Conversion

Hey Guys!
This is Matt Marchand, NET Recruiter, blogging from my parents home in Halifax. Usually we fill the blog with updates and glory stories from the teams, but today I wanted to share with you a glory story that I witnessed today.

Today I went to mass at St. Catherines Parish, which is a ten minute walk from my parents house. In fact there are two other parishes that are within ten minutes walking distance of my parents house, which is awesome! Anyways I love going to St. Catherine's because of the great community there.

At St. Catherine's there is an order of Franciscan brothers and sisters. They are awesome because of how outgoing and friendly they are, they are a real blessing to the diocese and to me as well. They are always so welcoming and in doing so they attract so many people to the faith. In fact today they converted an entire family! Today during Mass a mother was baptised and confirmed, and she brought here three children with her! It was so awesome to see the community support this mother and welcome her into the Church.

I also want to share with you how special this Advent season has been for me. Every year as a church we gather durring Advent to witness the birth of Christ, just as the shepards did. This year though my family will gather around my sister because of the new life that is growing inside of her! This new baby has already given new meaning to our family and is a source of hope for us.

At December retreat I told all the Netter's how our life in the womb is like our life in Christ. To an unborn baby all that it's aware of is the life in the womb, for all it knows there is no life outside, birth could very well seem like a death. But when a baby is born it comes to new life, in fact it's senses are overwhelmed. It can't comprehend everything going on, so it cries out. Slowly thought it becomes aware of it's surroundings and the touch of it's mother and is comforted.

Like wise many people are unaware of the life in Christ that exists and many times when people do become aware of the God's presence they are overwelmed and like a bay will cry out. But we know that God is there and I pray that over this advent season you come to know the Lord even more. Many blessing and merry Christmas.

God Bless,

Matthew Marchand