I recently heard the story of a Catholic church in Peterborough and how it was built by a group of new immigrants from Ireland. These people were part of the Peter Robinson settlement of 1825 and had just narrowly survived famine in Ireland, death on the sea voyage and all the perils of settling in the dense forests of the surrounding area. However, despite these great hardships and the difficulty of their new life they felt compelled by a need for a gathering space to celebrate their faith. So over 80 volunteers worked through the winter to build this humungous cathedral that still stands today. Lighting fires so that the mortar would harden, living in tents away from their farms to work long days on the construction. All this happening in 1836, just a few years after carving their lives out of the bush. It reminds me of the importance of community and gathering and inclusion. These hard-working individuals were focused and knew that to keep thriving they needed to have a focal gathering point in which to share their faith and spend time in community with one another. This was time taken away from building their individuals farmsteads up, this was time away from their families and livestock in the bitter cold, that was how important gathering together was for them and is to our human spirits. We are stronger when we lean on each other.
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