Pope Francis recently spoke to a large gathering of seminarians and novices in Rome. As with many of his public appearances since his election last March, Francis displayed an energy and youthfulness that belied his age. For the novices to whom he spoke, the Pope was quite adamant in suggesting that a person of the church must see him or herself as a joyful sharer of the Gospel; a beacon of light for the world....
For many years when responding to questions of security surrounding credit cards, when the question, "What is your favourite city?" appears, I write in "London". Of course I could write in several other cities, Rome, New York, and so forth. Yet in the end, it is always London. Why that city rather than any other--it surely doesn't matter to the credit card company--is not easy to explain except that in my mind London remains a "civil" city, one where courteous behaviour in public still seems important, where people still know the phrases, "Pardon me", "Excuse me", "Sorry"....
It was back in 1969, when a 14 year old girl, Rita Kelly, and her boyfriend, Jeff Doerr, volunteered to sing and bring their electric music into St. Ignatius Church in Winnipeg. This was soon after Vatican II, when the Church had just opened its doors to the cultures, languages and artistic expressions of contemporary society. When these volunteers and the priests all said "yes' to an electric Sunday night Mass, it did not take long before every Sunday night at 9:00pm, they were attracting close to a 1,000 young people to the Church....
This past weekend I had the rare opportunity to be alone in my yard, with no responsibilities other than to weed my garden. Weeding is a very therapeutic endeavour, because as you eliminate what you don't want, you also allow space and soil and sun to reach the plants you do want to nurture. It is a task which (though it doesn't seem so at the beginning) has an actual ending, after which time you can look out and see the fruits of your labour. True, there will be more weeds, but just then – when you complete your patch – then at that moment it's a tiny little sense of having contributed to part of God's beauty in creation....
When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio appeared on the Vatican balcony and was announced as Pope Francis on March 13, most of us had no idea who he was or what kind of pope he would be. Within a few minutes we learned about a few firsts: the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit pope, and the first non-European pope in nearly 1300 years. As the first days unfolded, we saw images of him on public transport back in Buenos Aires and other images and words that revealed who the humble man was that the cardinal-electors had chosen to replace Benedict XVI. These first months have shown the stamp he is likely to leave on the papacy and the Church. He continues to surprise us by his simplicity, honesty, transparency, spontaneity, humility and humanity....
Hecho polvo is a wonderful Spanish colloquialism which translates as "exhausted", but literally means "turned to dust". I arrived here in Santiago on June 27, hecho polvo. But the exhilaration, satisfaction, and sense of accomplishment which accompanied the arrival quickly overwhelmed the exhaustion. In the square in front of the Cathedral of Santiago, there was a spontaneous outburst of joy and excitement from myself and my walking companion Carlos, with whom I shared the last five days of the Camino. We embraced, we shouted with delight, we took each other's picture in front of the Cathedral and got someone to take pictures of both of us together....
William Allan Peterkin– was clearly spoken with due respect and without the slightest hurry, in its proper position in the alphabetical listing of 182 men and women, who for the academic year 2012-2013 had donated their bodies to science, to the Division of Anatomy in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto....
It's going to be tougher to bring home the bacon this year, thanks to global warming. According to the National Pig Association, a UK trade group, there will be a world shortage of pork and bacon next year as farmers stop raising pigs as the price of feed will skyrocket because of the drought in the US Midwest last year....
Today is Day 14 of my time on the Camino. It started in Burgos and ended in León, a distance of approximately 200 km. No, I didn't suddenly sprout wings or tele-transport or any other such thing. I simply took a bus. By Day 12, when I arrived in Burgos, I had walked 255 km. But that was much less than I had anticipated completing by that time. If I had any hope of completing the Camino in Santiago, I had to make a choice....
Before you enter St. Peter's Basilica you must pass through St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro). It's a magnificent elliptical space (240 metres wide) constructed during the pontificates of Alexander VII and Clement IX (1657-1667). Colonnades embrace the square and all who enter....
