Abide in Me

“Abide in me.” This phrase sounds like an invitation, or a suggestion but it is almost an order. Above all, it is invitation to live an abundant life today, an invitation to prepare for the time when we join Christ…
“Abide in me.” This phrase sounds like an invitation, or a suggestion but it is almost an order. Above all, it is invitation to live an abundant life today, an invitation to prepare for the time when we join Christ…
St. Polycarp was a leader of the second generation of Christians — that is, those who were not immediate eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus. He was known to be a holy man, a person of prayer and…
A number of years ago, I spent time in a small rural town in the U.S. state of Nebraska. Like many other cities in the American prairies, the city experienced a large influx of immigrants seeking work on one of the neighbouring…
It is a well-worn shibboleth that Catholics do not read the Bible. Unlike those studious Protestants, Catholics through the centuries were thought to leave all that Scripture stuff to the priests and nuns. Like any other shibboleth, this one turns…
And you brought the umbrella? “Faith” is believing the impossible will happen. Everything is possible with God, who in Jesus has loved his children and called and sent us to be a sign of hope in the world. “Faith” is…
When asked “How do I know if God is calling me?” on the blog A Nun’s Life, Sister Cheryl Rose assures her readers that “God will speak in a way that you can hear”: If you are a quiet spirit,…
Dorothy Day, the renowned founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, once said in her later years: “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.” Years after her death, she must be looking down from heaven,…
Last weekend I went on retreat with about 30 people from across Ontario. We were a diverse group, with women and men of all ages, vocations and very different views about God and faith. Despite our seemingly radical differences, we…
I first encountered St. Augustine’s Confessions as an 18-year-old university student. My professor, a kind and gentle priest from China, Fr. Peter Wong, extolled the work’s place in Christian history and its relevance for us today. Sadly, my friends and I were…
“Oh, so that’s what a scapular is!” Growing up in a north Toronto neighbourhood, I’ve gone to an Anglican church all my life—a small church, full of the feeling of being tucked away in safety and quiet. Anglicanism occupies a…