Pope Francis died on Monday. Not being Roman Catholic, his death didn’t impact me emotionally, but it brought back memories of 2018, when I heard him speak in St Peter’s Square. It was Easter Sunday morning, the annual Urbe et Orbe (City and the World) sermon, kind of like an American State of the Union […]

Found this online. I haven’t had to do this since my daughter moved out and took the cats with her. I don’t miss them.

Canadians go to the polls in a federal election next Monday. A record number turned out at the advance polls this holiday weekend. Nobody knows if that is good or bad, but it shows interest in the election. The Prime Minister has been saying that Canada faces the biggest crisis of our lifetimes. I thought […]

Five years ago they tried to cancel Easter. Well, not really, but the COVID-19 precautions were extreme and certainly church services were canceled. But where we were they didn’t stay canceled, and people found a way to celebrate. This post is from April 19, 2020. For those in the Orthodox and Coptic traditions (and a […]

I have been mostly absent here the past couple of months. I have rarely been so busy – explanation coming soon. But I can’t let Good Friday pass without comment, so here’s what I wrote in 2019. How is it possible to believe, how can anyone believe without fear and trembling that all of God […]

I’ve seen this floating around social media a few times this past week. If you are Canadian you are smiling when you see these iconic images. Mind you, everyone’s experience of a country and culture is different. I haven’t asked my wife if she can name what all four of these are – but if […]

Even in Canada we don’t expect to wake up to a winter wonderland on April 8.

Looks to me a lot like hubris, that excessive pride in your accomplishments. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a federal election for April 28. I think his Liberal Party is going to lose, and, if it does, Carney will enter the history books as Canada’s shortest serving Prime Minister. Probably not how he […]

This showed up in my Facebook feed one of those algorithm things I guess. If you don’t understand the allegory, ask yourself if perhaps you may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. We’ve been neighbors for years. We’ve always gotten along. A few years back we agreed to plant some […]

President Trump does not seem to notice or care that if you betray people, or jerk them around, they will revile you. Over the last few weeks, the Europeans have gone from shock to bewilderment to revulsion. This period was for them what 9/11 was for us – the stripping away of illusions, the exposure […]