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Articles
Jane Austen’s Sensible Conscience
It’s hard to contain my pleasure or my surprise at the continuing interest in Jane Austen. The more-or-less successful adaptations of her books for film and television as well as a library of offshoot...
Articles
A True Fairy Tale
We have heard that “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform,” a phrase that occurred to me as I listened to the account of David’s being anointed as king. Surprisingly, according to...
Articles
Second Sunday of Lent, and Seeing Beyond Our Eyes
Are old people wise? Have they learned anything from experience? Or are they all curmudgeons, continually grumbling about the young generation and contrasting it unfavourably with the way things used to be? Well, as...
Saints
Paul Miki and Companion Martyrs of Japan
Today, 6 February, is the feast of Saint Paul Miki and his (twenty-five) companions who were tortured and executed in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1597. “After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not...
Articles
Blessedness and Lectio Divina
Our Church's tradition has promoted the practice of lectio divina, i.e., a meditative reading of Scripture. We would do well to follow in these footsteps by examining the Beatitudes, today’s Gospel, which open the...
Articles
Approaching Perfection with Mary
A clever writer once observed that Jesus never made the mistake of qualifying any of his statements: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What can that mean, for, as Jesus said,...
Featured
Old Saints and Staying the Course
There is something attractive about the figure of Zacchaeus, isn’t there? He’s exuberant and also uninhibited. Imagine a man of his importance climbing a tree to catch a glimpse Jesus over the heads of...
Articles
The Demands of the Christian Life
The Gospel of Luke combines inexpressible tenderness with an intolerable severity. Consider the contrast between the parables of the prodigal son or the good Samaritan with the harsh words in today’s Gospel: “I do...
