BLOG: Fr. Raphael Ma, CR
Growing up, our family would always travel out of town to visit my Grandmother over Christmas. On one or two rare occasions, we even spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at her place. One memory that stands out for me is trying to sleep Christmas Eve on her couch in the living room. I don’t ...read more
What better way to get out of a snowstorm in Toronto than to go into the “deserts” of London, Ontario!!!That’s what I did from Saturday, December 15th, to Monday December 17th. With only a backpack of overnight clothes and my retreat journal, I went on a two hour bus ride to the Monastery of the ...read more
Be sure to tune into Salt + Light Television on Friday, December 21st at 8pm and midnight ET, for a special Christmas concert, “Carols & Brass.” Filmed December 15th at St. Joseph’s Parish in Ottawa, the two hour concert features the carols and hymns from the Choir of Orleans, who were joined by the Regimental ...read more
It’s a developmental disorder more common now than Down’s Syndrome and Multiple Sclerosis, and one in about 165 individuals have it. It’s autism. The topic of autism has intrigued me ever since I was young. I admit that I never thought twice about the students in the Special Education program in my elementary school, but ...read more
[This blog comes from David LeRoss, a behind the scenes member of the Salt + Light family who last week provided a review the Golden Compass] It’s been a week now since the film version of The Golden Compass opened in theatres. Many Catholics are asking what all the controversy is about: isn’t it just ...read more
Had you asked me when I was a little boy, what Mary, the Mother of God, looked like, I would’ve said that she’s dark skinned, pregnant, wears a rose coloured dress with blue-green cape and has the sun’s rays shining out of her (or from behind her). On her cloak there are the constellations, she ...read more
Death. Judgment. Heaven. Hell — the Four Last Things. A pretty heavy subject – especially this time of year when in most places the eggnog is freely flowing and Christmas carols are ringing in our ears. On the other hand, perhaps it is an appropriate program this time of year. Advent is a time to ...read more
On Thursday, December 6th, from 11:30 am to 3 pm ET, a Salt and Light colleague (Kris Dmytrenko) and I had the great honour of attending a day of celebration with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Themed Faith and Character Development: A Celebration, the event took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It ...read more
“The real problem in Quebec is not the presence of religious signs or the emergence of new invasive religious symbols in public spaces. The real problem in Quebec is the spiritual vacuum created by a religious and cultural rupture, a substantial loss of memory, leading to a crisis of the family and education, leaving citizens ...read more
On Catholic Focus this Saturday we address our cultural identity crisis. If you’re not aware we had one, you’re likely not from Quebec, where the Bouchard-Taylor commission is wrestling with the conflicting claims of nationalism, secularism and freedom of religion. Though these tensions are drawing the most attention in Quebec, they underlie issues in English ...read more