I just returned from Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland with our Schola from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College – and a blessed feast to one and all. We pilgrimaged the 3.5 hour trip to provide the music for the Mass commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Shrine, and, providentially, also the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Saint Jean de Brebeuf to Huronia. The great missionary and martyr arrived on the feast of Saint Anne, July 26th, 1626, and laboured for over two decades in the wild and savage land, against nigh-unbelievably harsh conditions, to bring the light of Faith to those who were lost in labyrinths of paganism.
The pilgrimage was blessed beyond my expectations: A beautiful Mass, replete with chant and polyphony, a profound and moving sermon by Father John O’Brien, S.J., director of the Shrine, and throngs of devout faithful. I have never seen the church so full. Add to that, it was a glorious early fall day, a blue Marian sky with nary a cloud.
I regret not posting the novena to the Martyrs in time – distractions abound, even if they should not – but here it be, if you would like to pray for their intercession for our beleaguered dominion, so mired again in darkness, but this time after having received the Faith. Today’s pilgrimage showed this writer that there is hope yet. We stopped on the way home at the site of the martyrdom of Saints Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, where we bring our students every winter around the day of their death, March 16th. The graces flowing from that holy site drenched in the blood of martyrs are not done with Canada yet – not by a long shot. Such blood, as Tertullian said, is the seed of the Church, which is ever new, and always renews.
Holy Canadian Martyrs, orate pro nobis!
