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We would like to congratulate and give our great thanks to Mr. Dennis Spence, Editor-In-Chief of the Thunder Voice Newspaper (First Nation), who has demonstrated a deep friendship in love towards the integrity that I have inherited from the truth and love within my Church that has made me credible. I was moved to hear the atrocities within his own family, especially his own mother. As I sat in his office where there were two young Aboriginal women, I felt so unworthy to sit there looking at this pain that sometimes we seem to ignore, perhaps because we don’t know what to do. Silence is a virus that puts on hold the great values: that wisdom would become the medicine for the suffering of those of our past who perhaps never knew the sensitivity of a people like the First Nation. The welcome and respect in a little restaurant called ‘Connie’s Corner’ here in Winnipeg; when I was sitting as I usually do with the First Nation people, when the man said: “I’m so moved by your articles. Would you write in our paper, free of charge, anything to help our people?” I remember, after I asked, “How many words in a column would you like?” One said: “Maybe three, four hundred words.” The Editor-In-Chief said: “No! A half page. You could put pictures, colours, anything you want to help our people!” As the deadline came last Friday we had three articles, which I wanted them to pick which would be put in the paper. Plus, they had more than half a page. The man said “All three of them. And you could write what you want every month to help our people.” The words of Wisdom are not mine. We had an article in another paper called Do Teachers and Preachers Believe What They Say? But when one tries to evaluate his own wisdom, his own sermon, it is then that doubt begins because it is but human. But with trust and love… how do you gain trust and love? By looking at the misery in other people’s lives, which makes you blessed and recognize suddenly how lucky you are to have received so much for the little you gave. To Mr. Spence and all the employees of Thunder Voice Aboriginal Magazine: We give you thanks from the bottom of our hearts for allowing us; for you saw our love in what you felt in your heart. And I love you, my children of all people. And I cannot help but pass on to those who have sewed into my heart, long ago, my gratitude with the seed of love and knowledge of Christ so that at a later year after my human mistakes that the Lord made his spring again and bloom into these people’s hearts, to give you to see that what you have was always there but never used, perhaps because of fear, selfishness or pride. I’ve lived these things, too. But never will I betray the word of God by calling anyone ‘savage’ or ‘pagan’ or ‘faggot’ or ‘murderer of children’. I remember in the Scriptures that Moses was chosen after he killed; that the apostle Paul was like some who would accuse the Muslims today (which is wrong). He had killed hundreds of thousands of Christians. He had his own 9-11. And when the Lord stopped him on his donkey and crashed them both to the ground and said, “Why are you persecuting me?” Doesn’t this say a lot that a persecutor of Christians has become one of the greatest apostles of all time? How many people that we have persecuted will we call to apostleship as the Lord called Paul? How many martyrs were there of Aboriginal women and children near Midland, Ontario and victims of crimes against the person? And that even those victims are allowing the word to still come because deep inside their heart, those who planted true seeds in the lives of whoever has survived were like the apostles. They have kept the Church alive because the word gave them life. It is no longer about evangelization. It is now about love, unconditional love. And I ask all Churches and my Church, the universal (in hope) that keeps it afloat though the storms of life. This is why that Christ allows it to float still as Noah’s Ark on the waters with no end, where now he wants to take the few that are left; but they are not leftovers. They are remnants, the beginning of a new garment that he wants to shelter the whole nation within the embrace of his love when the word becomes the flesh. Again, Dennis Spence and all the people that read the Thunder Voice, I hurt in my heart for all of your suffering – every one of you – whether you are victim of drugs, alcohol, chemical abuse; physical or sexual abuse. How I hurt to see you hurt and that you have allowed me to enter your heart through the roots within me that took their place beginning at baptism, through the example of true priests that many time were more father to me than my own dad. No wonder I stuck my head in the tabernacle trying to see who was behind all this love. Today I realize that the love within me comes from that little house on the prairie, the sacredness of life, the fruit of the womb blessed by the Church after the sins of flesh and washed in Baptism. Thank you for reading. And congratulations Thunder Voice! From White Eagle Cloud p.s. If you would like to receive the Thunder Voice Newspaper in your area, please contact them: Thunder Voice Newspaper |