Growing numbers of commentators are warning of “a grave danger” to American democracy — the possibility of a civil war or other anti-democratic actions by right-wing extremists aimed at overthrowing the United States government.

It was one of these soft evenings when a gentle snowfall enveloped the drabness of the streets, and with no breeze to speak of, the chill had been taken from the air. As I walked the downtown streets the ancient hymn came to my mind, “See Amid the Winter’s Snow.”

Our world is filled with positive and negative spaces — cracks and openings, fissures and holes. It is human nature to want to fill these spaces, whether through words into silence or action into stillness. How often have we seen someone babbling to fill in an uncomfortable silence, unable to let the stillness take hold?

Missing piece

In his favourable review of the biography of Pope Benedict XVI by Peter Seewald (A Thorough Look at Benedict’s Life, Dec. 19), Ian Hunter admits the biography “does not shed much light” on Benedict’s 2013 resignation. To uncover the truth about this historical event requires more than research. The facts would yield only to the most tenacious and painstaking investigative journalism.

Finalizing a “framework” for a five-year “campaign” to “fundraise” for a cause are hardly the whiz bang motivational words most of us need to roar out of the blocks for 2022. Set alongside, say, “sprinkling pixie dust to miraculously end the pandemic,” they might even appear a little, well, beige.

Around Christmas we often hear about the miracle of God coming to us as a baby. To think of God, the being who is being itself, of whom nothing that exists is higher, made Himself vulnerable and poor. Many scholars think He was born in a cave. It must have been cold as hell.

The day of reckoning is upon us; how can we respond?

Another story

Re: Catholic media must do better on Indigenous file (Dec. 2):

Fr. Raymond de Souza argues convincingly that relying on mainstream media for accurate reporting “is a mistake.” Last May it described the discovery of Indigenous children’s remains at the Kamloops Residential School as a “mass grave.” The terminology was provocative and misleading, suggesting murders with bodies thrown into mass graves. 

It is with some relief that we can soon put 2021 in the proverbial rear-view mirror.