Happy All Saints’ Day!
Having a feast for all the Saints is probably one of the most humble, practical, and happy things we can do as a Church. It is an act of humility because it makes us aware that there are countless saints…
Category Church Teaching
All Hallows’ Eve
Increasing critiques of Halloween have led many Christians to question the day’s festivities. Some argue that the day’s customs have roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, despite several scholars’ arguments to the contrary. Others, such as one official…
Cultivating Catholic Identity within Our Schools
Every Fall we have the great fortune of participating in When Faith Meets Pedagogy, a conference for Catholic teachers from across Ontario. The conference offers us the opportunity to meet with leading religious educators and discuss the many ways we…
The Assumption of Mary
Today’s great Marian feast, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a day with joyful implications for all of us. The Assumption celebrates Mary having been taken into heaven, body and soul, at the end of…
St. Lawrence and the Ministry of Deacons
Although many of us are accustomed to deacons serving in our communities, a permanent diaconate is a very new experience for those of us in the Western Church. Despite references to deacons in the Christian scriptures, and the profound witness…
Faith & Public Life: The Dignity of Human Work
This past long weekend afforded me the opportunity to catch up on some reading that’s been sitting on my desk at home. Among the items was a recent issue of the American cultural journal The Hedgehog Review that featured a…
Pentecost: The Feast of Understanding Each Other’s Language
Wouldn’t it be great if we really understood each other’s languages? What if children actually understood what their parents meant, and parents actually understood what their children were really saying. Imagine getting beyong the words to understanding, so that whatever…
A Spring of Two Popes
This past spring has represented some exhilarating times for the Catholic Church around the world. First we had the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, followed by the election of our first Pope Francis. Since his election in mid-March, Francis…
Baptism of the Lord: God’s Never Ending Love for Us
I never asked, but am pretty sure that no one saw the heavens open on the day of my baptism. Nor did I notice it happening at any of the hundreds of baptisms I witnessed as a music minister at…
A Universal Church
When many of us hear the term ‘catholic,’ we often think of the Catholic Church. In fact, each Sunday you might recall that we say this word when we pray the Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic…