Feast Day celebration 2021
By: Mary Siroky Snell
Another memorable and joyous occasion came up on August 29th at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Toronto. It seems we like to group our celebrations and do one big one. So it was with this one:
We celebrated a long-awaited visit from our Apostolic Administrator, H.E. Bishop Kurt Burnette. Bishop Kurt accepted this position when Holy Father assigned our Eparchy under his care, following the acceptance of the resignation of Bishop Marian Andrej Pacak.
With the presence of Bishop Kurt and the proximity of our Feast Day ( September 8), we also celebrated our Odpust.
The third part of the celebration was the blessing of the Tree of Life honouring those who support and continue to support our church.
Bishop Kurt was genuinely happy to finally meet the newest addition to his flock. He mentioned that he never had to wait so long to meet those who were entrusted to him. In his homily, he touched on the significance of bishop’s crozier, inspiring many to actually dig deeper and find out more about it. He also reminded us of the importance of reading and understanding the scriptures. Bishop Kurt is a speaker “par excellence” and even though his homily was longer than what we are accustomed to, it did not seem that long. His homily brought us a better understanding of the letters of St. Paul. It made me realize that I have a long way to go before I understand it.
Just before the liturgy concluded, Bishop Kurt blessed the Tree of Life at the back of the church. We are a relatively small community and the donations from all our benefactors greatly contribute to the upkeep and general running of our Cathedral. It was wonderful to see the children and grandchildren of those benefactors being so proud of the recognition. The names of the benefactors were engraved on golden plaques and placed on the Tree of Life. We hope that this tradition continues annually on the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God and our hope is that all the leaves on it are filled.
Our hierarchical Divine Liturgy consisted of Bishop Kurt, as the main celebrant with Fr. Marek Novicky, our pastor, assisting. At the altar they were joined by the other priests of our Eparchy: Fr. Jozef Mucha (Assumption Church in Hamilton) and Fr. Steven Williams (Protection of the BVM church in Oshawa). Fr. Ron Comeau and Fr. Winston Rye, SJ were also present.
Following anointing and Akathist to the Mother of God, spiritually fulfilled, the clergy and the faithful continued with a celebration in the church hall to feed their bodies.
Without going into details, this pastoral visit of Bishop Kurt did not go without a hitch. It took a toll on Bishop himself, on Fr. Marek, on all who worked for three days straight to prepare the meal, clean inside and out, practiced the singing, served the meal in accordance with the strict health regulations, organized guests with 2-meter distancing. Yet with our prayers and sheer determination, everything came together wonderfully. It just goes to show what a powerful helper we have in our Heavenly Mother, whose Nativity we celebrate as our Feast Day-Odpust.
Thank you, Bishop Kurt, for visiting and inspiring us. Thank you, Fr. Marek, for making this visit possible. Thank you to the benefactors, both deceased and still living, for your love and dedication to our church. Thank you to those who celebrated with us. Thank you to all who were involved in any way at all to make this celebration a reality! May God bless you all.
To you, Bishop Kurt, may God grant many, blessed years. Mnohaja i blahaja lit, Vladyko!