“Healing” is a hot topic today. Humanity seems to feel a keen need of healing today, but are we getting to the root cause of our maladies? Are we utilizing the proper remedies? Since human beings are a composite of body and soul, we can’t talk about healing one without healing the other.

How would you describe the state of your faith in God in these challenging times?

Healing was not the invitation I was expecting when I showed up at church several weeks ago. 

Her body is thin and tense. It carries the anguish, the hurts and false steps, of years. Her face does not as yet reveal the pain she’s known in her young life. She doesn’t cry. Alone, sometimes, she has bursts of uncontrollable stormy tears. Never the gentle kind and never for long. 

WASHINGTON – Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington encouraged archdiocesan parishes to participate in a six-week "Season of Healing" to counter what he called "confusion, disappointment and disunity" and to help bring about healing in the wake of recent sex abuse scandals that have rocked the U.S. Catholic Church.

As a psychotherapist, I work with people harmed by abuse: abusers who “own” it, and who don’t; falsely-accused people; and many, many people from many walks of life who have been abused.  

EDMONTON – Charbel Fadel is, in most ways, like any other two-year-old boy. He can’t sit still. He likes soccer. He gives high-fives to anyone who asks.

The natural healing waters of the Dead Sea have long been known to cure what ails. For thousands of years it has attracted visitors drawn to its mineral-laden therapeutic water and was one of the world’s first health resorts, frequented by none other than King Herod around the time of Jesus’ birth.

Andrew and Martha sat glumly. They were stuck in the same argument they’d had so many times before in their life together as a couple. One stabbed using sharp words, the other stonewalled using the silent treatment.

Mary, the Holy Mother of God, Jan. 1 (Year A) Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

What does Aaron’s blessing tell us about the nature of God?

HAMILTON, ONT. – After a decade of suffering and personal tragedy, the last thing Maureen Digan had come to expect was a miracle.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Oct. 9 (2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19)

It is often said that we imagine God in our own image and likeness. We think that God shares our likes and dislikes, hatreds and loves, opinions and way of looking at the world. God might even belong to our favourite political party or social class. Throughout the two biblical testaments, God repeatedly demonstrates that this is just not so. God shocks people by violating their opinions and prejudices, and by doing what is unexpected and distressing.

VATICAN CITY – In an effort to ensure transparency as well as historical and scientific accuracy, Pope Francis has approved revised norms for the Congregation for Saints' Causes regarding medical consultations on healings alleged to be miracles.

In the UK, a Catholic teenager is suing his former employer and co-workers for religious aggravated assault. The teenager claims he was subjected to a “mock crucifixion,” tying him from a makeshift wooden cross. The court case addresses other indidents in which his co-workers drew crosses and phallic symbols all over the teenager’s body with permanent marker, setting spray deodorant aflame near his head and giving him a forcible wedgie that caused cuts and bruises.

Thirteenth Sunday Ordinary Time (Year C) June 26 (1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21; Psalm 16; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62)

Many personnel managers would envy Elijah’s situation. God not only told him when it was time to train a successor, but also whom he should choose. Finding Elisha, the designated successor, Elijah threw his mantle over him in a traditional prophetic gesture of selection and empowerment. Elisha’s response was immediate and positive — he was willing, but needed just enough time to say goodbye to his parents. Elijah was rather nonchalant, and indicated that Elisha was a free man and could do as he liked. No one was forcing him to follow in the prophet’s footsteps. Elisha slaughtered the oxen and threw a farewell feast for his family and the people, and then he followed Elijah.