Remembrance Day

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

This Sunday, the closest to Remembrance Day on the 11th, we began our service at SPPC with a formal moment  of Remembrance. These moments of silence and remembrance are an odd mixture of emotions. We bow our heads in sorrow and regret for the lives lost and the hopes shattered by war. 

On this day I remember, in particular, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and WO Patrice Vincent. This year marks the eleventh anniversary since they were killed -- not in some distant battle, but on Canadian soil. 

Cpl. Cirillo was standing sentry at the tomb of the unknown soldier on Parliament Hill in Ottawa when he was shot and killed by a deranged gunman. What happened that day breaks my heart.

But the rest of the story, fills me with national pride. When they should have run for cover -- the gunman was still on the loose -- Margaret Lerhe, a nurse, ran toward the fallen man. In an attempt to save his life, she performed CPR and applied pressure to his wounds. Barbara Winters, a lawyer, also rushed to help. She held the dying man's hand offering words of comfort, assuring him that he was loved and that he was brave. Other bystanders surrounded the scene, doing what they could to protect the soldier from prying eyes, and offering medical aid.

When the silence of remembrance ends with the stirring Rouse, it is those acts of bravery and compassion that lift our spirits and fill us with a defiant resolve. We will "hold high the torch" and we shall not "break faith with those who died, in Flanders Fields."

Where Cpl. Cirillo died eleven years ago, another soldier stands guard today.

Here at SPPC our own Abigail has been promoted from Able Cadet to Leading Cadet and will take part in the flag raising ceremony at the Cenotaph on Tuesday. Well done, Abigail, and thank you.

Regular readers of this blog know that the late Stuart McLean is one of my favourite story tellers. Usually his tales make me laugh until the tears roll down my cheeks. But he can also stir the heart and evoke the other kind of tears. He has a story titled "Remembrance Day." You can listen to it here. It is worth your time.

In this season of Remembrance, let us all take a moment to honour those who served, and sacrificed, for the sake of others.