Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, June 18 (Year A) Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-59

What is the most important thing for human survival?

“I go on ahead to prepare a place for you!” Jesus speaks those words to His disciples on the eve of His death as He sits at table with them and senses their sadness as they grapple with His dying, His going away.

When Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is dead” he added a question: What kind of a “sponge” does it take to wipe away the entire horizon?

Most Holy Trinity, June 11 (Year A) Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

Who is God? There is no shortage of talk, theories, books and adamant assertions about God, but what does God have to say?

One day, my brother put a book in my hand. The book, a biography called Chiara Corbella Petrillo: A Witness to Joy, appealed to me. I read it into the small hours of that same night.

Pentecost Sunday, June 4 (Year A) Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23

Being filled with the Holy Spirit can be a rather scary thing. It cares little for our prejudices, opinions, fears and personal preferences, and is prone to take us where we do not want to go and ask us to do things from which we shrink in fear.

My first love was literature, novels and poetry. As a child, I loved story books, mysteries and adventures. In grade school, I was made to memorize poetry and loved the exercise. High School introduced me to more serious literature: Shakespeare, Kipling, Keats, Wordsworth, Browning. On the side, I still read story books, cowboy tales from the old West taken from my dad’s bookshelf.

Before I entered the seminary I spent time considering the legal profession. I worked, as part of such discernment, at a law firm where I met some faith-filled individuals who have become lifelong friends. Two of them are a couple, both lawyers, who live in one of Toronto’s comfortable suburbs.

Ascension of the Lord, May 28 (Year A) Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20

Where did Jesus go when He ascended? Where is God? Physics, astronomy and other branches of science have shown the old spatial notion of God and the heavens to be inadequate. God is not “up there” or in any particular place, but equally present throughout the universe.

Classically, both in the world and in our churches, we have seen despair as the ultimate, unforgivable sin.