St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church Begins a New Social Media Program with Encouraging Message from Deacon Guy!

St Theresa Parish Blog  – 

Word of Encouragement in time of Pandemic, and Announcement of new Parish Social Communication Program

by Deacon Guy Dacquay (Full Text below) Followed by a Special Video Message by Fr. Vincent!



Full Text of Deacon Guy's Message:
 (Reflection based on the Gospel of John 14.21-26 for 5th Sunday Easter, May 10, 2020) –

My dear friends of St Theresa Parish, Christ is Risen! I hope that you and your families are enjoying a nice Easter Season despite our forced isolation in this time of the Covic-19 pandemic? I’m sorry we were not able to assemble at church to complete our Lenten journey and celebrate the great Easter Sunday a few weeks back!

Yes, if there’s one thing we’ll surely remember about the year 2020, it’s how much we missed seeing those we love among our families, friends, and our faith community during these weeks of isolation. But of course we did this out of love for them and for each other as we do our best to avoid the risk of spreading the virus!

When I reflect on what we are currently living in the year 2020, it’s remarkably coincidental how we also use the term 2020 to describe good eyesight…like when we say someone has 2020 vision! Now there are people like myself who require some form of vision correction and need to wear eyeglasses to get 2020 vision to clearly read, drive and recognize others. And when our vision starts to get blurry, we know we need to have our eyes examined to see if we need a new prescription. Well, the experience of this pandemic has been something like this.

We know we are not in normal times as we see the rapid rise in Covid-19 illness and death, the stoppage of activities, and the terrible impact this is having on jobs and the economy not just in our country, but all around the world and almost at the same time! We suddenly have more time to think, and we are experiencing problems that are causing us to reflect deeply about life in many different ways and to look at things with a new set of lenses.

Perhaps we are now seeing how our society’s priorities, beliefs and attitudes towards God, and treatment of others have become more than blurry! Meanwhile, the fear we may be having for our loved ones and ourselves, or the terrible distress of losing a loved one to this Covid-19 virus is shaking our faith. Has anyone felt confused by what is happening or asked where God has been in all of this?

You know, Jesus’ disciples also struggled to understand God’s ways as we see in John’s Gospel passage for this coming 5th Sunday of Easter. Their vision of the world and anticipation of God’s actions had become blurred by their cultural attitudes and worldly beliefs, and so the disciples were very troubled to hear what Jesus was saying when he spoke about his passion, death and resurrection. They couldn’t understand how their powerful leader and messiah could die, and they were stressed to hear that Jesus would be leaving them to go to the Father.

But Jesus wants them to understand that life is not about living for this world, but for seeking the eternal life of joy with his Father in Heaven where a wonderful dwelling place awaits each of them! Jesus also tells them that getting to the Father in Heaven is not about a physical journey of distance to a place, but rather about the way they live the truth of the love of God as Jesus showed them through his teaching and life example. So the disciples learn that by living in accordance to the way of Jesus and his sacrificial love, they will be intimately united to the love and presence of the Father and Jesus!

Now what about us? What are we living for? In many ways, I think the forced isolation of this pandemic has given us a new lens to clearly see the importance of believing in Jesus and the love and grace he gives us in the sacraments of the church. Now while we are blessed to be able to live stream Holy Mass, view their recordings online, and perhaps benefit from the church’s indulgences, our inability to physically attend local church services and receive the sacraments has increased our hunger for them!


Meanwhile, this new lens is also helping our society to see where the love and responsibility for our fellow citizens has been neglected. Let’s consider the horrible plight of our seniors and care workers at the many care homes where most of the Covid-19 illness and deaths have occurred, as well as the great challenges of our healthcare professionals struggling to find the equipment they need to care for patients and to protect themselves. Yes many of the priorities of our current society need to be reviewed to refocus attention on what is most important for the wellbeing of our most vulnerable citizens and their caregivers.

In this pandemic, parishes are also seeing the importance of staying close to parishioners, vulnerable seniors, and those living with other needs in our local community. In this regard, parishes like ours which rely on the weekly bulletin and website to make announcements have found it challenging to quickly and effectively communicate important information, such as notices about church closures or notifications of Fr Vincent’s recorded Sunday Mass and messages.

To address this shortcoming, Fr Vincent and the parish staff have decided to implement a new communications strategy using current social media tools to do this work. In this regard, I am happy to announce that Miriam Westen, who currently leads St Theresa’s Choir, has graciously accepted to volunteer as our parish coordinator for social communications.

Miriam will be using media tools like the Google Blog application through which you received this message. This free application is considered to be very secure. We hope this media tool (and others to be announced like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) will help us to better keep in touch with you!


So what we can see from this and as the old saying goes: God can bring good things out of bad situations! This shows that God remains very close to us and especially in this difficult time.

As we proceed to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus in this Easter Season, may God bless you all with much peace, protection, health and joy! Amen, Alleluia!

Deacon Guy Dacquay
St Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish, Ottawa