By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News

 

The final year of a four-year commitment by Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Saskatoon to hold a four-day memorial wake to pray for those who died or were lost in other ways at Residential Schools in Canada was marked June 6 to 9, 2024.

 

“We remember and pray for the children who went to Residential School and never returned home to their communities and families, and those who did return home, but returned home lost – physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually,” said Our Lady of Guadalupe pastor Fr. Graham Hill, CSsR, during the closing Mass June 9.

 

The event first started in June 2021 in the wake of news reports about unmarked graves found at the former site of a residential school at Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops B.C.

 

Once again a tipi was set up on the grounds of St. Mary Parish, where Our Lady of Guadalupe parishioners worship each Sunday afternoon, and once again prayers, hymns, and ceremonies were offered throughout the four days — along with a welcoming and listening presence for any who passed by or stopped in.

 

 

Among those participating in the vigil of listening, prayer and hospitality from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and before the closing Mass at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 9 were Parish Elders Dianne Anderson, Sharon Genaille, Irene Sharp, and Gayle Weenie, as well as parish staff, parish leaders, parishioners, volunteers, neighbours, and friends.

 

Placards around the grounds listed the names of Residential Schools that operated across the country, and hospitality and refreshments were offered to those passing by.

 

 

“There were more people than ever coming in this year,” said Elder Dianne Anderson of the outreach to the community.

 

Many of those who entered the grounds shared painful experiences, praying and grieving with those who were standing vigil, said Anderson. Others would simply sit down for a time in silence. “It was hard to hear the stories, but it was amazing to see healing,” said Anderson.

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe parishioner and former Parish Life Director Debbie Ledoux also noted how difficult it was to hear the harrowing legacy of residential schools in the lives of so many. “We would go home just wasted from listening to the painful stories. But that is what this is all about,” Ledoux said at the conclusion of Mass June 9.

 

“We feel very blessed to complete our promise to do this for four years. It was very, very important,’ said Ledoux. “I want to thank our Elders for leading us on a path to do this, to have a traditional wake. We didn’t want to do just one thing for a short time and say ‘we are all done.’ We are never done.”

Other ways to continue offering much-needed outreach and healing will hopefully be found as the parish goes forward, she added.

Opening day

The four-day memorial opened June 6 with a pipe ceremony, as well as singing and drumming by the Fiddler family (the Cree Canaries) and an early-morning opening Mass celebrated on the parish grounds by Saskatoon Bishop Mark Hagemoen, joined by Our Lady of Guadalupe pastor Fr. Graham Hill, CSsR, St. Mary pastor Fr. Kevin McGee, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Deacon Paul Labelle.

At the opening Mass, Bishop Hagemoen expressed his hope that the event would again be a lesson in how to walk together.  “In order to do that, we pray ‘teach me your ways, O God,’” the bishop said, citing the psalm response for the day.  “The best way we learn about God is to walk as God does… with no competition, and with compassion.”

 

Closing Mass

In his homily during the closing Mass, Our Lady of Guadalupe pastor Fr. Graham Hill, CSsR, reflected on the challenge of reconciliation.

“The problem is that our collective past history has not been reconciled, so trust is low. We, as Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, need to be at the centre of building that trust again,” Hill said.

“Building trust means much persistence… it means absorbing pain, rather than passing pain on, including the pain of having our reconciliation resisted, perhaps even rejected… additionally, we will make mistakes, even when well-intended.”

He added: “Reconciliation isn’t just about Indigenous groups and the church, Indigenous groups and the government — it is about each and every one of us. Each and every one of us needs to bring ourselves back into integrity … Reconciliation is not something that can be achieved through violence or hatred, but only through love and forgiveness.”

The ultimate hope of finding reconciliation, unity and healing is in Jesus Christ, he stressed. “Christ is stronger than anything that separates our community. He binds up the forces that divide, he heals the wounds that separate, he refashions into a new whole… there is nothing in your whole life, or my life, that cannot be healed by the love of God in Christ.”

During the prayers of the faithful, the community prayed for the 150,000 children compelled to attend residential schools, the estimated 4,000 who died while attending the schools, and the thousands of parents and grandparents who grieved when children were forcibly taken to the schools. The community also prayed for the thousands of former students who survived the system but still carry physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological scars, including those who find themselves “condemned to a lonely and painful existence of dependency, addiction, chronic illness” and those  “who suffer from the syndrome of multi-generational abuse.”

At the conclusion of Mass, the creator of the memorial wake star blanket spoke about the imagery and the prayers that went into its creation. “A lot of tears and prayers went into the prayer blanket,” she said. “ I prayed that people would reconnect again with their families, and it would help bring people together again, and that there would be healing.”

Other speakers included former Parish Life Director Debbie Ledoux, who helped initiate the annual four-day memorial wake, as well as Fr. David Tumback, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Saskatoon, and Fr. Kevin McGee pastor of St. Mary Parish in Saskatoon, who also serves as Vicar-General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon.

“We must begin as we continue here, in the recognition that we are all created in the image of God and that the blessing that was given on the sixth day, when the scripture says that God blessed them and said that it is very good – we must recognize that is our starting point,” said Tumback.

“We are all part of this tremendous journey, mysterious as it is — one that calls us to be simply agents of hope…. I know with absolute certainty that the Spirit will never abandon us. We walk together… and we pray that the healing that has begun in the hearts of people will continue,” he added.

Fr. Kevin McGee expressed gratitude for being able “to sit in this sacred space” and spoke about the opportunities he has experienced as pastor of St. Mary Parish over the past two and a half years. “I have seen in my time here many opportunities to be present to the complexities and challenges of this neighbourhood,” he said, pointing to such opportunities as opening the church hall as a warm-up space providing refuge on some of the coldest nights of winter and the “opportunity to unite our voices and hearts, and lean into ways of reconciliation.”

The event concluded with a traditional feast in St. Mary parish hall, followed by a round dance.

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Kiply Lukan Yaworski is the communications coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon: rcdos.ca.