The second ‘Morning Watch’ of ‘The Great Novena’ - which brought the total number of ‘Morning Watches’ to eight since May 2005 - was held in St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parry Sound, a town located right on beautiful Georgian Bay in the northern end of our Diocese. ‘The Great Novena’ is a series of nine monthly all-night Eucharistic Adorations in preparation for the 49th International Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Quebec City in June 2008. The first ‘Morning Watch’ in this series was held in St. Thomas More Parish in Millbrook this past September. The November ‘Morning Watch’ will be held at St. Michael’s Church in Cobourg.
On October 20th, approximately twenty youth from all over the Diocese boarded the VEYO bus to make the long bus ride up to Parry Sound. After eating a quick pizza lunch at the VEYO Centre, a head count was taken and Fr. Norbert started up the bus and set out for Parry Sound. The 3 hour bus ride was quite enjoyable despite the length of the ride, with plenty of music, singing, talking, and praying.
Finally, we made it to St. Peter-the-Apostle Church. After some slight difficulty parking the bus in the parish parking lot - it was almost too small to accommodate the enormous size of the bus, but we still made it - we met up with the wonderful pastor, Fr. Henry Adoptante, and set up temporary residence in the church basement. The parishioners of St. Peter the Apostle made us feel very welcome, as they took the extra effort to provide us with drinks and refreshments, chairs and tables, and a Chinese food dinner!
After setting up for the overnight stay, the pilgrims joined the parish for their 4:30 evening Mass. Fr. Norbert celebrated Mass and the actual adoration began right after the closing blessing and lasted till about 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Throughout the period of adoration, people, both visiting youth and parishioners, came and spent time with Jesus in prayer and spiritual reflection. The young people all signed up to keep watch during the night hours. At one point, a small table was brought out with various spiritual readings for people to meditate upon while in the presence of Jesus. Some also played music and sang songs. Meanwhile, in the church basement, people socialized, had fun, played music, and all around had a great time there. Lights out came at about midnight.
At about 8:00 am the second ‘Morning Watch’ in ‘The Great Novena’ ended with Fr. Norbert celebrating Holy Benediction, followed by the regular 9:00 a.m. parish Mass. There was no doubt that the sight of so many young people making the pilgrimage just to be with Jesus was a great blessing to all the parishioners. In fact, there was a couple visiting the parish from Chatham, Ontario who stopped into the 4:30 Mass on Saturday and witnessed the VEYO bus arriving. They were instantly amazed with the young people coming to worship Jesus. They are quoted as saying, “We felt truly blessed to witness and be part of Holy Mass…and the prayerful disposition of the young people and their joyful praise and worship of the Blessed Sacrament”. After the concluding Mass Sunday, the parish Knights of Columbus and Catholic Women’s League provided the young people with a delicious breakfast in the parish hall before we had to bid farewell. After gathering up the leftovers of the Chinese food and all their personal belongings, the visiting pilgrims rendezvoused in the bus and left Parry Sound, but not before saying our goodbyes to the wonderful and all so generous and kind people of St. Peter the Apostle Parish.
Amazingly, our day was not over yet! After leaving Parry Sound, we drove to the Bracebridge mission Church of St. John the Baptist at Morinus, which also functions as a diocesan retreat house. As many know, this is the same location as the 2007 seminarian retreat (click :: here :: for more information). Since it is surrounded by wilderness and lakes, we were all dazzled by the beautiful fall scenery and pleasant warmth of the day. We parked the bus in the driveway of the Church and walked down to the docks where we took in the spectacular view of Lake Rosseau. While we were enjoying the view, some of us joked about taking a quick dip in the frigid waters. While this was meant to be simply joking-around, “prophecy” came true when one of us accidentally fell in! Then the real fun started! A few of us began throwing each other into the lake! Only a few got wet, thankfully. After those who had an unprepared swim in the slightly chilly lake dried up or went for a change of clothes, we all boarded our bus for a restful trip back to the VEYO Centre in Peterborough.
And so, after the 3 hour bus ride, a ride that allowed us to view some amazing scenery of the northern regions of the Diocese (one of them was the amazing rock formations along the highways), we rolled into the parking lot at the VEYO Centre and sadly had to say our goodbyes to each other, hoping to meet again at the next ‘Morning Watch’ in November.
And so, in conclusion, this ‘Morning Watch’ was a highly fulfilling experience. After all, what could be better than to be actually in the presence of Jesus himself? Thank you to Fr. Henry and the parishioners of St. Peter the Apostle parish for accommodating us and bringing us all the nice food. Thank you to all those who participated in this Morning Watch and the last one as well. And a special word of thanks goes out to Fr. Norbert, whose tireless effortless and great love and dedication makes everything the best there is!
See you all at the next ‘Morning Watch’!
