priests, nuns and lay people whose lives had been shattered by war and hatred. In 1985 and 86 he taught at the seminary and assisted the Bishop of Beirut. Two years later, he agreed to head the Greek Catholic archdiocese of Paneas in Marjeyeoun, in the southern part of Lebanon. Symbolically, the Archbishop began planting trees — thousands of trees — and vineyards. This action gave people hope for the future and the courage to commit themselves to their land. He offered them the freedom of the Gospel.

On his return to Canada in 1990, the Archbishop continued to write. He had the rare ability to grasp the essence of the Gospel and Church life and to transmit it simply, but with his own inimitable verve. Abundance of Love and Byzantine Church and Culture were followed by Crowning, Transfiguration, Theophany, Theotokos, Christmas, Divine Liturgy (with Baron de Vinck), and finally, in 2003, Celebration.

In 2005, Archbishop Raya was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A man of extraordinary inner freedom and spontaneity, Archbishop Joseph stepped outside the usual conventions of spirituality and set us on fire, again and again, with his vision of the beauty of all God’s creation, reflected in each human face. As one young person put it, “He sees beyond the physical reality. He sees the glorious potential in every person. His love makes people feel beautiful!”

“If we allow our vision to be transformed by the Gospel, our eyes become so focused and our hearts become so attuned, that we recognize God in every way he chooses to reveal himself... in the arts, in the sciences, in the joy of living.”

The Archbishop had great difficulty grappling with old age and infirmity. He refused to reduce the scandal of illness and encroaching death to theological formulas. The words of Dylan Thomas might have been written for him: “Do not go gently into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day, rage, rage against the dying of the light!”

Kyr Joseph, beloved Archbishop, from the tribulation of these last years, you have now emerged into the splendor you proclaimed and sang all your life! You have truly “hung your baptismal garment in the closet of eternity,” as you wrote in Celebration, and “recovered your humanity in all its beauty and glory, in the company of a host of companions, and risen again out of the grave transformed with a special glory...”

Permanent link to this article: http://www.madonnahouse.org/publications/passiton/Pass-It-On-Memorial-Archbishop_Raya.htm

--------------------

Recommended Reading:

Archbishop Joseph Raya was one of the world's foremost writers on Byzantine Christianity. A list of books in print by Archibishop Raya can be found at: http://www.madonnahouse.org/publications/raya/index.html

--------------------

Archbishop Joseph M. Raya

Born: 15 August 1916

Ordained: 20 July 1940

Madonna House Associate Priest: 1 July 1959

Consecrated Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee: 20 October 1968

Died: 10 June 2005

"Give a little, it costs a lot. Give a lot, it costs a little. Give everything, it costs nothing at all." - Archbishop Raya

--------------------

Funeral Services will be held in Ottawa and Combermere

IN OTTAWA, ONTARIO:

St. Peter and Paul Melkite Church

1161 River Road

Friday, June 17:

Visitation 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Wake Service 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 18:

Divine Liturgy 9:00 a.m. -- Celebrated by Archbishop M. Ibrahim Ibrahim, Eparch of the Greek Catholic Church of Canada

IN COMBERMERE, ONTARIO:

Our Lady of the Woods Chapel, Madonna House

2888 Dafoe Road

Saturday, June 18:

Reception of the Body 4:00 p.m.

Visitation 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Wake Service 8:00 p.m. (Roman Rite)

Sunday, June 19:

Byzantine Liturgy 10:00 a.m.

Visitation 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Wake Service 7:30 p.m. (Byzantine Rite)

Monday, June 20:

Burial Service 12:00 p.m. noon.

Procession and Burial Service beginning at Our Lady of the Woods Chapel, with burial at Our Lady of All Grace Cemetary, St. Mary's, Madonna House.

--------------------

www.madonnahouse.org - 2888 Dafoe Rd, Combermere ON, K0J 1L0

If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to subscribe, click here:  http://www.madonnahouse.org/contact/friends.html

SITE OF THE WEEK

www.madonnahouse.org

I am forwarding an email sent by a member of a Catholic youth organization (Jesus Youth) of which I am a member.

Please pray for these people of faith and warriors of Christ

The following link is helpful for us to know how Christians are treated in many countries who we call "allies" of the west.

http://www.worthynews.com/christian-persecution/massive-arrests-saudi-arabia.html

Thanks and God Bless,

Mathew N. Mathew

Dear friend in Christ,

One Million Rosaries were offered to Our Lady by Catholics in Ireland to keep their Country free from legalized abortions.  It worked!  This Project is now being implemented in Canada as a means to end abortion in our Country. 

(Editor’s note: Diane has forms available for keeping track of “One Million Rosaries for Life Mission”. Email her at forthegloryofgod-ottawa@rogers.com for a pdf file for this.)

The Project to offer Masses for the Clergy of the Ottawa Archdiocese and for an increase of Clerical vocations, is now under way.  However, we need at least one dedicated person from each Parish in order to ensure its success.   St. Mary's and Our Lady of Mount Carmel have already completed their quota.  Divine Infant and St. Leopold Mandic Parishes are currently working towards completing theirs.  If this Project has not yet been introduced into your Parish and you, or someone you know would be interested in co-ordinating the Project please notify me at this email address.  Most people are donating five dollars ($5.00) each towards these Masses but people can give whatever they can afford.

If you belong to another Archdiocese/Diocese you are free to implement the Project there if you wish.

In her most recent message to Ivan's Prayer Group Our Lady has asked that we pray for an increase in Vocations.

-------------------

Masses for the Clergy and Seminarians and for an increase of Vocations to the Clergy

The role of the Parish Priest has often been that of Father, Brother, Confidant, Psychiatrist, Marriage Counselor etc. to us.  They baptize us, administer the various Sacraments to us, and have been part of most of our lives almost from beginning to end.   Our Deacons have also been working hard to assist our Priests in carrying out the numerous duties that their positions require them to perform.  In addition, the worldwide shortage of Priests is a pressing concern at this time. Locally, our Archbishop, Archbishop Marcel Gervais is spearheading the program to interest more young men in discerning a Vocation to the Priesthood.

With a view to showing our love and appreciation for the many sacrifices these men make on our behalf, we are looking to offer Masses for the Priests, Deacons and Seminarians of our Archdiocese, and to pray for an increase in Vocations to the Priesthood, beginning with the year 2005.  If every parish sponsors at least twelve Masses for the year, it would enable us to have a Mass offered daily for these intentions,  throughout the Archdiocese.

In His Homily at Seoul, Korea, October 7th, 1989, our late Holy Father          Pope John Paul 11, urged the Laity to “Pray for your Priests”.

If you would like to be a Coordinator for this Project in your Parish, please call Diane at 830-0593 to register your Masses in order to ensure that each day is covered, and that there are no duplications. 

Suggested advertisement for your Church Bulletin, to recruit interested parishioners:

“‘Friends of the Clergy’ would like to offer Masses for the Priests, Deacons and Seminarians of our Archdiocese, and for an increase of Vocations to the Clergy. We would like to begin this Project in 2005 and continue it each year.  As the offering for a Mass is now $15, this donation could be shared. If you are interested, please check the availability of dates with your Parish Coordinator.  The coordinator for our Parish is:      (Name & telephone number).”

The Mass offering could read like this:  For the Clergy and Seminarians of our Archdiocese, and for Clerical Vocations, by ‘Friends of the Clergy’.

May God bless you abundantly as you labor in His Vineyard.

Yours in the service of our Triune God

and Our Lady,

Diane

Well over a year ago I e-mailed a rudimentary essay on the topic of

Homosexuality and the Church to a number of people.  Since then I have

reworked and expanded it into a major essay -- if not a virtual book.  It is roughly 230 pages long.

It is a composition and a compilation, part my own and part others -- from probably hundreds of sources.  It has more information and ideas on the subject than you probably ever cared to read.  It is still incomplete, in need of some reworking, and has no Conclusion.  I simply grew tired of working on it.

Father Lindsay Harrison

(To obtain a downloadable copy of this “book”, you may contact Fr. Lindsay at lindsay_harrison@hotmail.com)

UNITED MOTHERS, FATHERS AND FRIENDS NEWSLETTER

JUNE 10, 2005

Please Forward This Newsletter to Others

1)    How to Move an Elephant

2)    Yellow Fever

3)    Take Action:  Posters & Declaration

4)    MPs get Yellow Fever

5)    SUPPORT

 “Same-sex marriage will be, in effect, a public and legal declaration by governments that children do not need mothers and fathers. That alternative family forms are not only just as good, they are just the same as a husband and wife bringing kids up together.” pg vii

“Marriage is our most basic social institution for protecting children. Same-sex marriage amounts to a vast social experiment on children. Rewriting the basic rules of marriage puts all children, not just the children in unisex unions, at risk. Do not expect boys to become good family men in a society of [males] who believe, as they have been taught, that men are optional in family life.” pg viii-ix        

- Maggie Gallagher from Divorcing Marriage: Unveiling the Dangers in
                                       Canada’s New Social Experiments

1) How Do You Move an Elephant?

The elephant that has dropped before us is the possibility that C-38 might become law before summer.

Trying to get either the government to fall as a result of a confidence motion, or MPs to abstain or change their vote on 3rd reading vote, is a lot like trying to move an elephant!

Some say it cannot be done. 

I believe it can.

How?

Simple, all you need is one, long, sharp pin!

Over the coming weeks, we need to stop flock shooting and focus all our collective energy into one very narrow point:  CHILDREN.

My experience has been that while many Canadians and MPs take a “live and let live” philosophy, thus making genderless marriage okay in their minds, their support often crumbles when they realize that children have been totally ignored in this debate, their rights denied, and their best interests given secondary consideration.  (See the declaration, “What about Children’s Rights?”)

We are going to take this message not only to MPs, but to all Canadians who have not as yet reflected upon this critical argument.

Over the coming weeks, with your help, we can bring children’s rights to the forefront of the marriage debate.  It is called Yellow Fever.

2) YELLOW FEVER

When Stanley Cup fever gripped our community last year, every fourth car had a hockey team’s flag flying from it.   The message was loud and clear that this community was behind its team.  No expensive billboards or advertisements could have done a more effective marketing job than the grassroots accomplished through very simple means. 

I like simple.

If a community can pull together for a hockey team, as a nation we can certainly pull together and wave the flag for children’s rights!

Imagine driving down the street and seeing a multitude of cars with “school bus” yellow posters in their windows, yellow ribbons on people’s lapels, yellow posters on lawns, in businesses and in home windows.  This is not mellow yellow.

3) TAKE ACTION: POSTERS & DECLARATION

COLOUR CANADA SCHOOL BUS YELLOW!  EDUCATE OTHERS ABOUT CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

We need you to print off (preferably on school bus yellow paper) 10+ copies of the Children’s Right’s Poster and “What about Children’s Rights?” Declaration.

These are available at:

ENGLISH:  http://www.preservemarriage.ca/eng/posters.htm

FRANÇAIS:  http://www.preservemarriage.ca/fr/posters.htm

Then post them and share them with neighbours, colleagues, friends, family, club members, and churches.  Refer people to the website link (at the bottom of the poster and declaration) where people can download more copies and get further information as needed. 

My experience has been when people see the posters they are curious and want to know more.  Once they know more, they are the ones requesting copies of the poster and declarations to share!

4) MPs GET YELLOW FEVER

We need yellow fever to be contagious not only within your community but on Parliament Hill.

Mail a copy of the poster and declaration (coloured school bus yellow) to your MP. 

Their address is available here:  http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?Language=E

No postage is necessary.

5)SUPPORT

As we work at the short term (stopping bill C-38) and the long-term solution (constitutional amendment) we need your help to keep up our momentum. Please consider becoming a quarterly donor.  In order to pay for our technology and continue our efforts to uphold the family, we need your financial support. If you are able to contribute $40, $75, $100 or more to protecting the family, please click here for more information: http://www.unitedmothers.ca/donate.php!

 “The same-sex marriage debate has focused on the rights of gay adults. But what about the rights of children? Do children have a basic right to know who their biological parents are and to be brought up by them? Does society need an institution that establishes that right as one of its basic principles and norms?

If our answer is "yes" then we must say "no" to changing the definition of marriage to include [same-gender] couples. “  

-  Dr. Margaret Somerville  http://www.marriageinstitute.ca/pages/otheright.htm

Michele Dow

United Mothers, Fathers and Friends