Leah Perrault: Soften our hearts to believe in hope
As the world feels like it might give way into dust, I’m clinging to a promise of hope. I can still feel the faint dry spot on my forehead where it was marked with ashes. We haven’t been promised permanence, and that annoys me. And still. The eternal Word promised to be with us always. Hope is falling, even here.
Robert Kinghorn: The lethal absence of hope
I am often asked to speak to groups about my experiences on the streets of the city, and what it means for each of us to be the Church on the Street. Recently at the end of one of these talks I was asked, “What do those on the street need the most?” I could do no better than to quote one of my heroes, Fr. Greg Boyle who works with the gang members in Los Angeles and who said, “Gang members need hope. They live with a lethal absence of hope.”
Ian Hunter: Rejoice in hope
The Christian faith acknowledges three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity (today usually rendered “love”). The greatest of these may well be love (as St. Paul told the Corinthians) but in real life the most difficult virtue to practise — particularly in this broodingly ominous time — is hope.
God's Word on Sunday: Hope gives us the strength to endure
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Feb. 7 (Year B) Job 7:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39
Our perception of time depends a lot on our experience. When we are successful, happy, fulfilled and loved, time is swift indeed. It seems as if the party is over all too soon and we are reluctant to move on. But what about our experience of time when life is a gruelling and painful burden?
Luke Stocking: The hope inside me comes from God
Over my 14 years working at Development and Peace – Caritas Canada I have given a countless number of public presentations and workshops on our mission. This has involved sharing story after story of the violence, poverty and injustice of our broken world. Of all the questions people have asked me, there is one that arises again and again: “How do you stay hopeful?”
Francis Campbell: A spirit of hope in Church’s new reality
The times they are a-changin’.
Writing in 1962 about anticipated dramatic changes to family, racial, social, political and sexual dynamics, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan warned the old guard that their existing road was rapidly aging and they’d better get out of the way if they couldn’t lend a hand to those driving world change.
Peter Stockland: A shadow of hope emerges in crisis
On the doorstep of what would become the COVID-19 crisis of spring 2020, a wise woman I encountered called me out on the distinction between hope and expectation.
VATICAN CITY - The cross serves as a warning to the powerful and a message of hope for the poor and oppressed, said the preacher of the papal household.
Mary Marrocco: Living and loving in the face of death
“I have been half in love with easeful Death.” So wrote poet John Keats two centuries ago. For him it was sorrowful, yet his succinct sentence could well describe our current perspective in this country.
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' meeting with families affected by Huntington's disease will bring much-needed attention and hope to men, women and children who often are ostracized and even left to die alone and unloved, a U.S.-based neuroscientist said.
ALEPPO, Syria – Still reeling from the Syrian civil war, the city of Aleppo saw a ray of hope this weekend with a consecration to Our Lady of Fatima on May 13.
VATICAN CITY – In a video message to the people of Portugal, Pope Francis said he would visit Fatima as a pilgrim of peace and to entrust the world to Mary's immaculate heart.
Editorial: Spread hope and joy this Easter
We may be powerless to save Egyptian Christians from terrorist bombings, Syrian civilians from poison-gas attacks or to silence the guns in Africa’s many war zones, but Easter reminds us to never despair from walking as disciples of hope and peace.
ROME – Fifteen Franciscan friars continue to live and work in Syria; two of the friars minister in towns controlled by Islamic State forces.