SpiritualityDecember 16, 2018The Disarming Beauty of Christ – The Third Sunday of Advent
". . . the attraction of Christ makes possible an openness that would be impossible without him. We know, of course, that a disarming child comes into our lives with Christmas."
SpiritualityDecember 12, 2018Finding Joy in the Presence of God
"Soon we will be celebrating the true gift of Christmas – joy - as we welcome the birth of the infant child. " But what does "joy" mean?
Daily LifeSpiritualityDecember 01, 2018Audrey Parker – Before Her Time
"When Canada legalized euthanasia for exceptional circumstances, Parliament established safeguards. We now see an increasing call for the extension of cases eligible for euthanasia and the de facto removal of safeguards."
SpiritualityNovember 30, 2018Prayer to St. Michael
"The Holy Father asked the faithful of the entire world to pray that the Holy Mother of God place the Church beneath her protective mantle. We are to implore her to preserve the Church from attacks by the devil, “the great accuser.” "
Daily LifeSpiritualityNovember 28, 2018Bridging Borders – Acting in Love Rooted in Justice
"Our Bridging Borders campaign seeks to raise awareness (open eyes and hearts) and invite a response of action rooted in love that seeks to bring about structural change for the common good."
Daily LifeSpiritualityNovember 27, 2018Magnificat
Magnificat was written - and is posted here - in both English and French at the end of an eight day Ignation retreat.
SpiritualityNovember 24, 2018An Experience of the Guadalupe Circle
"we realized that when we focused on Jesus instead of on concerns about the Church, and when we spoke and listened to each other in welcoming and non-judgmental ways, then we experienced communion, energy and hope."
SpiritualityNovember 22, 2018Nonni and Manni and the Jesuits of Iceland
"The Jesuit missionary map tends to run east and west and not toward what was once known as the Apostolic Prefecture of the North Pole, . . . Post-Viking Lutheran Iceland was not exactly friendly inter-faith territory."
SpiritualityNovember 19, 2018Riches, Honour, Pride
"When I read the three temptations of Christ in the desert I was struck by the uncanny resemblance of those temptations to Ignatius’ wisdom in the Exercises. "
SpiritualityNovember 18, 2018Alawys Alert – Logging in Wait
"Perhaps the invitation from Jesus to stay alert and awake can benefit from logging behaviour."
SpiritualityNovember 17, 2018Saints
"Sometimes we can glorify the people called saints as if they were somehow perfect. None of them was perfect. But their effort to listen to God’s will for them and to do it was ‘heroic’."
SpiritualityNovember 16, 2018Anniversary of the San Salvador Martyrs
"On 16 November 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were assassinated on the campus of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, as ordered by the country’s High Command. "
SpiritualityNovember 11, 2018The Widow’s Mite – 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
"Where is your heart? We are in that time of year when every charity imaginable is asking for money. We cannot give to all. Where is your heart? What will be your mite?"
SpiritualityNovember 03, 2018Letter from an Archbishop
Archbishop Currie of St. John's has permitted us to share his recent letter to the people of his Archdiocese.
SpiritualityOctober 30, 2018A Portrait in Pain
"Visio Divina of Caravaggio’s Beheading of John the Baptist"
SpiritualityOctober 28, 2018A Faithful Remnant – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
"We occasionally hear accounts of people who have experienced great misfortune. But when they hear of someone else’s woes, they grow in gratitude for what and who they have. "
SpiritualityOctober 27, 2018The Joyful Job: the Beatitudes
"Studying the Pope’s take on the Beatitudes really carefully, it slowly dawned on me: what’s going on here is a job orientation session."
SpiritualityOctober 26, 2018Confessions of a Millennial Gay Catholic: Why I Stay
"I stay because my faith is the rock upon which I have built my life. "
SpiritualityOctober 25, 2018Journeying through The Hundred Acre Wood
"We can all appreciate the sentiment to become more innocent, more trusting, more humble, but in truth, no one wants to become like a child."
SpiritualityOctober 21, 2018Strength in Weakness – 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
"Paul reminds us that God’s grace is sufficient for us, precisely because God’s strength is made perfect in weakness."
SpiritualityOctober 15, 2018Saint Oscar Romero
Archbishop Romero " , , gradually came to see that he could not ignore the prevalent and intolerable situation. God gave him the wisdom and the courage that he needed and he did not fail in his duty.."
SpiritualityOctober 07, 2018Two Shall Become One – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
"Marriage can be beautiful. In its most beautiful moments, we recognize Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel account. “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. . . ."
SpiritualityOctober 06, 2018WISH YOU WERE HERE
"It is time for a new revolution in our Church; a powerful recognition on the part of all practising Catholics that the Tabernacle before us holds the weapon for real change in the person of Jesus Christ."
SpiritualityOctober 05, 2018The Principle and Foundation
On the 2018 feast of St. Ignatius, Michael Bautista shared with the people of St.Pius X parish what Ignatian spirituality means to him.
SpiritualityOctober 03, 2018Seeking Gifts and Graces in translation
The Ontario tornados raises some interesting thoughts from our author.
SpiritualitySeptember 30, 2018This Ancient Evil – Clericalism. 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
"As Francis says, this attitude is an ancient evil. And it is certainly not confined to the Church. The Church cannot legislate it out of existence. We cannot be forced to turn from clerical ways. It’s a daily and gradual shift in attitude."
SpiritualitySeptember 29, 2018Mottos and Mantras
"In May of this year I sent a one-page article on key sayings that have positively influenced my life. There was quite a response from readers recounting theirs."
SpiritualitySeptember 28, 2018Lift High the Cross
Words written for the Winnipeg Knights of Columbus.
SpiritualitySeptember 23, 2018The War Within – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
"that notion of a war within is a good summary phrase of battles going on within us all the time – conflicting longings, all kinds of emotional movements."
SpiritualitySeptember 21, 2018Are There People in Hell?
"Right now it seems that scripturally speaking, if one lives their entire life without God, then it seems that that is what he or she will get in the hereafter. "
SpiritualitySeptember 19, 2018Psalms for Praying – An Invitation to Wholeness
"What I enjoy the most about these psalms is the lack of violence found in them. Instead, the experience of darkness is relegated to the consciousness of doubt, fear, ignorance and illusion, mostly within oneself."
SpiritualitySeptember 17, 2018Nature, weakness, and being a Christian.
"How then can we as Christians live in this kind of world? . . . And if you don’t have power in the world, then you will literally be forgotten, ignored, or dead to the world."
SpiritualitySeptember 14, 2018You want me to go where?! The hard life of obedience.
"Moreover, how can I give up my own freedom so to speak, and allow another individual to decide the next year, or perhaps six years of my life?"
SpiritualitySeptember 07, 2018One small miracle.
"There is a song of thanksgiving in my heart, as the Lord has once more answered a special prayer."
SpiritualitySeptember 06, 2018The Next Cover-up: Sex Abuse & the Bishops’ Synod
"The Bishops’ Synod on the Youth presents an opportunity for the Church to confess her guilt, ask forgiveness, and begin to make genuine reparation for her sins."
SpiritualitySeptember 05, 2018Believing in God through Confession.
" I needed to be made aware of how my own sins though completely outside of my awareness kept me apart from a relationship with God".
SpiritualitySeptember 02, 2018What Comes from Within: The Sins of the Fathers (and Bishops) – Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
"No Catholic who pays even the slightest attention to our culture can be naïve about the scandal of clerical abuse in our world."
SpiritualityAugust 29, 2018The German Bishops and Intercommunion
"A majority of bishops in Germany have recently proposed intercommunion as a pastoral response to religiously mixed families."
SpiritualityAugust 16, 2018The Threat of Love: A Homily for the Wedding of Anna& Kevin
"I am here on serious business today. I am here to warn you all of a great threat to us. A threat to our way of life. A treat to the ease and comfort in which we live. A threat to the personal security that we so often take for granted."
SpiritualityAugust 15, 2018Heroic Virtue
"When the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recommends to the Pope a decree of heroic virtue, this means that a Servant of God lived a life of profound union with God and fidelity to Church teaching."