Advent and U2
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....
15
Dec
08
Dec
Advent and Winnie the Pooh
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....
05
Dec
Like a Hunter in Advent
n the last weeks of the Liturgical year and the first weeks of advent the emphasis is on the last things and the final coming of Jesus Christ. Parables exhort us to stay awake, keep vigilant, be patient and persevering. These attitudes and virtues are the very ones a hunter needs to be successful....
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....
01
Dec
Prepare the Savior’s Coming
In 2013, St. Xavier's College, in Kathmandu, marked its silver jubilee. Fr. Charles Law and Fr. Eugene Watrin worked hard to see the college begin evening classes at St. Xavier's School in July 1988. By 1990 the college's first building opened on an ideal site in the city. The college has now grown and looks forward to becoming a university. Jesuits love to use the name "Xavier," and rightly so. For a decade, from 1542 through 1552, St. Francis Xavier preached, first in India, then across South-East Asia, on to Japan, and finally to the coast of China. He introduced many thousands of people to Jesus' message of salvation. He certainly did his part to "prepare humanity for the Savior's coming!"...
27
Nov
Nepali Thanksgiving
I celebrated Thanksgiving in a new way this year. Our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend coincided with Dashain, one of the major festivals on the Nepali calendar. Such a coincidence worked out well for the Bhutanese-Nepali community of Toronto, as they had days off during which they could celebrate. It worked out well for me, as I was invited to be a part of the festivities. A friend from Nepal, San Bahadur, invited me to celebrate with him and his extended family....
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....
10
Nov
Remembrance Day
I must be getting old. I recall as a child hearing Vera Lynn on the radio every November 11th, singing popular wartime songs such as We'll Meet Again. My favourite was always The White Cliffs of Dover. "There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, Tomorrow, just you wait and see." She sings of the people "braving those angry skies" and how tomorrow "there'll be love and laughter and peace ever after. Tomorrow when the world is free."...
29
Oct
In Honor of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez – a Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ
Born in Spain in 1533, Alphonsus inherited the family textile business at 23. Within the space of three years, his wife, daughter and mother died. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. He sold the business and, with his young son, moved into his sisters' home. Years later, at the death of his son, Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to join the Jesuits. He applied twice before being admitted. For 45 years he served as doorkeeper at the Jesuits' college in Majorca. When not at his post, he was almost always at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations. His holiness and prayerfulness attracted many to him, Alphonsus died in 1617. He is the patron saint of Majorca...
15
Oct
Thanksgiving
Maybe that is why I like hiking in the mountains north of Vancouver - it lets my cares drop like autumn leaves. This past week, a hiking buddy and I managed to ascend (and descend) the mountains for a 10 hour hike. It took us up an old logging road, in behind the Lions, where snow from last winter still lingers in the cold, drafty, north-facing slopes, along the meandering Howe Sound Crest Trail, around this and that mountain, and back down again to our starting point....