human rights

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Yoho! It’s Awesome!

Hail Brave hearts

A cool mist on a hot day, the temperatures rising, the tumbling cascade from a high altitude source, cools us.  Heat is in the air, even with this early start, the day is warming quickly.  Rivulets from rainfall dampen the path.  The trail is a beauty though, as most of our experiences in this great wild are.

Our fine protected places, the finest in the world.  Stunningly beautiful, the grandeur of high mountains, glacier, waterfalls and wilderness, all protected for us to adventure in.   The world of wilderness, for our bodies, our minds and our souls.  Our eyes are a witness to this spectacular landscape, the great Earth, as always, gifts to us  it’s miracles, far beyond our own limited potential.  Today we access this gift of mountain, rock, glacier, water and moraine, carved by millennia of weather and mountain building.  On yet another fine day of wilderness travel, our hearts and minds are filled with joy.  It’s fabulous!

The steady uphill walk to the rubble above tree line, poses no hardship.  This is the destination which calls us, along with many day hikers and overnight guests, all striving to push those limits of physical fitness to achieve the possible dream.

Soaring above us, a lifeline starts.  The precious, most necessary life line of rivers and streams, of mountain glacier, of that source of water that saves us.  The water supply, here as cascading, tumbling, icy cold waterfalls and rivers, which are fed by the melting of glaciers close by.  This is the start of the chain of life, that water brings.   Tiny plants and small shrubs, find life support by the miracle of water, the miracle of life in this high alpine world.  And life brings more life.  Flies and bees, some butterflies and other insects, find food and shelter in this remote terrain.  Wind plays it’s part in moving in weather fronts of rain  and in scattering seed.  The necessary, ongoing circulation of natural elements, which we call nature.

Nature brings us water from the high alpine, it brings us glaciers as a water source.  Nature brings us all weather and restores itself.  Nature gives us this miraculous world, a world for all eyes to see.  Up here is these great mountains, we witness the birth of rivers and streams, caused by melting from several glaciers.  The glaciers being the source of these lifelines.  Freshwater for our consumption, for our use, for the vitality of the forests and the land.

This is a concern to us now.  Where will we be, when the glaciers vanish, when the rivers stop flowing, when the natural faucet turns off and those lifelines disappear.  The fragile life which clings dearly to those lifelines, loose their nourishment and the arid rockpile becomes lifeless again.   The land that we call God’s Land, slips into lifeless death.  Our responsibility soars as we struggle to protect these fragile, remote places, where the world begins.  Our world begins with the basics of life, air to breathe, water to drink.  As water sources dry up, so does our time.  The clock is ticking, our hearts are still beating, heat and fire are bringing us closer to a final loss.  The loss when Nature can no longer restore itself.  Winter is still harsh and cold, but the glaciers reseed at an alarming rate.  The world is too hot.

Science of Glaciers | National Snow and Ice Data Center

The grand beauty of the natural world, give us sights that we all need to see.  Where does it all come from?  Where will we be when it goes?

written by Dr. Louise Elaine Hayes

September 1, 2025

Parks Day July 19, 2025
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Parks Day July 19, 2025

Hail Brave hearts

Come out and celebrate!  Renewal, rebirth, sustainability, recreation, sports, culture, history, wildlife, and of course, those fabulous parks that we all love and crave.  The great outdoors, with it’s most awesome, inspiring gifts.  Life, health, nutrition, wellness, the joy of living.  For those with cravings to climb mountains, hike in the wilderness, paddle rivers and lakes, and generally enjoy the wonderful nature that surrounds us, Parks Canada is your place.  You can visit a historical site and meet a historical person, take a guided hike, view wildlife in it’s natural setting and explore the untamed wilderness of Canada’s finest treasures. Parks is for people, wildlife and rare species.  It’s a showcase of our finest environmental and historical assets.  It’s an achievement that keeps growing as Canadians rush to explore and unwind in the great Canadian outdoors.

The wilderness is awe inspiring.  The grandeur of great mountains,  the shimmering pristine lakes, the bountiful beauty of endless skies and auroras in the air.  magnificent forests and wildlands, with all of their wild inhabitants.  The Parks are a place of wonder, of joy, of captivating beauty and fun for all of us.  This idea has been one of Canada’s finest achievements, from coast to coast.

Celebrate Canada’s Parks Day / National Parks Day – Nature Canada

The hearty homesteader of yore, who brought his family to these fine lands. Lands laden with hunting, fishing, berries to pick, native fauna and flora to digest and to heal wounds with.  Old traditional remedies to cure what ails you. The human history of the area is a fascinating study of the minds and will of these people.  Ancient old settlers willing to carve a niche in the fabric of the land.  Homesteaders scattering themselves throughout large areas of land.  Forts and lighthouses to protect and save us.  These are the historical ones, the unusual ones, who, through dauntless courage, forge a path for the rest of us to follow.

Old Indian trails to mark the way, historical rivers to paddle. These are connections from place to place, explorations for us to find.  The hikes we take, the trails we follow, the paths around the lakes, all take us to endless beauty and the healing of spending time in a natural environment.  The great good earth supports us in so many ways.

The environmental sustainability and ecological integrity of National Parks and provincial parks, help us to understand and appreciate the land of Mother Earth.  Here she imparts a knowledge of her own special ways.  A beautiful scene carved from a wild natural area, preserved forever for the joy of those who travel to it.  A visit to a special, superior place, of raw, rugged beauty for the adventurer in us all.  These are Canadian parklands, a wonder and wealth of natural and cultural beauty.  Rugged forefathers who braved the perils of the land, unbridled pristine wilderness for us to enjoy.  The National Parks are a wonder of natures finest and the brilliance of those who preserve these fine places.

Come and visit.  Celebrate with us.  Parks Day is a joy of celebration for us all.

Parks Day | Alberta Parks

Written by  Dr Louise Hayes

July 18, 2025

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International Day of Happiness, March 20

Good Day Brave Hearts

Have you smiled today?  Are you enjoying yourself?  Is this a good day for you?  Maybe it’s a great day for you.  A day of Sharing and Caring.  A day of happiness.

International Day of Happiness | United Nations

What does happiness mean to you?  Is it a warm hug?  A kiss from your dog?  Fellowship with loved ones or friends?  There are so many ways to enjoy your life, from the sports arenas to colouring books, reading your favourite authors, to exploring the land, gardening, crafts, singing and praising, sharing and caring.  The world needs your fine mind and your pursuits of achievement.  Happiness is part of your achievements.  Its a goal to set, to find ways to enjoy your life, in a healthy, safe and law abiding manner.  It strengthens the community, builds ties with others and creates networks of like minded  people to help you with your pursuits.

There’s a strength in being happy.

Happiness: What It Really Means and How to Find It

Happy people live longer,  have more meaningful relationships and give more community support.  There’s real value in social support, engaging with others and trying to solve issues of hardship.  There’s also real value in play.  The chance to stretch your legs, play a game and just enjoy the fun of life.  Having fun and spending time with people who you enjoy is a fulfilling past time.  It’s also very important to your life, to nurture your sense of well being.  Positive interactions with others, doing things that make you happy, helping someone else, provides positive interactions and positive reinforcement.

There is much to be gained in making contributions to your community.  Some contributions are time, some are goods, some are expertise and volunteering, some is financial, but whatever it is, the overall contributions, helps to take care of another.

Gratitude is an important factor in happiness and happiness improves overall health and well being.  It’s important to be happy and to pursue goals which help to improve happiness.  This helps with personal relationships, work force relationships and general public contacts.  Gratitude comes with sharing and caring.  It has a relationship. It’s the joy of giving and the joy of receiving.

So happiness is a means to an end and finding happiness in your life is a life long pursuit.  It’s so important, that the pursuit of happiness is included in the American Declaration of Independence and listed as an unalienable right, rather than a pursuit, or a quest.  People have the right to be happy.  People have the right to enjoy themselves, to have fun, to engage in healthy social pursuits.  People have the right to live a good life.  A good life comes with a good community, with fellowship and friends, with enjoyable social and recreational pursuits.  It’s being able to participate in the things that you enjoy.  They say that the good things in life are free, but you have to make those good things occur.  Family, friends, supportive people in your life, these will help to make you happy and happiness can come without financial burden.  It’s the gifts of sharing and caring that help to ease hunger, give shelter, clothing and supplies and make a happier world for those in need.

Happiness is for all of us.

Happy International Happiness Day

written by Dr. Louise E Hayes

March 19, 2025

 

 

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Run For It

Hail Brave Hearts

It’s fire season.

Smoke is in the air, fire is advancing igniting the wilderness with it’s hot, choking blaze.  The unreal madness is occurring.  Run!  Run! Run for your lives!  All of you, be it human or wild, domestic or livestock, run for it, before you perish.

The wilderness has exploded into flames.  Temperatures steadily at plus 30 degrees for days, have filled our summer with awesome hiking in spectacular terrain,  soothing dips in pristine lakes along trails less travelled, delectable eats and treats in a quaint town where chefs compete for the most tasteful, gourmet menus.  The smug thrill of a privilege of spending so much time, life and living in an iconic UNESCO site.  Now to perish under the blaze of a sickening fireball, tossing itself around, burning here and there, destroying the spectacular national park and the homes of so many of us, that cherish the ground we walk on.

Here is God, in this immensely magnificent place.  A place of unrivalled beauty.  A place where wilderness, meets town, for about a kilometer, then forest and mountain consumes the landscape again.  The townsite of Jasper is just a small scratch in the surface of a national park, with roaring rivers, thundering waterfalls, iconic peaks and historic places.  The names of old voyageurs, fur traders and adventurers, mountain climbers and community builders, fill books, archives, photo collections and our history.  Not just the history of this place, but the history of building a great nation, from woodlands, to village, from creeks to waterways.   Heritage rivers, scenic drives, national railways.  The heart of explorers for over a hundred years, beats in the trees, the paths we walk on, the lakes we throng to in summer and winter and the river, the heritage river, a lifeline of adventure, connectivity and trade.

Now we escape, from the land that we love, to another situation of desperation and need.  Gone are the community dinners, the discounts, the hugs on the street.  We hug each other in different locations now, not just as a greeting, but now in a desperation.  You’re still with me.  We’re still alive.  The community is gone, but the community of nurture and care still holds us, feeds us, clothes us and keeps us.  Displaced persons that we are, some of us homeless, all of us ousted,  looking for a generous, compassionate, kind community to accept us.

Lavishly, we are welcomed in Valemount, a mountain community close at hand in a neighbouring province, British Columbia.  Although the struggles of wildfire dominate this land as well, we know these people.  They are our neighbours, our workforce, our retirees, our family and our friends.  The partying starts.  Relief is close at hand.  Comfort and congeniality supports us.  We are saved.  Saved by the common sense of a small, quiet community much like ourselves, with so much in common with us, that we just fit.  We fit in with the hospitality, the adventure, the sport.  We fit in with the character of the people.  They are like us, and we are grateful for their companionship and beauty, for a place to stay, a meal to eat and a crowd for conversation with.  We survive as evacuees in warm houses, hot meals and kind friendships.  Hugs.

Jasper wildfire: Examining the damage and promises to rebuild (youtube.com)

On the other side of the boarder, in Alberta, the evacuees fare just as well.

As heart wrenching and dreadful as our world has become, we are saved.  Saved by kind, supportive communities, saved by government initiates, saved by disaster relief.

Now we wait in anticipation of the return to our home.  Be it standing, or destroyed, it’s still our home.  As a community, we rebuild.

We thank God that we’re alive and praise the community that we once had, the land that we once occupied, the people who we live with.  As far flung as we are, in different places and spaces in the country now, we are still a community.  A strong people, who will build again.

written by Dr.  Louise Hayes

August 5, 2024

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It’s in the Inspiration

Hail Brave Hearts

Happy New Year!  It’s 2024.

The inspiration  is here   It’s in joy, happiness, thrills and excitement.  The new year brings in a new resolution.  Decide on the need, the necessity, the challenge.  What will you be this year?

It starts with joy and merriment.  Drink, feast, music, dance,,,, dance the night away.  A sense of change, fellowship and fun and always the hope for something new, perhaps catastrophic, a change.  So what will the resolution be?  Self discipline?  Courage?  How to make this change, to transform to a new being, to be the butterfly from the caterpillar.  Both are beautiful, but what is the preference, to fly, or to crawl?

Both are beautiful.

Both have advantages.

The dilemma is decided in the insect world, emerge from a  cocoon and fly.   For us, the decision is ours.  Or so they say.  Inspiration is a dream, work is a reality,   You just have to get there, from here.

Snowboard Legend Rides 20,000 Ft. First Descent (youtube.com)

The dream is in the mind, to rise to the challenge is also in the mind.  Inspiration is everywhere.  Focus.  Focus and built.  Each day is a new day.  Each day is a day to commit to the dream.  To focus on creating the reality.  Make a plan, consult, build relationships and work.  Each day is the dream in progress.  But dreaming is not the reality.   Work is what is needed and hard work for excellence and achievement is always the reality.

There’s competition in this fine world.  So many brilliant achievers, with such dedication to their goals.  Striving and struggling, building and working, some so desperate, their pleas are in agony.  Help us!

Top 10 Extreme Sports (youtube.com)

Choose wisely, you heroes.  Your finest aptitude is your preferred focus.  To win at such an intense game as life, you need to choose properly.  A fine mind, well educated.  A fine body, well nourished and exercised.  A fine society to spend your life with.  The tangible goals and the far reaching goals, all part of the plan.  A well executed plan is a life goal.

Living by chance is a challenging game.  Not really knowing where to go, what to do, who to associate with, presents many difficulties.  It’s much easier to choose appropriately, find likeminded colleagues, adapt to change and build necessary skills.  It’s much easier to be pleased with achievements, than to live in the sorrow of incompetence.  Choose correct aptitudes and focus on the natural gift.  It’s there.  So is the social bond of classmates, colleagues, family and friends.  The mutual support group.

This call to action is for an adventure.  This is the adventure of your life!

There are many worlds to live in, on this fine planet.  Each world nurtures the craving aptitude that relishes in it.  The aptitude that relies on it.

It’s a fine world, full of fabulous brilliance.  The sun shines brightly on the great planet.  The Earth and it’s inhabitants are a mission of impossible reality.  Each tiny footprint of ours makes a mark on the surface.  Marks of greatness or marks of insignificance.

Plan your adventure.  This is your life, live in reality.  This is your greatest adventure.

written by  Dr.  Louise Hayes

January 2, 2024

 

Gun Control
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Gun Control

Good Day Brave Heart

It’s seldom a bad day with so much to do.

Exit the warm contentment of the cozy, familiar structure to the bright snow-covered future that awaits you in the outdoors.  It’s a fantasy world of snow laden trees, martins leaping along the way and birds chattering to each other.  What do they say?  Only your own spirits will determine their message.  The sundog shines in a glorious ring around the sun, indicating a weather pattern on its way.  The brightness of this glory world is the psychedelic wonder of yesteryear.  It’s no wonder that they thought that LDS was safe.

Minds bend in the staggering difficulty of the task.    The unfathomable human experiment of the day.

Hunting and trapping, the need to survive, the human is a new predator in this place.  Now the competition for the food supply has increased and new hunters are on the land.  Hunters with families and small mouths to feed.  Tiny tots with growing pains, hunger pangs and shill cries.  Feed us! cloth us! save us! The howls stop when the hut vanishes in the snow and the hunt for animal tracks begin.

This new human brings a new kind of weapon to the wild world of big game hunting.  Gone is the bow and arrow, now it’s the rifle.  Guns.  Guns to protect us, guns to hunt with, guns to be dependent upon.  Guns for survival, guns for livelihood, guns for trade and barter.  Guns.   Only the need for ammunition is a drawback in the use of guns.  Stock the larder with as much provision for the winter as you can, and don’t forget the main one, your gun.

Unlicensed weapons have as many as you want to.  No one is watching.

The stealthy aboriginal makes his way to your shelter.  Maybe you don’t have to hunt today.  Maybe all that you have to do is to trade him a good gun and a round of ammunition for a side of moose, a rack of elk and a hind quarter of deer.  Maybe he will give his own much needed furs, from that rabbit, for a gun.  The indigenous people need the fur more than the fur trader do, but wildlife is plentiful, and trade brings wealth to this family.  Wealth to one, survival to another, a deal is struck.  It seems like a win, win situation.  The stealthy aboriginal so experienced in the ways of this land, looking to improve his own lot in life.  A gun for his hunt, a gun for his prosperity and a gun to protect him from the devil.

The homesteader is saved.  No more psychedelic sunshine.  No more mind-bending winter exposure.  No more lethargic, seemingly drug filled indecisive wanderings.   He is saved.  Saved by the aboriginal bell of necessity.  The gun is more powerful than the bow and arrow.

A shot rings out on the still land.  The skilled new hunter has already conquered.  More will come looking for this kind of trade.  More will seek the European for guns.

Guns for survival, guns to protect us.  Guns.  A new way of life.

The Wild Canadian Year: Canada’s toughest season, with only the hardiest prevailing – Winter – YouTube

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

 

 

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Medicine the Marvelous

Hail Brave Hearts

To the magnificent almighty man, whose mind and aptitude cures us in times of dire despair.  Heal us, oh masters of medicine, of cures, of health.  Heal us of a disease so rampant it’s world wide.

UNESCO abounds in Earthly wonder, either planetary marvels or the brilliance of human education.  Technology and engineering bring us great feats of structure worthy of awesome praise.  Their skills and the magnificent of creative works last for eons on the planet.  These marvels tell of the might of the mind of human existence throughout history.  Fabulous human with magnificent monuments to exult the glory of Gods and kings.  Masters of architecture and engineering to carve palaces, roads and habitations from rock and to erect statues and buildings to last forever.  Praises to the minds of mathematicians and builders who construct fantastic premises and fortresses, many of which are impossible to replicate today.  Fabulous human, who carves a history of wonder and splendor into the fabric of the Earth.

These are the exalted ones, the famed.  Their lives lived for the everlasting brilliance of their age.  People who ensured that their societies would live forever in the miraculous wonder of their feats of engineering.  People who devoted their existence to art, governance, construction, even agriculture, are all praised for their contribution to the legacy of brilliant mankind on this earth. These are the masterminds of creative wonder, who are remembered forever.

But now, in our times of trouble, we look into the minds of the healers, for a solution to our despair.  In our time of dire need, when plagues erase communities, when viruses raise the death toll to the thousands, when disease runs rampant throughout society, now we look to medicine to be the praised almighty ones who have the cure.

 

“Importance of immunization

Immunization is one of the most important public health measures used to protect the health of Albertans. It is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions.

Immunization helps your body to build immunity, or resistance, against certain diseases before you are exposed to those diseases. Vaccines are used for immunization.

Vaccines are very important to public health and their use has significantly contributed to the prevention and control of infectious diseases.”

 

Virus and flu needs to be controlled.  Our good fortune lies in the persistence to find a cure. Vaccines are commonplace, to resolve the spread of deadly disease.  Be safe, be healthy, take the vaccine.  Common childhood illnesses vanish with the presence of a dosage of a vaccine which prevents the dangerous disease form infecting the body.  A small prick of a needle, for a lifetime of cure.  Thousands of hours of research for this small dose of wellness, that will save you for the rest of your life.  Praises to the healers who are so overlooked, as we admire the temples of the great, the  magnificent marvels of construction to feast our eyes upon.

At earthly levels we beg to stop the pain, the ravages of disease, the poverty that overwhelms us as our bodies cripple, and our minds depart.  When we are well and healthy, medicine vanishes to nutrition, proper diet, the food supply, exercise and general health and well being.  The focus is on being well, being in charge of your life, your vitality, your success.

When we are ill, the focus is on healing.  Now all around us, is the potential for disaster.  A disease so deadly it’s called a pandemic.  Our natural defenses may not be enough.  The transmission levels are high, the death toll rises, a vaccine is needed, demanded, called for.  A year in the making and still so slowly, the vaccine is being dolled out carefully.  But it’s there.  Finally the dose of cure, the medicinal marvel to overcome your weaknesses is here.  At last, at long last, we will be saved.

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/covid-19-vaccines-ontario

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

January 26, 2021

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Happy Birthday to Us

Good Day Brave hearts

A Happy Canada Day to you.

Today we celebrate the birthday of this great country. A village from the forest. A dream of national identity. A work of unity of life and lifestyle in a land so vast and diverse. The land, the people, the projects, all individually styled for an outcome of diversity and praises for all of it. The great land with its majestic mountains, it’s sweeping prairie, it’s thousands of lakes, it’s forests, it’s tundra, it’s landscapes so unique and awesome. The great land, filled with great people, great places, great adventure and great belonging.

Fill your cup, with the endless opportunity of Canada! The opportunity for exploration is immense, with so much enjoy. We are the second largest country in the world and have so much to see and to discover. The valuable history of sharing and caring for each other. The widespread plains of homesteaders striving to build a country from sea to shining sea. The great north, so wild and free.

This is our Canada. A vast and brilliant home to us. A place of nurturing our spirits, of learning, of wisdom. This is the country that we made ourselves, from our skills, our intelligence, our passions, and our sense of community. We built this. We chose this. We collectively decided that this is the Canada that we want, that we love and that is our home. We made this place special to us, ourselves.

This fabulous world of the wilderness and the great wild, is home for us. We save it because we adore it. It speaks to us, to adventure, to explore, to challenge ourselves to be smart, educated, strong and daring. This great land calls us to retain ancestral roots which tie us to a past time of athletic adventure, community and ingenuity. It calls us to the present, of eco tourism, the food supply, the great cities. It calls us to our future, to retain it all, to be proud, to learn from each other and to share our knowledge with each other. It calls us. Each and every Canadian, to do our duty of care for this great nation. This great country that we call our home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDluztBSaBc

It is with great pleasure that we celebrate this birthday. 133 years of a community of people spread out over a vast countryside of unique places to live in and to visit. The differences in cultures, in heritage, in ties that bind us. We are not all the same, but we are. We are all different, but we are one. We are all diverse, but we are the same. This is how we choose to be. Individual, healthy, strong, with a courage to be culturally diverse and still be united. To live together in multicultural unity. This is our goal and one of our freedoms. Respect for each other and for the intellect that brings us peace and opportunity under a flag that flies so freely.

Happy Birthday Canada. May our dreams remain alive. May our hopes be fulfilled. May our way of life survive us. May we be filled with the glory of this great nation. Happy Birthday, Canada. May you live forever!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

Canada Day, 2020

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Missionaries

 

Hail Brave Hearts

This is your duty, this is your strength, this is your chosen life, the destiny of your path, the choice that you made.  Follow it with courage and determination.  Follow it with all of your heart, with your soul, with your passion, your intellect and your being.  Not all paths are easy, not all times will be grand, not all  will understand and not all will help, but persevere regardless.  Your story must be told.  Told by you.

Bravely travel into the unknown, seek the refuge of the place, contact the people and share their lives.  This mission has been accomplished before and will continue.

Venture into the lives of early Canada, the history of this great land.  A sharing of cultures, of exchange, of markets, of language and peace.  This is the fortitude of the people, the strength of their character, the bond that ties.  A familiarity must be established, with honest communication and negotiation.   These are the people, this is their land, their customs and their beliefs.  A common bond must be found.

Now is the time of the Jesuit.  Holy fathers of the faith, looking to convert the aboriginal people to follow the path of righteous and salvation.  Hail almighty ones.  It is your duty to persevere during these difficult times.  Sometimes it’s easy, but frequently the work is difficult and ardurous.  Not all of the people have an interest in these fine words.  Not everyone views the world from this perspective and not everyone will listen.  Of the thousands of people to preach to, the message is received slowly.  One by one, over many years, the aboriginals start to convert.  The faith must be accepted.  People must understand each other and the world must be saved.  Peace among us, oh fine nation.  Peace among us, to the glory of God.

But it is with great joy that we travel these unknown, rugged and fabulously beautiful lands.  It is with great joy that we meet these curious and eager people.  It is with great joy that we pursue our mission to convert these people to Christianity and to help them to serve the Lord.  The Jesuits are here as a dedicated group of missionaries, intent on fulfilling the directions of their education.  These are the soldiers of God, intent on bringing the scripture to the aboriginal people of Canada.  All united in the same faith, all members of the same church.  It is with great joy that they fulfill their mission, their aptitude and their duty.  It is with one call that they come forward, with the demand from their leader, that all peoples come to Christ.

Difficulties are met with gladness, for the challenge of the body is usurped by the spirit within. The spiritual awakening of the joy of bringing the faith to a people who are unknown to the world, but known by God. Come to the parish, learn and worship. The Call to the worlds peoples to unite! Unite as brothers and sisters of the faith. Be Christians! Make Jesus your Lord. Unite in the joy of the love of Jesus. Join us, we prey! Join us in gladness and in praises. Jesus went to the cross for you and rises again. Believe in the scripture and have faith. Be saved by the divine. Pray and be saved. Jesus is Lord.

The endless work to meet people, connect, converse and to find a common bond. The mission to bring the people under one church, with only one God

Be saved, all you mighty ones. Join together, worship together and be saved.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 12, 2020

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Saint Marie Among the Hurons

Hail Brave hearts

It is with great courage that we settle this country, filled with new adventures and difficult times.  It is with bravery that we meet these new people in their own homeland and on their own terms.  It is with faith and prayer that we negotiate a peaceful settlement, and with determination and recognition of the mission, that is required, proceed to our duty.  To the new land, and to the people of it, we meet.

Such is the sturdy vow of the missionary, the Jesuits who landed to fulfill their duty.  Bring the people religion.  Bring them to Christianity.  It is the solemn vow of the faith, these people must be saved.  Saved in the eyes of God, save their everlasting soul.  Save the people, even in death.

The mission was built in Huron (Wendake) territory, 1200 kilometers from Quebec.  Started in 1639 and lasting only 10  years, it was the first settlement in New France, in the province that is now Ontario.   It was set on a large tract of land between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, in  Huron territory.  The the mission itself was on the Wye River.

Only a small group of men made the long journey from Quebec City to this remote place.  All martyred for their faith.  The Huron themselves, were curious and peaceful.  They allowed the mission on their land and allowed the Jesuits to preach to them.  Some converted, some did not, but pursue the faith is a must.  Fulfill the mission of their lives, they must.  Bring religion to the people.  Serve God.  No matter what the price is , it is not too high.  Serve God.  Bring Christianity to the people with the intention of everlasting peace.  Peace on Earth, goodwill to your fellow human.

Canada’s first Christmas Carol, the Huron Carol, written in 1642 probably by Jean de Brebeuf.

Saint Marie among the Huron is a historical place of hope, dreams, hardship and abandonment.  The security of the Jesuits, lost to the increasing hostility of the Iroquois in the insistent war with the Huron.  Iroquois with guns, Huron with bow and arrow, missionaries with prayer.  Peace among us, oh mighty human.  This territory belongs to the Huron, the land of the Wendake.

http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/sm/en/HistoricalInformation/TheSainteMarieStory/index.htm

But the dreadful incessant war proved the Iroquois to be a stronger and more aggressive people.  Intent on murder, they continued their assault on the Huron and would not leave.  Some of the Huron  who survived  fled to neighboring tribes, and to Quebec to re-establish themselves, on Ile de Orleans , just east of Quebec city in 1650.  By 1649 the mission was in ruin, burned by the Jesuits so that the Iroquois couldn’t inhabit it.  The Huron had departed, the Jesuits were gone.  Gone, but saved.  Other peace remained.  The fur trade was still active, with trade and negotiation still intact.  With the loss of this mission is an uncanny coincidence.  The city of Montreal, founded in 1649.

 

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

March 10, 2020