Page 165 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

When someone comes to a church, it is probably someone who is already active in their faith,
but maybe it is someone who is maybe far from it but nevertheless seeks to meet God, to pray,
to talk with someone so that they may journey deeper in their faith.

During this Novena to the Holy Spirit, I invite you to pray the Rosary each day to become
more committed to personal conversion. Pray to renew our courage to bear witness to the
name of Jesus in a world that often does not want to hear from God, in a world that is so often
closed in on itself, with God as the last taboo of which we cannot speak in the public square.
But in a world where human beings are the same as always, as yesterday and as tomorrow, we
are made for God, loved by God. We are His priority.

Have the courage, therefore, to name Jesus Christ in the public square, and believe in the
Holy Spirit that touches us from the bottom of our hearts, that which is in our hearts. Let us
pray for our own greater conversion, for an evangelical, missionary spirit. Let us pray that the
doors of our churches be open all day!

From this perspective, we know that we have saints in heaven to whom to pray. In Canada, we
have many to whom to pray, who care about and pray for us.

Why not invoke these Canadian saints in heaven so that they may help us, through their inter-
cession, to give us the same breath of the service of evangelization that motivated them, that
it may dwell also in us?

For this reason, we will pray together the Litany of the Saints, with specific attention to the
names of Canadian saints. As you know, there are fourteen canonized Canadian saints,
including ten Blessed and eleven Venerable ones. In this Litany of the Saints we will therefore
invoke all the saints in heaven, especially the saints of Canada.



Somehow through this pandemic, we went through it together! As a humanity, brothers and
sisters in humanity; as Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ; as Catholics, members of
the Catholic Church, of the Body of Christ. We’ve taken the time to pray, maybe taken the
time to say to God our sorrow, taken the time to reach out to others who might be alone or

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 165