30 November, 2013
1st Sunday of Advent: 12 things to know and share |Blogs | NCRegister.com
1st Sunday of Advent: 12 things to know and share |Blogs | NCRegister.com: Advent not only prepares us for the birth of Jesus Christ (his first advent), it also prepares us…
29 November, 2013
28 November, 2013
27 November, 2013
26 November, 2013
25 November, 2013
24 November, 2013
Best coin ever spent - A gift after a busy weekend
Musical Flash Mobs produce some amazing videos. Here's one to lift your spirits. It sure lifted mine!
In my youth I played in such a symphony orchestra in Sudbury, Ontario as well as in a few concert & blues bands (some of the BEST moments of my life!!) and this is the closest experience I think anyone who hasn't shared such a joy of playing as part of a large musical group could hope to have which replicates the wonderful experience of being 'among the notes' as it were.
Thanks to Fr. Mitch Beachy up there in my old stompin' ground of Mattawa for pointing me in the right direction to find this gem. I hope you'll like it too.
Best coin ever spent.
In my youth I played in such a symphony orchestra in Sudbury, Ontario as well as in a few concert & blues bands (some of the BEST moments of my life!!) and this is the closest experience I think anyone who hasn't shared such a joy of playing as part of a large musical group could hope to have which replicates the wonderful experience of being 'among the notes' as it were.
Thanks to Fr. Mitch Beachy up there in my old stompin' ground of Mattawa for pointing me in the right direction to find this gem. I hope you'll like it too.
Best coin ever spent.
23 November, 2013
22 November, 2013
21 November, 2013
20 November, 2013
19 November, 2013
18 November, 2013
The Christian Intellectual | First Things
The cultural climate today isn’t very congenial for men and women of faith. Graduate students tell me they need to be very careful. There are religious colleges and universities, to be sure, but for the most part institutions of higher education are dominated by an aggressively secular culture hostile to faith. These days the love of God often seems to be the one love that cannot speak its name.
How, then, should the Christian intellectual proceed? What should be our approach to higher education and academic work? More broadly, how should we view our distinctive vocation as intellectuals?Clink on link below to read entire article:
The Christian Intellectual | First Things
17 November, 2013
16 November, 2013
We are in the greatest tribulation-time in Christian history by Dr. Eowyn
The Catholic concept of the "Church Suffering" refers to Christians being martyred for their faith.Click on the link below to read the rest of the article:
George Weigel writes for First Things, Oct. 30, 2013, that alas, few Christians in the West seem aware of the Suffering Church, much less have it weigh on their Christian conscience.
Christians today live in the greatest tribulation-time in Christian history. More Christians were killed for fidelity to Christ in the 20th century than in the previous nineteen centuries of Christian history combined.
Wiegel cites the following examples of persecution from a recent issue ofTouchstone:
Some 1,200 Protestants are being imprisoned in shipping containers in Eritrean desert camps where "torture is routine".
Mostafa Bordbar, a 27-year-old Christian convert, was arrested and charged with "illegal gathering and participating in a house church" in Iran.
Kazakh Christians, many of them converts from Islam, are "encouraged," by the arrest and imprisonment of their pastors, to refrain from evangelism.
A Muslim leader in central Nigeria regularly abducts Christian girls and women and holds them captive in his home, to compel their conversion (or reversion) to Islam.
In Syria and Egypt, Christians live in daily fear for their lives where it's open season on Christians.
Wiegel would not say it. But as you can see from the examples above, Muslims are doing many of the persecution.
Wiegel warns that at the rate Christians are being persecuted and martyred in the Middle East, within two decades, perhaps less, Christianity may well cease to be a living ecclesial reality in many of the places where Christianity was born, not to mention the cities where sub-apostolic and patristic Christianity developed.
The sole exception to this pattern throughout the Middle East and North Africa is Israel.
Thus Tom Holland, a popular historian and author of The Forge of Christendom (an intriguing book exploring the ways the late first millennium's expectation of an imminent End Time shaped the West's triumph in the second millennium), said recently at a London press briefing that "In terms of the sheer scale of the hatreds and sectarian rivalries" afoot in the Middle East today, "we are witnessing something on the scale of horror of the European Thirty Years War."
VirtueOnline - News
15 November, 2013
14 November, 2013
13 November, 2013
12 November, 2013
Let’s talk about life
Canadians can’t stop talking about the appropriateness of allowing the weakest and sickest members of society to be killed.
In Quebec, legislation has been tabled to legalize medical euthanasia. Last month in Ontario, after a popular doctor died from a brain tumour his family released an emotional video promoting assisted suicide for the terminally ill. And most recently in British Columbia, an appeals court reversed a lower court decision and ruled that assisted suicide is still illegal in Canada.
The confluence of these events has intensified calls for a national debate on end-of-life issues. The way things are heading, it seems inevitable that euthanasia and assisted suicide will once again be argued in the Supreme Court of Canada. Before that, however, Canadians would be better served if the matter of life and death came to Parliament for a full and public airing.
In Quebec, legislation has been tabled to legalize medical euthanasia. Last month in Ontario, after a popular doctor died from a brain tumour his family released an emotional video promoting assisted suicide for the terminally ill. And most recently in British Columbia, an appeals court reversed a lower court decision and ruled that assisted suicide is still illegal in Canada.
The confluence of these events has intensified calls for a national debate on end-of-life issues. The way things are heading, it seems inevitable that euthanasia and assisted suicide will once again be argued in the Supreme Court of Canada. Before that, however, Canadians would be better served if the matter of life and death came to Parliament for a full and public airing.
11 November, 2013
Atheist ‘mega-churches’ are now a thing in the U.S as popularity spreads from U.K. | National Post
Congregational worship for atheists? Really?
Kind of reminds me of that old 'ecumenical' joke. 'Q) What do you get if you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian? A) Someone who knocks on your door for no apparent reason.' It just doesn't seem to make sense on the face of it. After all, isn't one of the big benefits of tossing aside a traditional faith practice that you get to do what you want on Sunday mornings? Wouldn't coming together as a congregation when Christians gather in churches kind of take all the fun out of being able to stay in bed and read the Sunday papers with a hot mug of coffee on the bedside table and a comfortable duvet to snuggle in?
I'm just sayin'...
Atheist ‘mega-churches’ are now a thing in the U.S as popularity spreads from U.K. | National Post
I'm just sayin'...
Atheist ‘mega-churches’ are now a thing in the U.S as popularity spreads from U.K. | National Post
Remembrance Day ceremonies to include Afghanistan veterans - Canada - CBC News
Remembrance Day ceremonies to include Afghanistan veterans - Canada - CBC News
10 November, 2013
09 November, 2013
08 November, 2013
'Catholic with Capes': Creative Minority Report take a romp through some classic comic book characters to figure out which ones are Catholic. Any article that includes the line ""I figured Daredevil must be Catholic because only a Catholic could be both an attorney and a vigilante." is worth the read.
07 November, 2013
Drinking Beer With Jesus: Finding Jesus in the most unexpected places
Pope Francis has earned a great deal of acclaim and praise since his election as Pope thanks to his emphasis on the mercy of God instead of a strict adherence to God's law. I believe this emphasis is rooted in a piece of wisdom that was shared with me by a priest at the time of my ordination.
He stated that every priest (like every other person) will fail to perfectly live the Christian life as taught to us by Jesus. That despite our best efforts, we will at times fail resulting in us falling into a state of sin. Therefore, he said I should decide then at the start of my priestly ministry whether I think it best to be too generous with God's mercy or too strict with God's law. To help me make such an important decision he told me to read the Bible accounts of how Christ dealt with those guilty of violating the commandments and model myself after his example. Hopefully I've been more or less successful in doing so.
But it was during that exercise that I began to reflect upon the lengths that God would go to to bring the lost sheep back into the fold which led me to ask myself whether or not I could find Him in a bar. I decided the answer was a definite yes!
That thought came to my mind again when I first heard this song, written and performed by Roy Payne (The Goofy Newfie) which he called 'Drinking Beer with Jesus'. I thought it might be an opportune time to repost this YouTube video of that song which I put together for a parish mission a year or so ago. Hopefully it might serve to open our eyes to find Jesus waiting for us in unexpected places.
He stated that every priest (like every other person) will fail to perfectly live the Christian life as taught to us by Jesus. That despite our best efforts, we will at times fail resulting in us falling into a state of sin. Therefore, he said I should decide then at the start of my priestly ministry whether I think it best to be too generous with God's mercy or too strict with God's law. To help me make such an important decision he told me to read the Bible accounts of how Christ dealt with those guilty of violating the commandments and model myself after his example. Hopefully I've been more or less successful in doing so.
But it was during that exercise that I began to reflect upon the lengths that God would go to to bring the lost sheep back into the fold which led me to ask myself whether or not I could find Him in a bar. I decided the answer was a definite yes!
That thought came to my mind again when I first heard this song, written and performed by Roy Payne (The Goofy Newfie) which he called 'Drinking Beer with Jesus'. I thought it might be an opportune time to repost this YouTube video of that song which I put together for a parish mission a year or so ago. Hopefully it might serve to open our eyes to find Jesus waiting for us in unexpected places.
06 November, 2013
05 November, 2013
04 November, 2013
St. Charles Borromeo - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
St. Charles Borromeo has a special place in my heart as the first parish in which I was assigned as a pastor was named in his honour. His feast day is always a joyful one for me to celebrate - as I hope it is for all the members of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Otter Lake, Qc.
St. Charles Borromeo - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
St. Charles Borromeo - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
Catholicism and Free Thought: latest column from Fr. Dwight Longnecker
Many people believe that Catholicism, because it is a dogmatic religion, stifles free thought and free speech. “How nice for you,” some will say to a Catholic convert, “Now that you’re a Catholic, you won’t have to think anymore.” Or, “It must be nice to be a Catholic and have such ‘certainty.’” This is said with a snuffling, cynical laugh because by ‘certainty’ they often mean that one has become a mindless robot—a Kool Aid drinking cult member following the demands of his leader in white, without thinking.
Another jab Catholic converts often hear is, “Of course there are some folks who need that kind of certainty.” The subtext here is, “You’re not really smart enough to think things through for yourself, and you are probably emotionally and socially insecure and immature so you need to belong to a mutual self-love group which offers its members certainty in all things.”
Like any criticism leveled against the Church, this one is partially true. There certainly are cults that offer their members mind-numbing ‘certainty’. There are emotionally insecure and immature people who need to belong to such cults. We have to admit that there are some Catholics like that, and that there are, sadly, some Catholic sub-groups, religious orders, and movements in which members have sometimes behaved like this.
Another jab Catholic converts often hear is, “Of course there are some folks who need that kind of certainty.” The subtext here is, “You’re not really smart enough to think things through for yourself, and you are probably emotionally and socially insecure and immature so you need to belong to a mutual self-love group which offers its members certainty in all things.”
Like any criticism leveled against the Church, this one is partially true. There certainly are cults that offer their members mind-numbing ‘certainty’. There are emotionally insecure and immature people who need to belong to such cults. We have to admit that there are some Catholics like that, and that there are, sadly, some Catholic sub-groups, religious orders, and movements in which members have sometimes behaved like this.
03 November, 2013
Romanian Catholic priest gets two years in prison for money theft | National Catholic Reporter
How painfully sad.
Romanian Catholic priest gets two years in prison for money theft | National Catholic Reporter
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02 November, 2013
Time to change the clocks: How to make it work for your sleep routine | CTV News
Time to change the clocks: How to make it work for your sleep routine | CTV News
01 November, 2013
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