Daylight comes late and ends early in November. The cooling temperatures and shorter days are harbingers of the looming winter, but also of the spiritual season of Advent. This pre-Christmas period is a time of preparation, of “making straight” the…
Ambrose. Charles Borromeo. Alfredo Schuster. Giovanni Montini. Milan has witnessed some of the greatest bishops in Church history. Of its bishops, two have been elected pope. Dozens of saints have sat in the cathedra of that great and historic diocese.…
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,…
At the time this was written, Friday of last week, my coworkers and I were attending When Faith Meets Pedagogy up at the International Plaza Hotel in Toronto. It’s a very big and very busy religious education conference, with over…
In honour of tonight’s launch of Do Monkeys Go to Heaven? by Fr. John McCarthy, we share this short excerpt from the book for you to enjoy. If you’re in the Toronto area this evening, join us at Regis College. We will…
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…
In 1930, an Englishman named Edmond K. Blyth was driving home from a visit to Liverpool Cathedral. He’d been a soldier in the First World War, and three of his friends from when he was a cadet—John Bennett, Arthur Bailey…
The Internet has failed me. To be fair, the Internet fails me on a regular basis. Today, though, the Internet has failed me in a professional sense: I can’t find the clip on YouTube I was looking for. I’m not…
In one of my favourite fantasy novels, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett—this relates to The Unfolding Journey, I promise—two people are sitting in a beautiful landscape magically removed from the normal world. There is wind and sunlight in the…
A pilgrimage is unlike any other form of travel. The goal is not how many pictures you’ve taken or how many souvenirs can be squeezed into a suitcase but achieving some form of spiritual growth, a chance for a new…