News and Events
Ad multos annos!
The Order of Porter
5 April 2025
Pictures from community and parish life
Work in the basement of the church in Stilesville
6 February 2025
We are currently doing renovations in the basement of the church in Stilesville in order to add a few bedrooms and also a bathroom for seminarians who should join our community in the future.
The plan is to have 4 bedrooms in the basement. But this will not be possible immediately. First, we will have two bedrooms, because we need to keep our kitchen and classroom until we hopefully one day enlarge the church. There were some rooms down there already, but we had infiltrations of water and mold, a low ceiling and carpet. Not ideal. The new roof and gutters which we did last summer helped deal with the infiltration.
We will reduce the size of the bathroom that is available to the Faithful in the basement and also the electrical room. Between the bathroom and electrical room, a new bathroom will be added which will be for seminarians. It will include a shower. From that bathroom, we will be able to access the electrical room. Prior to that, the electrical room was only accessible from a bedroom, which is not ideal, obviously. We will have to change the original sump-pump which was leaking, in order to prevent bad smells to invade the basement.
We will take advantage of the renovations to increase the height of the ceiling. Up to now, a portion of the windows were above the ceiling. We really had the impression of being in a basement. The old beams of the church will remain visible, which will be a nice design for the bedroom. This will imply some modification to the ducts heating the church. We should be able to do it ourselves at a low cost.
As we were doing demolition, we discovered a large crack under one of the windows, which explains why we had water leaks in the basement. This has been corrected.
Each of the two bedrooms should be large enough for a seminarian to live a decent life. Outside of the bedrooms, what used to be the sewing room will be used for large closets for extra sacristy storage, as this is becoming an issue. The storage for the bookstore will also be there and there will probably be an altar as well for when we receive visiting priests.
Also, when entering the church, there was a wall and a door down to the basement and the area where we would put our coats and boots was not well designed, and we would loose a lot of space for nothing. This should also be corrected with this renovation.
All of this is a bit of work, but it will overall help complete our renovations of the church. When we purchased the church in 2020, we renovated the main floor in its entirety. Last year (2024) we did the library. This year will be the old basement. There will remain only the vestibule and back emergency exit which will be in need of a good painting and probably a new floor. One thing at the time… Our church is going to be at its full functioning capacity after that. Each square foot is used for something.
Living in renovations is not easy when you have to carry on with daily life. The library is a bit of a mess as we have to move everything there. But patience is key and life should be easier after that.
We count on your patience as the parish life is also affected by this.
Longanimitas
4 February 2025
Dear friends,
Where should I start after more than two months? I think this tells you how busy our life is in Stilesville… Busy and happy, to say the truth. There is a great joy in the religious life. Every day, we wake up early to gather for prayer in church. We love our Saint Joseph church! What a nice place! We have been blessed by the Lord to find this place. It looks like it was prepared for us, waiting for us on the top of the hill.
There is at the moment a wonderful complementarity between the members of the community, thank God! Each one, with his own talents, takes a part of the burden. Life is busy but happy.
Seminary life is going well. We have completed our History of Philosophy class, Introduction to Philosophy, Logics and Philosophy of Nature. We have now started Psychology. On top of that, seminarians have classes of Latin, Holy Scripture, Liturgy, Patrology and Gregorian chant. Teaching these classes is for me a wonderful occasion to review my studies. I am very grateful to God for this. You look at things in a very different manner after almost 15 years of priesthood... I wish seminarians could comprehend fully the reasons why we study each of these things. It is hard to make the connection between pastoral life and studies when you are at the seminary. I would say that our seminarians, although deprived of a normal seminary life in a large institution, are nevertheless blessed to be in contact with parish life. They see daily what the life of a priest is, they accompany the priests sometimes on the weekend to visit missions, etc. This seems to me a unique experience that will be profitable to develop in them a much needed experience.
We have started major renovations in the basement of the church in order to make some more bedrooms and be able to receive more vocations. We have a waiting list of young men who want to join… While doing the demolition, we discovered that we had mold in the basement, due to a crack under one of the windows. There is also quite a slope in the floor where we are preparing to make new bedrooms. All of this will take time, but it will be profitable to the Mission to be able to have some more bedrooms. Brother seems happy with the new project.
These last years, major figures of Catholic Tradition have gone to the next life (doctrinal disagreements aside) : Father Cekada, Bishop Daniel Dolan, Bishop Clarence Kelly, Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, Bishop Andres Morello, Father Collins, Father Guépin, many others, and now Bishop Richard Williamson. The old generation is going and we have to replace them as best as we can where the Lord has planted us. Pray for us. The Lord has given us a heavy load to carry! We know that God gives graces according to our needs.
Priests in the missions are working hard. Father Mbadugha continues his good work in Nigeria. Father Kemna is now in Trinidad where he evangelizes a new group of Faithful who are coming to the full truth regarding the crisis of the Church. Your prayers are needed.
We are expecting baby goats pretty soon. Probably next week. I have not set foot in the barn for probably a few months now. It is less tempting during winter and Sister is doing a good job. She is also getting ready for the next garden. Spring will come again!
We have at the moment a wonderful team of seamstresses. The work is progressing well. If any extra ladies would like to help, it won’t be too many. There is so much that needs to be done!
Persevere in prayer! Trust in the Lord! Keep patience! Pray for the sick and the dead! Keep Charity! Love one another! Wait for Life Eternal!
With my blessing,
Mgr Pierre Roy
