FAITH/STORIES
{mosimage}PICKERING, Ont. - You can’t keep your faith if you don’t deepen it. A paper-thin faith just gets thinner, until there’s nothing left to hold onto. So Alice Quigley has been diligently deepening her faith with annual retreats at Manresa Spiritual Renewal Centre in Pickering for the last 36 years.
When the 75-year-old Quigley made her first retreat in 1973 she was a woman just beginning to catch her breath at the tail end of more than 20 years of full-bore motherhood — four girls and a boy. Her oldest was just about to get married. She still had three teenagers and one pre-teen at home, but she was beginning to feel a little freedom coming on.
When the 75-year-old Quigley made her first retreat in 1973 she was a woman just beginning to catch her breath at the tail end of more than 20 years of full-bore motherhood — four girls and a boy. Her oldest was just about to get married. She still had three teenagers and one pre-teen at home, but she was beginning to feel a little freedom coming on.
{mosimage}TORONTO - A little prayer, a little penitence and a little preparation are all on their way to tens of thousands of Canadian living rooms.
The National Catholic Broadcasting Council will again present the annual National Catholic Mission on Vision TV April 6 and 7. Check local listings for times in your area.
The National Catholic Broadcasting Council will again present the annual National Catholic Mission on Vision TV April 6 and 7. Check local listings for times in your area.
{mosimage}Eleven days into a 48-day fast, Jesuit Father John McCarthy was feeling pretty good.
“I haven’t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,” McCarthy told The Catholic Register from Corner Brook, Nfld. “But in terms of energy level and everything else — well, it’s only 11 days.”
That is 11 days living on nothing but water and juice. McCarthy never liked V8 juice, but he’s acquiring a taste for the low-sodium variety. The most substantial thing he drinks is Sunkist strawberry and banana smoothies. He’s going through a fair amount of cranberry juice. He doesn’t have a blender.
“I haven’t noticed anything yet, other than a bit of weight loss,” McCarthy told The Catholic Register from Corner Brook, Nfld. “But in terms of energy level and everything else — well, it’s only 11 days.”
That is 11 days living on nothing but water and juice. McCarthy never liked V8 juice, but he’s acquiring a taste for the low-sodium variety. The most substantial thing he drinks is Sunkist strawberry and banana smoothies. He’s going through a fair amount of cranberry juice. He doesn’t have a blender.
Taizé spirituality brings calm in chaotic world
By Myles Gough, The Catholic Register
{mosimage}{mosimage}TORONTO - Finding peace amid the stress of a big city is not always easy. Cars honk and screech in rush-hour traffic, subways rumble beneath concrete sidewalks, cellphones ring with increasing regularity and the to-do list never ends.
“It’s a crazy and chaotic world,” said Lindsay Moore.
Moore, a youth minister at Toronto’s Holy Rosary parish, is the lead organizer of an event, however, which she believes will help people escape the chaos of urban life, if only for a few hours.
“It’s a crazy and chaotic world,” said Lindsay Moore.
Moore, a youth minister at Toronto’s Holy Rosary parish, is the lead organizer of an event, however, which she believes will help people escape the chaos of urban life, if only for a few hours.
Music ministry all in the family
By Carolyn Girard, The Catholic Register
TORONTO - Between “rock concerts for God” and their work in integrating special needs kids with their peers, the members of the Blue Veil ministry have had a busy life the past two years, catching the attention of students and faculty at Ontario Catholic schools from London to Oshawa.
Blue Veil is a non-profit, non-denominational, Toronto-based charity — the creation of executive director Cris Smith and half of her eight children: Jeff, 28, Phill, 26, Donny, 24 and now David, 20.
Blue Veil is a non-profit, non-denominational, Toronto-based charity — the creation of executive director Cris Smith and half of her eight children: Jeff, 28, Phill, 26, Donny, 24 and now David, 20.
Christians need to understand Jewish roots
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
{mosimage}TORONTO - The Catholic Church officially repudiated anti-Jewish teaching and predatory proselytizing of Jews 43 years ago. While violence against Jews, graffiti on synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish cemeteries are still realities in Toronto, such incidents cannot be associated with teaching — official or unofficial — in the Catholic Church. In today’s Toronto, the Muslim community is now about twice as numerous as the Jews and it’s both the integration of Muslims in Canada and armed conflict in Muslim countries around the world that grab headlines.
So who cares about Catholic-Jewish relations?
So who cares about Catholic-Jewish relations?
Fine line between politics and faith
By Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register
{mosimage}TORONTO - When he was 23, Liberal Party candidate Gerard Kennedy read Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum, touted as the document marking the birth of Catholic social teaching.
In it, the pope wrote about the church’s duty to intervene in social matters and help the poor, as well as the state’s responsibility to help those who suffered the most from the economic system.
In it, the pope wrote about the church’s duty to intervene in social matters and help the poor, as well as the state’s responsibility to help those who suffered the most from the economic system.
Ancient prayer draws new interest in Canada
By Sheila Dabu Nonato, The Catholic Register{mosimage}ACTON, Ont. - Lee Anne Berry calls herself a “lamb seeker.”
Berry, a retired special needs educational assistant, is a member of the contemplative prayer group the Intercessors of the Lamb and leads the group in Acton, west of Toronto. Berry said she named her group the “lamb seekers” because she and her group members want to bring those who are lost back to God through intercessory prayer.
Christian voice can be heard
By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register
{mosimage}TORONTO - If they were not vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience most members of the Canadian Religious Conference’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation network would be retired, smiling, pleasant, mild-mannered grandparents.
Evangelization gets a (Second) Life
By Peter Kavanagh, Catholic Register Special{mosimage}Missionaries are all around us, on our streets, in advertisements and infomercials, during the occasional sermon or special parish appeals. And from time to time missionaries make the news. Sometimes dramatically as in the case of the Korean young adults seized off a treacherous highway in Afghanistan and only released after weeks of captivity and serial deaths.
In search of answered prayers
By Catholic Register StaffRoman Catholic journalist James Risdon is launching a Canada-wide appeal for examples of answered prayers. He hopes that people will write to him with their testimonials, which will serve as material for the book he is writing.
TV Mass allows shut-ins a chance to participate
By Catholic Register Staff
{mosimage}TORONTO - For the past 21 years people from all walks of life in the Greater Toronto Area have enjoyed Sunday morning Mass from the comfort of their own home.
Changing paths on the road to the priesthood
By Catholic Register Staff
TORONTO - Two years ago Ignacio Pinedo was to be ordained a missionary priest with the Scarboro Missions religious community based in Toronto, but close to his ordination date the superior asked him to take some time off to discern his call.