There’s a strange tenderness in harsh Prairie winters. In the midst of deep fog, the temperature swings slowly, visibility declines, ice and frost coat the roads and the windows, and the hoar frost wraps the power lines and the trees. We can easily get lost in fog, and our movement through it is reduced to wandering one miniscule and tentative step at a time, our senses attuned to the tiniest and most immediate signals of our place in space and time.  

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) a good thing? The Oxford Dictionary defines AI as “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and translation between languages” …and a whole lot more. 

It’s hard to get rid of labels. I don’t mean from jam jars before we throw them in the garbage, but from people. Labels such as, “addict,” “homeless” or “dangerous offender” stick as if permanently attached to the forehead, and often they tempt others to mentally throw the person into the garbage of life. Even worse, the person may become the label, and at that point it requires extraordinary acts of love to call them back to who they really are. 

The supreme virtue of our secular culture is progressivism. To be a progressive is to be enlightened, tolerant and woke. It is to be on the right side of what are determined by secular elites to be the most important issues of our times. 

There’s a fascinating trend that occurs in the first month of the year. Gyms typically see a 12-per-cent increase in new memberships at the beginning of January. By the close of the month, four per cent of these new members will have quit the gym, 14 per cent leave by the end of February, and 50 per cent are gone by June, according to the Global Health & Fitness Association.

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.

Where can you find fervent, engaged Catholic youth these days? Why, in Saskatoon, of course! 

Few, if any, people in the 20th century thought as deeply about the nature of hope and eternal life as Pope Benedict XVI. Before being named Archbishop of Munich in 1978, Joseph Ratzinger published a theological tome on death, immortality, resurrection, the last judgment and the human destinies of Heaven, purgatory and hell. As Pope Benedict, he wrote an encyclical Spe Salvi (On Christian Hope) based on the belief that Christians know their lives are not empty, that they have an eternal destiny.

The passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Dec. 31, 2022 marks a sad close to a tumultuous year, and the end to his life-long commitment to the Catholic Church.

Receiving the gift is the last stage of Advent becoming Christmas. Jesus arrives and we receive the One we have awaited. The seasons and feast days of church calendars exist not only to change the colours and routines of faith life, but also change the way we live our whole lives. We learn to practice waiting — in joyful hope — for Jesus to arrive. And this practice waiting and receiving is meant to help us get better at waiting and receiving in the rest of our lives too.