Dear Holy People of God,
"This Day Was Made by the Lord, We Rejoice and Are Glad" [Psalm 118:24]
To me, this prayer of Thanksgiving from Psalm 118 captures the sentiments that should characterize this day:
"Alleluia! Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love endures forever. Let the house of Israel say, His love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say, His love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say, His love endures forever (...) This day was made by the Lord, we rejoice and are glad (...) You are my God, I thank you. My God, I praise you. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His love endures forever."
This weekend, we are celebrating 120 Years of the existence of our parish family, Ste Anne's. Our parish family began in 1901, to serve the large French-Canadian population living in Salem at the time. A formal dedication took place in January 1902 and Ste. Anne’s became a canonically independent parish in October 1902. Father Joseph Peltier was the first resident pastor. The Sisters of St. Chretienne taught the children of the parish from 1908 until June 1976 when the school closed. A monument was dedicated in honor of those men who served in WWI and currently sits at Ste. Anne’s Park. The nearly one-hundred-year-old wooden church building was totally destroyed by fire on February 3, 1982.
But the fire could not destroy the faith of the people of God of Ste Anne's, as evident in the groundbreaking for the new church building in 1985, which was dedicated on August 23, 1986, incorporating the stained-glass windows from St. Chretienne’s chapel. The Church building was rebuilt without taking on any debt. In other words, the construction of our present Church building was totally funded by a capital campaign that the parishioners supported. Symbolically, the bell sitting outside of church is the bell from 1903 that cracked in the fire. Ste Anne celebrated the 100th anniversary in 2001.
From a Community of French-Canadian Immigrants, Ste Anne's is the spiritual home today to French-Canadians/Anglo-Americans; The Filipino Community; The Cameroon Community; and the Congolese Community. We celebrate Holy Mass in three Languages: English, French and Lingala. We celebrate a daily Mass at 9am, and five weekend Masses: Saturday, 4pm, Sunday: 8:30am, 11am, 1pm and 4pm. Our parish motto is: We Are Family [striving to build a family from our four different communities]. We recognize and celebrate each other. Our diversity is a gift and a challenge as well. We must continue to strive to build community, for this is the will of God for us: "Father, may they be one, just as you and I are one" (John 17:21). Ste Anne has seen challenging times, but we have come out stronger and more determined. And this is what we should learn from our history: the determination to forge ahead, in season and out of season, in good times and in bad, trusting that God's goodness and care will accompany us. We must never be afraid of the future. God is mightier than the challenges we face, as persons and as a parish family. God is capable of doing more than we can ever ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
Let me remind us of all of the following truths, as we celebrate this day:
First, we all were created by God to know, love and serve God and by so doing, attain our end, which is life with God forever;
Second, the greatest desire for our life is happiness; Often time, we seek things that do not enduringly make us happy, that is, we get carried by things that do not objectively make us happy; we see this in that even the things that we think make us happy, do not make us permanently happy;
Third, after several attempts, we can come to the realization that God alone is our happiness; Honestly, many come to this realization late in life; some never do; it is a blessing that we are taking our faith seriously; it is a grace; and in as much as it is grace for us, it is a responsibility; we have the responsibility for the many who do not know God or for whom God no longer means anything;
Fourth, Jesus Christ is our happiness; in Jesus, we have a concrete path to what it means to be happy; Following Jesus does not imply a magical form of happiness; the Cross is a part of it; But the Cross helps us to become people capable of living with God forever;
Finally, the victory of the Cross of Christ is made present to us daily in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist; when we gather as a family, that is precisely what we do: we listen to God's Word in Scripture and we Break Bread: "As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me" (John 6:57); we draw strength from the Lord's Body in the Eucharist; and then we go out and set the world ablaze with the fire of Christ!
This is our anniversary project, to move from maintenance to mission, to set the world ablaze with the fire of the Gospel!
I wish everyone a beautiful celebration. I thank God for the past pastors of our parish. I thank God for all the Christians that have generously kept Ste Anne's going these 120 years. We pray for all the dead from our parish. May they find peace in the presence of the Lord. Long live Ste Anne's. God bless Ste Anne's. God bless the United States of America.
Happy Anniversary to all.
Fr. Maurice