Every year, on the first Sunday following Christmas, the Church celebrates the beautiful feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The purpose of this beautiful feast is to remind each and every one of us that the most important place where we are to encounter God’s love for us is within the family. Like all of us, Jesus was born into a human family so that we might all be reminded that it is first and foremost within the family that we are to make Christ’s love present to our brothers and sisters and where we are to encounter the love and acceptance that we all desire and long to know. This beautiful feast is to remind all of us that every family—mine and yours—is a sacred place where God’s love is to be encountered. Continue reading →

This past year at St. Peter’s Parish, especially the past few months, has been a time of great transition and change. For those of you who may be visiting, or may be here only for Christmas, over the past few months the parish has welcomed the Sisters of Life to the newly renovated Centre for Life in the rectory. We have also finished the renovation in the rectory and moved our parish offices from the Centre and returned them to the rectory. For those who are unaware of this, our parish offices are now located at the door under the archway here at the side of the church. What surprised me about this move and the renovation project which came to a conclusion over the past few months was how much of my own time it consumed and how many problems could arise in the course of a project. For months we awaited the arrival of the doors which we kept being told would arrive next week—always next week for about six months. When they finally did arrive, we were told that they were the wrong kind and that the locks would not work. Often while commuting back and forth from Holy Rosary Parish, I would arrive at the church to find someone else was parking in my parking spot and that I would have to beg them to let me use the parking spot assigned to me. Some days, I spent hours on the phone trying to resolve issues about the transfer of phones and other services needed to run the office. Through all the delays and disruptions that had to do with the construction, I kept making myself promises that as I arrived at the parish each day I would not let myself get distracted by the construction and superficial affairs of the renovation. I vowed I would focus on being a parish priest and serving the community of St. Peter’s and not allow myself to become overly involved in the renovations. Sadly, I would arrive at the parish and find myself caught up with questions from the contractor and architect and find it a real challenge to visit the sick or be present to the parishioners. To those who caught me on one of my bad days, after a difficult conversation with the architects, my apologies. Things got so bad, that as we had to move our offices just last week during the busy season of Christmas, there were times that I was feeling so busy, I feared that I would not be able to get into the Christmas spirit this year. Concerned that I myself might become this year a Grinch at Christmas, one day I decided that I needed a little break from the renovations and move and I went to see the newly released version of Dr. Seuss’ “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, on what was one of the first cold days of the Fall, I was out for my Friday morning sick calls to the parish’s shut-ins, and because of the cold, I was wearing a scarf. I am assuming that because I was wearing a scarf, the couple who approached me were not aware of who I was. I was at first, also not aware of who they were. As it turned out, this couple was a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses Missionaries and as they stopped me to talk, they offered me a copy of their beautiful magazine. Once they had showed me their magazine and introduced themselves, I decided that I would be a little mischievous with them. After they showed me their beautiful magazine that offered to explain the Bible to me, I told them how happy I was to meet them because I was from the local Catholic parish and sometimes we needed assistance serving the poor. I told them that with some of the other Christian denominations and synagogues in the neighbourhood our parish offered a meal to the poor once a week and I would love to be able to add their community to our local list. They told me that they did not do that kind of thing. That is alright I said, because I also said that with the Salvation Army and some of the other Christian denominations, the Catholic Church operates places like Covenant House and the Good Shephard Mission and that maybe they could give me some of the addresses for their shelters, just in case ours ever got filled up. I was told that they do not do that kind of thing. Just as one final attempt, I said that our St. Vincent de Paul Society will often do home visits to those in need in our community and sometimes I direct people to the Salvation Army Store. If I needed to get help for someone in their neighbourhood, I asked where could I send them? I was told that this was the government’s job and that they did not do that kind of thing. With that, I gave them back their beautiful booklet and told them that I think they had explained to me how their bible works. Continue reading →

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.”

Is not this the question that each one of us would like to ask Jesus? Is this not one of the reasons that we try to follow Jesus and observe his teachings? In today’s Gospel, we hear of a man who runs up to Jesus and kneels before Him to ask the question to which many of us would also like to know the answer: “What must we do to inherit eternal life?” In responding to this question, Jesus answers with three different layers to His response. The first response that He gives to the man is that he is required to both know and follow the commandments. We know this man must be a good person, because he testifies that this he has done his whole life. The man is already living a good life and sincerely seeks to follow Jesus. When this man tells Jesus that he has always followed the commandments, Jesus tells him that there is still one thing that he must do, “sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” With these words, the man goes away, sad that he is not able to follow Jesus, because as the Gospel tells us, he had many possessions. The man is not able to give up everything to follow the Lord. As the other disciples see this good man go away sad, they wonder about their own future and Peter asks on their behalf what will happen to them, since they have left everything. To those who have left everything, Jesus assures them that will have treasure in Heaven and that they will indeed inherit eternal life. Jesus has a stern warning, however, for those who cling to worldly wealth, since it will be an obstacle to them entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus uses the image of a large camel trying to pass through a gate in the wall of the city of Jerusalem, known as the “eye of the needle.” Just as no camel was able to pass through this gate, so too those who cling to their wealth, will not be able to pass into Heaven. Their attachment to this world will make it impossible for them to freely pass into Heaven. In fact, Jesus goes on to say that in most cases, it is impossible for people to be saved on their own. Happily, as Jesus reports, while it is impossible for a person to be saved on his or her own, with God all things are possible. For the person who truly wishes to be saved, all that is really required of him or her is that he or she welcome Jesus as a little child would do. For those who do this, salvation is very easy, because it is accomplished not by one’s own efforts but by God’s Grace. Continue reading →

“He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” In fact, He, Jesus, has done much more than that. He has also destroyed death and given to each of us the gift of eternal life. It seems to me that this week’s Gospel and Sunday readings contain a very powerful reminder about what our faith is all about and where it is as Christians that we are really called to place our faith. Continue reading →

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 St. Peter’s; but perhaps the connection to St. 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.

We are fortunate to have two such amazing saints as our parish’s titular patrons. Both St. Peter and St. Paul have so much to teach us. I believe these two great saints teach us by their lives both who we are and what we are called to become. Their lives show us the power of God’s grace to transform our lives and the way in which we are called to witness to what that grace is capable of doing in each of us. Continue reading →

Have you ever noticed how we as human beings talk to one another when we are in love with another person? Once we realize that we are in love with a person, we usually try and get the courage to tell the other person about this love. After we have said it once, we usually want to tell them over and over again. As these words lose their strength, we start to add adverbs and adjectives to describe our love. We say: “I love you very, very much,” or, “I will love you for all eternity.” I have always thought that this reality about ourselves, that when we love someone, we want to love them forever, is one of the best proofs for the existence of God and the fact that we each have an eternal soul. Because we are made in the the image and likeness of God, who is love, we are all of us made for love. The fact that when we do love, we usually wish to love a person for all eternity, points also to the fact that we have an eternal soul, one which was created to live and love forever. This is why when two people are in love and one of them dies, they can still feel such attachment and such a strong desire to continue in relationship with the person with whom they are in love. Continue reading →