Charles Pottie Pate, SJ, is the Prairie and Rockies regions Ecclesial Assistant for CLC. He resides at St. Mary's Cathedral Rectory, Calgary.
27 posts
"In the last number of years there has been a resurgence of ‘adoration of the Blessed Sacrament” especially among the young. And in some instances it seems that ‘adoration’ and ‘celebration of Eucharist’ (aka ‘the Mass’) are on an equal level and, dare I say it, in a competition with each other."...
"the time has come to conclude this account of our pilgrimage to the Nordic countries culminating in this 7 full day retreat at the Cistercian(or Trappist as it sometimes called, though they prefer “Cistercian” from the reform in the 11th c.) Abbey of Mount St. Bernard’s in Coalville, Leicestershire Co. England. "...
"We leave to begin our retreat at the Trappist Monastery Mt St. Bernard’s in England."...
"We have finished tonight the “Nordic” part of our pilgrimage. We head toward England tomorrow morning…..early! Today is Midsummer’s Day. Most of Helsinki closes down today. People are off to the north to watch the ‘nuit blanche’. There is little darkness this day. And there are events up in north – bonfires, etc to celebrate. Great how the Finns can just stop their regular workday and take this holiday – in fact they say the whole weekend nothing much goes on in Helsinki. Today we decided to go to the ancient capital, Turku, of Finland. Much of it was destroyed by fire in the 1800’s.. As a result the capital was moved to Helsinki. But there is still a beautiful medieval cathedral there, plus a gorgeous water walkway, a castle. It is 2 hr train ride. We finished using our Rail Pass with this trip today. The landscape was stunning, fields with farm houses. We passed through some forest as well. There are a number of small towns on the way to Turku, so it’s developed area. Turku is west of Helsinki. We visited the medieval Gothic cathedral for some time. Beautiful lines, and simple. Almost Romanesque in style. A lot of it had been destroyed by the fire but they restored much of it. It is still used for regular Sunday and weekday worship. I put some photos of inside and outside, plus the beautiful organ in the back. By 12:30 we went looking for a little lunch place. Everything closed along the waterway. We did find a...
"We started the seminar on Spiritual Direction the Ignatian Way at 9 30 with about 40 present. I won't bore you with content of morning program but it went quite well from all reports. Most of them had some experience of the Sp Exercises. many of them are doing direction with others and there were a few who were interested in learning about the Exercises." ...
In Helsinki - "for the presentation tomorrow. There are 40 people registered. Wasn’t expecting that many. Looking forward to sharing with our Lutheran brothers and sisters the charism of St Ignatius. They have already been introduced to him…."...
Helsinki: A bustling city nestled in a beautiful harbor. Each of the Nordic countries have had a wonderful “seaport” feel about them, each quite different."...
On their last day in Stockholm, the pilgrims visit the Vasa Museum and a four story boat....
On the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the pilgrims attend a service at a Lutheran cathedral....
This is the tenth in a series ongoing journal entries....
