HAP to Archdiocese July 18 2024            HAP Appendix for parishioners

Strategic Planning Report

To download a copy of the report, click here.

Presentation by SISTER (DR.) NUALA KENNY

A Good Death: Challenges for Catholics Today
This reflection was held on February 15th and focused on the Christian tradition of a good death following the suffering, dying and death of Jesus. It identified key Catholic teaching  challenges from the rapid normalization of MAiD as “death with dignity”.

If you would like to watch a recording of this presentation please click here.

To download a follow up handout from Sr. Nuala Kenny’s talk on ‘A Good Death’ click here.

Truth and Reconciliation

9 Day Novena: Click here to download a specific prayer for 9 days to remember, reflect, and ask for forgiveness. We encourage everyone to take this time to offer prayer.

This Novena is in Honour of the Jesuit Martyr’s, Canada’s secondary patrons after St. Joseph. Their feast is Sunday, September 26.  It is a prayer of awareness and a request for reconciliation with First Nations People’s who for many generations have been stripped of their culture, their traditional ways of living and more so, their self dignity.  The texts cover nine days, two pages per day.  It is therefore long for some of us.  We who make use of this prayer may need to ‘pick and choose’ what part of this novena promotes devotion leading to love of God through the intercession of the Martyrs.–
Earl Smith, SJ, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Following Christ is a matter of engagement in this world, “living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world—watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think is faith, that is metanoia.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

click here – Archbishop Dunn’s letter

An Uplifting Moment from Fr. Earl Smith

Smith Smiles June 5

Smith Smiles May 29

Smith Smiles May 22

Smith Smiles May 15

Smith Smiles May 8

Smith Smiles May 1

Final Document of the Continental Stage (in North America)

We hope you continue to follow the Synod journey. 

Pope Francis described the Document as a gift with multiple dimensions, serving as both guidance for the Church and as a symbol of unity and shared mission.

“The Holy Spirit calls and supports us in this learning, which we need to understand as a process of conversion,” Pope Francis said, adding that the synodal journey is “not an endpoint but a continuous process of conversion.”

Click here to read the full report

Synod – First Stage

Thank you for your participation in the first stage of the Synod Process.

Each email received and notes taken were submitted to the Archdiocesan office.

We also created a summary report which you can click below to read:

Synod_HAP_Summary.

Synod Purpose

The purpose of this process is twofold: to pray and to listen. We are gathering communities within Holy Apostles Parish in order to pray together and to listen to the unique contributions of each person.

Everything that is shared and recorded in these conversations will not only be communicated with the global Church, but will also help shape the pastoral direction of Holy Apostles Parish.

For more information about the Synodal process check this link for our Archdiocese https://www.halifaxyarmouth.org/synod or the Vatican https://www.synod.va/en.html

Just like in Acts 10 “⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also, ⁴⁶ for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God…” With openness to the Holy Spirit working through each and every person here and those around us daily, we will pray, discuss, and discern where and how God is present in our current experience of Church and how He is calling us to grow.

Synod Prayer

Every session of the Second Vatican Council began with the prayer Adsumus Sancte Spiritus, meaning, “We stand before You, Holy Spirit.” This prayer has been historically used at Councils, Synods and other Church gatherings for hundreds of years, being attributed to Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560-4 April 636). As we are called to embrace this synodal path of the Synod 2021-2023, this prayer invites the Holy Spirit to operate within us so that we may be a community and a people of grace. For the Synod 2021-2023, we propose to use  this simplified version, so that any group or liturgical assembly can pray more easily.

We stand before You, Holy Spirit,
as we gather together in your name.
With You alone to guide us,
make Yourself at home in our hearts;
Teach us the way we must go
and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful;
do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down the wrong
path nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity
so that we may journey together to eternal life
and not stray from the way of truth
and what is right.

All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son,
forever and ever.

Amen.

For answers to Frequently Asked Questions click here:  Synod_FAQs