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."
SpiritualityAugust 13, 2018God in Music
"This man, who could not read, write, or play guitar, spent his final months of prison singing and providing music at my weekly service."
SpiritualityAugust 08, 2018Humanae Vitae at 50, 1968 the Real Summer of Love
". . . the Church’s teaching contained in the encyclical is really about love: the great love of God, to which He calls us to imitate and share in. That is why Humanae Vitae could also be the most influential document for our times."
SpiritualityAugust 04, 2018Graced History
"God’s hand had long been on my heart. My love of God became deeper over the years and my desire to serve stronger. "
SpiritualityAugust 03, 2018Nathan
"...I watched him with his two young kids on his lap, smiling and laughing and having fun. Anyone in the restaurant would have said, “What a happy family!”
SpiritualityJuly 30, 2018A House of God – Feast of St. Ignatius
"For the feast if St Ignatius last year, the Bishop of Oakland, Michael Barber S.J., invited me to preach the traditional sermon. The Mass took place in the magnificent Cathedral of Christ the Light. This beautiful ultra modern yet classical edifice is really worth beholding, via internet and especi
SpiritualityJuly 29, 2018Ignatius Day – Five Images for Discerned Living
July 31 is Ignatius Day. "In honour of St. Ignatius, I thought I'd offer a few of my favourite images from Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, all of which help us to be more discerning in daily life."
SpiritualityJuly 25, 2018Welcoming the Stranger – Part 2
" . . it is in these “God Encounters” that the integration works both ways. The other transforms you as you transform him."
SpiritualityJuly 22, 2018Finding my Vocation at Bridgett’s – Sixteenth Sunday in Odinary Time
"Before I look at any particular vocation as a Jesuit, I tend to look at my general vocation. Hard work, team work, commitment, reward after hard work ... all are essential for most of us, . . . "
SpiritualityJuly 16, 2018Where Are The Vocations?
"when a Christian, be they lay or religious, lives out the Christian life in all its sacrifices, with its all its unknowns, and in all its victories, it is here that vocations are born. "
SpiritualityJuly 15, 2018A Relaxed Journey to the Heart – Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"My experience is that when I am freed from my interior struggles that I am more able to be present to the other."
SpiritualityJuly 12, 2018Walking on Water
"Building the trust in the loving care God affords us is a lifetime task – at least it is for me."
SpiritualityJuly 09, 2018Long Life or Short
"Would it be possible for me to hold lightly to polar opposites such as health and sickness, riches and poverty, honour and dishonour, or a long versus a short life? Might I ever reach that freedom in order that I might better praise, reverence and serve God?"
SpiritualityJuly 08, 2018A Thorn in The Flesh – Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"There are plenty of reminders in both the Old and New Testaments that we are called to a healthy form of self-pride, to stand up for who we are and the gifts we have."
SpiritualityJuly 07, 2018A Pause That Refreshes
"Our Lady has been a part of my faith life for about forty years, and she has kept me company through the ups and downs of an artistic lifestyle, as well as too many times of grief."
SpiritualityJuly 01, 2018A Moment of Encounter – Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"What causes us to have faith? Or, on the other hand, why do some people have no faith? It cannot be reduced to simplistic answers."
SpiritualityJune 27, 2018How Do I Love Thee?
"Have you ever imagined yourself as an infant in God’s arms, God lovingly embracing you, amazed at every gesture you make? The next time you hold a baby, or see someone else holding a baby, why not imagine this as you and God?"
SpiritualityJune 24, 2018“What then will this child become? – Nativity of John the Baptist
"Having that intimate sense of being a loved child of God is a gift for us. It is the precursor to many more gifts from God."
SpiritualityJune 23, 2018Clay and Dough: Suffering and Transformation
"For me these two experiences were of a deep spiritual meaning and they speak me about our human condition: a constant dance between the struggle and the peace, the destruction and the creation, the cross and the resurrection."
SpiritualityJune 16, 2018Am I Talking to Myself?
How do you know when you pray that you are not simply talking to yourself? How do you know that it is God speaking with you?