Catholic Mission In Canada

For more than thirty-five years, I was a Catholic missionary in Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, and India, and, here in Canada, in Nunavik and Montreal. In 2007, I became editor-in-chief of the Francophone Pontifical missionary magazine called UNIVERS. Last August, Bishop Vincent Cadieux, O.M.I., invited me to be a catechist in the Diocese of Moosonee in Northern Ontario. From September until Christmas 2009, I taught catechism to 150 children at the Peetabeck Academy in Fort Albany. This past January, I moved to another community, Attawapiskat. It is a privilege to teach catechesis to 400 Junior Nakogee students (Grades 1 to 8, aged 6 to 15) all belonging to the Cree Nation.

In Fort Albany, during a lesson last summer, a smart Grade 4 student asked: “Ms. Colette, in church, I often see you reading the Word of God, are you a woman priest?” Before I had time to answer, Charity adds: “Ms. Colette, maybe you are half a priest!” After they all laughed, I answered: “No, I am not a whole priest nor half a priest….To tell you the truth, I am not even a quarter of a priest! But, ever since I was a little girl, I felt called by God to be a whole missionary. You know, I am a simple catechist and this is enough to make me happy!” Joshua asks: “What is a missionary, and what is a catechist’s job?” I tell Joshua: “First, a missionary has to be ‘Good News’ to people and a catechist’s job is to teach you something about God, about Jesus and about His Holy Catholic Church.” This indeed is what I am doing to the best of my capacity.

In Attawapiskat, the school mission statement reads as follows: “… to have its students graduate with pride in themselves, and in their First Nation culture and heritage. Students will leave with those spiritual, emotional, physical and mental skills that will enable them to seek out and access relevant information to enable them to become decision makers, problems solvers, life-long learners and caring and contributing members of their communities.” As a religion teacher and as a catechist in the Diocese of Moosonee, my role is to help all students grow as good human beings and as authentic Christians. In class, children reflect on the fact that the whole world was created by God and that everything on this earth is God’s gift to them. Created by God, they belong to Him and to a wonderful family: the family of the children of God.

Every day, before standing in front of a class, I remind myself of the need to let the Spirit flow in me and to allow God the Father to fulfil his Dream through my whole being. Through my teaching, I strive to help children recognize God’s presence in their lives: to experience His great love, welcome it and, with a sense of wonder, respond to it with a big “YES.”

When Jesus speaks about his Father’s Dream for human beings, the models He gives His Apostles are small children. Real greatness, says Jesus, is found in simple hearts (see Matthew18, 3-4). According to Jesus’ logic, we must trust the little ones, for they are unassuming. In Moosonee, I teach children about God’s love but I also let myself be evangelized by them. Their keen sense of observation, their practical intelligence and their authentic simplicity make me marvel and praise God. Through them, the Father invites me to let myself be inspired and guided.

With these gifts and their sense of wonder, Cree children teach me about the Kingdom of God. The way children play with a simple stone or a tiny branch or with a running dog barking for attention, all this speaks to me about humility and innocence. Without learned words, they tell me how to thank the Great Spirit for the blizzard, the sunlight, the full moon and the Northern lights. Thanks to them, I am learning to look at things with a renewed heart: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you for having revealed your wisdom to the little ones and have hidden it from the learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen” (Luke 10, 21).