Sunday Liturgy
Saturday: 5:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am
Mission Statement
We are a welcoming Christian community called to embrace and respect the uniqueness of each individual as we join together in our faith and worship. Our ongoing mission is to engage our youth, promote renewal, out reach, evangelization and ecumenical cooperation.
MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Monday, November 3rd – 9:00 am Maureen Ryan (Anniv)
Tuesday, November 4th – 9:00 am No Mass
Tuesday, November 4th – 11:00 am Seniors’ Anointing Mass
Deceased Priests of Assumption Parish
Wednesday, November 5th – 9:00 am Natalie Stafford
Thursday, November 6th – 9:00 am Leon Noel (Anniv)
Friday, November 7th – 9:00 am First Friday – Connie/Don/Terry Murphy & DMF
Saturday, November 8th – 5:00 pm Robert/Marg/John Hull
& Michael Kirkpatrick
Sunday, November 9th – 11:00 am Helen Brideau
Weekly Reflections (Homily) from Msgr. Sheehan (Updated October 31, 2025)
ALL SOULS’ DAY
(November 2, 2025)
Dear friends;
We commemorate to-day all the faithful departed… it is November, yesterday All Saints, to-day All Souls…
The days are greyer… shorter… nature seems to be dying… leaves have fallen… the earth hardens…
We visit graves… next week we remember the war dead… we pause, we are reflective… we think about things we are not sure we want to think about… we remember… we dare to ask… Where are they… these faithful departed?
We think about our own death… which will surely come… all our deaths will be different… some will be slowly, after long and protracted illnesses… some will be swiftly, suddenly, unexpectedly… “He died unexpectedly…” a frightening phrase… or “after a long Illness…” or “tragically in a vehicle accident…”
What will be your death?... Do you ever think of it?... I think of my death often… we, priests, are confronted often by death… on the average twice a week here at the Assumption… we visit the dying… we try to console them… and then we bury the dead… we celebrate their lives… we are often in mourning with the mourning.
We come to know that dying is a part of living, of being human… It is a sobering exercise to think about death… not to do it morbidly or repressively, but acceptingly as possible… acknowledging the reality and eventuality of the fact that some day … “I will die”…
It is sobering, because it relativizes a lot about what we do… and how we do it… and what is important… and what should concern us… and take up our attention and preoccupation…
It also makes us think not only of ourselves, but of others… and what they mean to us… and how we value them and love them… and who we value and love… and how we treat them… and what we say to them… what we express to them…
Thinking about our death, our own death… also makes us think about our life… and what we’ve done with our life… what we’re doing with our life… how we live… how we live to-day… not how we might want to live tomorrow, or next week, or next month – or next year… they may not happen for us… but to-day is happening… to-day we are here…
To-day is our day of possibilities, to-day is our day of speaking, of acting, of living… We must embrace this day… it is given to us by God… there is no other day like it
To-day… in the light of our death… is a precious thing… it is the time for loving, for serving, for doing good, for being good, for opening up to others, for discovering.
To-day is the time for experiencing others, for listening… for consoling, for being consoled… for encouraging… for being encouraged… it is the time for being… being with… being for others…
I would like to share with you the last pages of Cardinal Bernardine’s book “The Gift of Peace”… it was written after he found out he had cancer – and completed a year ago to-day – thirteen days before he died – listen to what he says about dying – and what his thoughts are about living:
Many people have asked me to tell them about heaven and the afterlife. I sometimes smile at the request because I do not know any more than they do. Yet, when one young man asked if I looked forward to being united with God and all those who have gone before me, I made a connection to something I said earlier in this book. The first time I traveled with my mother and sister to my parents’ homeland of Tonadico di Primiero, in northern Italy, I felt as if I been there before. After years of looking through my mother’s photo albums, I knew the mountains, the land, the houses, the people. As soon as we entered the valley, I said, “My God, I know this place. I am home.” Somehow I think crossing from this life into life eternal will be similar. I will be home.
What I would like to leave behind is a simple prayer that each of you may find what I have found – God’s special gift to us all: the gift of peace. When we are at peace, we find the freedom to be most full who we are, even in the worst of times. We let go of what is nonessential and embrace what is essential. We empty ourselves so that God may more fully work within us. And we become instruments in the hands of the Lord.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Were there is hatred, let me sow love.
Were there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I many not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Click here for more information about the 2025 Harvest Supper
Dear Parishioners:
We will be holding a Fall Harvest Supper this year on Sunday, November 2nd from 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm in Assumption Centre.