BLOG: Advent and Christmas,Deacon-structing
In Part II, I gave a background on the author of the book Final Exit, Mr. Derek Humphry and a bit about the Right-to-Die movement. I do believe that the book is very compelling, but it contains some red flags. Here are some of them: ...read more
Respecting End of Life: Part 2 As many of you know, on May 6, members of the Quebec national assembly voted in favour of Bill 52, the “Act of Respecting End-of-life” making “assisted dying” legal in that province. I recently wrote about that. I had already written a bit about this in the past explaining ...read more
May 6 this year will go down as one of the saddest days in the history of the province of Quebec. On that day, members of the Quebec national assembly voted in favour of Bill 52, the “Act of Respecting End-of-life.” Supporters call it “medical aid in dying”. I call it what it is: Euthanasia. ...read more
Ever since World Youth Day 2002, my favourite Scripture passage has been the end of Matthew’s Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20. I think it’s because my middle name is Emmanuel. It means “God with us”. I love that Jesus promises us that he will be with us until the end of time. Today we celebrate a great ...read more
Part two of a reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost. The readings are Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 103; Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 and John 20: 19-23. Read part one here. My first experience with the Holy Spirit was when I was about 12 years old. A new associate pastor arrived at our parish in Panama that year. ...read more
Part one of a reflection for the Solemnity of Pentecost. The readings are Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 103; Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 and John 20: 19-23. Tomorrow we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and in the readings we have two completely different versions of the same event. In the book of Acts, Luke describes the ...read more
For the past ten years my Christmas begins and ends with the noise and frenzy of an airport, the fuss associated with air travel, and the grogginess of jet lag. It is filled with the excitement of counting down to the days “till I fly home” and then the bittersweet countdown to the day I ...read more
I think the reason we love the Christmas season is because it evokes so many memories from our childhood, whether it’s playing board games, decorating the Christmas tree, singing carols, or just the excitement of a visit from Santa that sparks feelings of generosity and thankfulness in everyone.  But doesn’t it seem like there was ...read more
Who doesn’t know the familiar song by John Lennon? Toronto is hit by an ice storm, over 600.000 households without power, large branches cover the streets and live cables are hanging loose, but in our hearts we’re confident that power will be restored soon enough, and Christmas is still some days away; no reason to ...read more
This post was written by Richard Valenti, one of our editors at Salt +Light. He has been with S+L since the beginning. He and his wife, former S+L producer Mary Rose Bacani, welcomed their second child over the holidays. It was a dark and stormy night. The night of Toronto’s worst ice storm. Inside the ...read more