MESSAGE FROM THE DISTRICT COUNCIL OF STEWARDS
BLD TORONTO
September 18, 2009

Today is a time for rejoicing and thanksgiving as we celebrate our 19th year as BLD Toronto. It is a time to look back at all that God has done for us in this community, and let Him know how much we appreciate His goodness and His Holy Spirit’s guidance during the past 19 years. 

It is a time to thank God for inspiring 8 couples and 2 single mothers to come together on September 23, 1990 and build community.  The fertile ground they seeded 19 years ago has become the birthing ground for 30 Marriage Encounter Classes, and we thank God for filling their lives with true and living faith. We remember in prayer and thanksgiving the inspiration and guidance given by our late beloved Spiritual Director, Fr. Pascual Adorable, SJ, and Founding Elder, Sonny de los Reyes.

It is a time to thank all our past and present spiritual advisors, and community elders for their prayers, support and guidance throughout the years.  We thank them for the tremendous encouragement and nourishment they have provided – their kind words, their listening ear, and their prayers.  A lot of their work remains hidden and unrecognized and we take this opportunity to thank them for helping us find and follow the Lord’s will, his vision, and his mission for this community.

It is time to thank God for the gift of our people, our District Leaders Conference, our disciples and our members.  We thank God for blessing them with wonderful gifts and talents to share, for preparing them for every new challenge, enabling each one of them to do what they love most, using their gifts to carry God’s message of love to all.  They are what God empowered them to be: ordinary people given the extraordinary task of being Christ to others.

It is also the time to remember the lives of those who are no longer with us to celebrate this day and to thank God for the friendship, the love, and the joy they have brought to our lives.

It is a time to thank God for looking after our community whether in times of stirring victory and in times of great uncertainty, adversity, set backs and unsettling change.  We are so blessed to know that we are never alone in doing the things we do for God.  He is always at work with us and in us and will remain that way to eternity.

Nineteen years may seem a lifetime but in God’s kingdom this is only the beginning.  We may not know what the future holds for BLD –new districts to be developed, new parishes to be assisted, new programs to be conducted, new mission fields to be tested, but what is certain is that God will be with us all the way.