Hope.  Is there anything this world needs more?  With violence, atrocities and natural disasters filling the news every day, it sometimes feels hopeless and unbearable.  No wonder Pope Francis called for a Jubilee year of hope.  We need it.  No wonder he called for 2024 to be a year of prayer, to open our hearts to the possibility of hope.  “2024 will be dedicated to a great symphony of prayer”, he wrote.  “First of all, to recover the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and adore him.  To put the need for a profound relationship with the Lord back at the centre of people’s lives.”

My mother liked to recall walking to Midnight Mass under the moon on the cold, clear December night when, for the first time in history, people were “up” there.  That Christmas Eve, three humans circled the moon 10 times, broadcasting back home a reading from the book of Genesis.  As my mother noted, the moon would never be the same again, nor would the earth, now that humans—accustomed to looking out from our planet at other heavenly bodies—arrestingly beheld a view of the earth from somewhere else.  As the astronaut who snapped the “Earthrise” photograph on that mission noted, they’d trained and prepared to explore the moon, but instead discovered Earth.

I am bringing you good news of great joy.

Luke 2:10

We approach the time of year when many are engaged in seasonal preparations, especially mailing the annual Christmas card. There are a number of stories about the first such card. One that resonates with me is about Henry Cole who, in 1843, was reportedly the first person to issue premade cards in volume. Cole was prodigiously popular at a time when one could not leave correspondence unanswered. Feeling the pressure of the season to respond to his army of friends, he commissioned what we would now call a traditional card, printed on hard cardboard stock, with the greeting, ‘A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year To You.’ The story is he had at least a thousand printed.

My favourite book is “The Wound and the Gift,” the biography of Scottish poet and novelist George Mackay Brown. His poetry and novels were written with a sensitivity that was able to look beyond the wound, to see the gift within; a gift that often contributed to the person’s woundedness. 

When I was a kid, my brother came home from Catholic summer camp singing a dirge that went like this: “Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you; seems like they have nothing else to do.” 

The Gospel for the feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe calls us to enter the kingdom of truth. As his death drew near, Jesus said to Pilate, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18.37)

Last week, our American brothers and sisters went to the polls to choose the next president of the United States. Within the coming year, Canadian Catholics will also be called to cast ballots for their party of choice in the next federal election. But which candidate should they choose?

During this month when Roman Catholics mark the month of the Holy Souls death is perhaps more top of mind for many of us as we remember our family members and friends who have died. What is our attitude to death in the 21st century Church? Does it remain faithful to a view of death that is illumined by the light of Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross and His resurrection on the third day? Or, have we come to understand death in a distorted way, shorn of its salvific character? I recently explored these questions in my latest missive to a network of pastors I regularly write to through my work at the Christian think tank Cardus. The following is drawn from that text:

We often think of faith as belief or trust, which it is, but have you ever thought of faith as endurance? I’m beginning to think endurance and perseverance are a big part of the faith picture. Let’s begin with this bracing statement: “When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials.” Yikes! Why is that? It’s the mystery of the Cross. 

Farley Magee was the musical leader for years at the Sunday services of Inner City Pastoral Ministry (ICPM), the ecumenical group that serves the beautiful and broken people who populate downtown Edmonton.

Farley died Oct. 11, and his memorial service 17 days later packed the basement of Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples, the church visited by Pope Francis last year on his journey of reconciliation. Farley was a gentle, beloved soul whose difficult life can bring some understanding of those without homes.