Well I must apologize for reneging on my previous promise to provide daily blog coverage from Jay and I’s journey to the CCYMN conference. To summarize, Friday started with Matins at the Sheptytsky Institute and then sitting in on a class at St. Paul University on the Byzantine Liturgy before I headed down towards Parliament for some exploration. I wouldn’t meet again with my travelling partner until the Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts at Holy Spirit Seminary in the late afternoon.
I must go out of my way to thank those at Holy Spirit Seminary, most notably Fr. Winn and the other seminarians who welcomed us with unparalled hospitality and enthusiasm. We were able to take part in one of the most beautiful liturgical services that I have been to in all my life and were also treated to a wonderful (meat-free) dinner. In UNITY news, we STRONGLY encouraged everyone at the seminary to join us at UNITY 2012, and they are very excited about the possibility of attending.
After service and dinner, we were headed off to begin the “work” part of our trip, going to the conference. The opening of the conference had all the standard conference opening procedures (icebreakers, info, welcome speeches) and then we headed down the street to St. Patrick’s Basilica for Adoration service (which for the 7 of us Ukrainian Catholics, among ~300 Roman Catholics is a different experience outside of our regular liturgical right). The remainder of the evening (and early morning) was devoted to social activities and, again, UNITY 2012 promotion.
After experiencing Latin Rite services throughout the weekend, this morning was the chance for us Byzantine Catholics to show some of our right at the opening prayer service for the day. We led the group in attendance in the Third Hour service, which was very well received.
The remainder of the morning and afternoon was taken up by speeches and workshops, which were all helpful, informative, inspirational and of a very high quality overall. I’m now on free time, just getting ready to work on some school work before evening mass and dinner.
I hope everyone back home and across Canada is just as excited for UNITY 2012 as the people we’ve talked to this weekend are. Hopefully, I will be able to sneak in another post tomorrow afternoon before leaving or while in the Toronto airport in layover tomorrow night, but no guarantees this time.
God Bless,
Andrew
Andrew’s Thoughts for Thursday
(an opinion piece put out on Thursdays, time permitting)
July 28 - Acronym of UNITY
August 4 - Bridging the Gap
August 11 - Choices
August 17 - Towards the Tangible
August 25 - “The Spirit of ’96″
September 1 - Welcoming Back the WYD Pilgrims
September 8 - Coming to you from the Twin Cities
November 3 - I’m Back!
January 5th - Looking Ahead/Registering
March 1st - A Challenge to You
March 8th – CCYMN Conference
Andrew’s On the Road(show)
(Recaps and thoughts after parish tours)
Introduction – Tuesday July 26, 2011: UNITY!?!?
+ Archbishop Emeritus Michael Bzdel CSsR, 1930-2012
But, since I usually give some sort of opinion in these posts I will offer one: register sooner rather than later. Why, you might ask? Why not, I will answer.
