Montreal Canada
Recently I had planned to purchase an espresso machine for my business, and in the mix I found a place named Chris’ Coffee which was in Albany, NY. This inspired a road trip when she offered me a great deal, in addition to saving a lot of money if I picked it up. Along with this thought I have wanted to visit Montreal for a while now, and I figured i’d use this as the opportunity to do so.
Something that currently inspires me is to write a holy card for everyone of the North American saints and bring them to their shrines and tombs and place the cards on their tomb, similar to what I do when I am in Italy. This is considered a 3rd class relic when we do this, and it becomes a way of connecting the many people I meet everyday, with some part of my spiritual travels. After all it was through relics that I was inspired to eventually come back to the Catholic Church. My father had a miracle healing, similar to that (in 2 Kings 13 20-21, Matt 9:20-22, and Acts 5 & 19). Relics are extensions of God’s grace, passed through people and objects, just like the hem/tassel of Jesus’ garments.
This is the main shrine at St. Joseph’s Oratory to St. Joseph. Below and behind it is where St. Andre Bessett is entombed.
I share this backdrop for my inspiration to travel to Montreal, where St. Andre Bessett is buried and St Kateri the first Native American saint. These two people inspire me. St Andre was a simple door man of the local oratory, essentially a nobody who quietly had interceded for many miracles through his St. Joseph’s oil. When he died 1 million people showed up to his funeral. It was only then after his death, the city of Montreal knew they had a just lost a saint. St. Kateri on the other had was alive during the early days of the Church, born among the Mohawks, she eventually fled to Montreal due to the fighting among tribes, and persecution of her faith by certain tribal members. She had small pox at a young age, and eventually died by the age of 24 where it is said the scars of the small pox disappeared upon her death. Another moment of grace that lead to a devotion to her intercession, since we as Catholics believe these people are not dead, but fully alive in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a cloud of witness that cheers us on (Heb 12:1).
OK! Now that I laid the foundation of why I would take a 1 day trip 7 hours away from my home, the really good stuff, meeting people and having experiences :-]
We arrived around 3 p.m. which was just in time to visit the first shrine on my list in what is considered the Old City of Montreal. St. Marguerite Bourgeoys is buried here and had a great influence on the area educating the people of the area, a niche historically of the church. Afterwards we went over to the St. Joseph’s Oratory which is the largest in the world. We saw most of the 5 story building, bought some great little things in the gifts shops, which included more statues for my dashboard shrine, and we attended Palm Sunday Mass in French. From here we checked into our hotel room. It’s important to note the cost of the room was minimal due to a free night I earned when we went to Sicily.
Unfortunately it was raining the whole time we were here, but I wanted to make the best of things. I walked around the old port nearby. The ferris wheel was near by and I went to see it up close. In the process I grabbed some Canadian gelato, which was very French Canadian and not Italian (sarcasm lol). I did enjoy it however and afterwards I zig-zagged through the streets and I visited a couple of the shops that were opened. After this I called it a night since I had to wake up early the next day to visit the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was replicated from the one in France.
6 a.m. I was up and going. After breakfast we went to mass at the Cathedral and soaked in the beautiful art and architecture. As we were walking back to our hotel we stopped in a great little place called Mon Cafe and had an espresso, the show owner was very kind, and gave us that local authentic connection we were seeking, so much so we stopped for another on our way out of town. After checking out we ran down to the outskirts of Montreal to St. Kateri’s shrine in Kahnawake. It was a beautiful moment, and very providential when the shop keeper had told me they just celebrated her Canadian feast day the day before, and her official day in Canada was coming up later in the week. He gave me a small tour of the place for another authentic experience sharing with me a small glimpse of Native American history that contributed to building many high structures since the natives do not get vertigo like the average person.
Our final stop from here was a return to the border which was fun crossing the border by car for the first time, ironically the border guard’s name was “Pray”. She thought it was weird that I went to Montreal just for a day from so far away, but I failed to make the joke I went to pray. We made it to Albany where I picked up a key piece of machinery for my coffee business, and then dinner at a near by town I passed through in August of 2017. Along the way there was a peculiar thought that happened. Many were texting me the Cathedral of Notre Dame was on fire, at first thought, I was like whoa the one in Montreal I just left? It turned out though it was the one in France, the original. This was sad but fascinating moment on my trip, not sure what to make of it at the moment, nonetheless fascinating.
