Shrine Message - Fall 2008 by Trevor Howard

Eucharistic Congress 2008 and the Martyrs’ Shrine On Easter Sunday (March 23rd) the Ark of the New Covenant paid a visit to the Martyrs’ Shrine. It was decided to take the Ark on a pilgrimage of the Five National Shrines in Canada beginning at the Martyrs’ Shrine and ending up in the City of Quebec in time for the Eucharistic Congress. Easter falling as it did this year in March meant that when the Ark arrived the snow lay deep outside the Shrine Church. Winter here at the Shrine was still in full force and with no heat in the Shrine Church we were forced to use the Filion Centre to host the Ark and the some 70 pilgrims who accompanied the Ark. A prayer service was held with the singing of hymns and many words of encouragement from the two bishops present. Thus was the Five National Shrine Pilgrimage begun and sent on its way. The Ark was one of the devotional items intended to bring God’s people together in prayer in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress which was held in June in the city of Quebec. When one thinks about it this is most appropriate since the Martyrs’ Shrine commemorates those early Jesuit missionaries who first planted the faith here in Huronia in New France. In a way this visit by the Ark of the New Covenant brought the Martyrs’ Shrine into the consciousness of many of the pilgrims who intended to journey to Quebec City for the Congress. At the writing of this article we have had five groups who included the Martyrs’ Shrine on their pilgrimage to the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec. After the Congress, three groups visited the Shrine on their way home. Four of these visiting groups came from British Columbia. One group of young people came from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Another group made a pilgrimage from Saskatchewan. The smallest group came from the greatest distance ... Bishop Carlos Ruiseco and a companion came all the way from Columbia in South America. The consensus among these groups was that the Martyrs’ Shrine is a hidden treasure. Were it not for the Eucharistic Congress they would never have discovered this treasure tucked away in Huronia but still speaking loudly about the faith planted here so long ago by the Canadian Martyrs. We pray that their visit to the Martyrs’ Shrine was helpful in making their pilgrimage to the Eucharistic Congress all the more an experience they will long remember and an experience from which they will be able to draw much spiritual fruit.

In your kindness please keep us in your prayers: SHRINE DIRECTOR: ASSIST. DIRECTOR: SHRINE STAFF:

Rev. Alex Kirsten, SJ Mr. Steve Parrotte Rev. Lawrence Brennan, SJ Rev. Stephen LeBlanc, SJ Rev. Joseph Newman, SJ

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR: Mrs. Darlene Sunnerton Martyrs’ Shrine P.O. Box 7 Midland, ON L4R 4K6 Tel: (705) 526-3788 Fax: (705) 526-1546

http://www.martyrs-shrine.com

Pilgrimages - 2008 Aug.

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Filipino (Sat.) Walking Pilgrimage (Sat.) Polish Lithuanian Mission Sunday Communal Anointing Mass Irish (Sat.)

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Sept.

Oct.

Vol. 73 No. 2 2008

FROM THE DIRECTOR Dear Friends of Martyrs' Shrine,

What’s Inside Director’s Message Page 1 The Story of the Martyrs’ Shrine Page 2 Who are These Holy Martyrs? Page 3 Novena to the Canadian Martyrs Prayers Page 4 St. Ignatius of Loyola Page 5, 6 & 7

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International Order of Alhambra Archdiocesan Western Region (Sat.) Slovenian 24th Annual Living Rosary Sunday Celebration Feast of the Canadian Martyrs

SHRINE CLOSES (Mon.)

** Tear-off Flap ** Prayer Petitions MSA Membership Renewal All Souls Petitions

The Eucharistic Congress 2008 and the Martyrs’ Shrine Page 8

We are now about halfway through the 2008 season of the Martyrs’ Shrine. God has once again blessed us with wonderful weather. For this we must be thankful. I also give thanks daily for our pilgrims, benefactors, the Board of Trustees and all our friends for their goodness to us. This is the third year I’ve spoken about the high price of gasoline and the worry that this might have a negative effect on the number of pilgrims we could expect to visit the Shrine. Once again it seems that my fears were not born out. At the writing of this letter we have had three of our larger pilgrim groups and each one of them have maintained their numbers with one of them being even larger than in previous years. Once again I would like to offer up my thanks to the various pilgrimage organizers for their dedicated work in putting their pilgrimages together. I want also to offer up my thanks to our Jesuit staff and many lay staff for the success of this summer. Father Tony Baranowski from Lusaka, Zambia who spent one month with us and our regular Jesuit staff Fathers Brennan, Newman and LeBlanc gave of themselves frequently over and above the call of duty. This year we were also fortunate to have two young men participating in the Six Weeks A Jesuit Program. The program gives young men the opportunity to discern their own call to vocation with the Society of Jesus as they live and work with Jesuits in an active apostolic setting. Their presence and energy was invaluable to our larger pilgrim groups. Our very successful Walk Where They Walked program once again brought us some 1,500 students to the Shrine in the spring. The beauty and smooth operation of the Shrine is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our many lay co-workers. In the background are the office staff Mr. Steve Parrotte and Mrs. Darlene Sunnerton. Without their diligence and care most pilgrimages would not have run as smoothly as they did. Many thanks go out to the Knights of Columbus this year. Their project of restoring the landings, stairs and ramps of the Church was once again the gift of the three zones of the Knights in our Archdiocese with donations also coming from the Knights of the Hamilton, London and Peterborough Archdioceses. The local area Knights also faithfully provided the honour guard for our Sunday Masses once again this year. My thanks must go out again to our Board of Trustees for their assistance with their time and energy this season. With every passing year their contribution has become more and more valuable to us as we move forward with the work of the Shrine. My final word of thanks is to God our Lord for His many blessings given to us and all our pilgrims this past season. The thousands of prayers answered and even a few miracles are a sure sign of the power of our eight holy martyrs and their intercession on our behalf. May the good Lord bless and keep you over the summer. We hope to see all of you next season. A friend in the Lord,

Rev. Alex Kirsten, S.J., Director

The Story of the Canadian Martyrs’ Shrine

By Fr. Carl Matthews, S.J.

The shrine of the Canadian Jesuit Martyrs in Midland, Ontario is Canada’s only national shrine outside of Quebec. Devotion to the Martyrs had flourished for many years before they were beatified in 1926. In 1907, Archbishop Denis O'Connor of Toronto blessed a chapel near the site of martyrdom of Fathers Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant within the parish limits of Waubaushene, about 12 kms. from the present Shrine. For 18 years, thousands of devout pilgrims visited this humble shrine and stayed at the 40-room shrine hostel nearby. In June of 1925, Father John M. Filion, then provincial superior of English speaking Jesuits across Canada, felt the need for a larger Shrine that would be closer both to pure spring water and to Ste-Marie-among-the-Hurons, the missionaries' "home of peace." So he purchased the Standen brothers' farm on the hill across the dirt road from the ruins of Ste-Marie. Acting as his own architect and foreman, he hired 50 local seamen in the fall of 1925 and had the roof placed by winter. Some of the lumber came from the Waubaushene shrine and the remainder was donated by lumber companies north of Lake Huron. "I wanted a church both rustic and amateur and I am sure all the high-class architects will agree that it is quite rustic and quite amateur," Father Filion used to chuckle in later years. As part of the rustic theme, he shaped the ceiling as an inverted canoe. Since birch bark was in short supply for the entire interior, he chose a durable substitute, British Columbia three-ply cottonwood called Lamatco. With the stone facing put on the church by Reuben Webb, the edifice on the hill has always looked quite handsome. The craftsman used Longford stone from the east side of Lake Simcoe. The old St. Peter's Church on Bathurst Street in Toronto was being replaced, so the Shrine got the three altars, the communion rail, the rose windows and the pews. The same year the cathedral in London, Ontario was being renovated and the architect rejected the 14 Stations of the Cross which are now in the Shrine and are one of its chief ornaments. The Shrine also got the stained glass windows from the cathedral which were painted in Germany. They came to the Shrine gratis. The Shrine was blessed on June 25, 1926 by Cardinal O'Connell of Boston. He arrived in Midland on the cruise ship, South American, after attending the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. Mostly in wagons, 500 proper Bostonians made their way to the brand-new Shrine. On the following Sunday, 10,000 pilgrims gathered in front of the church for a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by Archbishop Neil McNeil of Toronto. Five other heads of dioceses were present, and Bishop Michael Fallon of London preached the sermon on the outside steps. Almost four years to the day later, as Pope Pius XI was canonizing the eight Canadian Martyrs in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, another vast congregation gathered in front of the altar at the 12th Station of the Cross on the hill overlooking Georgian Bay. Once more Archbishop McNeil celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving, and this time Monsignor Joseph O'Sullivan, rector of St. Augustine's Seminary, Toronto, preached. In those days most pilgrims from southern Ontario came by excursion train that stopped adjacent to Ste. Marie. The Shrine director would follow the processional cross and lead every pilgrimage up the big hill. At the end of the Depression, it took three years of appeals in The Martyrs' Shrine Message for the Director to collect the $4,000.00 purchase price of Sainte-Marie from a local businessman. With the site of the “home of peace” back in Jesuit hands in 1940, the archaeologists got busy. Professor Kenneth Kidd of the Royal Ontario Museum and, then, Professor Wilfrid Jury supervised teams of diggers. The biggest find of the digs came in August, 1954 when Father Denis Hegarty, S.J. of the Shrine staff uncovered in the Native chapel a lead plaque, "Père Jean de Brébeuf bruslé par les Iroquois le 17 de mars, l'an 1649." That was five years after the Tercentenary celebrations of the deaths of those Martyrs. A trainload of pilgrims came from Quebec City with Archbishop Maurice Roy taking personal charge of the skull of Brébeuf which came up the hill in a solemn procession. Premier Robert Schuman of France was there too. Cardinal James McGuigan of Toronto led the welcoming party. More memorable for some that summer of 1949 was the Pageant, Salute to Canada, written and directed by Fr. Daniel Lord, S.J. of St. Louis, Missouri. The numbers were impressive: four nights, 25 musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, 500 actors, including the Volcoff Dancers, 40,000 enthralled viewers. Some evenings it rained in the area, except on the hillside of the Pageant! In 1964 the Jesuits negotiated an agreement between the Upper Canadian Province of Jesuits and the Government of Ontario whereby the historic site of Sainte-Marie and adjoining land on the south side of Highway #12 were leased to the Provincial Government for 100 years for a consideration of one dollar. In turn the Government undertook to rebuild and operate Ste-Marie-among-the-Hurons. Then the highlight of highlights over these years, in September, 1984 Pope John Paul II was welcomed at the Shrine. The Holy Father through television told the country and the world that "this Martyrs' Shrine is a place of pilgrimage and prayer, a monument to God's blessings in the past, an inspiration as we look to the future." In 1992, to mark the 150th anniversary of the return of the Jesuits to Canada, the Jesuits of Quebec offered the precious relic of the skull of St. Jean de Brébeuf to the Martyrs' Shrine. In the presence of Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto, Father René Latourelle, S.J., of Quebec told the assembly at the Papal altar, "Here Brébeuf was and still is fully at home." Annually, pilgrims come to the shrine -- individuals, organizations, schools, parishes, dioceses. They come in convoys of cars or buses, or alone, even on foot. Today some 100,000 pilgrims still visit this national shrine. Smaller ethnic shrines all over the grounds are focal points for huge pilgrimages which include procession, hillside Mass, singing and praying in more than 20 languages. Over these many years pilgrims from near and far have worshiped in Fr. Filion's rustic church at the four English-language Masses a day. The words of our Holy Father still echo from the hill: "Let us recall for a moment these heroic saints who are honoured in this place and who have left us a precious heritage." Page -2- Martyrs’ Shrine MESSAGE

superiors to give commands only when absolutely necessary. Most frequently, he told Jesuits in the field to "do as you think best." The key to Ignatius' approach as a leader is probably found in his time at Manresa. While he was there remember, it was not long after his dramatic conversion, Ignatius tried to imitate and even surpass the saints in the harsh way he treated his body. He let his hair and nails grow and rarely took a bath. Aiming for extreme holiness, he sought to deny every bodily urge and pleasure. But over time, he came to realize that this style of life was frustrating his goal of helping souls. People were more repelled by him than attracted. He was also ruining his health, which meant limiting the amount of energy he had for ministry. Ignatius' decision to cut his hair, trim his nails, and finally take a bath, meant far more than a renewed commitment to personal hygiene. It meant that he was learning how to join practical wisdom to religious zeal - a trait that he would elevate to an art form as he continued to grow in the Lord. Another example of his use of practical wisdom, in fact, was his decision to continue his studies. He saw that an advanced degree from a wellrespected university would open doors for him and his Spiritual Exercises that would otherwise remain shut. A Reformer? Textbooks describe Ignatius as a church reformer and a tireless Catholic champion against Martin Luther. There is a grain of truth in that depiction but only a grain. While Ignatius was a student at Paris, Lutheranism hit the city and the university with force. Yet Ignatius seemed to pay little attention to it. He and his companions wanted to go to Jerusalem, not to Luther's town of Wittenberg. Only in the last several years of his life did he turn his attention to the Reformation and begin to see it as a major concern for the order. But surely he was a church reformer? Well, if by church reformer you mean somebody who worked to help people deepen their faith, yes, he certainly was. But so was every saint in history, yet we usually don't consider St. Benedict or St. Francis church reformers. Historians are coming to realize that the whole church may not have been as corrupt as we once thought. True, there were grave abuses in the way popes were elected and the way bishops held more than one bishopric and collected money from them all. While there were serious problems in "the institutional church," at the same time, the religious practice and devotion of everyday people was in many places lively, fervent, and reasonably well instructed. If we want to call Ignatius a reformer at all, perhaps we would do best to describe him as a reformer of souls, not of practices or institutions. He was more of an evangelist than a reformer, if we want to be clear. His heart and his concerns were focused on the missions abroad and pastoral work at home. And it is with this word, pastor, that we finally come to see what kind of person Ignatius really was. A Pastor! At first, Ignatius and the other early Jesuits saw themselves as men on the move. Their role was to preach, hear confessions, and reconcile enemies. As head of the order, Ignatius continued this impulse, but he made a crucial decision that provided some balance to this original mobility. Ignatius began to see that people were better helped in the long run through stable institutions, where the work that his men had begun could continue to be fostered and developed over whole generations. This new insight helps to explain his decision to commit the Jesuits to the staffing and running of schools. Here was the stability of presence he saw as necessary–and here, too, was a place where his men could evangelize enthusiastic young people who could then bring the gospel into the world. Throughout his life, Ignatius showed a flexibility before God that has become the hallmark of the Jesuit order. After his injury at Pamplona, he could have devoted all his time to regaining his military prowess and becoming the hero he had dreamed about - but he heard God's voice, and he adopted a new dream. At Manresa, he could have remained a solitary hermit - but he saw how he was hindering rather than helping his spiritual growth, so he changed tactics. Once in Rome, he could have become an adventurer missionary but he saw the need for stability in his order, and so he set down roots. At every turn, Ignatius adapted to the situation before him, willing to put aside his own ideas for the sake of building the kingdom of God. Martyrs’ Shrine MESSAGE Page -7-

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Ignatius set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land as soon as he regained his strength. He paused along the way at Manresa, a little town outside Barcelona, where he ended up spending about a year praying, fasting, and seeking out people to talk with them about "the things of God." It was here that he began making notes about what was going on in his soul and what he was learning from other people. This was the origin of The Spiritual Exercises, which he continued to refine for the next twenty years. Then it was off to Palestine where he was able to stay only a few months. Flexible before God. On the way back to Europe, Ignatius decided he needed to go back to school "in order better to help souls." Helping others had already become the dominant drive of his life. In fact, in his immense correspondence of twelve thick volumes (larger than anybody else's in his century), "helping souls" appears on almost every page. After some false starts, Ignatius ended up at the University of Paris, where he remained for six years, earning a Master's degree in philosophy and evangelizing young men by guiding them through his Exercises. He and his companions wanted to go to the Holy Land to help convert the Muslims, but the tense political and military situation prevented them. So they decided to stay together and found a new order, for which they got the Pope's permission in 1540. They elected Ignatius superior, and for the remaining fifteen years of his life, Ignatius the adventurer, Ignatius the traveler, Ignatius the evangelist, became Ignatius the administrator while he stayed in Rome governing the order. While it may seem that Ignatius lurched from project to project, from whim to whim, a closer look shows a man who remained flexible before God, ready to make changes, sometimes drastic changes, when he felt they would best serve God's purposes. He wasn't a soldier saint, and he wasn't a reformer. He was simply a pastor who did everything he could to "help souls" come to Jesus. A Soldier Saint? As Father General of the Jesuits, Ignatius is often depicted as running his order along military lines, something you might expect from a former soldier who loved to dream about military exploits. It is true that Ignatius saw obedience as important for an order in which the members undertook so many different ministries. His famous Letter on Obedience sounds extraordinarily demanding to our ears. In actual practice, however, Ignatius rarely gave commands, and he told local

Who Are These Holy Martyrs? Saint Jean de Brébeuf, S.J. Martyred March 16, 1649. Jean de Brébeuf, born in Normandy, was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 33. He was the first Jesuit Missionary in Huronia (1626), a master of the Native language, worked through all the district of Huronia for thirteen years, founded Mission outposts and converted thousands to the faith. He was known as the Apostle of the Hurons. He was massive in body, strong, yet gentle in character. Before leaving Normandy, he revealed his sentiments. “I felt a strong desire to suffer something for Christ.” He made a vow signed in his blood, never to refuse the offer of Martyrdom if asked to die for Christ. He was captured March 16, 1649 and tortured for hours. He was Martyred at St. Ignace, six miles from Ste. Marie, at the age of 56. Saint Isaac Jogues, S.J. Martyred October 18, 1646. Isaac Jogues was a priest only seven months and was 29 years of age when he came to Canada in 1636. He set out at once for Huronia. For three years he served at Mission outposts, instructing and baptizing. On a return journey from Quebec, he was captured by the Iroquois, brutally tortured, and made a slave. Thirteen months later he escaped to France. By the next year he was back in Canada and was sent as an emissary to discuss a treaty with the Iroquois. He went, “his heart seized with dread,” at the prospect of again falling into the hands of his torturers. He was seized at Ossernenan (now Auriesville, N.Y.) and cruelly beaten. A blow from a tomahawk gave him the crown of Martyrdom on October 18, 1646, at the age of 39. Saint Gabriel Lalemant, S.J. Martyred March 17, 1649. Gabriel Lalemant, a Parisian, became a Jesuit at age 19. His ambition was to labour in the Missions and he asked to be sent to the Canadian Missions. He was “one of the most feeble and delicate in health.” A scholar, he was professor of Philosophy, and dean of studies in French Colleges. He arrived in Huronia in September 1648 where in words of Scriptures, he was destined to complete a long time in a short space. In Huronia seven months, just beginning to speak the Native tongue, he was sent to assist Brébeuf in February 1649. He was captured with Brébeuf and tortured for seventeen hours at the stake. Gabriel Lalemant died on March 17 in his 39th year, at St. Ignace, six miles from Ste. Marie. Saint Antoine Daniel, S.J. Martyred July 4, 1648. Antoine Daniel was born in Normandy and became a Jesuit and was ordained a priest at 29. He answered a strong call to the Missions of Canada and was a Missioner near Bras d’Or Lakes (1632). He founded the first boys’ College in North America (Quebec 1635) and laboured in Huronia for twelve years. He mastered the language and dreamed of forming future catechists among the Hurons who would instruct other members of their tribe. The Mission was attacked by the Iroquois in July 1648. Daniel encouraged the converts to meet death as Christians should; he hastily baptized all he could and went out to face the enemy. His body was pierced with arrows and bullets.

The Iroquois set fire to the Chapel and threw his body into the flames. He was Martyred at Mount St. Louis, 12 miles from Ste. Marie at the age of 48. Saint Charles Garnier, S.J. Martyred December 7, 1649. Charles Garnier, a Parisian, a Jesuit, and a priest, was attracted to the arduous Missions of Canada. He came to Huronia at the age of thirty-one and for thirteen years laboured among the Hurons and Petuns. He was a victim of the Iroquois massacre of the village of Etharita, thirty miles from Ste. Marie. He refused to escape but exercised his charity to the end. Saint Charles Garnier was always a person of innocence and purity with a strong devotion to Our Lady whom he acknowledged looked after him as a youth. Gentle, innocent, fearless, he succeeded in winning many souls to God both at St. Joseph’s Mission and among the Petuns. Saint Noël Chabanel, S.J. Martyred December 8, 1649. Noël Chabanel became a Jesuit at the age of seventeen, a priest at twenty-eight, and was a successful professor and humanist in France. Experiencing a strong desire to consecrate himself to the Canadian Missions, he arrived in Quebec in 1643 and then travelled to Huronia. The enthusiasm of the young missionary quickly lost its glamour. Unable to learn the Native language, feeling useless in the ministry, sensitive to the surroundings, his life was to be one unbroken chain of disappointments, an ordeal that he himself called a “bloodless Martyrdom.” Tempted to return to France, he bound himself by a vow to remain in New France till death. For two years he stood in the shadow of death and then was slain secretly by an apostate Huron on the banks of the Nottawasaga, twenty-five miles from Ste. Marie on December 8, 1649. Saint René Goupil, S.J. Martyred September 29, 1642. René Goupil entered the Jesuit Order but had to leave because of ill health. He studied medicine and then offered his services to the Jesuit Missions in Canada. On his way to Huron country with Isaac Jogues in 1642, they were captured by the Iroquois, tortured and taken to the Mohawk country. On the journey to Mohawk country he begged Isaac Jogues to receive his vows. A month later he was martyred for making the sign of the cross on a little Native child. He was martyred at Auriesville, N.Y. at the age of thirty-five, on September 29, 1642. Saint Jean de LaLande, S.J. Martyred October 19, 1646. Jean de LaLande was a young layman who offered his services to the Jesuits of New France. He accompanied Isaac Jogues to the Mohawk Mission in 1646, knowing what he might have to suffer, gladly offering himself as a companion to Jogues and looking to God to protect him and to be his reward if the sacrifice of his life was demanded. With Isaac Jogues, he was tortured and threatened with death. He saw the martyrdom of Jogues on October 18. He himself was martyred on the following day at Auriesville, N.Y. Martyrs’ Shrine MESSAGE Page -3-

O God, who by the preaching and the blood of Your blessed Martyrs, Jean and Isaac and their companions, consecrated the first fruits of faith in the vast regions of North America, graciously grant that by their intercession the flourishing harvest of Christians may be everywhere and always increased. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER OF PETITION O God, who inflamed the hearts of your blessed Martyrs with an admirable zeal for the salvation of souls, grant me, I beseech you, my petitions, so that the favours obtained through their intercession may make manifest before your people the power and the glory of your name. Amen.

St. Jean de Brébeuf, pray for us St. Charles Garnier, pray for us St. Isaac Jogues, pray for us St. Noël Chabanel, pray for us St. Gabriel Lalemant, pray for us St. René Goupil, pray for us St. Antoine Daniel, pray for us St. Jean de LaLande, pray for us Holy Mary, Queen of Martyrs, pray for us Page -4- Martyrs’ Shrine MESSAGE

Our Legal title is: “Martyrs’ Shrine”.

A Shift in Dreams. He was born Ignacio Lopez de Loyola in 1491. As a boy at his family castle in the Basque country of northern Spain, he had the traditional education of the nobility. He learned how to read and write, to dance, to duel, and to cut a fine figure at court. A romantic at heart, he often dreamed of the military exploits he would do, and the fair maidens he would court. But when he was in his late twenties, all his dreams were shattered when he took a cannonball in his right leg at the battle of Pamplona. The injury left him with a limp for the rest of his life. During his long and painful recuperation back home at Loyola castle, Ignatius underwent a profound spiritual conversion that grew deeper and deeper with the passing years. He described himself up until that point as "a man given to worldly vanities and having a vain and overpowering desire to gain renown." From that point on, he left all that behind him. Betraying the restlessness of the newly converted,

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NOVENA PRAYER

or as a beneficiary of a RRSP or RRIF.

Holy Martyrs and patrons, protect this land which you have blessed by the shedding of your blood. Renew in these days our Catholic faith which you have helped to establish in this new land. Bring all our fellow citizens to a knowledge and love of the truth. Make us zealous in the profession of our faith so that we may continue and perfect the work which you have begun with so much labour and suffering. Pray for our homes, our schools, our missions, for vocations, for the conversion of sinners, the return of those who have wandered from the fold, and the perseverance of all the Faithful. And foster a deeper and increasing unity among all Christians. Amen.

Martyrs’ Shrine In Your Will and Estate

PRAYER TO THE MARTYRS

PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH

(Patron of the Martyrs and of Canada) O God, who in your special Providence deigned to choose blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your holy Mother, grant, we beseech you, that we may deserve to have him as our intercessor in heaven whom we venerate on earth as our protector. You who live and reign in the world without end. Amen.

Ignatius was born the year before Columbus discovered America. His contemporaries were larger-than-life figures like Michelangelo, St. Teresa of Avila, Martin Luther, and King Henry VIII. He was often described as a "soldier saint," but he bore arms for only a few months of his life. He was also called a "reformer," but he rarely spoke about the church's need for change. He was, however, a natural-born leader of men, a pastor, and one of the most flexible men of his time. His work The Spiritual Exercises, which embodies all three of these character traits, has led countless people to a deeper relationship with Jesus. Clearly, Ignatius of Loyola was a heroic figure, both in his age and in the history of the church. He is revered throughout the Catholic world and by many Protestant traditions, but he has not always been well understood.

Your enrollment contributes to the continuation of this ministry of prayer, healing and pilgrimage through the intercession of the Canadian Martyrs. Your contribution will greatly support the work of the Shrine, and you and your family will share in the spiritual community of prayers and Masses offered by the Shrine Staff. Every year members and benefactors of the Shrine Association benefit from one hundred Masses offered intentionally for them. As members of the Association you also receive the SHRINE MESSAGE. Annual family membership is $15.00

We invite you to join us either at the Shrine or in your home for these nine days of prayer for the intentions of the Novena and the celebration of our faith through the intercession of the Martyrs.

Glorious Queen of Martyrs, to whom the early missionaries of this country were so devoted and from whom they received so many favours, graciously listen to my petition. Ask your Divine Son to remember all they did for His glory. Remind Him that they preached the gospel and made His holy name known to thousands who had never heard of Him, and then for Him had their apostolic labours crowned by shedding their blood. Exercise your motherly influence as you did at Cana, and implore Him to grant me what I ask in this Novena, if it be according to His will. Amen.

You might be asking yourself why we are including a story on St. Ignatius of Loyola in the Martyrs’ Shrine Message? Well it struck me that if you really wanted to get a deeper understanding of the Canadian Martyrs one would need to understand from whom did they take their inspiration. St. Ignatius was the founder of the Jesuits and it was his life, his charism and his example that motivated our own eight Jesuit Martyrs to undertake the mission here in Huronia in the heart of New France.

Please Remember

The Novena of Masses and the prayers including homily and veneration of the relics of Sts. Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel Lalemant and Charles Garnier will be offered each day at the 12:00 noon and 7:30 pm Masses in the Shrine Church.

PRAYER TO OUR LADY

By John O’Mally, S.J.

Please renew or enroll a friend or family member in the Martyrs’ Shrine Association

We invite you to join in the Novena to the Canadian Martyrs and St. Joseph, Sepember 18-26, 2008. During these nine days we honour all the Martyrs in preparation for the Feast Day Celebration on Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 2:00 pm.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Invitation & Novena Prayers

Martyrs’ Shrine MESSAGE Page -5-