“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entering the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke […]
It was a beautiful sunny day for a man to be at a playground with his preschool grandchildren. That’s exactly where I was. I took my grandson and grand-daughter to a playground at a nearby elementary school; one child sat on my lap while the other stood on the back of my electric wheelchair as […]
The Christmas Season is meant for inexpressible Joy. After all, Advent marks the coming of Jesus Christ to earth to save humanity from the penalty of sin and evil. It should be a joyous time as we contemplate this colossal event that was so immense that even the heavens were shaken and altered at what […]
Saint Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch overseeing 1st century Syrian Christians and was a disciple of the Apostle John. He wrote a letter to the Christians at Ephesus as he was being transported to Rome to face wild beasts in the arena. He said, “For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord […]
How could it have happened in Canada? At the beginning of the 20th Century, we were a Christian nation, but within 100 years we were a secular nation. We now are even seeing social policy that is anti-Christian by design or in its application. Nowhere is this more evident than in how the most vulnerable […]
“Do old men have dreams?” asked Jeanette as she watched her 88 year old father through the window of the cottage they rented for a week in the Rocky Mountains. Bill Richards was standing alone on the deck looking across a pristine aqua-marine lake after a rainstorm. It was dusk and a beautiful rainbow arched […]
School children rose from their desks to stand for two minutes silence in memory of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in two World Wars. We children stood tight-lipped and gazed at the Red Ensign flag at the front of the classroom. Every creak, children shuffling and even slight noises from the school’s ventilation system […]
I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1984. In the early 1990s a Canadian woman with ALS tried to introduce to Canada a thin edge of a deadly wedge of physician assisted suicide. Sue Rodriguez was an active campaigner from her wheelchair. “Whose body is this anyway?!” she said. I […]
At the conclusion of his brilliant essay, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” Lewis was right: The holy Eucharist bears the body of Christ and your neighbor bears the image of God. Your neighbor may not behave in […]
In Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus we read: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; […]
In the 11 th Chapter of Isaiah we read “The wolf will live with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the kid, He calf and the lion and fatling together, And a little child shall lead them.” The imagery is of a future time of universal peace. There is an innate longing deep […]
At the time that I am writing these words 200 Canadians have been euthanized under Canada’s new assisted suicide law. The medical killings begin to mount. One might think the battle to save suicidal sick and disabled people is lost. One Catholic bioethicist stated this defeatism. A May 1st 2016 article appeared in the Catholic […]
September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day! It’s a time to promote suicide prevention for people everywhere — except the sick and disabled. Depending on where they live, they get help killing themselves. In Canada, we now have legal assisted suicide for Canadians “who have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability.” I meet […]
When I met Moira (not her real name) she was completely broken-hearted. As the old song says, “I can tell by your eyes, you’ve probably been crying forever.” That was Moira. This forty-two year old mother had developed severe chronic progressive multiple sclerosis which put her into a wheelchair within a year of her diagnosis. […]
“Lord, help us follow the example of your Son’s patience and endurance. May we face all life’s difficulties with confidence and faith.” — Christian Prayer, Liturgy of the Hours. This is one of the great gifts of our Christian faith: To know that Christ is greater than even the worst of our difficulties. He is […]
Up until 1991, I worked for the Canadian federal Commission promoting employment equity in the workplace for Canadians with disabilities. One of the worst of offenders of disability employment discrimination was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Every year the federal human rights commission filed its annual report in the Canadian parliament showing the CBC failed BOMBED […]
A monstrous notion has become law. Assisting in the suicides of sick and disabled Canadians is legally permitted. It is now a new right — the right to death. The pied pipers of this new right use misleading euphemisms such as medical assistance in dying (MAID). A more accurate, precise and honest description of this […]
Have you ever been so heartbroken and your hopes so shattered that you could scarcely consider what your future holds or whether you even had a future? That is what it must have been like for the disciples the day after Jesus was crucified. They had placed their faith in him and dared to hope […]
It was five years ago. The memory is still in my mind.I entered my room to discover my five-year-old grandson looking up at a large crucifix on the wall above my bed. He turned and asked if that really happened. “Yes it did,” I replied. “Did Jesus die?” he asked, turning back to look at […]
The architects of a new world order often speak of a global village. Hillary Clinton tells us that it takes a village to raise a child. Are they speaking of the same village? If there is a benevolent global village then where is it and why is so much of humanity exiled from it? If the […]
Saint Anthony of Padua said: “Among all things that are lovable, there is one that is more lovable than the rest, and that most lovable thing is life.” Amen. It is in life that love and joy are possible, not death. The Apostle John tells us that Christ is source of life.[1] Christ came that […]
I dreamt of sailing a grand tall ship. Initially gentle billows swelled beneath her massive hull. Gradually the wind began to pick up and filled the ship’s enormous sails. Silently the large ship started to move as though being pushed by an invisible hand. At first, the bow gently sliced through the water as we […]
A number of years ago, my wife and I were contacted by the mother of a sixteen year old girl who had a positive pregnancy test. I will call the teenager Katie (not her real name) and her mother Joanne (not her real name). Katie was obviously in a crisis pregnancy: It was a crisis […]
Every city has its hip area with trendy shops offering locally made trinkets, markets for vendors of organically grown produce, and faux-French cafes. Accountants and stockbrokers who wear power suits Monday to Friday may transform on Saturday into hipsters in faded jeans, t-shirts, bandannas around their heads or floppy straw hats to saunter around trendy […]
