Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our faith teaches us that all human life is a sacred gift that we receive from God and that God alone is to decide the beginning and the end of our life. For that reason, both the Scriptures and the Church have always taught that it is a grave sin to take a human life; either the life of another or our own.

While life is indeed a gift from God, there are many challenges and difficulties that we all encounter in life. It was to save us from these difficulties, and the sinful choices that they can cause us to make, that Christ came into the world. Confronted by the trials of life, and the suffering these can bring, Jesus speaks these comforting words to us:  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). It is not for nothing that this passage is used as one of the series of scripture passages for the celebration of the Sacrament of the Sick. Jesus has come to help us to do the Father’s will in our difficult and challenging situations in life. To show us how this is to be done, Jesus Himself took up His cross and was obedient to the will of God the Father. Jesus, the way, the truth and the life has given us the example by which we are to embrace God’s will for us, ask His grace to strengthen us, and follow His example in the words of the perfect prayer, the “Our Father.” In this prayer we ask for the strength to do God’s will for us each day of our lives. Continue reading →

I was born in 1964. One of my first memories that I have in life is of my parents and grandparents taking me to Montreal for Expo 67 and the Centennial Celebrations for Canada’ s 100^th birthday that year. I think one of the vague memories that I have of this experience is that it was the first time in my life that I recall having been exposed to persons from all of the different countries of the world. Expo 67 was a great moment of Canadian hospitality extended towards all of the people of the world who came to visit Canada for the Expo event. As it is one of my first memories of life, it has also become for me symbolic of what I believe this great country in which we live is all about.

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“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55-56).

Last week in his homily, Father Paul explained how the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity can best be understood as a celebration of the fact that God has so much love that He exists as a Trinity of persons and desires to always be in relationship with us. God, Father Paul reminded us, is love and exists always as a relationship of three persons within Himself and is always in relationship with us. Ultimately, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, he said, was celebrated to help us understand how much God loves us and how much He desires to be in relationship with us—all the time. Continue reading →

As Catholics, every time that we pray, we begin by invoking the names of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, whose feast we celebrate this Sunday. This custom can be so habitual that at times we may do it without realizing how profound the words are that we are saying. Each time we name the three person of the Holy Trinity, we are articulating a great mystery about God and his proximity to us that has been revealed to us by God Himself. The only way that we know about the Trinity and the names of the persons contained within God is because Jesus Himself has told us about Them. As the Son of God sent from the Father, Jesus has told us to call God “our Father” and has repeatedly spoken to us about the Father. During His life Jesus promised His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit after He had returned to the Father. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church by Jesus and His Father in Heaven. That the three cannot be separated is witnessed to in the passage from the end of the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 28), as Jesus commissions His disciples to baptize all people “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Everything that we know about God as the Trinity has been revealed to us by the Trinity Himself. We can learn so much about God’s love for us in reflecting upon this great mystery of our faith. Continue reading →

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 twenty-five years as a priest. The reading that I always use at Baptism is the same as that which we heard proclaimed last Sunday on the Solemnity of Christ’s Ascension into Heaven. To refresh your memories, the Gospel which was proclaimed last Sunday was 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.

How is it possible that Christ can keep this amazing promise? Continue reading →

As many of the young boys and girls in our parish make their First Communion today, the Gospel reading for this Sunday tells us the powerful story of the very first Holy Communion to take place after Jesus rose from the dead. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus shows us the importance of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. In this story we hear that on the very day that Jesus rose from the dead, the first day of the week, that day being a Sunday, Jesus Himself celebrated the Eucharist with His disciples. It was only in His doing this that these two people, who had known Jesus personally in life, were able to recognize Him and see Him present in their lives. This story tells us a great deal about what it means to be Christians and the place that the Eucharist is to have in the life of each Christian. Continue reading →

The celebration of Easter is for all Christians the highpoint of our year of faith. At Easter we celebrate the fact that Christ has risen from the dead and destroyed death for all who place their hope in Him. Easter means that, because of Christ’s resurrection, we shall not die but rather we are all invited to spend eternity with our loving God in heaven. At Easter we think of our loved ones who have died and we rejoice that they have been spared death because of Christ’s resurrection and are with Him in heaven for all eternity. Ultimately, at Easter we celebrate that God loves us so much that He destroyed death so that He might spend eternity with each of us. Easter is the greatest celebration of God’s unconditional and undying love for each of us; a love so strong that death cannot destroy it. Continue reading →

Jerusalem is, and has been for several millennium, a great walled city that must be entered through one of the several gates in the city’s wall. It is a holy and sacred city. For the Jews, Jerusalem is that city where God dwelt among His people in the great temple at which they could visit Him and offer Him sacrifices. In His Holy City, God would listen to His people and they could be assured that they were standing in His presence. Whenever there was a great feast for the Jewish people they would go up to the city of Jerusalem to be near to God and celebrate with Him. For the Jewish people to live within the walls of Jerusalem—the Holy City—was the perfect life; it was equivalent to living with God on earth. In the mind of the Jewish person, the perfect place to die was within the walls of Jerusalem. To die within the walls of the Holy City meant that one had died with God in His Holy City and had indeed lived a blessed life. Continue reading →

The season of Lent is that time in the Church year when the baptized are called to prepare to renew their baptismal promises, and when those who are not baptized enter into the final stages of their baptismal preparation. As we are to prepare to do this throughout Lent on Easter Sunday, today I would like to speak a little bit about what is one of my favorite themes in the Liturgy for Baptism by making particular reference to the Ritual for the Baptism of Infants. Continue reading →

This coming Wednesday, March 1^st is an important day in the life of our Church. It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty day season of preparation for the celebration of Easter. For that reason, I would like to speak a little bit about Lent and its importance in the spiritual life of each one of us.

In the history of the Church, Lent began as that season when the Catechumens who were preparing for baptism would enter into their final stages of preparation before being baptized at Easter. In the first few centuries of the Church’s history, many adults prepared to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. However, as by the ninth and tenth centuries most adults were baptized, Lent became a season not just for baptism but also for the repentance of those Christians who were already baptized and would prepare for the renewal of their baptismal promises at Easter. This is also now what the majority of us are called to do in the approaching season of Lent. Because most of us are already baptized, Lent is a time for us to prepare to renew our baptismal promises by turning away from what prevents us from living our baptisms and being the people that God has called each one of us to be as a result of our baptisms. At Easter, our community will celebrate the baptisms of those joining the Church at Easter, but each one of us is also called to renew our baptismal promises at the Easter Sunday Mass that we will attend this year. For that reason, I would like to say just a few words about what it means for each of us to be baptized. Continue reading →