Thank you, Lion Lamb blog Readers!

 

                                                    St. Joseph Oratory, Montreal

We recently returned from 15 days in Newfoundland, always a wonderful experience for us in the province where I began ministry and where our son, Isaac was born. Somehow we got there just before the Air Canada strike, avoided wildfires, and navigated the end of a heatwave followed by a coldspell. 

Before I left I wrote blog for every day of our absence, doubling and tripling up my entries in the ten days or so before we lett. Why? I'm not really sure because you could certainly live without them. Yet I like to be consistent in my pattern of musings which always have a spiritual and mostly Christian component. As with my personal journal writing, I find that blogging helps to coalesce my inner musings about the events of the moment. 

I really appreciate that some of you comment as Blogger responses but I also hear from folk via email and in person. I am delighted to receive messages from people I haven't been in touch with for a while. Often you share perspectives that don't occur to me as I write and they are always worthwhile.

After worship at Trenton United this past Sunday, Sue, someone I didn't realize was a reader, approached me about my blog about the possibility that public prayer will be banned in the province of Quebec, a ridiculously heavy-handed Islamophobic proposal to be sure. Her roots are in Quebec and Montreal and she noted that pilgrims climb the steps of Saint Joseph's Oratory on Mount Royal in prayer, and that there are outdoor stations of the cross on the grounds of this church, meant for contemplation and prayer.Will this form of prayer be included in the ban? You can bet it won't. Quebec has already prohibited wearing religious symbols in public places. 

These excellent examples hadn't come to mind at all as I wrote, although I wish they had. 

So folks, thanks for your reading and your responding. While in some respects I write for myself the experience is enriched by your involvement and all comments are welcome.