Imagine you are arriving early for a Friday-night youth event at a nearby Catholic parish. The youth minister is busy strumming the three chords of his newly created worship song, so you strike up a conversation with the longtime parish youth coordinator, Joan, a former nun who has never had a job, nor a life,…
“Frankly, this song scares me to death.” —Harry Chapin explaining his song “Cat’s in the Cradle”[i] At the school where I teach, I routinely take my baseball glove and go to the grade five playground at recess. In doing so, I have drawn the interest of several boys. These boys have started bringing gloves to…
Pope Francis left another trail of confusion and frustration with his May 23 homily to the 21st general assembly of Caritas Internationalis. In it, Pope Francis explained that, among other things, Christ did not want the Church to be a perfect model and that the apostles “did not need a bunch of doctrines and traditions,”…
May 19, 2012 was a historic day for staff and former students of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College (located in Barry’s Bay, Ontario). On that day, the college rejoiced to see alumnus Kenneth Walker ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. Father Walker was the first alumnus…
I was driving to attend a 9:00 A.M. traditional Latin Mass with my family recently. Ordinarily, the trip is exciting for us. My wife and I love the anticipation of attending a prayerful Mass. My boys like that they can listen to audio books during the trip, and then be sprinkled with holy water during…
Near the end of the last academic year, the school I teach at was perplexed. Datasets, and even the general feel of the school, revealed that our students were struggling. Academic success was decreasing. Anxiety was rising. Administrators and teachers alike were puzzled as to why this was happening. As a grade five teacher, I…
Suppose a man was presented the opportunity to live a double life filled with both esteem and vice, dignity and debauchery. Would the man jump at the chance? Glaucon, in Plato’s Book II of the Republic, argues that if a just man held possession of an invisible ring, he would undoubtedly live only for self-seeking pleasure and power. On…
If nothing else, the pontificate of Pope John XXIII was optimistic in mindset. When asked why he called the Second Vatican Council, John allegedly replied, “I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in.” At his opening address for the Council, he then derided critics who…
Author Martin Mosebach, who is not a fan of interrupting sacrosanct actions, suggests in The Heresy of Formlessness that the priest’s sermon metaphorically rends the liturgical garment in two. Mass begins with what is sacred, gets abruptly disconnected by human speech from the sermon, then resumes with the sacred mysteries. As Mosebach explains, “when the…
I grew up with a deep affection for the pope. My childhood featured Pope John Paul II, and my siblings and I learned to love and appreciate him for being a bold defender of the Catholic faith. Indeed, the pope’s portrait was hung prominently in our home. His Koran-kissing, or further, his appointments of kissing…
You will often hear from people who lived through the “great” post-Vatican II reform of the Mass that, despite the loss of reverence and sharp drop in attendance, it was good to have the Mass in the vernacular. Surely, understanding what goes on in the Mass is important. Yet, surprisingly to some, understanding every prayer…
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