Like generations of pilgrims before him, Pope Francis came to the water’s edge at Lac Ste. Anne seeking healing – not his healing, ours.
“This evening, let us picture ourselves around the lake with Jesus, as He draws near, bends down and with patience, compassion and tenderness, heals many who are sick in body or spirit: the possessed, the paralyzed, the blind and lepers, but also the broken-hearted and discouraged, the lost and hurting,” Francis urged the tightly packed crowd at the Shrine of Ste. Anne where he celebrated a Liturgy of the Word.
Before a crowd of about 10,000 mostly Indigenous people, he said, “Jesus came then, and He still comes now, to care for us, and to console and heal our lonely and wearied human family.”
Before the liturgy, making the Sign of the Cross towards the four cardinal points – according to Indigenous custom – the Pope blessed a bowl of the lake’s water, which was brought up to a small wooden structure, shaped like a teepee, overlooking the lake.
Francis initially appeared weary as he was rolled down to the lake in his wheelchair but seemed to gain new strength and even a sense of levity after praying by the water as he sprinkled the crowd with holy water on his way back from the lake.
Lac Ste. Anne, the second stop for the Pope on July 26 during his penitential pilgrimage to Canada to apologize for the Church’s role in residential schools, has long been a place of spiritual, cultural, and social rejuvenation for Indigenous peoples. Since 1889, Indigenous have travelled to the lake in late July to celebrate the Feast of St. Anne, mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus.
Known as Wakamne, “Lake of God,” by the Nakota Sioux and “Lake of the Spirit” by the Cree people, the large, shallow, and muddy lake about an hour’s drive from Edmonton – received the name “Lac Ste. Anne” from Father Jean-Baptiste Thibault, the first priest to establish a permanent Catholic mission in Alberta, in 1842.
As has been his formula throughout this trip, the Pope did not urge some outside intervention to magically bring about reconciliation between Indigenous people and the Church and Canadians. Rather, he laid before Canadians the tools they already have – family, community, hope, faith and above all trust in Jesus.
“Jesus, who heals and consoles us with the living water of His Spirit, asks that from us too, from the hearts of those who believe in Him, ‘streams of living water might flow,’ ” he said.
He made the case that the Church should be a trusted partner in Canada’s search for reconciliation and the residential school survivors’ search for healing.
“I have come here as a pilgrim also to say to you how precious you are to me and to the Church. I want the Church to be intertwined with you, as tightly woven as the threads of the coloured bands that many of you wear,” he said. “May the Lord help us to move forward in the healing process, towards an ever more healthy and renewed future.”
As has been a theme throughout his penitential visit, Pope Francis urged healing across generations. He praised the role of grandmothers and mothers who pass on the mother tongue, culture and faith preserved in every family. He asked elders to make space for young people by listening to them.
“It is the muffled plea of young people who are more interrogated than listened to, who delegate their freedom to a cell phone, while in the same streets other young people wander about, lost, aimless, prey to addictions that only make them depressed and frustrated, unable to believe in themselves or to love themselves for who they are, or to appreciate the beauty of their lives,” said Francis.
“Faith rarely comes from reading a book alone in a corner; instead, it spreads within families, transmitted in the language of mothers, in the sweetly lyrical accents of grandmothers. It warms my heart to see so many grandparents and great-grandparents here. I thank you and would like to say to all those families with elderly people at home: you possess a treasure! Guard this source of life within your homes: take care of it, as a precious legacy to be loved and cherished,” he said
It was not a message exclusively for Indigenous Canadians.
“All of us need the healing that comes from Jesus, the physician of souls and bodies,” he said. “Lord, as the people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee were not afraid to cry out to you with their needs, so we come to you this evening, with whatever pain we bear within us. We bring to you our weariness and our struggles, the wounds of the violence suffered by our Indigenous brothers and sisters.”
The Pope noted that much of Jesus’ ministry took place by a lake – the Sea of Galilee – a place where “various peoples who then, as today, flocked from different places; in a natural theater such as this, [Jesus] preached to everyone.”
“God chose that richly diverse context to announce to the world something revolutionary: ‘Turn the other cheek, love your enemies, live as brothers and sisters so as to be children of God, the Father who makes his sun shine on both good and bad and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Mt 5:38-48). This lake, with all its diversity, thus became the site of an unprecedented proclamation of fraternity; not a revolution bringing death and injury in its wake, but a revolution of love.”
“Here, on the shores of this lake, the sound of drums, spanning the centuries and uniting different peoples, brings us back to that time. It reminds us that fraternity is genuine if it unites those who are far apart, that the message of unity that heaven sends down to earth does not fear differences, but invites us to fellowship, in order to start afresh together, because we are all pilgrims on a journey.”
Pope Francis encouraged those in attendance to reach out with love to others, and to accompany them in their need, so that “streams of living water might flow” from their hearts.
“Dear Indigenous brothers and sisters, I have come here as a pilgrim also to say to you how precious you are to me and to the Church,” he concluded his speech.
“I want the Church to be intertwined with you, as tightly woven as the threads of the colored bands that many of you wear. May the Lord help us to move forward in the healing process, towards an ever more healthy and renewed future. I believe that this is also the wish of your grandmothers and your grandfathers. May the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Joachim and Anne, bless us on our journey.”
The first church at Lac Ste. Anne was built in 1844, and the first Catholic pilgrimage was held in 1889, on the Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne. A pilgrimage, under the care of the Oblates of Mary, has taken place to the site every year since. According to the Vatican, the pilgrimage has become one of the most important spiritual meetings for pilgrims in North America, and is particularly dear to members of the First Nations, who continue to take part in it annually. The church, which was completely destroyed by fire in 1928, was rebuilt in 2009.
The Catholic Register with Catholic News Agency files