Notation On Our World : On the Elections in #Canada

One of the fascinating elections is in Canada as the NDP is battling the Conservatives and a resurgent Liberal Party for the NDP Leader, Tom Mulcair to be the next Prime Minister of Canada.   Canada has some profound challenges especially as the Economy has experienced a recession in part due to the collapse of the oil prices.    This very interesting email was sent out a few days ago to underscore the challenge faced by the NDP and a follow-up fundraiser was sent out by Catherine Mulcair, the wife of the NDP Leader.

It will be an interesting three weeks in Canada and we will continue to assess and release Notations as developments warrant as a build-up to the election and the aftermath.   

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Notations On our World (Special Edition): On the Virtual Road w/the Holy Father as @Pontifex Leaves The United States

It has been one of our greatest honors to have reported on the visit of the Holy Father to the United States as we have been "on the virtual road" with him.    He left the United States earlier tonight after conducting an open mass for an Estimated 1,000,000 People in Philadelphia: The City of Brotherly Love.     Vice President Biden was at The Philadelphia Airport to bid Farewell to the Holy Father as he blessed and noted "God Bless America" on this as reported by one of our go-to sites, +The Guardian : 

Notations For the Week-End: Reflections On the Interfaith Service w/@Pontifex @Ground Zero

Our team has been commenting on the travel of the Holy Father in the United States.   The Holy Father was at the 9/11 Memorial yesterday.   He began by being at the Pool, meeting with the families of the first responders and thereafter walking into the Museum after giving each person a Rosary. 

It was a very moving ceremony that honored the fallen.   It was a ceremony that brought about the best of humanity and how resilient humans are--and how the beauty of faith can overcome hatred.   We could not help but be moved   as Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove opened the proceedings with an embrace.     We also were so moved as the Holy Father embraced Imam Latif after the ceremony.     This was just one beautiful scene of many the World was witness to with Rabbi Cosgrove, Imam Latif and the Holy Father:   

Our team caught an interview with a retired New York Fire Department Fire Firefighter, Peter D'Ancona.   He was a Marine For 10 years before joining the Department and was one of the first responders that ran into the building and as Brian Williams of MSNBC noted, "worked the pile".   Members of our team were driven to near tears as he noted how he had never walked through the Museum and remembered his Brother Firefighters who had fallen--some 343 members of them.  We salute them all.

Cantor Azi Schwartz's moving Jewish  Prayer of the Fallen sent shivers down our spine as we listened to it and he ended it with "Shalom" (Peace):  

What the Youth sang that moved the Holy Father moved us all:  




It is a prayer and an aspiration we all aspire to.  Let there peace on what the Holy Father reminded us is our Common Home.