JohnMcCarthy

John McCarthy, SJ, is Socius to the Provincial, director of formation, and doing research and writing in ecology.


48 posts

    06 Nov

    With the help of the Hubble telescope, a team of astronomers have discovered what they say is the earliest galaxy ever glimpsed in the heavens. A smudge of galactic light on a Hubble image clocks in at a mere 480 million years after the Big Bang - light from a fledgling galaxy 13.2 billion years ago. That story is wondrous enough. More intriguing, however, were the comments posted on the CBC website that announced the stellar news. One early commentator weighed in with the following comment: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's an amazing discovery - looking at the very beginning of God's work."...

    10 Aug

    In a recent walk back from Jericho Beach, I came upon a blind woman. Cane in hand, she veered her way up the sidewalk in front of me. Despite the back and forth movement, her feet knew their way. It was obvious that she had travelled this way before. As I approached she bent over to the side and stopped. Not used to such a fast approach, I thought. I gave her space, acknowledged her in silence and continued on my way. Then something happened....

    20 Jul

    The contemporary refrain of protest against the loss of global forests speaks something more fundamental, more central than that encompassed by standard environmental impact statements. I sense that we are reacting on a more visceral level to a sense of loss that is difficult to grasp, probably impossible to measure, but nonetheless real at a most basic level....

    22 Apr

    We circled the helicopter several times to let the grizzly and black bears know that we were dropping by. Bald eagles emerged from the old-growth cedars to drift away from our approach. Into the river valley we descended. The fall-yellowed alder leaves scattered wildly and the approaching river misted our windows. Ever so gently, the pilot positioned the chopper onto the rocky shores, feeling out a safe and level landing spot. The earth tested, the chopper eased onto the river bank....

    13 Apr

    Lord, help me to get through this day. From the slumber of sleep, these words greeted my day. Yesterday was full from morning till night. No respite in sight again today - or for the rest of Holy Week....

    06 Apr

    The joyful season of Lent approaches - a time of preparation for the great joy of Easter. We can celebrate only when we have prostrated ourselves in ashes. We can quench our thirst only when we have crossed the dry and parched deserts. We can feast only after the purification of fasting....

    22 Dec

    Christmas will soon be here. Every Christmas morning we hear the same Gospel story, the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John. Not fit for Hallmark Christmas cards, the words of John are strange to our ears. No mention of the baby Jesus, the poor stable, shepherds in the fields or stars in the skies. Mary and Joseph and the angel Gabriel are nowhere to be found. A Hallmark nightmare....

    15 Dec

    My favourite rock band is the Irish group U2. And one of my favourite songs is U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. It's the second track from U2's 1987 album The Joshua Tree....

    08 Dec

    I found myself dancing at a Rexall drugstore today. It was somewhere between the condoms and the pain killers, I think. The strangest of places, I must admit, but there you go, the grace of God knows no bounds....

    17 Nov

    The land finally succumbed. Resistance had weakened in the cool of the evening. Nothing could stop it now. Slowly, quietly, in the hush of dusk, it crept landward, draping the headlands in its cool, moist embrace. Funneling up harbours and valleys, wafting through open windows, shrouding all in silence, it advanced, relentlessly. The darkened land would now sleep, blanketed in the shroud of night....

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