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 →

There is a wonderful television show out called “The Chosen.” It must be good, because all of my religious friends are talking about it. They all tell me that it is wonderful. It is a crowd funded television series on the life of Jesus. “Crowd funded” means that it has been produced dependent on the donations that have been given by others who have watched it and want other people to see it. it is available for free to anyone who might wish to watch it on the internet. My priest friends are telling me how good it is; many of the religious sisters that I know are telling me how good it is; and many of my lay friends are telling me how good it is. As I tell you about it now, I am going to make a commitment to watch it myself so that I may come back to you at some time in the future with a homily based on my having watched this wonderful series about Jesus’ life. I promise that I will watch this series and I invite you to do the same. Continue reading →

A few weeks ago, I was called by some old family friends to the hospital in Markham, Ontario to anoint one of their relatives who was dying. As it had been several years since I had last visited my old home town, I decided to drive by the home that I had grown up in and where my family had lived from 1972 to 1992. I could not help but notice in front of the home a beautiful huge Maple tree that was starting to get all its leaves as Spring was advancing. The tree was a huge, beautiful healthy tree that cast shade over the entire front yard of the house. I remembered that tree because I had planted it there with my father almost fifty years ago. It had been my job to water that tree and to help it take root. There were actually a few weeks when it was first planted that I was not convinced that it was going to survive; partially because I may not have watered it as regularly as I should have and the hot summer weather threatened not to allow it to take root properly. The tree had obviously survived those early challenges and was now a thriving and well rooted tree, like one of those that we hear Jesus speaking of in today’s Gospel. Continue reading →