There’s a Buddhist parable that runs something like this: One day as the Buddha was sitting under a tree, a young, trim soldier walked by, looked at the Buddha, noticed his weight and his fat, and said: “You look like a pig!” The Buddha looked up calmly at the soldier and said: “And you look like God!” Taken aback by the comment, the soldier asked the Buddha: “Why do you say that I look like God?” The Buddha replied, …
by admin We have just come through one of the two peak seasons in the Church, the Christmas season, and probably feel we are coming down the mountain into a quieter, less-intense time. In seven weeks, we will begin another ascent toward that other peak season–the Season of Easter. What always remains, throughout the entire liturgical year, peak season or not, is the closeness of the Lord.
From the start of his life we are told the Lord’s name: Emmanuel (God-with-us). …
by admin The Church did not celebrate Christmas, at least not liturgically, until the 4th century. The same is true of the great feast of Pentecost. No Marian feast was celebrated by the Church until the 5th century. The martyrs, who willingly laid down their lives for the faith, were not honored with formal celebrations until the 7th century. And the Solemnity of Christ the King, which we celebrated this weekend, was only instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI as a …
by admin Back in the summers of 1982 and 1983, I convinced parishioners from my home parish to join me on the weekends to serve at St. Bridget’s Soup Kitchen in Ottawa’s Byward Market. This image entitled “Christ of the Breadlines” hung on one of the walls and it has stayed in my mind for the past 35 years. Though a print, the original was an engraving by the late Fritz Eichenberg (1901 – 1990). Fritz was a Jew from Cologne, Germany …
by admin Here are some helpful hints about knowing if God is calling you to a certain ministry in the Church or not. These steps could also apply to any decision in life, but let’s limit ourselves to liturgical and non-liturgical ministries within our own parish.
At the outset, let us take comfort in the fact that we are never alone in having to figure out God’s will in our lives. This assurance comes to us in the last words of Matthew’s …
by admin As we spy the half-way marker on our Lenten journey, it might be good to recall the words that started this journey on Ash Wednesday. These same words will see us through to Easter Sunday and beyond: “Repent and believe the Good News.” More than words they are an invitation us to do an about-face, turning from what is penultimate, not fulfilling, not life-giving to what is ultimate, enduring and life-giving. In Biblical parlance, it is about turning from death …
by admin This is a follow-up to the Federal Liberal’s letter of attestation I mentioned at the end of last weekend’s liturgies. As you know, the Canadian Government will no longer give grants through the Canada Summer Job program unless the group applying for the grant attests to being pro-choice. Pro-choice is the ideology that professes that there is parity between life and death, that choosing one is just as good as choosing the other. Nothing can be further from …
by admin Welcoming the Stranger
When I can still myself long enough during the Christmas season, questions like the following always seem to surface: Who is this One laying in a manger? Who was Jesus? What difference did his coming make in my life and the life of the world? Questions about Jesus inevitably lead me to God. There will always be a dimension of God, or many dimensions, that will defy easy answers. I can never, try as I …
by Fr Phil Mulligan