I teach environmental studies for a class of 500 students at University of Toronto (when I am not publishing books). I present students with the scary facts about climate change (I am afraid they are indeed scary). Part of our…
The older we get, the faster that birthdays breeze by. When we were young, they proceeded at a stately pace. Now they’re just a blur. Canada is 152 years old this year. Only a heartbeat ago, we were celebrating our…
It seems that God couldn’t have chosen two people more different in background for his ministry than Simon (Peter), an uneducated fisherman, who led a fairly uneventful and quiet life, and Saul (Paul), who had the very best of education,…
When I was growing up, we often had Sunday dinner at my grandparents’ house. My grandmother was a wonderful cook, and we all looked forward to our visits there. There would be seven of us around the table, but someone…
Simon Appolloni, Associate Publishing Director My query, and appropriate I think, considering we are celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, is this: if the Eucharist truly is the body and blood of Christ, why do we not seem concerned whether its original…
A lot of fathers I know really don’t know what to do with Father’s Day. We don’t need more ties. Golf paraphernalia, T-shirts and other odds and sods, while sometimes handy, are actually beside the point. But what is the…
Trinity Sunday is often depicted as the most difficult feast on which pastors must preach. That could be the case if one expects preaching to be a theological discourse which will leave a congregation with a fuller understanding of the…
The Holy Spirit is often characterized as an independent agent, a sort of whimsical fairy who goes about doing good, all the while thumbing his/her nose at authorities, especially those in the Church. A serendipitous occurrence which flouts convention might…
From time to time, the Catholic Church turns its spotlight on contemporary issues in order to offer some wisdom drawn from the richness of our religious tradition. On June 2, its reflection is on modern media. Pope Francis’s annual message…
The recent season of Easter gave us a new hope – Jesus had conquered death and with that, gave us a new life, new meaning, new purpose. This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, which…