This past Thanksgiving weekend, the opening hymn at Mass in my Toronto church invited us to "enter the journey of faith as the family of God".

The word 'family' caused me to glance around the church and take note of the members of my family of faith at this Thanksgiving celebration of the Eucharist (a word which in itself means thanksgiving). The celebrant was from India. The lector and the man playing the guitar for the singing were from the Philippines.

As I glanced up at him, my eye caught the picture of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, an Indigenous woman honoured as a saint in our Church. Across the aisle, in the first three rows, was a family from the Caribbean with a tiny baby about to be received into this Christian family through baptism. The church was filled with people all from a multitude of places and at a variety of ages.

What a wonderful diversity from all over the globe and all across time! All together on a journey of faith at a small church in Toronto, with all of us giving thanks for the beauty of the world and all the unique and individual ways we are blessed by our creator God.

I held each person in my heart as I went up to receive the Body of Christ and prayed that this celebration in memory of Christ’s last supper, on this Thanksgiving weekend, would bring us closer together as a parish community and bring unity and peace throughout our divided world.

Sister Rosemary Fry

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