Gerry Turcotte
Gerry Turcotte: Truce of 1914: A glimpse of man’s good
It truly does seem, at times, as though the news of the world is relentlessly despairing.
Gerry Turcotte: Life’s adversities call forth the bloom
I was admiring a friend’s potted plant recently when she noted that I had just missed the flowering. “I forgot to water it,” she noted, “and it just bloomed.”
Christ child a model for young educators
Of all the stained glass windows we have at St. Mary’s University in Calgary my favourite may well be an image of the Christ child with the “doctors” of the temple (Luke 2:41-52) which is installed in our library, St. Basil’s Hall.
Gerry Turcotte: Seeing is believing straight from the heart
For many of us of a certain age, “Who Are You?” by the Who is a seminal song, made popular again as the theme music to the TV show CSI.
Gerry Turcotte: Voice of the wounded is essential for healing
Recently I read a wonderful LinkedIn entry by Aron Laxton about the U.S. Navy’s efforts to study and reinforce aircraft based on planes that had been damaged from the front. Engineers studied and mapped the bullet holes that peppered the “wounded” planes and determined that additional armour needed to be added to the wingtips and to the central body of the aircraft.
Gerry Turcotte: There’s plenty of gain from this pain
Recently I experienced a rather serious injury. The official version is that I fell off a 15-foot ladder while rescuing a child from a burning building.
Gerry Turcotte: ‘Soft’ approach triumphs
I always look forward to the spring. It is when our university celebrates convocation, and while this is usually an all-consuming, logistically complex event, come the day this is feel-good all the way.
It is rare to laugh out loud when listening to a news item, but recently this is exactly what happened.
Gerry Turcotte: There’s a light ahead in our Lenten journey
During Ash Wednesday Mass on the St. Mary’s University campus, professor of psychology, Fr. Peter Doherty, offered an inspiring homily. He spoke of the importance of the Lenten journey and the need for us to reach out and to support others, as well as the need to reflect on the importance of the “journey” of Lent — emphasizing that Lent isn’t a time period, but a process leading to discovery.
Gerry Turcotte: Books mark the many pages of our lives
I was recently tagged on a Twitter post in what has been called the Book Challenge. If invited, the recipient is asked to post a cover of an all-time favourite book, with no explanation or description of the choice. Just seven covers over seven days, and with each post the recipient is asked to nominate someone new to take up the challenge — a chain letter, of sorts, for the 21st century.