I don’t mean to be a downer, but an unhealthy diet is the leading risk factor for chronic diseases in Canada. This has been the case for the past two decades, according to research cited in the medical journal Canadian Family Physician, the official publication of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

The question in Section 5 of the form stares at me from my computer: “Estimated Attendance?” I am filling out the Nathan Phillips Square Special Event Application form provided by the City of Toronto. On April 25, we plan to gather as young Catholics to raise our voices for a more generous Canada.

Promises, promises.

In Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II, Baltimore-born papal biographer George Weigel reflects in a highly personal way on the 15 years he devoted to chronicling the life and times and impact of John Paul II in Witness to Hope (1999) and The End and the Beginning (2010). It is a story that emphasizes repeatedly and powerfully the idea of providence.

Last May, my wife, daughters and I stayed at a resort on a First Nations reserve on Vancouver Island to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. The last night we were there, my mother-in-law moved into town, and my wife and I slept in the yurt where she had stayed.

The disciplines of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — are an exercise in conscience formation. Lent is much more than conscience formation, but it is that.