These are the masses which will be available online within the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton during the current COVID-19 preventive measures.

To follow along with the readings and prayers of the day, visit Living With Christ, which is providing free resources during the pandemic.
This year’s Lac Ste Anne Pilgrimage is once again going online.

The five-day pilgrimage which attracts thousands of mostly indigenous people from across Canada will be strictly spiritual and not physical. The year’s pilgrimage July 24-28 will held online in an effort to maintain social distancing, protect pilgrims — many of whom are elderly or in poor health — and avoid the spread of COVID-19.

The pilgrimage site, west of Edmonton, is closed. There will be no camping or on-site visits.

Instead, organizers hope to keep alive the enduring spirit of the healing and spiritual renewal pilgrimage with a virtual Lac Ste Anne event that includes livestreamed Masses celebrated by bishops from Alberta and the Northwest Territories, video messages, and other programming.

The Lac Ste Anne Pilgrimage website will be the main hub for the online content.

While pilgrims won’t be able to be on site, some of the most important aspects of the event will remain.

This year\’s pilgrimage will begin with a welcome from the Alexis Nakota First Nation, healing prayers by the lake and a blessing of the lake by members of the Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples in Edmonton. Sacred Heart Church is the national parish for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people, meaning that anyone with Indigenous ancestry is considered a parishioner.

The events include Mass from Behchoko, N.W.T. celebrated by Bishop Jon Hansen of the Diocese of Mackenize-Fort Smith and Mass from St. Bernard Mission in Grouard, Alta., 300 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, celebrated by Archbishop Gerard Pettipas of the Grouard-McLennan Archdiocese.

Rev. Susai Jesu, pastor of Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, will lead the rosary in multiple indigenous languages.


The Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation call it Wakamne, or “God’s Lake,” and to the Cree it’s Manito Sahkahigan or “Spirit Lake.” Lac Ste Anne is renowned for its healing waters and for its spiritual significance to Indigenous people well before Catholic missionaries arrived in Alberta.

The Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage has been an annual tradition for more than 130 years. Photo courtesy of Rev. Garry LaBoucane

In 1844, Rev. Jean-Baptiste Thibault, a priest and missionary, dedicated the lake to St. Anne, the mother of Mary and grandmother of Christ. Grandparents play a significant role in First Nations families, raising children and passing faith and spirituality from one generation to the next.

In 1889, the first annual pilgrimage was arranged by Fr. Joseph Lestanc, who was inspired by a visit to the St. Anne d’Aurey shrine in Brittany, France. The feast day of St. Anne is July 26.

The Lac Ste Anne Pilgrimage is directed and operated under the LSA Trust of which Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith is chairperson.

In a normal year, an estimated 35,000 people make a pilgrimage to the lake.

“Water is a lifegiving source,” Father Jesu said. “This water, this lake, because St. Anne blesses it through her intercession and prayer, becomes a holy lake and holy water. The faith is what heals them.”

Pilgrims would set up tents and motorhomes on the site, and wade into and take water from Lac Ste Anne.

Lying on a homemade stretcher, Russell Evans is lowered into Lac Ste. Anne in 2017.
Andrew Ehrkamp, Grandin Media file photo

They come to wade into the lake, and take some of the water home, for its healing powers. Many of them come in wheelchairs, on crutches and stretchers, hoping for healing both physical and spiritual.

Father LaBoucane took his first dip into the healing waters of the lake when he was just 10 months old.

As a child, Father LaBoucane was sick with the skin condition eczema at the time, he said, and his parents brought him to the lake for healing, with positive results.

The healing that normally comes with the pilgrimage will take a different form this year.

One of the online events include pilgrims pledging that they will give up smoking, drinking or other ills.

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie of Keewatin-Le Pas will be asking pilgrims online to make those pledges in silence and, if they are able, to hold a lit candle in their hand. Archbishop Lavoie will then pray for those making pledges to Christ instead of laying hands on them.

“Bishop will be asking them to hold a candle and make their pledge,” Father Jesu said. “You are promising before the light, who is Jesus Himself.”

 Rev. Susai Jesu

Father Jesu acknowledges that watching the pilgrimage online is not the same as being there in person.

“It’s going to be tough for them. This COVID situation is even affecting Lac Ste Anne,” Jesu said. “It’s a different way of worshipping, a different way of praying, this year because of the pandemic. The Lac Ste Anne pilgrimage has not stopped. It’s a change of programming that has taken place.”

“That’s why it’s so important that we make a special intention to St. Anne, that wherever you are, you think of her and pray that the intercession of St. Anne and St. Joachim will come upon them.”

A pilgrimage by definition, is a journey, and while pilgrims can’t be with each other physically, Father Jesu said they can connect with each other, with St. Anne and St. Joachim – the father of Mary and the grandfather of Christ – and with their faith spiritually.

“A pilgrimage is that you keep a specific intention to the Lord,” Father Jesu said. “You are not going to be there, but yet you make pilgrimage because in spirit you can pray to St. Anne. ‘St. Anne, St. Joachim I’m not able to be there but intercede for me for whatever I need.’”

Alberta’s chief public health officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, has also recommended the cancellation of large-scale, in-person events this year in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.
In times when we cannot receive the Eucharist, we can make a Spiritual Communion. Download the Spiritual Communion prayer.

Sunday Mass

Saturday Vigil

  • 5 p.m. – Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sherwood Park is livestreaming on their Facebook page and at olph.ca.
  • 5 p.m. – St. Thomas More Parish will be livestreaming on their Facebook page here, in which it will be made available on their website here.
  • 6 p.m. – Holy Rosary (Polish) Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass in Polish on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 7 p.m. – Holy Trinity Parish will be livestreaming Sunday Mass on their website and Mike Landry’s YouTube channel.
  • 7 p.m. – St. Dominic Savio Parish is posting pre-recorded Sunday Mass on their website and YouTube channel. A link will also be posted on their Facebook page.
  • 7 p.m. – St. Matthew Parish, Rocky Mountain House will be livestreaming Sunday Mass on their YouTube channel.

Sunday

  • 8:30 a.m. – Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sherwood Park is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page and at olph.ca.
  • 9 a.m. – St. Michael Parish in Leduc is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their YouTube channel.
  • 9 a.m. – St. Matthew in Rocky Mountain House is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their YouTube channel.
  • 9 a.m. – Holy Rosary Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass in English on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 9:30 a.m. – St. John Bosco Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 9:30 a.m. – Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 9:30 a.m. – Sacred Heart Parish in Wetaskiwin is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 10 a.m. – Our Lady of the Angels Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass here.
  • 10 a.m. – St. Francis Xavier Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their website.
  • 10:30 a.m. – Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sherwood Park is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page and at olph.ca.
  • 10:30 a.m. – St. Joseph’s Basilica livestreams Sunday Mass (usually with Archbishop Smith) on Facebook and YouTube and on TELUS Optik TV Channel 877.
  • 10:30 a.m. – Holy Rosary (Polish) Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass in Polish on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 11 a.m. – Mary Help of Christians (Chinese) Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass in Cantonese and Putonghua on their websiteYouTube and Facebook.
  • 11 a.m. – Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish) Parish in Edmonton is livestreaming Sunday Mass in Spanish on their YouTube channel. El link para la misa del domingo es youtu.be/CoCOopcANMc.
  • 11 a.m. – St. Albert Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 11 a.m. – St. Charles Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 11 a.m. – St. Theresa’s in Edmonton is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their YouTube channel.
  • 11:30 a.m. – St. Anthony Parish in Lloydminster is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page.
  • 12:15 p.m. – Holy Rosary Parish is livestreaming Sunday Mass in Polish on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 12:30 p.m. – Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sherwood Park is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page and at olph.ca.
  • 7 p.m. – Our Lady of Perpetual Help is livestreaming Sunday Mass on their Facebook page and at olph.ca. Preceded by Adoration at 6 p.m.

During the Week

  • 8:30 a.m. (Monday-Saturday) – Our Lady of Perpetual Help (olph.ca) hosts livestreamed Mass on their Facebook page here or at olph.ca.
  • 9 a.m. (daily)  – Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples is live-streaming daily Mass on their Facebook page here.
  • 9 a.m. (daily) – St. John Bosco Parish is livestreaming daily Mass on their Facebook page here.
  • 9 a.m. (Wednesday-Friday) – St. Matthew in Rocky Mountain House livestreams daily Mass on their YouTube channel.
  • 12 p.m. (Thursdays) – Holy Rosary (Polish) Parish is livestreaming noon Mass in Polish on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 6:15 p.m. (Monday-Friday) – Our Lady of Perpetual Help (olph.ca) hosts livestreamed Mass on their Facebook page here or at olph.ca. Preceded by Adoration at 5:15 p.m.
  • 6:30 p.m. (Tuesday) – St. Matthew in Rocky Mountain House livestreams daily Mass on their YouTube channel.
  • 7 p.m. (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays) – Holy Rosary (Polish) Parish is livestreaming Mass in Polish on their website and YouTube channel.
  • 9 p.m. (for the next day) – St. Dominic Savio Parish is posting pre-recorded daily Mass on their website and YouTube channel. A link will also be posted on their Facebook page.

Other Events

  • Adoration – Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish hosts livestreamed Adoration Monday to Saturday 8:30 a.m., Tuesday and Thursday 5:15 p.m., Saturday 5 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 6 p.m. on their Facebook page here or at olph.ca.
  • Adoration – St. Matthew – Rocky Mountain House hosts livestreamed Adoration every day from 3-4 p.m. on their YouTube channel.
  • Adoration (24 hours) – Holy Rosary Parish (Polish) has a 24-hour feed of their altar and tabernacle on their website and YouTube channel.
  • Angelus – St. John Bosco Parish is livestreaming the Angelus prayer daily at noon on their Facebook page.
  • Daily Reflections – Father Roger Niedzielski posts daily reflections from his Facebook account here.
  • Divine Mercy Chaplet – St. John Bosco Parish is livestreaming the Divine Mercy Chaplet daily at 3pm on their Facebook page.
  • Holy Rosary – Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples is streaming the Holy Rosary daily on their Facebook page here.

Holy Week Observances

This year, our celebrations of the Liturgies of Holy Week and the Sacred Paschal Triduum will be like no others. In accordance with the requirements set out by the Chief Medical Officer for Alberta and the directives of Archbishop Smith, priests will celebrate the liturgies privately, with no congregation present. In the case of concelebration, each priest will abide by physical distancing requirements and infection prevention protocols. We invite the faithful to join these celebrations ‘virtually,’ through video livestreaming from their own parish or from St. Joseph’s Basilica with Archbishop Smith.

  • Sunday of the Passion of the Lord (Palm Sunday) – April 5
    Livestreamed from St. Joseph’s Basilica at 10:30 a.m.
    This liturgy commemorates the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. It may include the blessing of palms, but the palms would be stored for distribution at a later date.
  • Thursday of Holy Week (Holy Thursday) – April 9
    Chrism Mass: Future Date and Time to be determined.
    Mass of the Lord’s Supper
    Livestreamed from St. Joseph’s Basilica at 7 p.m.
    The Mass will not include the usual ritual of the washing of feet or the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose. The Blessed Sacrament will be reserved in the Tabernacle.
  • Good Friday – April 10
    Livestreamed from St. Joseph’s Basilica at 3 p.m.
    The Passion of the Lord will be celebrated on this day, and the liturgy will include special prayers for those in distress, the sick, and the dead.
  • Holy Saturday – April 11
    Livestreamed from St. Joseph’s Basilica at 8 p.m.
    The blessing of the fire does not take place, but the Easter Candle will be lit. This liturgy includes the renewal of Baptismal Promises. The Sacraments of Initiation are postponed until medical directives relative to the pandemic indicate it would be safe to celebrate them.
  • Easter Sunday – April 12
    Livestreamed from St. Joseph’s Basilica at 10:30 a.m.
    We celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. Special prayers will be said for those affected by the current pandemic, for our religious and government leaders, and for the dead.

Holy Week Resources

Visit caedm.ca/covid for resources to help prepare for Holy Week, including: