In the last few years, I have developed an increasing reluctance to use the word “God.” It’s not that I have stopped believing in God or that I no longer like God or that I would rather not discuss God.

In 1979, the Environment Council of Alberta issued two reports on the viability of solar, wind and biomass energy. At the time those sources were not viable, although the ECA said wind energy would soon be feasible. Merv Leitch, the energy minister of the day, brushed off the reports, saying the government would look silly if it developed renewable energy which undermined the markets for its vast petroleum resources. 

Many of us dislike going to meetings. Even more do we dread going to long meetings. For me, an hour and a half is the limit. Any longer and I may start looking for an excuse to sneak out the door.

Christ’s Resurrection is sometimes seen as the moment of his dis-Incarnation. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that all who believe in Him may not perish but have eternal life. The Son of God became flesh so that He would be one with us in our earthly trials and tribulations and redeem us from sin.

On the Second Sunday of Lent, the Gospel was the story of Christ’s transfiguration on a mountaintop. Only three men of faith — Peter, James and John — accompanied Jesus as He was transfigured between Moses and Elijah. The three disciples were ordered to tell no one of the event until after Christ’s resurrection.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, my life changed profoundly one summer evening in 1976. I was partying with friends at a cottage in central New Brunswick. After some time, I wanted some quiet and went to sit on the pier on the peaceful lake. 

In the frigid early morning hours of Dec. 21, 2021, young Calgary resident Asher Atter set out, in his own words, to “fight a downtown addict.” According to a front page story in the March 1 Globe and Mail, Atter then attacked a homeless man in a light-rail transit station. He sprayed the man’s face with a fire extinguisher and stabbed him in the back, cutting into his liver. 

The Lenten season is a time of repentance, a time of turning away from our many idolatries and toward the mercy of the Loving Presence. That turning is expressed concretely in the threefold discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, all of which express the deepest fact of our existence: we are but creatures utterly dependent on the Creator in every way.

St. Paul’s hymn of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is commonly used as the New Testament reading at weddings. It is a good choice as it is a reminder that love can be difficult and that it requires husband and wife each to go beyond their comfort zone for love to be real.

Although St. Francis de Sales is counted among the great saints, the first I heard of him was in his role as patron saint of writers, journalists and the Catholic press. I remained with that meagre knowledge for years until I encountered then-Bishop Thomas Collins who was and is a great fan of St. Francis.