The “grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with Jesus, looking on the world with his eyes, loving with his heart, and entering into its depths with unlimited compassion.” (General Congregation 35 – GC35)
For over 165 years, Canadian Jesuits have been living and working continuously with the Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations mostly in Northern Ontario around Manitoulin Island and Thunder Bay.
This work resembles the way we proceed in our parishes with the further specification that we are sent to “those physical and spiritual places which others do not reach or have difficulty in reaching.” (GC35)
We are called to acknowledge, appreciate, affirm, and bless the cultural and spiritual gifts of the Native People to whom we minister, recognizing the Holy Spirit in them, learning from these “treasurers of humanity...[who] manifest the action of the Spirit:” (GC34)
Seeking God’s presence in the lives of the Indigenous Peoples reinforces the belief that Native cultural values are worth preserving, in contrast to “modern” societies who, ruled by the law of progress, tend to disregard all such inherited goods. Important, then is the attitude that Jesuits bring to this work of being attentive to the gifts, the culture, and the spiritual hungers of the people.
Having been called out by the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to give an account of one’s hope, we endeavour to share these gifts with those who prepare for local spiritual leadership or with those who gather to listen to the Word, tell their stories, and break bread in the Eucharist.
The Spirit and Faith that animate this work justly reach into the needs of the communities, their internal struggles, and into the realities of the larger society that favours marginalization for a culture which, at times, is in painful transition.
For further information please contact:
Anishinabe Spiritual Centre
1091 Anderson Lake Road
Espanola, Ontario P5E 1T1
705-869-4994
http://www.anishinabespiritualcentre.ca
St. Anne’s Church
126 Mission Road
Thunder Bay, Ontario P7J 1K6
807-622-8301
St. Francis Xavier Mission
Christian Island, Ontario
Kitchitwa Kateri Parish
451 Syndicate Avenue North
Thunder Bay, Ontario P7C 3W9
Our Lady of the Snows
PO Box 188
Armstrong, Ontario POT 1A0
807-583-2337
Immaculate Conception Church
PO Box 97
M’Chigeeng First Nations, Ontario POP 1G0
705-377-4985
http://immconmfn.diocesessm.org/about/index.html/en
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W68MCIrX6pQ
Holy Cross Parish
2525 Wikwemikong Way
Wikwemikong, Ontario POP 2J0
705-859-3259
http://holycross.diocesessm.org/index.html/en
For more information:
- Martyrs’ Shrine at Midland Ontario
- Eight Martyrs’ biographies, Martyrs' Shrine. Midland, Ontario
- Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Gore Bay, Ontario
- Our Lady of Canada Parish, Mindemoya, Ontario
- St. Bonaventure’s Parish, Killarny, Ontario
- St. Joseph’s Parish, Sheshegwaning, Ontario