Some may take Michael Crummey’s brilliant 2019 novel The Innocents as a piece of nostalgia for a lost way of life in Newfoundland’s outports. But The Innocents offers insights much greater than the nostalgic pacifier Make Newfoundland Great Again. It depicts an unrelenting struggle for survival by two children left orphaned when their parents and baby sister die within a matter of months.

With his departed friend Chris and his junior high students top of mind, Tyler Weber pushed himself to a personal best bike ride of 225.8 kilometres in just over nine hours in a journey to raise awareness of suicide prevention.

The day Presentation Manor went into lockdown for COVID-19 was Charles Hendrick’s birthday, but he wasn’t there to celebrate. He had died the previous October of pancreatic cancer.

MOUNT OF BEATITUDES, Israel -- The palm tree fronds in the convent garden of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary rustle loudly in the brisk wind of an early spring dust storm, but, stepping into the chapel of the Church of the Beatitudes, there is silence.

A group of Toronto high school students is spreading some Easter season cheer and brightening the days of residents in a retirement residence.

Fr. Harrison Ayre knows COVID lockdowns can wear you down. He’s felt it more in the last few months.

Being steadfast in times of suffering can be a struggle. COVID-19 continues to create a murky picture for Canada’s near future. All around us, people suffer from loneliness, anxiety, illness and despair.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Feb. 14 (Year B) Leviticus 13:1-2, 45-46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

Fear can be the most impenetrable barrier in the world, far surpassing any fortress or wall built by humans. Fear is strongest when people feel that their well-being and safety is being threatened.

Already vulnerable and alone, many homeless and at risk youth are finding themselves dealing with more than the coronavirus and its restrictions this Christmas. To them, loneliness is another pandemic.

Tents are being used to expand classroom space in the outdoors at a number of Toronto Catholic schools as they work to ensure staff and student safety while preventing the spread of COVID-19.

In a wonderful essay written in 1919, “Das Unheimliche,” Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of the uncanny to explain the sense of unease and even terror that can arise when something presents itself to us as strangely familiar, but not quite.

Daily life has been defined by change and adaptability since COVID-19 shut down life as we know it back in March. I used to be able to attend school at St. Joseph’s Morrow Park Secondary School in North York, go shopping, attend Mass and, most importantly, I could not only see, but could hug my friends and family.

EDMONTON -- Brad and Arynn Abercrombie and their five kids are isolating, but not isolated.

During this time, people are rightly concerned with the dangers of COVID-19. However, there is another problem that has arisen during this confusing time.

Most people have experienced that annoying friend who no matter how you try to shake them, they just won’t go away.