P ♰ C

Connecting Catholics in parishes across Vancouver Island

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  • News from the chancery

    …in case you don’t get these directly…

    Dear friends,

    We have four items to share with you today:

    1) The schedule for Amanda Achtman’s Dying to Meet You: A Tour of Hope in the Diocese of Victoria is now available on the Diocesan website. Amanda is the Director of Ethics for Physicians for Life and the founder of Dying to Meet You, where she explores questions of death and dying through storytelling, beauty, and a deeply hopeful vision rooted in the dignity of the human person. Find the full schedule of events taking place from February 26 to March 8, 2026, here: https://www.rcdvictoria.org/events/dying-to-meet-you-a-tour-of-hope

    The Diocese of Victoria is seeking input in advance of the Dying to Meet You tour. All are welcome to participate: https://forms.gle/8QRGCnUcGMQcyvKo9

    2) The Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Bridges of Canada Inc. is hiring a full-time Correctional Chaplain in the Pacific Region for 125-165 hours per month (subject to change based on monthly requirements). The Correctional Chaplain will be responsible for providing religious and spiritual services to federal offenders of all faiths residing in William Head Institution. Find the full job description here: https://www.rcdvictoria.org/employment

    3) The Diocese of Victoria is offering a two-day marriage preparation course over Zoom on April 17 from 7 pm–10 pm and April 18 from 9 am–4 pm. Open to all, this course provides essential guidance for couples preparing for marriage. A joint Certificate of Completion will be issued upon completion of both sessions. Please register by April 2 here: https://zoom-spring-2026-marriage-prep.eventbrite.ca

    4) The Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a statement strongly supporting Private Member’s Bill C-218, which seeks to prevent persons whose sole medical condition is mental illness from accessing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (“MAiD”). Please find the full statement here: https://www.cccb.ca/media-release/cccb-statement-on-bill-c-218-no-maid-for-mental-illness/

    Many thanks,

    Marie D’Souza

    Communications Coordinator

    Diocese of Victoria

  • Pashminas! A CWL Fundraiser

    This lovely blue cashmere shawl proudly showcases a Madonna image created by Nina Passerello, a long-time member with St. Peter’s Parish in Nanaimo. Not only beautiful but its  soft and warm; it makes one feel like being enveloped in a warm hug. This would make a great  gift! 

    Pashmina on the President of CWL BC & Yukon

    We have a limited quantity available. All funds raised will be used to host the 2026 BC & Yukon  Provincial CWL Convention at Mary Winspear Centre & St. Elizabeth’s Church in Sidney this  coming June. 

    Going fast so if you want one, please send an email to: payments2026sidney@gmail.com and tell us how many you wish. Once you have received a confirmation email, take your # X $30  each, and send your payment in full: 

    Via Bank E-transfer: 
    Name: Terri-Ann Wynans 
    To Email: payments2026sidney@gmail.com  
    It’s an automatic deposit, but please keep your confirmation code. 

    or, 

    Mail a Cheque:
    Terri-Ann Wynans  
    5050 Katherine Drive  
    Port Alberni, BC V9Y 9E4  

    “In The Arms Of Our Mother” – buy one for yourself, or why not add a few more to give as a gift?  Mother’s Day is coming…

    Delivery Options:
    1.   Pick up from a Victoria-based Parish may be possible. Ask
    Terri-Ann in your email to her;
    2.   Postal delivery, note that extra charges will apply, or
    3.   Confirmed and paid, they can be held for a pick-up on:
          7 March 2026 at the CWL League Development Day, in
    Port Alberni. 🙂 

    Blessings,
    Pamela

  • Kingdoms and Cities That Shine

    Kingdoms and Cities That Shine

    by Jean Allen

    As I said last week in the reflection on the Beatitudes, we have difficulty incorporating them into our lives in a way that will make the world sit up and take notice. As Jesus indicates this week, when you inhabit the kingdom of Me, you are like salt that has lost its taste or light that is hidden under a basket – no good to anyone really. Have you ever tasted bread that someone forgot to add salt to? So unimpressive and very blah. As I write this, we are experiencing an atmospheric river and, if there are no lights on in our home, it is so dark and depressing. 

    Jesus speaking of us being the salt of the earth and lights of the world comes directly after his discourse on the beatitudes. He is saying that if we don’t seriously try to live with and like the Trinity, who embody the beatitudes, our lives will be flat and dark – not an inspiration to anybody. You may be very active in your parish and engage in lovely devotions, but if you never wrestle with the beatitudes, especially when you’re angry and reactive, they are the last thing your ego thinks are necessary. They hardly even come to mind unless they’re in the Gospel for a Sunday.

    Mention Christianity and the world yawns or angrily reacts. That’s not the fault of the world. Christians just haven’t given it a consistent light to be drawn to nor have we indicated that we have a flavoring that will brighten the hearts of those who taste. People who say they have rejected Jesus have never met him. They have met distorted representations of him from Christians who have never bought into the Beatitudes, Christians who have more of a relationship with their opinions than with mercy and love. In other words, Christians who live in the kingdom of Me. 

    Let us build the city of God on a mountain top. Not the city of Me.

    That is one dark and depressing city.  

  • News from the Chancery

    …in case you don’t receive this to your inbox…

    Dear friends,

    We have five items to share with you today:

    1) Bishop Gary Gordon has written a Pastoral Letter to the people of the Diocese announcing the questions for the 2026 Diocesan Permanent Pastoral Synod cycle and inviting all to participate. The Bishop encourages the faithful to reflect, pray, and engage in this important process. Please find his letter here: https://www.rcdvictoria.org/news/bishops-february-dpps-2026-pastoral-letter

    2) Bishop Gary Gordon has shared a Message of Gratitude for the 2025 Bishop’s Appeal, thanking the faithful for their prayers, generosity, and love for the Church. Through this collective support, the Appeal not only reached its $900,000 goal but was blessed with over $1,000,000 in gifts. Please find his message here: https://www.rcdvictoria.org/news/bishop-gary-gordons-message-of-gratitude-for-the-2025-bishops-appeal

    3) The Rite of Election Mass will take place on February 22, 2026, at 2:00 pm at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. During this liturgical rite, catechumens—those preparing to join the Church through baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist at Easter—are presented to the Bishop. All are welcome to participate in person or via the livestream at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c1_0CETMyw

    4) In the spirit of Lent and Truth and Reconciliation, the CWL of Sacred Heart Parish invites parishioners to participate in a KAIROS Blanket Exercise on Saturday, March 7, from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm in the parish hall. This powerful, interactive experience explores 500 years of historic and present-day relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, guided by trained facilitators. A coffee break and a reflective debrief in a talking circle will follow; for more information, please contact Margie Noonan at margielnoonan@gmail.com or 250-589-6313.

    5) Mount Joy in Sooke is hosting a residential icon-writing retreat led by Kathleen van der Sande from March 16–21, 2026 (Monday to Saturday). Participants will learn the spiritual and artistic tradition of Eastern Church iconography through guided instruction and hands-on egg tempera painting, completing an icon of Mary, Mother of God, in a setting of prayer, silence, and community. No artistic experience is required; the cost is $585 and includes five nights’ accommodation, meals, and all supplies. For more information or to register, please contact Anna-Marie and Barnabas Ney at mountjoyretreats@gmail.com. Registration deadline is March 9, 2026.

    Many thanks,

    Marie D’Souza
    Communications Coordinator
    Diocese of Victoria

  • From the Chancery

    …in case you don’t receive these in your inbox…

    Dear friends,

    We have two items to share with you today:

    1) Catholic Schools Week begins on February 1, 2026. This year’s theme, “Living, Celebrating, and Proclaiming Our Faith,” highlights the vibrant role of Catholic education in nurturing faith-filled communities. Information about events at our local Island Catholic Schools can be found on the events page at https://www.rcdvictoria.org/events/february-1-7-catholic-schools-week or by visiting your local Catholic school’s website: https://cisdv.bc.ca/schools/

    2) Pope Leo XIV has released a message for the 34th World Day of the Sick, which will be celebrated on Wednesday, 11 February 2026. His message offers a reflection on the theme “The compassion of the Samaritan: loving by bearing another’s pain.”

    Read Pope Leo’s message here: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/sick/documents/20260113-messaggio-giornata-malato.html

    Find resources for World Day of the Sick from the Canadian Catholic Conference of Bishops here: https://www.cccb.ca/media-release/pope-leos-message-for-the-34th-world-day-of-the-sick-11-february-2026/

    Many thanks,

    Marie D’Souza
    Communications Coordinator
    Diocese of Victoria

  • Kingdom Culture

    Kingdom Culture

    by Jean Allen

    Ah…the impossible Beatitudes. They are so counter-culture in every age that, historically and up to this day, Christians have had a very difficult time incorporating them into their faith lives in a way that makes the rest of the world sit up and take notice. Yet, they are absolutely crucial to growth in the Spirit. What we are called to do is to absolutely be counter-culture – but in a way that is completely non-violent. That’s the part that trips us up every time because our egos thrive on violent reaction.

    Man, does it feel good to get really angry about something. It makes us feel like we’re exercising some sort of control. Being angrily against something feels righteous and good, but the problem is, Jesus explicitly did not, and does not, ask us to try to control the values and actions of others, whether they’re of society as a whole or family members. He asks us to be meek, poor in spirit, merciful and pure in heart. 

    Hungering and thirsting for righteousness means thirsting for one’s own righteousness, not the righteousness of everybody else around you. Don’t point out the splinter in another’s eye because you’ve definitely got a log blocking your own. Could you be called a peacemaker – or someone who reacts with heat if someone else crosses a perceived boundary? 

    Please realize that the Beatitudes are a beautiful description of nature of the Holy Trinity. The Trinity calls us to nothing less than who they are themselves: meek, humble, merciful and so pure of heart that no anger and violence can find a home in them. They cannot be found making anything other than peace. If we can’t experience their peace, it’s because we are allowing our egos to dictate how we react. It’s not that we are ever pushed out of the Kingdom of God… 

    …it’s simply that we have chosen to live in the smaller, cramped and more self-centered kingdom of Me.     

  • Changing Your Mind

    Changing Your Mind

    by Jean Allen

    “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Greek word, which was later translated by St. Jerome (342-420 AD) as ‘repent’, is metanoeite (meta-new-it) from which the word ‘metanoia’ comes. St Jerome translated it as paenetentia or repent but metanoeite means ‘a primal change of mind, worldview or way of processing and receiving’. Jesus was saying, “You need a change of mind; you need a change in how you perceive yourselves in relation to God.” Jesus came to change our minds and our ways of perceiving, processing and receiving God. 

    Repent means ‘change your mind’ so it’s not far off the original Greek but the most common perception of repent is to regret and be sorry for your sins. As important as this is for our spiritual growth and balance, it wasn’t Jesus’s first concern. His first concern was that the faith world-order of that time was a completely distorted understanding of the heart of God and of people’s relationship to God. 

    The encounter between Jesus and Peter and Andrew at the Sea of Galilee is very indicative of Jesus’s determination to call people to metanoeite. He doesn’t tell the men to be sorry for their sins; he simply offers them the opportunity to change their view of who they really are and to experience his new way of living the Kingdom life. He called them to transformation, to go from being fishermen to being fishers of people.

    You might protest that in another Gospel Peter said, “Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.”  That’s definitely repentance. However, this incident took place later after this initial calling and it happened after Jesus performed the miracle of nets laden with fish. Peter was overcome with the understanding that Jesus wasn’t just a simple charismatic teacher but that his power came from God. And, yes, when we experience the fullness of Jesus, it often creates in us a sense of unworthiness. But that’s not where he calls us to stay. If we stayed there, we wouldn’t get very far. Jesus didn’t want to leave Peter in his sinfulness.

    He wanted to bring him to metanoeite. 

  • Power Point

    Power Point

    by Jean Allen

    This isn’t the point of this Gospel passage but contrast John saying, “And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God,” after he had witnessed the Spirit descend and rest on Jesus, with the Gospel where, from prison, he sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if Jesus was the one who was to come or should they wait for another?

    When John asked that question, he was in a dark place physically and spiritually, a place where all of us have been at times in our lives. Maybe we weren’t in actual prison but perhaps we were imprisoned and paralyzed by fear and doubt rising from difficult circumstances in our lives. John had seen Jesus, baptized him and saw the Holy Spirit descend on him. It was a mountain top moment for John and he absolutely believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But in the dark, a mountain top moment can easily dissipate and even the most spiritual of people can fall prey to wondering if their mountain top elation was just a delusion after all.

    I know you’ve been there. Everybody has. We just don’t say it out loud because of the fear of being judged spiritually inadequate and maybe making God sad. When you feel like that, remember John the Baptist, who didn’t keep his doubts hidden and festering. He asked Jesus up front, “Are you the one?” John didn’t fear that Jesus would hold a grudge against him – and Jesus didn’t. He sent back to John a most comforting message that he indeed was the one everyone was waiting for. He says it to us too.

    “Yes, I am the one you are waiting for. There is no mistake. From the darkness of your prison walls, it might not seem like it but the Spirit descended on me and anointed me to be your saviour. Fear not!”

    Maybe it is the point after all.

    Webmaster’s note: Image by Vincentian Mindwalk, https://johnfreund.net/

  • From the Chancery

    …in case you are not on their mailing list…

    Dear friends,

    We have three items to share with you today:

    1) The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Prayer Service will be held on Sunday, January 25, 2026, during the evensong service at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria (930 Burdett Avenue). The service begins at 4:00 pm, and there will be a reception to follow. Christians from across Vancouver Island will gather to reflect on and celebrate our common faith. All are welcome to participate, either in person at Christ Church Cathedral or via livestream at: https://www.christchurchcathedral.bc.ca/live

    2) Voices in Motion is seeking “duets” for its winter choir session—each duet is an adult experiencing memory loss together with their caregiver. No singing experience is needed; you are welcome to visit a rehearsal and give it a try. Rehearsals are 90 minutes of music and community, with choirs meeting Wednesdays at Sacred Heart Parish Hall and Fridays at the UVic MultiFaith Centre. For more information, please visit www.voicesinmotionchoirs.org

    3) We are pleased to congratulate Tony Joe on being named Chamber Member of the Year for 2026 by the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. A parishioner at St. Patrick’s Parish in Victoria, Tony also serves on the Diocesan Building Commission and is the realtor for Saint Clare Villa, a 24-unit life-lease condominium building for seniors located adjacent to St. Patrick’s Parish. Read more here: https://www.rcdvictoria.org/diocesanblog/parishioner-recognition-tony-joe

    Many thanks,

    Marie D’Souza
    Communications Coordinator
    Diocese of Victoria

  • News from the Chancery

    As always, in case you are not on the RCDVictoria mailing list, here is the latest from the Chancery:

    Dear friends,

    We have two items to share with you today:

    1) Registration for Camp Homewood has been extended to January 16, 2026. This annual Diocese of Victoria Retreat takes place from January 30 to February 1, 2026, at Camp Homewood on Quadra Island. Youth in grades 7–12 are invited to register for this weekend retreat. This year’s theme is “Blessed Are You.” The cost is $195 per participant, which includes all food, accommodation, and activities. Please register at: https://camp-homewood-2025.eventbrite.ca. For more information, please contact: stpatrickhw@gmail.com

    2) The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Prayer Service will be held on Sunday, January 25, 2026, during the evensong service at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria (930 Burdett Avenue). The service begins at 4:00 pm, and there will be a reception to follow. Christians from across Vancouver Island will gather to reflect on and celebrate our common faith. All are welcome to participate, either in person at Christ Church Cathedral or via livestream at: https://www.christchurchcathedral.bc.ca/live

    Many thanks,

    Marie D’Souza
    Communications Coordinator
    Diocese of Victoria