On November 5, 2022, St. Charles Parish hosted a dinner and dance to celebrate our patron, St. Charles Borromeo. Besides raising over $8,000, a great time was had by all. Thank you to all the hard-working volunteers and to everyone who attended.
Every Life Must Be Remembered
When remains are laid to rest in a sacred place, the members of the community have the opportunity to spend time with them. A cemetery is a place for families and friends to mourn and reflect on the lives of the deceased.
St. Charles parish cemetery was established in 1872 with grave markers dating back to the 1800s. After years of neglect, the graveyard had fallen into disrepair. The ground was uneven and many of the gravestones were broken or falling over.
In the early 1990s, a group of men belonging to St. Charles Parish decided to repair and restore this historic property. They used money from the St. Charles Cemetery Trust Fund to buy equipment and materials. As time went on, cement curbs and bases were poured, damaged headstones were repaired and trees and flowers were planted.
In 1997 The Apostles Columbarium was erected. When the first structure reached near capacity, a second one, called The Holy Spirit Columbarium, was built in 2016. This Columbarium has over eighty spots still available.
For Ron Desilets, one of the original group of parishioners who restored the graveyard, taking care of the cemetery is a labor of love. He has recruited a group of buddies who help him and they call themselves ‘The Graveyard Gang’.
When asked why he feels taking care of the graveyard is important he said, ”People live, die, and are buried here. Their family moves away and they have no one to take care of their graves.” The perpetual care provided shows the faithful departed are not being forgotten and their remains are being respected.
Many thanks to The Graveyard Gang - Bill, Bev, Ron, Paul, and Bob for your many hours of labor making St. Charles Cemetery a beautiful resting place for our departed family and friends.
God’s Comfort and Love
“Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.” Song of Songs 2:12
The flowers in the Bible symbolize beauty, growth, and life. Flowers convey the message of God’s comfort and love. Along with being very pleasant to look at, flowers provide many benefits. They can improve mood and boost energy levels. Most of all, flowers, help build relationships. Our beautiful flowers greet our parishioners as well as visitors and demonstrates that our community is welcoming and caring.
Thank you to our gardening group for planting
and caring for our flowers.
St. James Assiniboia Catholic Women’s League Contributes to End Homeless Winnipeg Expo with 1,100 Welcome Bags
In September 2019, St. James Assiniboia CWL was offered the opportunity to help the homeless in Winnipeg. End Homelessness Winnipeg, an organization that coordinates all the efforts of homelessness in Winnipeg, was hosting a one-day service event called Gizhe Was Ti-Sii-Win Expo. Service providers across different sectors come together to deliver essential, dignity-enhancing services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
The event was originally planned for June 24, 2020. St. James Assiniboia CWL was asked to provide the welcome packages - 1,000 for adults and 100 for children. When the request was made, the executive enthusiastically replied, “Yes, we can do this!” It was decided to make this our 2019 Centenary project - celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Catholic Women’s League organization.
It was important to inform members and other parishioners about the work of End Homelessness Winnipeg and our upcoming initiative therefore a presentation was arranged. It was essential that the project be environmentally friendly so it was decided to sew cloth bags to contain the welcome package items rather than using plastic.
We asked members and parishioners to donate fabric. Kits containing templates, cut material and instructions were distributed. Our volunteers accomplished the amazing feat of sewing 1,100 cloth bags.
Our next challenge was obtaining items for the Welcome Bags. St. James Assiniboia CWL is comprised of four parishes. Each parish undertook to collect 1,000 of one specific item: St. Charles collected new reusable water bottles, St. John XX111 collected socks, St. Paul the Apostle and St. Ann collected hairbrushes and combs. There was a substantial financial donation from the St. Charles Ladies’ Association and a generous contribution of reusable water bottles from the Manitoba Metis Federation.
In March 2020, Covid-19 brought everything to a halt, and over the following few years, items were stowed away. Finally, the event was rescheduled for June 24, 2022, at Siloam Mission in Winnipeg.
At the general meetings in April and May, CWL members filled 550 bags (totalling 1,1000 bags). Each tote bag contained a reusable water bottle, a pair of socks, a brush or comb, a granola bar, miscelaneous toiletries, and a card with greetings from the CWL. End Homelessness provided two bus tickets and passes to city recreational facilities. The children’s bags contained coloring book, crayons, small toys, socks, reusable water bottles, granola bars, fruit snacks and a city recreational pass. The monetary value of each adult bag was $30.00 and the child’s bag was $5.00. When calculating the value of the 1,100 bags, it totaled an astounding $30,500.00.
It took four vehicles to transport the Welcome Bags to the event location. Catholic Women’s League members volunteered as the welcoming committee and distributed the Welcome Bags.
The event’s name, Gizhe Was Ti-Sii-Win, aptly means “working with love, kindness, and generosity for others” in Anishinaabemowin. This was an opportunity for CWL members, as well as other parishioners, to be involved in many capacities. The project was done in the true spirit of the event - kindness, generosity and love for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
A Safe, Healthy, Vibrant Community for Women and Families
On April 18th, the North Point Douglas Women’s Centre was the grateful beneficiary of the 40 Cans for Lent food drive spearheaded by the Father Alan Hall Knights of Columbus #8604 from St. Charles Parish. Throughout Lent, the mountain of food grew until it reached 1,244 pounds. Thank you to St. Charles Catholic School for donating over 300 pounds of food. The North Point Douglas Women’s Centre also received a $900 cash donation to purchase much-needed items.
Grand Knight, Jim Turnbull, wished to thank all those who donated food and money. Jim said, “The donations were received with great happiness and enthusiasm as their shelves were almost empty at that time!!”
About North Point Douglas Women's Centre Inc.
North Point Douglas Women's Centre is a community resource centre in one of Winnipeg's oldest neighbourhoods. It provides a drop-in space five days a week that responds to basic needs (safety, food security, phone, clothing, computers, information, counselling, spiritual guidance, connection, etc.). It seeks to support and empower women and their families as they address issues in their lives.
A Spring Fling – Ukrainian Fundraiser
St. Charles parishioners wanted to show their support for Ukrainian people in their fight to save their country from the Russian invasion. April 23rd, we had a Spring Fling social. After adding ticket sales, a 50/50 draw, a silent auction, and donations, we raised $5,600.00.
The event chairperson, Colleen Bevan, expressed her appreciation to all who helped. “A special thanks to the organizing committee, the parishioners who donated the silent auction prizes, and those fabulous karaoke performers. Well done St. Charles!”.
Filling the Bassinet for Twenty-Five Years
During February, St. Charles Ladies’ Association collected gifts for young, pregnant moms and their babies. These new items were given to Villa Rosa and Crisis Pregnancy Centre.
The first Ladies’ Association President, Verna Baccari, remembers when filling the bassinet became a St. Charles Parish tradition twenty-five years ago. “We felt so blessed as a parish we wanted to reach out to the less fortunate”.
Project Coordinator, Anna Desilets, was impressed with the overwhelming support from parishioners. “This week we will deliver the bounty of love you have provided for young moms and their babies. The bassinet overflowed with dozens of sleepers, onesies, blankets, sweaters, diapers, knitted goods and more as well as thoughtful personal gifts, as requested, for their moms. In this time of limited church attendance, your generous response is overwhelming!”
Here is some information about both these worthwhile organizations.
Crisis Pregnancy Centre
Women have the legal right in Canada to seek and obtain an abortion. Women have the right to make moral choices about their own lives. At the Crisis Pregnancy Centre, they understand this and believe this makes it imperative that women also be given the right to all the available information regarding the impact that their decisions will have.
Villa Rosa
Villa Rosa provides shelter, education, support and programming for pregnant women and new mothers with babies. A pregnant woman or new mother may access their services free of charge. Services offered include shelter, breastfeeding support, medical care, on-site schooling, Aboriginal Studies, Early Literacy Programs, cooking instruction, addictions awareness, anger management, parenting programs, adoption awareness, budgeting, nutrition, and post-natal housing.
Jesus said, “What you do for these little ones, you do for me”.
Parishioners Demonstrate a Generous Spirit
Every Sunday from September to May, the Immaculate Conception Soup Kitchen, 181 Austin St N in Winnipeg, serves a nutritious meal to hungry people. On February 6, it was our turn to provide the food for their Sunday meal.
As usual, the big-hearted parishioners of St. Charles Parish demonstrated their generous spirit. The meal consisted of homemade chili, buns, bananas, bottled water, juice boxes and cookies.
Steve, a volunteer at the soup kitchen, stated because of the generous amount of food they were able to, “serve 200 individual meals and nine family hampers. There was lots of chili and we had enough for about half the people to get two bowls with leftovers”.
The St. Charles Ladies’ Association wishes to thank the many parishioners who helped supply the meal for the Immaculate Conception Soup Kitchen. Thanks to those who made chili, bought groceries, donated money, baked cookies, transported food, and prayed for its success.
“It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.” Mother Teresa
The Way of the Cross
"O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again. Amen.” Henri Nouwen
The Way of the Cross, also known as The Stations of the Cross, is a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the Passion of Christ. It grew from imitations of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which is a traditional processional route representing the path Jesus walked from the house of Pontius Pilate to Golgotha, the place of Christ’s crucifixion.
Approximately twenty-five years ago, St. Charles parishioners, under the leadership of Deacon Robert Gate, presented the “Living Stations of the Cross”, tableau format, each Friday during Lent. This continued for several years.
Lorraine Thibert, a parishioner, felt called to revive the Living Stations of the Cross at St. Charles. She stated, “I thought it was so effective and moved so many people I wanted to bring it back”. With COVID-19 restrictions, doing a live performance did not seem advisable, therefore it was decided to do a video to be broadcast on the St. Charles YouTube channel.
Lorraine approached former participants and new parishioners who wished to be involved. The narrative remains the same, however, Lorraine composed new, original music.
All involved are parishioners. Lorraine composed the music, did the photography and edited the video. Celeste Thibert directed. Greg Chase did the lighting and the green screen. The voice talents were Logan Ryner, Ian Michaluk and Kathy Decle. Eleven St. Charles parishioners were actors.
This long, complex process was a true labour of love. After many hours of post-production work, Lorraine has created this forty-five-minute presentation which will be launched on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022.
Why would these people spend so much time and energy on this project? It is their hope that presenting this video will help Christians to re-discover and appreciate more fully the meaning and scope of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ and thus unite their own earthly suffering with His.
The video will be launched on the St. Charles website and on the St. Charles YouTube channel on Ash Wednesday and will be left up until Good Friday. Click link The Ways of the Cross
Evergreen Workshop Profits to North Point Douglas Women's Centre
Thank you to Dodie Labbe for facilitating our recent Evergreen Wreath and Centrepiece Workshop. Thank you to Chad Labbe from Shelmerdine Garden Centre for giving us the evergreen boughs free of charge. The $360 profit was forwarded to The North Point Douglas Women’s Centre. This charitable non-profit organization is located at 221 Austin St N in Winnipeg. Since 2002, the Centre has been working to create a safe, healthy, and vibrant community for women and their families.