09 Apr

This is the final week of the 2014 Lenten exploration of traditions. This week's journey is one "that begins when we realize that we are trapped in a creation – cosmic, human, and personal – that is disordered. The first stage of intimacy carries us to the realization that even here we are loved, protected, and held in God's love." (The Gift of Spiritual Intimacy – Following the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius by Monty Williams S.J. Novalis, 2009, and the basis of this article.)...

08 Apr

Faith is a way of seeing beyond and within realities. Is seeing believing or is believing a way to see? Faith allows us to see God in everything, and everything as rooted in God. This is where we and all human beings find their true identity rooted in God. So often we are looking for our identity elsewhere, sometimes in material things, often in other people. We want others to tell us who we are. Only God can do this....

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....

02 Apr

In this six-part series, Kevin Burns selects a book for each week of Lent. Each book speaks to one of the great traditions within Catholic culture. Each book also shows how its author integrates that tradition. Six different approaches to the same journey through the desert of Lent to the Easter promise of resurrection. This week Kevin looks at the writings of Edith Stein O.C.D. (St. Benedicta of the Cross)...

01 Apr

I am going to take the patch off while you keep your eye closed the doctor said to me "and I want you then to open your eye and tell me what you see". A simple request you might think but from my experience it was a wee bit more complicated. I had the day before had a tricky second operation on my eye. Many questions were in my mind in response to the doctor's simple request. What would I see if I opened my eye? Would I see anything at all? Would my sight be distorted? Would it be clear? Did I want to open my eye and find out? Would I need to remain in perpetual shadow peering out from dark sunglasses for months on end? Would it not be easier to remain with my eye closed so I did not have to face what might be endless dark or what might be more scary brilliant light?...

26 Mar

In this six-part series, Kevin Burns selects a book for each week of Lent. Each book speaks to one of the great traditions within Catholic culture. Each book also shows how its author integrates that tradition. Six different approaches to the same journey through the desert of Lent to the Easter promise of resurrection. This week's entry looks at the writings of Timothy Radcliffe O.P. and the challenges of the Dominican path....

19 Mar

In this six-part series, Kevin Burns selects a book for each week of Lent. Each book speaks to one of the great traditions within Catholic culture. Each book also shows how its author integrates that tradition. Six different approaches to the same journey through the desert of Lent to the Easter promise of resurrection. Week Three: Dan P. Horan OFM explores the Franciscan path....

18 Mar

My all-time favourite image of St. Joseph is a statue that is located on our Jesuit property in Guelph, ON. The piece features St. Joseph sitting on a large rock, located just behind the farm workshop. His hammer is resting in his lap. We usually associate statues of St. Joseph as showing the step-father of Jesus in a more active stance, actually using the tools of his trade, rather than letting them sit in his lap....

16 Mar

Everyone's Irish on March 17! This is a day when anyone who wants to can become Irish. O'Rosinski! O'Fernandes! O'Nguyen! We can all go around wearing green or Irish-themed clothing. Or, why not wear a big pin that says, "Kiss me. I'm Irish." This is a day of green beer, green chocolate, green jello, and green cake. It's a day for the Irish, the Foreign-Born-Irish, and the wannabe Irish. Charles Madigan reminds us that, "St. Patrick is one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish."...

13 Mar

It is customary to abstain from something in Lent. Instead, this Lent I've decided that I'd like to grow in awareness of how my inclusion in the two percent is an invitation for me to act differently in the world. Over the past few months, I've taken to thinking of myself as being in the two percent club. I'm clearly not part of the infamous one percent who are the world's elite and powerful. But, I am among the two percent who have a fairly easy life....

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