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 week, there has been a very powerful film called “The Human Flow” showing at both the Bloor Docs Cinema and the Toronto International Film Festival’s Bell Lightbox Theatre. “The Human Flow” is a movie by director Ai WeiWei that presents a powerful look at the plight of the world’s 65 million refugees. It shows the way in which so many human beings have been uprooted from their homes and wander the world aimlessly, often because they are regarded as mere objects and pawns in the world of international politics. This movie attempts to show how real human beings are effected and destroyed by the manner in which world politics have impacted their lives. Not since World War II have so many people been uprooted by events like civil war, global warming and the political unrest that has been unleashed by the greed and power struggles of the world’s elites. This past year, the St. Peter’s Parish Community became acutely aware of the tragedy of the world’s refugee crisis as after a long wait, the community welcomed the re-settlement family that we have sponsored through Project Hope. This beautiful family left Iraq because they were persecuted as Christians; only to find themselves in Syria as civil war broke out there. To this date, some of their family are stuck in Turkey, awaiting re-unification here in Canada. I am so grateful to the many members of our community who have worked tirelessly to welcome and support this wonderful family. What this movie “The Human Flow,” and our parish’s experience with a resettlement family, make so very clear is how powerless individual persons can be in the face of the world’s political arrangements that are negotiated by the powerful elites of this world. It can be tempting to feel only despair in the face of such a situation where the dignity of the human person is given so little concern. Continue reading →