Some of you may remember a folk rock band from BC that was moderately popular in the 1990s named Spirit of the West. One of their hits was titled “Political”. Detailing the sentiments of one looking back on a failed relationship, the chorus queried “Why did everything, every little thing, every little thing between you and me have to be so political?” 

“We know that we've stolen a year of childhood right around the Western world, the year of five, when our little ones are still supposed to be largely running around outside building sandcastles, and pretending they're unicorns or dragons.” Australian author Maggie Dent spoke these words on Janet Lansbury’s parenting podcast Unruffled. “We stole that year and when we did that, the pressure for you to get your kid ready for school has intensified and yet the capacity for our children to accelerate their development on any level hasn't changed at all.” 

In an interview which the historian Frank Linderman recounted, Plenty Coups, traditional chief of the Crow Nation, refused to speak of his life after the destruction of the buffalo. The chief’s story did not include the years between the passing of the buffalo until his death in 1932. 

The age has lost its youth, and the times begin to grow old.

2 Esdras 14: 10

Recently my executive assistant pointed out that the photo I was using for my column was … out of date. Her diplomatic wording sounded more like: “You are waaaay older than you were when the photo was taken. You should change it. Truth in advertising.” It did force me to confront the reality of aging.

In a small town in Ontario, the Holy Spirit is working in a big way through two Catholic men with phones, a couple of cameras, and some microphones.

We live in an altered universe in which some have the power to destroy a group or individual without proof but with vile labels. Worse, they are funded by our federal government with your tax dollars.

They are the arbiters what may be expressed and what should be suppressed, and even what may be believed. Some call it cancel culture. It should be called what it is: bigotry.

Have you ever been tempted to leave the Catholic Church? Don’t. Ever. For any reason. Why not? Because: *Extra ecclesiam nulla salus*, “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church”.

As a young man of 16, and a competitive high school gymnast, I was thrilled to get a job at the Montreal Olympics. Organizers were desperate for staff, so I was put in the bar stand at the basketball arena, an under-aged kid blissfully selling beer to thirsty patrons.

The etymology of tending is from the Latin “tendere” to stretch, in a certain direction. What a fabulous way to think about the way we care!

Perhaps nowhere in society is the loss of the sacred more evident than in marriage and in the wedding ceremonies which solemnify a marriage.