Year: 2018

Today I would like to do something with you to emphasis the personal nature of the Gospel. Today we are going to be Bartimaeus and we are going to meet Jesus. So I want you all to sit back and relax. Take a deep breath. Put aside what you are doing. Leave your cares behind. What would it be like to be Bartimaeus. You are sitting by a roadside. It is hot. There are people around. You are helples...
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I was recently blessed with a beautiful experience. I have had a few like it here in Quesnel, probably the most I have ever had as a priest has been here. A lady called me up and asked me to visit a non-Catholic friend who was dying. She said he was a good man and she asked if I could give him the sacraments of the sick. I asked if he had been baptized but she was not sure. I then asked if he want...
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GK Chesterton, a famous Christian writer and apologist, said, “I know there are many biologists who are trying to make a small camel and many industrialists who are trying to make a large needle.” Once again, we encounter a difficult Gospel. I know we don’t want to think so and we might think I am not rich so this doesn’t apply to me. Well, we are in the one percentile of the world that has all th...
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I am sure that when the readings speak of divorce and remarriage there are many people who cringe. With this world that prizes nonjudgmental talk, sometimes reading the Scriptures makes us scared. I will come across as judgemental if I say something like this. I am sure there are many times when we hear a passage in Scripture and our tendency is to gloss over it or ignore it. It is as though we ar...
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I would like to apologize if you were hurt by the words of my homily last Sunday. After being in Pennsylvania, I feel it may have come across as insensitive and appear that I was trying to justify the abuse or discount it. I guarantee that was not my purpose. I feel terribly sad for the victims of these crimes. It hurts me that the members of the Church failed so badly. I know we have our own vict...
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Today I was reading from the Liturgy of the Hours St Gregory the Great’s homily on the angels. He said that the word angel means messenger. Lesser angels are assigned lesser tasks and great messages are assigned to the Archangels. I thought how it is easy to understand the stories of Michael in the Bible talking to Daniel and casting Satan out of heaven. Further, it is easy to see why the messa...
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A scientist recently published her research. Her research showed some pretty amazing findings. She was looking for the sources of a new phenomenon and that is sudden onset of Gender Dysphoria. That means someone who was, up to a certain point most often their early twenties, female and all of a sudden felt that she was not a girl and that she wanted to be a young man. Her research showed that this...
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I was thinking how fitting the Gospel reading is for us in our times. Today, St Peter rebukes the Lord saying,” Lord, forbid that this happens to you.” It is funny but to this day we still think the same thing, that because God is here, nothing bad is going to happen. We can live sinful lives and as long as we can hide it, as long as it looks good, then everything is good. When one lady went to en...
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General Stonewall Jackson, lying wounded on his bed, was known for his bravery and calm. Even in the thick of the battle, he never seemed to show fear. He was asked what his secret was. He said, “I believe that God has set the hour and manner of my death. I cannot shorten or lengthen it, I can only be prepared for it. That is why I am no more worried in the battlefield or on my bed.” I have dis...
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Today we are called to trust in God like we have never done before. To follow Him with all our hearts and to trust in His plan for us. On the plane ride home, I watched the movie, “Indian Horse,” about a little boy who goes to residential school. The boy, Saul, has a real passion for hockey and a natural skill which he develops, becoming quite good, and then loses it all to alcohol. It shows ma...
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