Kevin Burns

Ottawa-based author and editor, Kevin Burns is a frequent contributor to igNation. His latest book, Impressively Free – Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood and co-authored with Michael W. Higgins, has just been released by Paulist Press in the United States and by Novalis in Canada.

103 posts

17 Dec

The Sound and The Story – A Four-Part Series for Advent – (4) “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.”

In 2003, Peter-Anthony Togni was commissioned by Lydia Adams and the Elmer Iseler singers to create an arrangement for their Christmas recording on CBC Records: Puer natus in Bethlehem! (MVCD 1165). He chose to arrange the Gregorian chant "Corde natus", usually translated as "Of the Father's love begotten." In his final item in this Advent series, Kevin Burns speaks with Peter-Anthony Togni about his life and work as a composer and a musician, and about this composition in particular....

10 Dec

The Sound and The Story – A Four-Part Series for Advent – (3) The Huron Carol

This Advent, Kevin Burns will listen to some carefully chosen music. In the third in the series he looks at a time when the Jesuits took note of some musical conventions in Canada's First Nations....

03 Dec

The Sound and The Story – A Four-Part Series for Advent – (2) “For Unto Us a Child is Born.”

his Advent, Kevin Burns will listen to some carefully chosen music. In the second in the series he explains Handel's interest in London's Foundling Hospital and offers us a selection from Handel's Messiah....

26 Nov

The Sound and the Story – A Four-Part Series for Advent – (1) God is With Us

This Advent, Kevin Burns will listen to some carefully chosen music. In the first in the series he explains why, this year, one piece in particular will take on an even more poignant meaning: John Tavener's God Is With Us....

07 Nov

Tales from the Inky Way #7 – Douglas Roche – Not All Senators are Alike

For over a year now Canadians have witnessed the sad spectacle of people appointed to the "Upper House" tumble into a quagmire of alleged criminal activity in the form of mismanaged expense claims and other unfortunate behaviours. A handful of entitlement-preoccupied prime-ministerial appointments have smeared the reputation of a Canadian institution: the Senate. What's distressing about their shame-filled example is that in the midst of these headline-creating scandals, some of the remarkable work of their fellow Senators, past and present, is easily overshadowed....

24 Oct

Tales from the Inky Way #6 – You Ought To Be Ashamed – Sister Elaine MacInnis

One of the things I learned in the arcane world of Catholic publishing is that RCIA also stands for Ranting Censorious Intimidating Attacks. These are the letters that arrive when a published work meets with, let's call it, disfavour of a particular kind. Always intense, and invariably layered with threats and accusations. For eight years I drafted the replies. Here is the story of one of them....

17 Oct

Tales from the Inky Way #5 – Bill Clarke, SJ

The first time I met Bill Clarke was back in 1998 when I was preparing a documentary for Tapestry on CBC Radio One. I spent a week at the Ignatian Farm in Guelph, Ontario. Tapestry's then host, Marguerite MacDonald explained the focus of the piece in her introduction: ''Just outside Guelph, about an hour west of Toronto, there is an experiment in community life where everyone is made to feel welcome. Founded over 20 years ago by a Jesuit priest, the Ignatian Farm Community continues to open its doors to needy people. Needy because of their mental, or physical and other challenges."...

10 Oct

Tales from the Inky Way #4 – Drawn into the Mystery – Jean Vanier

When you arrive from Paris at the railway station in Compiégne in Picardy, across from the arrival platform and on the way to the main exit, you pass two old boxcars on a short piece of track, surrounded by a stone pathway on all fours sides. It's a memorial to those members of France's Jewish population whose deportation to the French concentration camp at Drancy - and for many, a final destination in a Nazi extermination camp – began here....

03 Oct

Tales from the Inky Way #3 : Not shying away from the dance with death – Oliver Schroer

Late in spring of 2006, I had a conversation with a photographer based at Queen's University who wanted to talk to me about a possible book project. He, too, had walked the Camino, carrying a large-format camera with him. His photographs were remarkable, intense, haunting. No less striking was detail that he had walked this famous pilgrimage route with Oliver Schroer, one of Canada's foremost musicians. It happened that I had just heard a preview version of Oliver Schroer's forthcoming CD....

15 Sep

Tales from the Inky Way #2 – The Doctor Will Not See You Now – Dr. Jane Paulson

For over a decade now, as August fades to September, each year at this time I remember the late Dr. Jane Poulson, who died August 28, 2001. In the final months of her life I worked briefly with her at her home and over the phone as she completed her memoir: The Doctor Will Not See You Now: The Autobiography of a Blind Physician (Novalis, 2002)....