Henri Nouwen, one of the most widely admired spiritual writers of his time, died unexpectedly of a heart attack 30 years ago. His passing sent shockwaves around the world among Christians and spiritual seekers of all stripes who had turned to the Dutch Catholic priest’s writing for spiritual solace.

The Lenten season provides us with no shortage of holy men and women to discover and model our lives after. The following five individuals, whose feasts typically appear on the liturgical calendar during Lent, can help us overcome some of the greatest obstacles that we face today.

Public transit is more than a means of getting from one place to another — it is a lifeline for many, especially those living in poverty or facing physical, mental or financial barriers.

Twenty years ago, sociologist Philip Jenkins warned that anti-Catholicism was the last respectable bigotry, but, alas, that was too optimistic.

To understand what Jesus means by calling his disciples “the salt of the earth,” St. Augustine said that we should keep in mind the two immediately preceding verses about being reviled and persecuted, and about being slandered for the sake of Jesus.

My February pilgrimage to the Normandy Region of France in the company of seven Canadian Catholic priests, a representative from Air Canada and the great team from the Connaissance Travel and Tours was spiritually satisfying and visually entrancing.

Probing for wiggle room can sometimes encourage humane inaction in the name of procedural caution. Almost always, simply looking for wiggle room can be a gentle way of appealing to the humanity of a civil servant who is trapped in check-box protocols.

I have been a storyteller for most of my adult years. I discovered my ease at standing in front of others to share a story, when I was running for election as Student President of Humber College back in the late 1970s.

In the darkness of our current global reality, we long for peace. This longing for peace can be actualized by developing a spirituality of peace which is based on a plan of concrete actions to address today’s struggles.

Upon Mark Carney’s formal entry into the Liberal Party leadership race almost exactly a year ago, supporters endorsed the eventual prime minister as a cosmopolitan man of the world.