A few years ago, I sat in on one of the parish’s confirmation classes. On that particular day, when I was dropping by to sit in, the class was engaged in playing a rather different game, which I would call the “Injustice Game.” The purpose of this exercise was to attempt to get the students angry about injustice in the world and to motivate them to desire to do something against that injustice as they became aware of it. In relation to the goals of preparation for Confirmation, the exercise was intended to help these young Christians understand that through the anointing they received at Confirmation, they were being called to witness to Christ and the values of His Gospel in their day to day lives. The game was intended to help them see that the adult Christian, who has been anointed in Confirmation, is called to speak up against discrimination and injustice.

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Imagine what it would be like if Canada Post only delivered on one day during each person’s entire life. On that day, the individual would receive every letter and every bill from his or her lifetime. The experience would be overwhelming and would crush the person who attempted to deal with this lifetime of correspondence in a day.

Sometimes, I think we can all loose perspective on life and think that we must handle all of our life’s problems on our own—all in a day.

This is certainly what I did when the events of COVID 19 started to develop a few years ago. Instead of taking things one day at a time, one thing at a time, I began to panic and believe that I had to solve every possible concern facing myself and the parish, on my own and in that moment. Continue reading →

Over the past three weeks, the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th Sundays of Ordinary Time- Year A, the Sunday Gospel has been taken from a series of parables from the Gospel of Matthew. These parables have centered around the image of a gardener who plants abundantly, a garden where weeds grow up among good plants, and a treasure that has been found in a field. All of these parables provide wonderful material for reflection on our faith, the gift that it is and how we respond to this gift. One of the themes that came forward from the parish council’s survey this past Spring was in regard to further catechesis and formation in order that people might participate more fully in the celebration of the Eucharist. It occurred to me as a good idea to respond to that theme by giving a few homilies on the Mass and how we might all enter into it with greater appreciation and understanding of what we are participating in as we celebrate. That theme went well with these parables.  I was asked to post these homilies together. They appear together below. Continue reading →