2014/03/04

March 25th, 2014 - Day of Vigil for the Unborn

Day of Vigil for the Unborn

On the Feast of the Annunciation

Tuesday, March 25th, 2014

Where : Across the street from the abortuary at 65 Bank St. in Ottawa
When : From 8am to 5pm
Check with your parish Pro-Life representative for the time slot assigned to your parish
(If your parish is not participating, have your parish representative contact us or just show up during the day.)


Your time is precious...

so are the unborn.

Please join us - you really do make all the difference.
Bring a friend.

 

For those who are unable to come in person, please be with us in prayer.

Parish representatives click here for resources
 

Add a banner to your website




Resources for parish pro-life representatives:



Download a poster (.pdf format) by clicking  the following image:
http://helpersottawa.org/docs/Helpers_vigil_2014-03-25_Poster_EN.pdf

Download sign-up sheets: Helpers_Vigil_2014-03-25_03_registration_EN.pdf
Download Reminder cards (with code of conduct):
These cards could be handed out to people as they sign-up as a reminder of their commitment. They also include our code of conduct.
Helpers_vigil_2014-03-25_04_card_EN.pdf

2013/11/20

December 12, 2013 - Day of Vigil for the Unborn

Day of Vigil for the Unborn

On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Where : Across the street from the abortuary at 65 Bank St. in Ottawa
When : From 8am to 5pm
Check with your parish Pro-Life representative for the time slot assigned to your parish
(If your parish is not participating, have your parish representative contact us or just show up during the day.)


Your time is precious...

so are the unborn.

Please join us - you really do make all the difference.
Bring a friend.

 

For those who are unable to come in person, please be with us in prayer.

Parish representatives click here for resources
 

Add a banner to your website

Simply copy and paste the code into your html:





Resources for parish pro-life representatives:



Download a poster (.pdf format) by clicking  the following image: http://helpersottawa.org/docs/Helpers_vigil_2013-12-12_EN.pdf
Download sign-up sheets: Full page sheet:
Helpers_Vigil_registration_2013-12-12.doc
Half page sheets: Helpers_Vigil_registration_2013-12-12.pdf
Download Reminder cards (with code of conduct):
These cards could be handed out to people as they sign-up as a reminder of their commitment. They also include our code of conduct.
Helpers_vigil_Conduct_2013-12-12.pdf

2013/11/19

Pro-life Mass Saturday November 23rd, at 9:00 am - Divine Infant Parish, Ottawa






PRAYING FOR AN END TO ‘THE CULTURE OF DEATH’

The next Mass on our Pilgrimage Journey
to pray for the establishment of
a Pro-Life Centre in Ottawa takes place

on Saturday November 23 at 9:00 am

at Divine Infant Parish
6658 Bilberry Dr., Orleans

Celebrated by Father Waldemar Podlasz S.D.S.
Join us after Mass for refreshments provided by the
Sisters of the Queenship of Mary

Directions by car
Travelling from Ottawa:  take Hwy 417 East; at the split (Hwy 174) keep left. Exit at Jeanne D’Arc.  Travel north (left) on Jeanne D’Arc until Bilberry (approx. 2 km, turn right) . Travelling in Orleans:  take Orleans Blvd. (north) to Jeanne D’Arc, turn right, follow to Bilberry (on right)

Bus information: Please call OC Transpo, 613-741-4390, Website: http://www.octranspo1.com/
Take # 95. At Jeanne D’Arc transfer to # 131 (northbound - towards Ottawa River). Get off bus at Bilberry Drive and walk to church  (approx 5 minute walk)


The pilgrimage continues:
December 14, 10:00 am,
St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Shrine, 952 Green Valley Cres.

Candlelight Vigil - November 28th, 2013 - Ottawa Against Abortion

2013/09/25

Filling our city with the fragrance of the Gospel of Life

Clive Christian No. 1 Perfume
Imperial Majesty Edition
Imagine taking a whole bottle of  Clive Christian No. 1, and pouring it all over someone's feet.  You probably wouldn't dab as little as a drop of it on your own feet.  Clive Christian No. 1 is the world's most expensive perfume, with a price tag of over $200 000 per bottle.  At that price, most people would say that's a waste.  What an inefficient way to spend money. What good would it do?
Last week as I was sidewalk counselling on Bank street,  a passerby, a young woman, visibly angered, took the brochure I offered her and proceeded to tear it up, saying, "Why don't you get a REAL job and make yourself useful".

My outward reaction was as meek and humble as I could make it. I insisted that we were offering real help to women as I picked up the torn up brochure she had just thrown on the ground and put it in the garbage bin. 

Inwardly, though, I struggled.  She had hit a sore spot.  "Why don't you make yourself useful" -- ouch!  -- that hurt.  It hurt because on that day, a rainy, cold and windy day, my efforts seemed to amount to nothing, as  I had to watch the endless spectacle of child after child being brought to the killing chamber while my efforts to reach out to their mothers was met with indifference. On that morning, I was battling with a sense of futility. 

As I pondered her words and their effect on me, I was reminded of an experience my husband and I had while praying during the first 40 Days for Life campaign in Ottawa, back in the fall of 2008.  It was a Friday night, close to midnight.  A group of revellers were walking by,  in transit between two night-clubs, when they stopped to speak to us, curious to find out we were praying on the street at that time of day. 

One of them said "I agree with your position, but I think you're going about it the wrong way.  Standing here in the middle of the night, praying is not going to get you results.  You need to do something that will give you more bang for your buck".  That seems sensible enough, but it's wrong-headed.  It's the cult of efficiency.

The cult of efficiency overcome by the fragrance of the Gospel of Life

John-Paul II in Evangelium Vitae (section 12) explains the source of the culture of death as being "an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency."  He goes on to say that it is "a war of the powerful against the weak. (...) A person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more favoured tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated."

Countering the culture of death and the cult of efficiency requires sacrifice, lavish self-sacrifice.  We must be like Mary, the sister of Lazarus,  who poured a whole jar of expensive perfume on Jesus' feet, filling the house with its fragrance. It wasn't Clive Christian No. 1, but she did use the costliest and purest she could find. 

Spending our time (a precious commodity in our busy society) praying at Ground Zero is like pouring perfume on Jesus' feet. He did say "what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me" (Mt 25:45)

The Beatitudes   are a lesson in inefficiency

  • Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
  • Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 
  • Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted. 
  • Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. 
  • Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 
  • Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. 
  • Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 
  • Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  

That's what we do when we go to Ground Zero

  • We sacrifice our own power, our own strength by praying to God, acknowledging his infinite power and strength. 
  • We give a voice to the powerless, the weakest among us,  by meekly standing up in their defence. 
  • We mourn for those whose human dignity has been violated -- our tears like perfume on the feet of Jesus. 
  • We publicly denounce the injustice of the culture of death. 
  • We offer mercy to those who are caught up in this evil. 
  • We uphold a vision of purity and bring God's presence in the public square. 
  • We renounce any use of violence (physical or verbal) to achieve our means. 
  • We are willing to endure the insults heaped upon us for defending the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. 
It is not the whole solution, it is not the only means of combating the culture of death, but it is necessary. Someone has to stand up to denounce the killing and to break the stranglehold that indifference and the cult of efficiency has on our fellow citizens. Someone has to show that these little ones are worth the time we spend there, time seemingly wasted from a human point of view, but in the eternal scheme of things, infinitely precious.
Most importantly, we are there to pray, thereby giving God his due in a world that refuses to acknowledge Him.

Mary spent a year's wages on Jesus.  That's 8760 hours.  Would you be willing to spend one hour? Let us not be distracted by the Judases who complain that we could be more efficient with our time and resources (i.e. sell the perfume for 300 denarii -- a year's wages in New Testament times) for we don't necessarily see the fruits of our efforts. Many of those fruits are spiritual and probably delayed in time. Spiritual things tend to take longer to come to fruition.
Going to Ground Zero is not an option, it is a duty.  We cannot be content with just showing up at the March for Life once a year.  That is like a Christian only going to church at Christmas. It just doesn't cut it. 

Every generation of Christians has had to be counter-cultural where the culture is most sinful.  This is where the rubber hits the road, where the going gets toughest.  Will we be tough enough to get going?
God is calling us to this work.  He is calling some of us to specific tasks in this work.  May we respond generously, with a full jar of perfume and may it fill our city with the fragrance of the Gospel of Life.


2013/03/04

Free screening of "Nefarious: Merchant of Souls" coming to Ottawa region

Nefarious:" Merchant of Souls" 

A documentary shedding light on the reality of human trafficking in our world, as many as 2 million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade (US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report 2011).

Let us educate ourselves in order to stop this exploitation.

Now is the time.


Come out to Holy Spirit Catholic Church,

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at 6:30pm

1489 Shea Road, Stittsville, Ont.


Dianne Van Der Putten of CHRI Christian radio station will be presenting the film.

There will be a question period after.
 Spread the word, bring your friends and attend the free screening, you won't regret the investment of your time.

2013/01/15

Stephanie Gray (of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform) in Ottawa January 24th, 2013


The Abortion Debate:  A Scientific and Philosophical Review


Come out on Thursday January 24th, to hear international speaker Stephanie Gray, of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. Stephanie has spoken across Canada, in the U.S., England, Latvia, and Costa Rica, and has formally debated abortionists, university professors, and activists about abortion. She will give a scientific and philosophical review of the abortion debate, followed by a question and answer period.

Date: Thursday, January 24th, 2013

Time: 7:30p.m.

Location:  Albert the Great Hall
               Dominican University
               96 Empress Avenue
               Ottawa ON-- 


Click on either image below to download poster: