Have you heard of “The Warning” (aka “The Illumination of Consciences”)?

When the Russian dissident and author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet empire in 1974, he wrote a famous exhortation to his countrymen entitled “Live Not By Lies.” Solzhenitsyn spent years doing hard labour in prison camps, survived and dared to write about his experience in The Gulag Archipelago. Not only did he write his own story, but he gathered and recounted the tragic stories of those who didn’t make it out alive.

I love hell. Let me qualify that. Hell is a great motivator, perhaps the greatest motivator. But shouldn’t love be our greatest motivation? Certainly, but hell is a great backup when we’re feeling less than virtuous.

Although I don’t feel qualified to speak to the ongoing revelations of life and death at Canada’s residential schools, I would still like to weigh in, and to express my sorrow.

Catchy slogans are fun and helpful: shorthand for complex concepts — except when they’re not.

Parents generally loathe having “the sex talk” with their children. Today they will also need to have “the gender talk.” Let me explain.

Seeing as this is the wonderful year of the wonderful St. Joseph, I shall diverge from my usually grim cultural commentary and instead celebrate the greatest saint in Heaven after Our Lady!

I recently gave a virtual commencement speech at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry’s Bay, Ont. Incidentally, OLSW (as it shall henceforth be abbreviated) is one of only two Canadian Catholic colleges or universities on the prestigious Newman Guide of the Cardinal Newman Society.

When one hears about a new “Christian” or “Catholic” film, one usually emits an audible groan. Why so? Because — horrifyingly and too often accurately — “Christian” or “Catholic” film is synonymous with “poor quality” and “preachy.”

The Church loves you, single people!