I’m rather partial to St. Joseph, considering that I bear his name and was baptized on his feast day of March 19. And so I felt a special thrill when Pope Francis announced Dec. 8 that we would be celebrating…
By Kevin Burns In his book The Road to Character David Brooks presents a series of character-building biographical essays about difficult lives, confident that as readers, consciously or unconsciously, we tend “to bend our lives to mimic theirs.” He includes…
By Matthew Sottile, Editor By definition, literature consists of “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.” The books we cherish move us to tears, educate youth, and transport us to worlds far away. I think we…
By Joseph Sinasac, Publishing Director Henri Nouwen devotees everywhere will recall this day 20 years ago: It was when we heard the news that this spiritual thinker par excellence had died. I remember it clearly myself. I was at a…
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception holds special meaning for all of us here at Novalis. It was on this feast day, Dec. 8, 1935, at a Catholic Action congress in Ottawa that Fr. André Guay proposed to create what…
I am writing this at the World Meeting on the Family in Philadelphia, where I’ve found a temporary home at the Bayard exhibit. Many Canadians have been kind enough to stop by for a visit, telling me about their hometowns,…
Catholics all over North America are excited about the arrival of Pope Francis to the United States this week. One of the highlights of his trip will be a visit to Philadelphia to underline his love and concern for the…
If the gathering of bishops in Rome for the 2014 Synod of the Family last fall was not dramatic enough, we might be in for quite a surprise at this year’s synod. Already controversy surrounds the upcoming synod and the tension…
The next 12 months are shaping up to be a momentous time in the Church. One of the events adding to the importance of 2015 will be the centenary of the birth of the famous mystic monk, Thomas Merton. Merton…
When I started my work in Church music in 1976 in Busby, AB, it really was the Wild West. We photocopied music and made duo-tang hymnals with words-only versions of copyrighted materials. I remember telling myself and others that this…