Thanksgiving is a North American holiday. If I remember my school lessons correctly, it derives from the experience of the first European settlers here in North America and their experience of their first few years here on this continent. The way we were taught about this holiday when I was in elementary school recalled how difficult these first Europeans found the bitter winter to survive on their own and how unprepared they were to make it through this difficult climate. They were so unprepared for the conditions they found on this continent that it was only with the help of the Indigenous People who knew the land and the ways of growing here that they were able to make it through those initial days. Once they had learned to grow crops in this territory and figure out how to survive the conditions on this continent, they were so grateful that they began to have a special feast called “Thanksgiving” at the end of the growing season to celebrate the goods of this land and the great opportunities that they had discovered here. From my school days, I recall a part of those initial Thanksgiving celebrations involved celebrations with the Indigenous People who had helped these first settlers to make their lives possible here. That is why so many of our celebrations still highlight the many vegetables and local products that were handed over to the Europeans by the Indigenous People to help them survive. Continue reading →

Print by Shanna Winn

In the Anointed for Mission programme that the Archdiocese uses to prepare the candidates for the Sacrament of Confirmation, there is a game that is played to try and get the candidates to take a stand for justice. In this game, people are told to award themselves points for certain qualities about themselves and to subtract points for certain other qualities. The winner of the game is the person who gets the most points. That person is given a prize of a bag of a large number of small chocolate bars. Some of the things that they are told to award themselves points for are: if their family owns their own home; if they have more than two cars in the family; if they are boys; if they are good at sports; or if they were born in Canada. Some of the things that they lose points for are: if their family does not own their own home, if their family does not have a car; if they are girls; if they are bad at sports; and if they were born outside of Canada. Continue reading →