MERCIFUL JOY By Fr. Chris Valka, CSB One of my great frustrations with many churches is the judgment that many people associate with them. Of course, in some cases, it is because people feel guilty for what they have done (or have not done). However, there
TIMELESS FASHION By Tina Sibbald For the first time in many years, I’m not dreading this season. But then, for the first time in years, my focus has changed. In reading the scriptures for the second Sunday of Advent, I found myself getting caught up in
PREPARE YOUR HEARTS By: Elizabeth Chesley-Jewell Today is the First Sunday of Advent. For the next four weeks we wait with great anticipation for the birth of Jesus Christ. Through the years the meaning of this season has deepened for me but ever since I was
CHRIST THE KING By Emily VanBerkum First century Jews longed for God to send a Messiah to liberate them from the political tensions and scheming leaders of the Roman Empire. As foretold in Hebrew Scriptures, God’s ‘anointed one’ was to reinstate the Davidic monarchy and inaugurate
FULLNESS OF JOY By Lucinda M. Vardey Intrigue into what signals the end times continues to absorb many. In Mark’s gospel Jesus speaks about the time when he will come “with great power and glory” and we will recognize the signs that “he is near at the
THE GOLDEN COMPLEMENT TO THE GOLDEN RULE By John Dalla Costa here are times in everyone's spiritual life when a door starts closing before a new one opens. In that discomfiting gap, before longing comes to fruition, or grief gets fully mourned, we experience a type of
WHAT'S IN A SAINT? By Leanna Cappiello All Saints Day actually begins on All Hallows Eve, the eve of October 31st. The word “Halloween” is derived from the word “hallow”, an old English word for “saint”. Though almost every day of the year has a feast of
MERCY BY NAME By Fr. Chris Valka, CSB Our first reading this week begins with a promise made to “remnant” – those who no longer have a place to belong – the ones exiled from the land promised to them by God. The second reading speaks, in
FOLLOWING JESUS By Tina Sibbald James and John, had some nerve, wouldn't you agree? They wanted to sit to the left and right of Jesus because they knew about the glory that awaited Him. They wanted to be in places of honour, but they were a little
GRANT ME WISDOM By Elizabeth Chesley-Jewell Happy Thanksgiving! Over the course of this weekend we pause and reflect on the many blessings we have received. Family and friends, food and shelter, employment and education, health and freedom, the list goes on and on. In a fast paced