Arts
Hope rises that papal encyclical on environment will address vitality of water sources
IQUITOS, Peru - As floodwaters rose with heavy rains in this Amazonian city, Graciela Tejada and her neighbours found greasy slaughterhouse offal, human feces and used hypodermic needles floating practically to their doorsteps.
Call to action on the environment
Now is the time Catholics need to prepare for a new urgency and a new way of thinking about our tradition and the natural world. We have to claim a new or renewed intimacy with creation.
Bringing the human back into hospital design
TORONTO - People go to hospital in the hope of feeling better. But if patients are welcomed into a forbidding, institutional room with a strange bed, fluorescent lights and cold, hard floor, what then?
A simple formula for those who struggle with prayer
3 Moments of the Day by Christopher S. Collins, S.J. (Ave Maria Press, 138 pages, softcover $17.60).
Prayer is a conversation with God — but are we delivering a one-way monologue? It can sometimes be difficult to hear God in prayer. However, 3 Moments of the Day presents a refreshingly simple, straightforward method to help us encounter God not only in prayer but throughout the day.
Antigonish from the sinner’s eye
The Canny Scot: Archbishop James Morrison of Antigonish, by Peter Ludlow (McGill-Queens University Press, 352 pages, hardcover, $34.95).
For those of us interested in how Church social action really happens, Peter Ludlow has written a fascinating, accessible, full-length biography of Archbishop James Morrison, one of the most important Canadian bishops of the 20th century.
Make room for God in the man cave
While many men spend time in their man cave drinking beer and watching sports, Todd Stahl would rather pass his time in male solitude with devotions and self-reflection.
God plants the idea, author writes about it
Irish Beth Maddock says she gets a lot of calls from God late at night or early in the morning. It is during these quiet hours of the night she “downloads” the ideas God plants in her mind.
Road travelled to who I am
The Man Who Learned to Walk Three Times by Peter Kavanagh (Knopf Canada, hard cover, 257 pages, $29.95).
In a poem by the English poet Ted Hughes, a hawk contemplates its physical form: “It took the whole of creation to produce my foot, my each feather; now I hold creation in my foot.”
Wills’ future stuck in the past
The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis by Garry Wills. (Penguin, 288 pages, hardcover, $32.95)
At first glance, Garry Wills’ latest book might appear to offer insight into the life and intentions of Pope Francis. But anyone familiar with Wills’ polarizing views might well guess that is not the case. He does discuss Pope Francis — in the introduction and in the epilogue — but his treatment of the Pope is minimal.
In paintings, Syrian artist shows the pain war has caused his country
WASHINGTON - The sad realities of Syria's civil war permeate the paintings of Essa Neima, a 34-year-old Syrian national.
At a recent exhibit, his oil on acrylic works ranged from depictions of damaged church and mosque mosaics, to a broken icon of Mary and a refugee woman forced into servitude by the need to survive.
Play brings to life impact of residential schools
TORONTO - Highly acclaimed First Nations playwright Drew Hayden Taylor is bringing a poignant play to Toronto about a dark part of Canadian history.
Long-dormant oratorio reborn in Toronto
TORONTO - The first and last time the Judith oratorio was heard by an audience was in 1888 in Birmingham, England. It was written by one of Britain’s best-loved composers of the time, Hubert Parry, and was well-received by the critics of the era. But then the work fell into obscurity.
To Sr. Pacatte, it's all about the story
TORONTO - Sr. Rose Pacatte is first and foremost a storyteller. In her 47 years as a Daughter of St. Paul, she has great stories about answering her call to consecrated life, the joy she shares with her fellow sisters and the opportunities her congregation has given her.