Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent and we begin getting ready for Christmas. I think we all know that Advent is the four week-period before Christmas. There are always four Sundays of Advent, but it’s not always four weeks. It depends what day of the week December 25th is. This year, the fourth ...read more

A quick read through the Old Testament may make you think that God is all for war and destruction. Just read Deuteronomy 20:10-18 and you would conclude that war is perfectly OK with God. A read through Genesis 19 about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and you could conclude that even nuclear destruction is ...read more

Two weeks ago we looked at what love is not, based on the wonderful classic by M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled. His book is not a Catholic book; it’s a psychology book (found in the “self-help” section of your bookstore), but Scott Peck was a practicing Christian and the book is very much a ...read more

This week we are looking at what I’m going to call the Joy of Love or Love Joy. For the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at love. Last week in particular we saw at a few love myths. Today we go back to where it all began because this Sunday’s Gospel reading is ...read more

In our quest to find out what Jesus meant when he said that we must love God and neighbour, we have to be able to define love. We must also be able to stay away from those “love myths”. There are many definitions of love and many volumes have been written on the subject. If ...read more

The phrase “my friend Jesus” brings up memories of the 70s and playing folk music at Mass. But what can Jesus teach us about friendship? Last week we looked at a very important quality of friendship: Faithfulness. A good friend sticks with you through thick and thin. They may not be able to help you ...read more

Pope Francis greets victims of violence outside the Vatican nunciature in Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 8. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano) Some of the most moving encounters that the Holy Father had in Colombia went mostly under-reported. Some of these took place each evening at the Apostolic Nunciature in Bogotá, where he was staying. At the gathering with ...read more

“I invite all Colombians, without distinction, to joyfully welcome the visit of Pope Francis. He comes to bring us a message of peace, that peace that we are all called to build from hearts open to forgiveness, to reconciliation and solidarity.” These were the words of Cardinal Rubén Salazar, Archbishop of Bogotá, upon the announcement ...read more

Some of you would say that friends stick together; they are loyal. Last week we looked a trust and gossiping and I shared a real handy formula for knowing when to say or not to say something to a friend or about a friend- this is especially helpful in this day and age of social ...read more

Do your friends think? Last time we began looking at some qualities that should be part of a friendship: trust, honesty, fun and time. We also saw that in the Gospel of Matthew (5:22), Jesus speaks about forgiveness as a good quality in friendship. Today we’re going to see how friends think. But first, here’s ...read more