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…
At the heart of our Christian spirituality is the belief that we are a pilgrim people. From birth to death our lives are marked by rites of passage leading us to the day when we hope to enter into the…
I once thought that doubt was not good for the spiritual life. It was the unhealthy trait of those who did not believe in God. A person of faith, on the other hand, trusted in God even when things were…
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…
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…
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…
In his annual Christmas message, Archbishop Richard Smith offers reminds us of the gifts of the Magi to the newborn Jesus: gold, myrrh, and frankincense. For the year just past the president of the Canadian Conference of Bishops likens these…