“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are” (1 John 3:1).

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, or the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. As the readings this Sunday point out to us, as they do throughout the Easter season, we are called to think about what the Easter message means to us and how we are going to respond to this news.

St. Peter, our parish patron, summarizes the Easter message in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Asked by the leaders of the Jewish people by what power he had healed a crippled man, Peter responds that it was in the “name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name” (Acts 4: 10), that he had acted. As a result of God’s saving action in Christ, Peter makes the bold proclamation that summarizes our Christian faith: “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” ((Acts 4: 12). Jesus’ authority rests in the fact that no one else can raise us from the dead. Continue reading →

“Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good;
His Steadfast Love Endures Forever.”

Have you ever noticed how people speak to one another when they fall in love? Once they have first gained the courage to tell the other person that they love him or her, they begin to use this expression quite frequently. As it begins to loose some of its impact, they begin to use expressions like “very much,” or “very, very much.” Ultimately, people who are in love tell the other person that they love the other so much that they will love them “forever,” or for “all eternity.” In fact, if the person you love ever tells you that they love you so much that they will love you until next Thursday, you can be pretty sure that your relationship is in trouble. 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 →

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).

The Sisters of Life, who have their Centre for Life in the rectory of St. Peter’s Church, run a ministry for those who have had an abortion called “Hope and Healing.” This ministry is intended to help bring Christ’s “light into the midst of darkness.” Through this ministry, the Sisters of Life invite those who have had an abortion, or helped an individual to receive one, to “step into His mercy and receive a new beginning.”

This ministry, called “Hope and Healing,” is so important because it is central to the kind of healing which Christ came into the world to bring to all people.

Sadly, so often when a person does something wrong she/he thinks that God is no longer interested in them and that they are condemned forever. This kind of thinking is so opposite to the message of Christ and that of the Church. In fact, the idea that any person is without hope and cannot be saved is the work of the Devil. The kind of darkness and despair that cause a person to think that she/he is lost and without hope is exactly the kind of thinking that Jesus came to dispel and cast out. Sin can lead all of us to think that we are lost and no longer loved by God. When we give our lives over to despair, the darkness can overwhelm us and we are inclined not to resist sin as we think we are already lost to God’s love. However, as the readings this Sunday proclaim, no one is ever lost to God’s love. Continue reading →

“This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations” (Genesis 9: 12).

I have often spoken about the stained-glass window in our church that has a little bit of interesting local history connected to it. It is the window in the choir-loft. This window is dedicated to the memory of John Wilson Murray. He was the first detective in the province of Ontario and was a member of our parish community who lived on Brunswick Avenue. He died in 1906. After he retired as the province’s first detective, he wrote his memoirs and they were published with the title, “Memoirs of a Great Detective: Incidents in the Life of John Wilson Murray.” The television show, The Murdoch Mysteries, is based upon his journals and the life of this early parishioner of St. Peter’s Parish. Continue reading →

This past January 1, 2024, Archbishop Leo issued his first pastoral letter as Archbishop of Toronto. It is entitled, “Seeking the Kingdom of God Above and Beyond All Other Things.” In this beautiful letter, the Archbishop speaks of the life of discipleship that you and I are called to as baptized members of the Church of Toronto. He states that “the spiritual and social renewal of our lives and community requires that we deepen our understanding of and appreciation for the Church’s perennial teachings of our faith and let ourselves be challenged and formed by the Words of Christ which are eternal and forever life-giving” (page 2). This is necessary because “[m]any of our contemporaries, most regrettably, have lost a living sense of the faith and have distanced themselves from the Lord and his Church” (page 3).  In the face of this situation, we are called to “more boldly proclaim and witness to the truths of his (Christ’s) Gospel. [For] Pope Francis reminds us that to evangelize is to make the Kingdom of God present in our world” (page 3). Continue reading →

I have often recounted at New Year that one of the things about being here at St. Peter’s Parish that I find a little funny at times, is that often I will be walking along Bathurst, in front of the Church, and as I do so someone will roll down their car window, and stop me on Bathurst Street, to demand that I give them a blessing as they are driving by on the street. My first inclination is to try to have a conversation with them to find out what they think that a blessing signifies. However, as the traffic is often heavy and they are in a hurry, they frequently get a little angry with me and demand that I stop my small talk and quickly give them the blessing that they are seeking before they drive off. These experiences have helped me to realize that many people may not even know what a “blessing” signifies or be aware of what is required for a blessing to really be of any value. Continue reading →

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 →

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14)

There is a beautiful tension that exists in the readings that we hear proclaimed at the various Christmas Masses that are celebrated at different times during the day. On the one hand, at the Masses celebrated in the evening, we hear the Gospel of Luke proclaimed and of the birth of the child Jesus into the poverty of a manger in Bethlehem. On the other hand, at Mass during the day, we listen to the Gospel of John and are told that the eternal Word who has existed for all time, and was with the Father at the creation of the world, became man. This tension is best expressed by the beautiful proclamation of the angels to the shepherds in a nearby field to whom they announced the Good News of the Savior’s birth, with the words: “Glory to God in the highest (heaven) and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests” (Luke 2:14).  Because this tension continues to be a reality in our own faith lives today, it is worth reflecting upon it this Christmas. Continue reading →

There is a hymn, called “This Little Light of Mine,” that I think just about every school child knows, which goes like this:

This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I’m gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, oh let it shine.

 

Ev’rywhere I go,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Ev’rywhere I go,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Ev’rywhere I go,
I’m gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, oh let it shine.

 

Jesus gave it to me,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Jesus gave it to me,
I’m gonna let it shine.
Jesus gave it to me,
I’m gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, oh let it shine.

Whenever I hear this hymn, I cannot help but think of the candle that is given to each of us on the day of our baptism. Continue reading →