I arrived here in Combermere, Ontario at the Madonna House last Friday (First Friday!) on the feast of St. Peter Julian Eymard, a great lover of the Eucharist. I’m staying at the Vianney House, a retreat house for priests here at Madonna House, along with a rotating group of men from the local diocese and other countries. They are all here for the same reason I am - to come away for a while to rest with Our Lord in this beautiful place dedicated to Our Lady. At all hours of the day the chapel here is occupied by men offering Holy Mass, praying their breviary, reading spiritual reading, or simply sitting in silence with the Lord. It is encouraging to see.

In addition to my time spent in the chapel, it has been a great joy to experience the cool weather and beautiful nature here in the Madawaska Valley. Sitting outside on the little porch of the retreat house, I am able to enjoy a nice cup of hot tea while watching chipmunks and what I think was a groundhog amble around the yard enjoying their meal times. My mind is still caught up in many things with the parish administration and I still have a few things left to do before I can really let myself enter into this sabbatical, but these gifts of community, nature, and the extra time with Our Lord are a salve to my soul.

In addition to these graces, I was able to celebrate the feast of St. Jean Vianney tonight by offering Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form with a relic of the Curé on the altar. Lord, it is good that we are here.