Sunday, April 15th 2012 was at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Toronto the Most Reverend Metropolitan Jan Babjak SJ.
He was welcomed by parishioner, Mary Siroky-Snell, at the entrance to the
church with traditional bread and salt. Concelebrating with Metropolitan Jan
were Bishop John Pazak, C.Ss.R, Fr.
Andrew Kormanik and Fr. Jozef Mucha with sub - deacon Daniel Cerny and altar
server John Telepcak. Once again, Metropolitan Jan’s homily urged us to prayer
and cooperation. He offered to help in any way possible to put us back on track
and make our church grow.
There
was a luncheon in honour of our guest in the hall following the liturgy.
Everyone was in great spirits and once Madeleine & William welcomed
Metropolitan Jan and our Bishop John with bouquets of flowers, everyone was
seated. Master of ceremonies, Mary Siroky –Snell introduced the head table,
asked that Metropolitan bless the feast prepared for us and as the meal was
being served, she gave a short biography of our guest in Slovak and English.
Metropolitan Jan’s translator was kept on his toes when Metropolitan Jan began
to visit guests at their tables. He had a smile and a hug for everyone there
and never complained about hundreds of pictures he had to pose for! Once again,
all guests received a holy card from him and a word of encouragement. Even
after all that mingling with the guests, Metropolitan Jan had enough energy to
entertain us with his beautiful singing voice. He started with his “signature”
song: “Ej stretla, ze me stretla…” Added to the verses he normally sings, were
five more that were written by a parishioner of this Cathedral, Mary Hosak. He
sang several other songs and asked for favourites from the audience. Slowly,
the celebration came to an end and everyone went his/her own way.
More photos available at: https://picasaweb.google.com/danielprorok/2012_04_15MetropolitanJanInToronto#
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