If the home that you grew up in was like the one in which I grew up in, you might have heard things like this said to you as a young person:
“If you eat your vegetables, you can have dessert.”
“Finish your homework and then you can watch television.”
“If you get a good report card, you can go to camp this summer instead of summer school.”
Hearing things like this as we grow up, can lead some of us to think that life is fair and that if we are good, good things will happen to us. In fact, for some Christians, one of the very difficult challenges in life is trying to understand why it is that if they pray and follow the commandments, it is still possible for bad things to happen to them. For many, there is a sense that faith should act as a kind of lucky charm; protecting them from anything difficult in life. I sometimes think of this as a kind of “Rabbit Foot” approach to faith. It is like thinking that by hanging a rosary from the rear-view mirror of our car, we will be protected from an accident. What a rosary is really intended for is for praying, that we might know that God is with us through all of the different circumstances of our lives. Continue reading
For many very good Christians one of the biggest questions that they have about their faith life relates to how they are to talk to God; or to put it another way, how they are to pray. In this Sunday’s readings, we are given some of the most powerful lessons about prayer that are found in the Scriptures. In the first reading from the Book of Genesis, we are allowed to listen in on a conversation that takes place between Abraham and God. The Gospel contains an actual lesson in prayer from Jesus to His disciples. Both have a great deal to teach us about the way in which God invites us to communicate with Him. They provide an invitation to relate to God freely, openly as we authentically come before Him. They also encourage us to trust that God will always hear our prayers; even if it can sometimes take us a while to understand His answer. In order that we might understand His answer, Jesus promises us that His Father will send us the gift of His Holy Spirit. 
This past Friday, July 1, as we celebrated Canada Day, one of the “good news” stories that was reported on the Friday evening news had to do with the number of new Canadians who received their citizenship in different celebrations across Canada. As a priest, I have had the privilege of accompanying both friends and parishioners who have received their citizenship and it is always a very happy experience that usually comes at the end of a difficult and challenging adventure. For many, a new life in Canada has come at the end of a journey that entailed much hardship. Often, those who come to Canada have left family and loved ones at home. There can be many sacrifices in coming to a new country. Yet, despite the difficulties, those who do seek a new life in a new country often do so because they believe in the better future that lies ahead of them; either for themselves or for their children. The dream of a better future makes the sacrifices of the difficult journey worthwhile. Often, it is only the hope of that better life, and the security that it offers, that gives those who come to Canada the strength to persevere through the different and various challenges and tribulations. 
We celebrate this weekend our parish’s titular feast day, the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. This feast takes place on June 29th, but over the last few years we have switched its celebration to the nearest Sunday so that it may be celebrated more solemnly at our Sunday Masses. It is obvious why we call Saint Peter our titular saint— the parish being named Saint Peter’s; but perhaps the connection to Saint Paul is not so clear. It is because of the many years of faithful service that the Paulist Fathers rendered to this parish that we also honour Saint Paul as our parish’s other titular saint.
At the beginning of this Easter Season, you and I celebrated Easter by renewing our baptismal promises. In the Ritual for Infant Baptism, there are about a hundred different readings that can be used at a Baptism for a child. Despite this great variety, I find that I have used only one reading at almost all of the Baptisms that I have celebrated in my years as a priest. The reading that I always use at Baptism is the text from Matthew in which Jesus commissions His disciples to go out into the world and baptize all nations. The exact words that Jesus used are as follows: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the ages” (Matthew 28: 19-20). What strikes me most about this passage is the amazing promise that Christ has made to all of us through our Baptisms: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the ages.” Christ promises all of us that He is with us always, forever, until the end of time. Today, as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, Jesus tells us that He will fulfill this promise to be with us always by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts. 
In the days following Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples of Jesus locked themselves away in self-isolation for fear that the Romans and Jews might arrest them for being followers of Jesus. This self-isolation was very similar to that which many people today have had to experience. Throughout the entire time of the disciples’ isolation, Jesus appeared to His disciples and strengthened them with assurances of His resurrection, peace, and the gift of the Holy Spirit by which He would always be present in their lives.
It is a very rare thing for me to get to a Toronto Maple Leaf game. Tickets are expensive and hard to come-by. Recently, as a result of the pandemic, it has been even more rare for any of us to take in a game. I think because it has been about three years since I had last been to a game, I was quite taken in by the whole atmosphere of the crowd and the spectacular environment of the whole show; not just of the game, but of the environment that surrounded the whole game. 
It has been more than two years since the pandemic began. Since the start of it, many people have been hoping and praying for a “new heaven and a new earth,” free from this illness. There have been many temporary “fixes” that made some people think that we were on the verge of being delivered from anything that might threaten our safety and way of life. So many people placed a false hope in the announcement that a vaccination had been found. We were then told that a second dose would provide the solution that we were all praying for. Then a third and then a fourth. And now we are being told that it is something that we will have to live with for the time being. As the hopes of life returning to normal seemed to be in sight, the terrible and sad news of war came to us as Russia, without provocation, invaded Ukraine. The terrible spread of death that this was has unleashed in Ukraine, and the unsettling threat that it could spread elsewhere, once again leaves many feeling the reality of our uncertain situation.