I think everyone who’s been through the tortuous process of starting and/or running a prayer group can attest that it’s not easy to persuade people to attend. Maybe some of you have stories about this that you can share with us. I’ve also been part of fledgling prayer groups that last for a couple months ...read more

Today, we had the great pleasure of welcoming the Niagara Catholic Chaplaincy leaders to our office and studios for a professional development and workshop day. We started the day with morning prayer and a short history of Salt + Light by Fr. Thomas Rosica. We then headed into our morning sessions led by Deacon Pedro ...read more

The quest for the unity of all Christians depends above all on God’s grace. Peace, reconciliation, mutual understanding and forgiveness, communion in faith and love–are all gifts from the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit. There is also the question of overcoming the theological controversies that divided the Churches in the first place. ...read more

Yesterday, as our Eastern Catholic brothers and Sisters celebrated Christmas, I was reminded of one of the most meaningful messages of Christmas: Emmanuel – God with us. Since I was a little child, I’ve known this. I always knew the meaning of the name Emmanuel, because that is my middle name: Pedro Emmanuel Guevara-Mann. At ...read more

Some years ago, in an episode of Perspectives about the truth about Santa Claus we had a wonderful discussion on Perspectives Weekly about teaching our kids that Christmas is about Christ. We’ve never had so many comments on one program! I remember that one of the comments came from Warren Dungen, who suggested that we ...read more

It seems that every year we have the same discussion around this time: what is the real meaning of Christmas? and let’s keep Christ in Christmas. There are even campaigns to boycott department stores that refuse to acknowledge the “reason for the season.” It’s so easy to jump onto that band wagon. To add to this, “Christmas” starts ...read more

In light of the Consistory this weekend, I was going to deacon-struct Cardinals, but seeing as Fr. Rosica wrote a wonderful Reflection on the Role of Cardinals in the Church on Tuesday, I figured I could do something a bit different. Yesterday, Pope Francis made 17 new Cardinals. Thirteen of them will be Cardinal-electors, eligible ...read more

Recently I had a conversation which brought up the following question: When we are voting at a political election, as Catholics, is there a guide or principles that we should follow? The person asking the question had been told that there is a list of ‘non-negotiable’ principles that Catholics should follow when voting. I may ...read more

In the past, I’ve looked at what it means to be called and the meaning of discernment. I’ve also Deacon-structed the Vocations to the Single Life, to the Ordained Life and have dedicated many columns to the topic of Marriage. This weekend I am in Kansas City for the National Religious Vocation Conference convocation, so I thought ...read more

A few weeks ago, I went to a mass of celebration for Sr. Corazon Beboso, FMA's 40th Anniversary of Religious Profession (Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco). Sr. Cora is one of my super learning models. Her youthful and energetic heart is always a booster drink for my soul. “Yes Lord, Yes Lord. Yes Yes Lord… Amen, Amen” is her favorite song. I would guess she has sang this song at every single event I have attended. And, we celebrated her “YES” to the Lord for 40 years. ...read more