Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

 The following post has been extracted from the Ontario Government Ministry of Education link: Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

The Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit provides financial support to families with young learners to help with additional costs during the COVID-19covid 19 pandemic.

If you received a payment through the Support for Learners program, you do not need to apply for this additional payment.

However, if you applied for Support for Learners but did not receive your payment by April 23, you will not automatically receive payment under the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit. In this case, you will need to apply for it.

Applications will open from May 3, 2021 to May 17, 2021.

This new round of payment through the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit is in addition to payments provided by Support for Families and the Support for Learners programs.

If you did not apply for Support for Learners

If you missed applying for the Support for Learners program, you will have the opportunity to apply for the new payment through the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit.
Applications will open from May 3, 2021 to May 17, 2021.

Only one parent or guardian will be able to apply for each child. The parent or guardian should have custody of the child. This could include a parent or guardian with shared custody. It is up to the child's parents or guardians to determine who will apply.

If you are a secondary student over the age of 18, you can apply on your own, or one of your parents or guardians can apply for you.

Eligibility
You can apply if you live in Ontario and are a:

• parent or guardian to a child or youth up to Grade 12
• secondary school student over the age of 18
• parent or guardian to a child or youth that is 21 or younger and has special needs

For more information go to: Get the Ontario COVID-19 Child Benefit

Shalom - Conference Spiritual Reading

irisphoto2 - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Conference spiritual reading chosen by Deacon Steve Pitre

“When the Lord greeted his disciples and friends after his Resurrection, he said, “Shalom” or in English “Peace”. He simply used the Jewish greeting, which meant “Good morning”, or “Good day”, or “Good evening.” But what did this greeting mean on the lips of the risen Jesus?

It was the proclamation of the world’s healing. It meant that the whole plan of the Father had been fulfilled, that the mystery of the kingdom lived now in the universe, that the glory of God was being poured into every atom of creation through the transformed mind, body, heart, and soul of Jesus the Messiah, the risen Son of God.

It meant that all of the broken relationships in the universe had been healed at their root: that our separation from God was no more, that our alienation from one another, our enmities and misunderstandings and all our estrangements were over, that our individual fragmentations had been healed, that our separation from the animals and from all material creation had ended in reconciliation.

Jesus greeting meant that the harmony of God’s perfect order, the fullness of his life, was filling all things as it was meant to at the beginning. Easter is light, radiance, and splendor, clarity, luminosity, and brightness because it is the dawn of the new creation. It is a new day, the eternal day, and Jesus says, “Good morning.””

- by Fr. Bob Pelton, “The Asceticism of Joy,” Restoration, April 2021, Vol. 74, No.4, p. 1, Combermere

An Easter Reflection by Deacon Steve

 

“Why was the Easter proclamation “good news”? What did it mean to those who first heard the message?” Does it still pack the same punch today as it did Easter morning? If not why not?

These are questions that we must always bring to our celebration of Easter, for so often it is merely another feast on the liturgical calendar with little practical impact on individual lives. Peter relates the original proclamation with a sense of joyful wonder. The story is about this incredible God-filled man named Jesus… [and how] what could have been a crushing and tragic end was transformed by the hand of God who raised Jesus from the dead. And now Jesus stands astride all human history as its life-giving power and final judge.”

“…humankind is discovering in Jesus that God is impartial. Rather than being the property of any person or group, God offers grace and mercy to all. We need fear nothing-not even death itself. God was showing humanity not a way to escape the miseries and struggles of the human condition, but how to pass through them transformed.”

- Lewis, SJ, Scott, “ God’s Word on Sunday Year B” Catholic Register Books, Toronto, 2011, p51

Each time we are present to the people who request our services we bring our Lord’s grace and mercy to the people and they experience hope. In turn our Lord’s abundant grace and mercy transform’s us.

May you and your families and loved ones be transformed by the grace and mercy of our Lord as you celebrate the Easter mysteries together or apart! May Christ‘s Easter hope, peace and joy fill your hearts.

God bless

Steve