Star Gazer W20

Please Note: The 2024 Star Camino has been rescheduled for Saturday, September 7. Stay tuned to Star Gazer and our website for coming details. Thank you for your continued support!

Two May Reconciliation Events

Join us at The Star of the North Retreat Centre as together we work out our commitment to reconciliation through listening, learning, justice & healing.

"All of the evenings have been wonderful but something about this one was a little more. I had questions but couldn’t even find the words last night. And am still thinking about the things I learned, realizing how much more there is to know, more than I’ll get to in this lifetime anyway." — Comment from a regular RTJ participant

Reconciliation Through Justice: Healing in a Traumatized World
with guests Lorette Goulet, Colin Levangie, and Sat Dharam (online)

Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 pm
In-Person or Online

Register at 780-459-5511 or at www.starofthenorth.ca/reconciliation
Suggested donation: $20

Kokum Lorette Goulet has worked with Indigenous communities for over forty years. She has also provided many years of support to individuals and communities struggling with homelessness by providing sweat lodge ceremonies, prayer circles, and traditional practices of supporting their journey of finding themselves again through acceptance, care, and healing. (www.niginan.ca)

Colin Levangie, MPC, MA works at Niginan Housing Ventures, providing individual counselling and workshops centred on trauma and vicarious trauma and developed under the direction of Carola Cunningham and elder Lorette Goulet. (www.niginan.ca)

Sat Dharam is a naturopathic doctor, Kundalini Yoga expert instructor, and author, practicing in Owen Sound, Ontario whose trauma work has been featured on the First Nations Telehealth Network. She developed the Beyond Addiction: The Yogic Path to Recovery program, and has been working closely with Dr. Gabor Maté in structuring and delivering this program along with the Compassionate Inquiry training. She is co-director and Facilitation Director of the Compassionate Inquiry training. (www.compassionateinquiry.com) 

Pathways to Reconciliation
with Dr. Sheila Smith of St. Paul University in Ottawa

Friday, May 31 at 7:00 pm - Public Lecture
Friday/Saturday, May 31-June 1 - Retreat

Register at 780-459-5511 or at www.starofthenorth.ca/pathways

Public Lecture Only – $25
Retreat: Live-In $260 | Commuter $150 | Online $110

Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada affects us all. It is an ongoing process that begins with truth and healing. Only by doing our own work of transformation and walking together can we hope for reconciliation to take root in hearts, families, communities, and nations. As part of the Aurora Living Speaker Series, Sheila Smith shares her own experiences and learnings around reconciliation to motivate participants to consider taking new steps along their own pathways to reconciliation.

Sister Sheila Smith is a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She is of Irish-English settler descent living in Anishinaabe Algonquin territory, Ottawa. Sheila is an Assistant professor at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, in the area of the Churches, Truth, Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Prior to this, Sheila represented her religious congregation at the United Nations in New York, where she brought many years experience of living and working with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Sheila also volunteers with various organizations, including Kateri Native Ministry in Ottawa and is an honourary member of the Kii-Gaa-Do-Waak Nookimisuk (Grandmothers Council) in Robertson Huron Treaty Territory. She is a member of St. Joseph’s Church, an Oblate parish in Ottawa. 

Star Garden Blessing & Volunteer Orientation

Year 3 of our cooperative garden project is well underway. Did you know that...

...over 50 folks converged at the Star recently for an afternoon of We Love Gardening! workshops?

...Star Garden is hosting 4 different educational field trips for school/youth groups in May?

...our rain-collection system is up and running thanks to a sponsorship from Irish Steve’s Eavestroughing?

...we have a number of new volunteers this season, including Ukrainian families volunteering with us?

...we’ve already begun planting? Are you able to help us get seeds and seedlings in the ground over the next couple weeks?

We’re excited to see our Star Garden community continue to grow! If you are interested in being part of a community working together to plant, tend, harvest and enjoy the abundance of our organic garden please plan to attend our volunteer orientation on May 28 at 6:30 pm. If you know of teachers that would like to have their students involved in outdoor education (science/agriculture/biology) or in a garden art project (painting signs for our garden beds) please help us get connected. We have so much to be grateful for: will you join us at Star Garden for a special blessing service on Tuesday, May 28 at 7:30 pm?

Please make plans to join us at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, May 28th for a one-hour Garden orientation and get-to-know-you gathering.
You may also choose to stay for a ½ hour Garden Blessing starting at 7:30 pm with Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie, OMI.

Please RSVP here: www.starofthenorth.ca/together-we-grow

More From The Star

Centering Prayer Group
Our Lady of Good Counsel Chapel at The Star

Tuesdays from 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Information at 780-459-5511 or programs@starofthenorth.ca

Are you seeking to deepen your prayer life? Join us for an hour a week to grow in the practice of contemplative prayer. Using resources from Contemplative Outreach, Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and contemporary Christian contemplatives, we will learn from short video and readings from the classics of the Christian contemplative tradition. Time will be set aside for deepening our prayer practice.

Addiction & The Family Weekend Workshop
with Justin R., Sylvain L., & Richard N.

June 7-9 Weekend

Register at 780-459-5511 or at www.starofthenorth.ca/addiction
Registration: Commuter $230 | Live-In $370

Addiction - cunning, baffling and powerful, and almost always rooted in trauma, often leaves the families and friends of addicts feeling powerless, frustrated and defeated. That is frequently compounded by the denial or refusal of the addict to accept help. How can those who care about the addicted person(s) help them to hit bottom, and also find help for themselves in sometimes desperate situations? This workshop, including a ceremony in memory of those we have lost to addiction, will provide information on the addictive process and recovery from it and trauma, opportunity for sharing, support for all participants, resources for moving forward and hope for a brighter future.

Justin Robert has been an active member of the Recovery community for over 10 years. After a spiritual awakening through an anonymous fellowship, Justin worked as an in-take worker for a detox/homeless shelter and became executive director and founder of a non-profit organization. He has participated in many interventions and 12-step calls, as well as facilitated over 50 Big Book studies. He has sponsored over 30 people in the anonymous fellowships and was recently a keynote speaker for one of the fellowship’s conventions. 

Sylvain Lavoie, OMI is Chaplain, Spiritual Director, and Presenter for the Star. As a missionary Oblate he has spent over 30 years ministering among the aboriginal peoples of north and central Saskatchewan. He is author of a number of books including Walk a New Path and Together We Heal on addictions and awareness. His latest book, Claiming God’s Love was released in the fall of 2023.

“Come Away for Awhile” - An 8-Day Silent Retreat
with Lucie Leduc and Bishop Sylvain Lavoie, OMI

July 3 through July 11, 2024

Register at 780-459-5511 or at www.starofthenorth.ca/silent
Registration: $1425 (includes meals, accommodations, and daily spiritual direction)
Only 6 registration slots left.