With the Prelate at the Manoir de Beaujeu

A brief summary of the days spent in Montreal by Monsignor Ocáriz during his pastoral visit to Canada and the United States

Bagshaw family doing the wave

Sunday, August 18

Some 60 enthusiastic teenage girls and young adults from Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa arrived at the Manoir de Beaujeu for a meeting with the Father. When they left, a couple of hours later, their heads and hearts were filled with ideas: to make Jesus Christ better known and to discover their role as Christians!

Chances are they will set fire in their living environments. The Lord relies on them to bring his light, strength to love and joy to their friends and colleagues from study or work. To also help them find meaning to their lives.

Annabelle listens to the Prelate's answer

From coast to coast, Msgr. Ocariz insisted, friendship is the key to sharing the love of God that each carries in her heart. And it takes time to develop a true friendship, to learn to know and love each other, even if we don't share all of the same ideas and values. Mutual affection is still possible, along with the possibility of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings regarding the faith.

To walk upstream like the first Christians did, to find the courage to live like Christ, to transmit without fear the joy of having met Him in the Catholic Church, one must draw from Jesus' forces in the Eucharist. And pray to God our Father with the trust of a child.

The young participants understood this: all Christians are destined to become saints and to collaborate in the Redemption. But everyone is called to a more concrete vocation: marriage or celibacy. Hence the importance of discernment, since everyone's greatest happiness lies in God's will for each person, said the prelate in answer to Annabelle’s question.

Msgr. Ocáriz receiving the Tim Horton's mug

Msgr. Ocariz received a sweater from a group of campers, while five Ottawa girls gave him a Tim Hortons mug so he would think of praying for them every morning!

Spread the joy of the Gospel from sea to shining sea

The Prelate of Opus Dei met about 50 young men at the Manoir de Beaujeu at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 18. The Father began with a brief consideration on a passage from the Gospel that St. Josemaria often meditated on: “I have come to bring fire on the earth (Lk 12:49)”, the fire of the love of God, that spreads through the entire world and fills the hearts of all mankind with joy.

Antoine then presented the Father with a model canoe built by students at Riverview Centre in Montreal. The canoe was meant to symbolize the spirit of pioneering, discovery and adventure, the love for nature. It was also how the first people to evangelize in Canada travelled through the land. The audience, accompanied by a guitar, then sang the Father a tune about canoeing.

Questions followed thereafter, first from Siriac about formation, Anthony on magnanimity in making personal plans, and then from Dominique and Emmanuel, who asked about apostolate in artistic environments. Dominique then performed a violin piece, which prompted the Father to observe that true beauty leads to God.

Other questions covered topics such as transforming the world through our work, by Antoine, and on the family spirit of Opus Dei, by Yannick. Joseph asked the Father what his dreams were for Canada.

Before finishing the get-together, the Father offered a few considerations on the beauty and importance of the virtue of purity. After insisting on the need to pray for the Holy Father, he gave the blessing to all. Finally, Anthony presented a Canadian flag in order to take a group picture with the Father.

After the get-together with young men, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz met several families at the Manoir de Beaujeu. That evening, Bishop Noël Simard of the diocese Valleyfield where the Manoir is located also visited.

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