Sometime ago I was in conversation with a friend about the Church politics of the day. He said, “Sometimes I look at the people around me and it strikes me that 99 per cent of them know nothing about the Church politics we discuss so passionately. Even if they did, they would not care.” I heard a call to exercise humility and do my best to avoid naval gazing and focus on sharing the Good News with others as witnesses to the love of the Trinitarian God. With all the ink spilled on the synodal process in the universal Church, its call to mission is what I find myself reflecting on most as we enter the third crucial phase of the synodal process: implementation. 

“The game is over. Everyone repeat after me now, the game is over.” I speak with authority in a commanding voice. 40 high school students at the Catholic Leadership Camp in Huntsville repeat after me, “the game is over.” They calm down and we begin to debrief together the chaos of the last hour.

Peter Maurin, from the Catholic Worker movement, was known to proudly assert, “I am a peasant. I have roots.” Most would not share Peter’s pride. Thanks to the Middle Ages and Western pop culture’s treatment of it — the word is considered derogatory. That is something that needs to change. 

When I was 18 years old, we had a Stocking Family reunion in England. It was the first time I met many of my numerous relatives. My father is one of eleven children, spread throughout England, the U.S., and Canada. That was the last time all of them were together in person. Gathered with them were approximately one hundred of their direct descendants. It was a very formative experience for me as a young man. I was recently reading a journal entry I wrote shortly after the reunion ended,

Throughout the month of May, we have been responding to the call from Palestinian Christians to pray and walk in solidarity with them by making a “Ceasefire Pilgrimage” for peace. The idea is that people walk 42 km, either on their own or in combination with others, the distance it takes to traverse the entire length of Gaza. It is an ecumenical effort coordinated in Canada by KAIROS.

This column is a thank-you to 52,629 people — everyone who signed our Stand for the Land campaign letter to the Honduran Ambassador to Canada.  The letter draws the attention of the Government of Honduras to the struggles of people in Guapinol and the San Pedro sector. Since 2015, these communities have been protesting an open-pit iron mine that was irregularly set up in Carlos Escaleras National Park. Their struggle has come at great cost. Community members have been unjustly detained and three have even been murdered. 

We who celebrate Easter are those who have died and risen with our Lord.

The reality of life-giving sacrificial love is at the core of our 2,000-plus year existence as the community of believers. How we are called to live this existence together has been a matter of reflection from the very beginning. The first fruits of this reflection are famously captured in Acts of the Apostles, “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned they held in common” (4:32).

Fr. Michel Cote is a voice for those seeking to be understood — literally. He is a Dominican Friar who has worked for decades as an interpreter. His small business has served virtually every multi-lingual Catholic entity in our country, from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to my own beloved Development & Peace - Caritas Canada. In his great service, it is likely that no other single person in this country has done more to help Catholics understand one another. Global Solidarity is near and dear to his heart. To us he is more than an interpreter, he is our beloved friend and spiritual elder. A humble man, he would balk at the idea of me writing a column about him. So instead of enumerating his many accomplishments, I would like to share the spiritual invitation that I have received from him in the form of a short Lenten reflection.

Each night when I was growing up, my mother would do “prayers & lullabies” with us. One prayer was to recite a simple passage from Scripture. I am quoting my “prayer-memory” here and not the actual Scripture:

The Christmas season is a time of rest for me. To clarify, I mean the Christmas season as we celebrate it in the Catholic Church, from Midnight Mass through to the baptism of the Lord.