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"Une Génération Spontanée"
Father Clement Desrochers, o.m.i.: Animateur

"Une Génération Spontanée"
Father Clement Desrochers, o.m.i.: Animateur

Henriette Kelker
Research Associate
Provincial Museum of Alberta

Source

Henriette Kelker, “Une Génération Spontanéé: Father Clement Desrochers, o.m.i.: Animateur”, Royal Alberta Museum : For the Life of the World, Charisma & the service of the Missionary Oblates

Resources

1. (Back to Article) Histoire de Girouxville, vol. I. Girouxville Historical Society, 1976. Histoire de Girouxville - Culp, vols. II and III, Girouxville Historical Society, 1990. Local History of Donnelly - Falher, 1980.

2. (Back to Article) Clement Desrochers, O.M.I., Mes Mémoires (Edmonton: Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1996). Copies are available from the Grandin Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 10336 - 114 Street, Edmonton AB T5K 1S3.

3. (Back to Article) "The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has as its purpose the conferral of a special grace on the Christian experiencing the difficulties inherent in the condition of grave illness or old age. … The Anointing the Sick completes our conformity to the death and Resurrection of Christ, just as Baptism began it. … All the sacraments ... have as their goal the last Passover of the child of God which, through death, leads him into the life of the Kingdom. Then what he confessed in faith and hope will be fulfilled: 'I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1526, 1523, 1680).

4. (Back to Article) Mes Mémoires, 5. The imagery refers to the story of Christ and the woman with an issue of blood, who touched the hem of Jesus' robe in order to be healed, and to Jesus' words: "… thy faith hath made thee whole." (Luke 8: 43-48

5. (Back to Article) Acadia is the name given towards the end of the sixteenth century to lands which now form the south-east part of Quebec, eastern Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The first serious European attempt to colonize the area was made by the French. The colonists of the seventeenth century became known as Acadians and were predominantly French-speaking Catholics. (The Canadian Encyclopedia, ed. James H. Marsh [Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985], 1:5).

6. (Back to Article) The song is recorded on cassette by Mme Gertrude-Nolette-Girard, and kept in the Provincial Archives of Alberta: Phonotape #75.53, produced by the project Heritage Franco Albertain, St. Paul, Alberta.

7. (Back to Article) St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, 1673-1716, founder of the Missionaries of the Company of Mary (Montfort Fathers) and of the Daughters of Wisdom. A childlike devotion to Mary was characteristic of de Montfort. He was influenced by the French school of spirituality and spent most of his priestly years as a travelling missionary in Western France. Author and hymn writer; his most influential work, The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, deals primarily with "the Love of the Eternal Wisdom." In it he describes a tender devotion to Mary as the greatest secret of achieving union with Christ. He terms this consecration to Mary "Holy Slavery of Love." (New Catholic Encyclopedia [New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1967], 1: 971)

8. (Back to Article) There are subtle distinctions between the religious order, congregation and society. The religious order is bound by solemn vows - a vow seen by the Church as carrying a higher authority or purpose. The religious congregation is a community united under a common rule and subject only to simple (i.e., not solemn) vows. A religious society is a community living under a rule but without vows. (William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1957], 841-842).

9. (Back to Article) The following books by R.P. Duchaussois, O.M.I., from Fr. Desrochers' collection, are in the Folklife Collection at the Provincial Museum (H97.154.44):Les Soeurs Grises dans l'Extrême-Nord du Canada - Cinquante Ans de Missions Hidden apostles, our lay brother missionaries Sous les feux de Ceylan Apôtres Inconnus Rose du Canada - MèreMarie-Rose Femmes Héroïques - Les Soeurs Grises Canadiennes aux Glaces Polaires Aux Glaces Polaires - Indiens et Esquimaux

10. (Back to Article) Mes Mémoires, 66. Fr. Desrochers refers here to a little booklet by that name, written by Philbert Grondin, prêtre missionaire diocesain, published by La Fédération des Caisses Populaire Desjardins de Quebec, 1st edition 1937.

11. (Back to Article) Since Fr. Desrochers' move to Edmonton in 1994, mass is no longer said in the little chapel.

12. (Back to Article) "The General Chapter is the highest authority within the congregation. It elects the Superior General and his Council, articulates [the] missionary vision, determines general policy for the Congregation and makes whatever decisions are required. The members of the General Chapter are the Superior General, the members of the General Council, the Treasurer General, and the Procurator General, the Provincials of Provinces, the elected delegates and the Oblates invited by the Superior General according to the Rules. The Superior General convokes the General Chapter every six years. (O.M.I. Constitution and Rules, 106-8)

13. (Back to Article) Gregory Baum, Catholics and Canadian Socialism - Political Thought in the Thirties and Forties (Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1980), 72,73.

14. (Back to Article) Moses M. Coady, Masters of their own Destiny (New York: Harper and Row, 1939), 68, quoted in Baum, 199.

15. (Back to Article) According to Catholic teaching, "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." (Munificentissimus Deus, 1950). The feast day dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary appears in the liturgical calendar on August 15.

16. (Back to Article) Mes Mémoires, 48.

17. (Back to Article) Issues of this newsletter of the Vicariate of Grouard for 1942-1945 are in the Folklife Collection at the Provincial Museum of Alberta ( H97.154.25).

18. (Back to Article) Audio tape AU98.03, Folklife Collection, Provincial Museum of Alberta.

19. (Back to Article) Through the 1980s and 1990s the Alberta Museums Association has offered various professional development courses to museum workers. In this way the work of many Alberta's museums has matured.

20. (Back to Article) Audio tape AU98.01, Folklife Collection, Provincial Museum of Alberta.

21. (Back to Article) Audio tape AU98.02, Folklife Collection, Provincial Museum of Alberta.

22. (Back to Article) "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." (Luke 13:20-21)

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