The Redemptorists help sponsor the largest gathering of Catholic university and college students in Canada. All provinces and most campuses across the country were represented at this year’s Rise-Up conference held in Montréal between December 28th, 2015 and January 1st, 2016. This year we put into the hands of every participant, the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help along with contact information about the Redemptorists.

As sponsors for this Catholic Christian Outreach convention, we are able to meet young adults from all across the country and speak to them about St. Alphonsus and about our life as brothers and sisters in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. I was impressed by the attendance by over 75 young adult men at a pizza lunch hosted by diocesan clergy and religious orders of men! These young adults learned about the priesthood and religious life from the stories of young men already in formation.Three Redemptorists from our Montréal and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré communities joined me at this conference. Fr. Guy would ask people going by, “Would you like to become a saint?” Always receiving an enthusiastic response, he would then hand each person a booklet by St. Alphonsus entitled, Uniformity with God’s Will.

We were greeted warmly by the archbishop of Montréal, His Grace Christian Lepine. Other bishops visited during the week as well.

We were brought greetings from Pope Francis through His Emminence Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi, Apostolic Nuncio for Canada.

We experienced splendor and beauty in the church during our Eucharistic celebrations which took place at the Cathédrale Marie-Reine du Monde and at L’Oratoire St Joseph.