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December 18, 2006
Toronto Good Shepherd Centre [images/stories/toronto/feed.jpg]TORONTO - For most people in our society, Christmas is a joyful time spent with family. But for the homeless, it's not a celebration they can relate to.
[images/stories/misc/sean_grandma.jpg]Christmas at Grandma's — widowed as long as my kids have known her — has always been a special time. Numerous traditions are an integral part of the experience.
When most people think of the song "White Christmas" they think of Bing Crosby or the 1942 musical Holiday Inn. I think of a cold night in 1976 when I was walking in the snow with my good friend Frank. As we walked we tried to remember the lyrics of various Christmas songs. The one song where we both knew more than a few words was "White Christmas." I remember filling the streets with our not so melodious sounds and lots of laughter.
In 1985, Bishop James Doyle sent me to the faculty of education of the University of Toronto where I had a wide range of facilitators and assignments. My psychology professor, Dr. Kong, provided a challenging assignment that proved spiritually fulfilling and blessed my Christmas experience that year.
Bernadette Woo attended her first Mass at Christmas 2001 [images/stories/international/bernadettewoo.jpg]BEIJING, China - They came clutching their shopping bags, curious newcomers who pushed and shoved their way to get a closer view. As regular worshippers celebrated in silence, the visitors chatted and filed in and out of the overflowing cathedral throughout the service.
December 19, 2006
Chinese Singles for Christ [images/stories/international/chinasing.jpg]BEIJING, China - She sat at the hospital bed, her baby face brightening as visitors came to hold her hand, tell her stories and shower her with gifts of s'mores, pizza and, most of all, roses.
Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C), Dec. 24 (Micah 5:2-5; Psalm 80; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45) We should not be dazzled or deceived by appearances, glamour or power. Great things and great people come from humble beginnings. This passage from Micah spoke to the people of the eighth century BC, who had suffered destruction and deportation.
Myroslaw Tataryn, theologian, priest and acting president of St. Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, made a personal note in his annual Christmas card that this coming celebration will be a "first Christmas" for our family and times such as these are special. He meant, of course, that this Christmas will be a first for us in a new home and in a new city and that we should mark it as such.
The incident in Pope Benedict XVI's recent trip to Turkey that got the most vivid press coverage was his silent prayer, facing Mecca, in Istanbul's Blue Mosque. Given the vehement criticism and controversy that have dogged the Pope's steps ever since his remarks on Islam at Regensburg, such attention was probably inevitable.
Among the still Judean hills Where shepherds grazed their sheep, Angelic song like sudden dawn Woke slumberers from sleep. Though startled so, they did not know That heaven had contrived, To tell through them, good news to men. "Day after" had arrived. No rain of bombs in megatonnes To tear and break the earth No searing fire, but angels' choir Announcing Jesus' birth. A promise old, His birth foretold, This Saviour who would come. In Him who lay in manger hay Salvation had begun. "Day after" is, the time since His Coming as man to earth, Reversed the fall, gave hope to all. Redemption had its birth. No scheming man for all his plan Could overcome with might, What Mary's child had reconciled By humble birth that night. No force so strong, no reign so long could change the heart of men, As God was able, in a stable, Through a babe in Bethlehem. And since that birth, no place on earth Can ever be the same For 'twas earth's Lord shepherds adored, The day that Jesus came. In weakness odd, the strength of God Lay in a tiny child A voiceless herald to save the world That sin and death defiled. A world deranged, forever changed O shout with joy and laughter! Since Jesus came, we're not the same, We've living His "Day after"!
At this year's Midnight Mass we read Luke's famous nativity account in which the shepherds in the field first hear the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ from an angel: "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people." Christians recognize that it was indeed good news, but sometimes it is easy to forget it was for "all the people."
Sometimes politicians have a rather exalted sense of their own authority. Witness the comments in the aftermath of the vote in the House of Commons Dec. 7 over same-sex marriage.
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican could approve the new English translation of the main Mass prayers as early as mid-2007 if the work of its advisory committee proceeds as planned, the committee said.
[images/stories/books/booksgod.jpg]The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, by Francis S. Collins (Free Press 304 pages, hardcover, $32.95). The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins (Houghton Mifflin, 288 pages, hardcover, $35.95). Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life, by Lee M. Silver (Ecco, 464 pages, hardcover, $34.95). The relationship between science and religion is the focus of a small swarm of new books. Almost all of these books are written by scientists, suggesting that the scientific community is feeling some pressure to articulate just how its work relates to religion.
December 22, 2006
Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic [images/stories/canada_bishops/AmbrozicSmile.jpg]TORONTO - With the appointment of a replacement, began last week to say his goodbyes to the flock he has led as archbishop for 16 years. The cardinal said his last noon Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral as archbishop of Toronto Dec. 17, using the occasion to thank all those who had worked with him and for him. And on Dec. 19, he presided over a Christmas thanksgiving Mass with staff at the Catholic Pastoral Centre.
TORONTO - The man who is about to become one of the most powerful churchmen in Canada has no interest in the trappings of power. Archbishop Thomas Collins has been a success as a seminary professor and rector, as a bishop in northern Alberta and as a metropolitan archbishop in Edmonton. Church insiders are not surprised Collins was appointed to lead Toronto, Canada's largest and richest Catholic diocese by Pope Benedict XVI on Dec. 16.
Aaaahhh, New Years. The time where last year's unresolved resolutions are reviewed and rewritten. There is one resolution, however, that we as Catholics should make and keep every moment, or else there'll be, well, Hell to pay. The resolution I'm talking about, of course, is to encounter the Father.
HAMILTON, Ont. - Three years ago, a group of Catholic students at McMaster University noticed a spiritual void in their university lives so they started a chapter of the Compass Catholic Fellowship group on campus. Compass is an international student-run Catholic group with Canadian chapters at the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
TORONTO - Instead of reflecting on the tradition of a Hindu marriage ceremony, Grade 11 World Religion students at Bishop Allen Academy in Toronto reflect on the question: "Why do I have to take this course?"