Seminarian Daniel's presentation at The Cathedral of Transfiguration Mission Church in Thornhill

Finally, Saturday, January 30^th arrived and so did the much awaited visit of Sub-Deacon Daniel Cerny! Bishop John picked him up at the airport and brought him home; that will be Daniel’s base for the duration of his visit. Many of you may remember Daniel from his last visit: summer of 2007. He spent time with us in the Toronto area, attended odpust in Hamilton and the funeral of Msgr Sinal in Montreal.

Sunday morning, Daniel assisted at the liturgy celebrated by Bishop John and concelebrated by Fr. Comeau. Daniel read the Epistle. Following the liturgy, Bishop John re-introduced Daniel to the parishioners. Daniel is here in Canada to do some research for his licentiate, to interview parishioners in our Eparchy and he is here for another important reason - a mission: to run a series of presentations at churches in our Eparchy to prepare us for the upcoming Lenten season. His very first talk was at the Mission church and the topic was: “Our Father”. Daniel asked all those in attendance to come closer to the front so he didn’t have to strain his voice and he also wanted us to feel like a community we are. He asked the children to recite the first line of “Our Father”. He spoke of God as “our” not “mine or yours”. He also asked about the food being spoken of in the prayer: the bread. The bread represents not only food that satisfies our stomachs, but food that also satisfies our spiritual hunger. Daniel concluded with the line that comes right after the daily bread: forgive us our trespasses. We are heading for the time before Resurrection: the time of Great Fast – Lent. This is the time when we need to prepare ourselves for Pascha. One of the ways to do that is to go to confession and to examine our conscience. It’s time to forgive and prepare our hearts for the Resurrected Christ.

All parishioners were invited to Bishop John’s house for coffee, bagels and cake.

Text and photo: Mary Siroky - Snell.