The theme for World Youth Day, Lisbon 2023 came from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “Mary arose and went with haste” (1:39). ...read more

When life throws you the sourest of lemons, it is common to ask or sometimes demand for an answer to our “Why”? ...read more

“Blessed are you among women…” (Luke 1:42) How many times have we said those words? Thousands of times, maybe not even thinking about what we’re saying. ...read more

At a high school reunion shortly after Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I was challenged by a former classmate who is now a United Church Minister. ...read more

“Obedience is a short cut to perfection. […] Nothing gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good.” – St. Philip Neri In celebrating the feast of St. Joseph this week, we remember a ...read more

Last time I tried to make a case for reading Scripture. Our faith teaches that, not only should we read and study Scripture, but we should pray with Scripture. When I was growing up in the 70s, this was not taught in Catechism class. Although, come to think of it, it’s not like anyone taught ...read more

About 15 years ago, I decided to read the Bible cover to cover. Not that I hadn’t read the Bible before: of course I had – in spurts. In fact, the Bible that my Mom gave me when I left home at 16 is almost all underlined, with scribbles on the margins and falling apart, ...read more

For the last two weeks (part 1 and part 2) I’ve been trying to imagine what our world would be like had Jesus never been born. It’s easy to say that The Church would not exist or that we would have no Pope. There would be no priests, deacons, religious sisters or brothers, nor there ...read more

Last week I was imagining a world without Christmas. That would mean no Christmas music and no Christmas movies. But a world without Jesus would mean much more to our popular culture. One of my favourite Broadway musicals is Les Miz. I never read the novel, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and wasn’t crazy about ...read more

I remember once, a Cuban friend who grew up in Cuba with no Christmas, telling me that she had never seen or heard of a Christmas tree before she left Cuba. But had Christ never been born, the implications would be much worse than not having Christmas trees. Just think of the music we’d be ...read more