Category Archives: Faith

October 3, 2026 · 9:28 pm

200 Years of Grace

We recently participated in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Lacombe Canada Province 2026 Convocation. It was held in St. Albert, AB to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the approval of their Order’s Rules and Constitution. Marie and I are Oblate Associates through our work at the Galilee Retreat Centre in Arnprior.

A convocation is essentially a gathering or assembly of people for a particular purpose.

Listening for the Spirit

In the Oblate context it means something more specific: a gathering of Oblates, Associates, lay collaborators, and others connected with the Oblate mission to:

  • come together as a community
  • pray and worship
  • listen to one another
  • reflect on the state and future of the Oblate mission
  • discern where the Holy Spirit may be leading the community
  • identify new directions or priorities

So it is more than a conference or meeting. “Convocation” carries the sense of being called together.

The word comes from Latin convocare — “to call together.”

We were being invited to discern what God might be calling the Oblate family toward now, and what part, if any, we are personally being called to play.

It was a transformational experience that we both really enjoyed. We made new friends, renewed old acquaintances and it was also hard work at our tables.

Fr. David from Kenya

There were many enriching highlights apart from the superb hospitality. Attending Sacred Heart Church of the First People’s on the Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Another was visiting Mission Hill in St. Albert where Fr. Albert Lacombe ministered to the Cree and Blackfeet in the 19th century.

And the gala banquet with no less than 4 Bishops in attendance was indeed special.

But best of all was the singing and dancing!

Dave and Marie

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August 13, 2026 · 3:24 pm

The Human Condition

Pelagius courtesy of Wikipedia

In reading Henry Chadwick’s The Early Church, I was amazed by the Augustine – Pelagius clash in the 4th century CE over the human condition – whether or not people are guilty of original sin and able to affect their own salvation through free choice (by being good). In order to fully extinguish this heresy, Augustine said that we are all guilty of original sin (due to Adam’s fall) and that God then chooses the elect who will be saved. We have nothing at all to do with it.

Yes this is predestination folks. But in the modern Catholic version of this, we are indeed born into the fallen human condition and God offers his grace to us so if we turn to him and cooperate, we will be redeemed. Somewhat of a compromise. What makes some people decide to cooperate and others not? Free will I suppose.

Here is an essay I asked ChatGPT to write on the human condition.

I guess in the end, I side with the modern Catholic version of this – it’s impossible for a person to lead a sin free life so we need and must cooperate with God’s grace in order to be saved. What do you think?

Augustine of Hippo courtesy of Wikipedia

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August 7, 2026 · 1:31 am

The Tragedy of St. John Chrysostom

This posting is about St. John Chrysostom the saint, not the parish which we attend in Arnprior.

I was aware that St. John Chrysostom was known as the golden-mouthed preacher, but I never knew his life could be framed as a tragedy. This is the title of a chapter in Henry Chadwick’s densely written book The Early Church. A summary of St. John at the back of our church does not mention the word tragedy but acknowledges he ran afoul of the authorities. I’ve also used Masterpieces in Catholic Literature edited by Frank Magill as a source for this material.

St. John Chrysostom born in Antioch, became a monk in the Syrian desert in 374 CE. After injuring himself through mortifications, he returned as a deacon and then presbyter (priest) to Antioch and applied his oratorical skills from the pulpit for which he had been well trained by Libanius a pagan Greek teacher of rhetoric.

He soon developed a large following after giving a series of sermons starting in 386 CE. He defied the political and religious leaders of his time by preaching against extreme wealth and lax morals. So it was quite surprising that after Archbishop Nectarius of Constantinople died in 397, John was literally physically kidnapped and appointed Archbishop in the capital by the court.

Statue of St John Chrysostom in our church

John was a man of many outstanding qualities, but in some respects ill fitted to be bishop of an affluent city filled with gossip and intrigue. John was ascetic, aloof, energetic and outspoken to the point of indiscretion, especially when he became excited in the pulpit. The rich resented as a personal affront his socialist sermons explaining that private property only existed as a result of Adam’s fall, or pillorying those who cared nothing for beggars at their door and wanted only to own 10 fine houses with hundreds of servants and lavatories of gold.

He offended men by by repeatedly proclaiming that a woman had as much right to demand fidelity from her husband as a man had of his wife. His unsparing sarcasms about feminine luxuries were not relished by ladies of high fashion.

Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria who had tried to install his own candidate in Constantinople, was annoyed with John’s sheltering of l50 monks who supported Origenism. Joining with Empress Eudoxia whose extravagant and luxurious lifestyle came under public criticism after John compared her to Jezebel, the two brought about the conviction of John on charges of immorality and treason in 403 CE.

Image by ChatGPT

John was deposed and exiled but the very next day, an earthquake damaged the capital which was seen as a bad omen. The empress ordered his return and there was much rejoicing. But John continued to criticize the empress and other segments of the nobility. He was once again banished in 404 and died in exile 3 years later at the age of 60.

He is honoured as a saint and doctor of the Catholic Church and as a Holy Father and Ecumenical Teacher in the Eastern Church. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is the standard Eucharistic liturgy celebrated on most Sundays and feast days in the Byzantine tradition.

So there you have it, the tragedy of St. John Chrysostom.

Image by ChatGPT

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May 28, 2026 · 11:00 pm

Holy Land – Days 1-2

We leave Ottawa in a small snow squall. Toronto is clear and we meet our group. We are being accompanied by Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie, OMI and Fr Susai Jesu, OMI‎. Our tour provider Maria Drueco is also with us. We are a group of 28 pilgrims. Mostly from Edmonton but some from Sask and Manitoba.

‎A small mishap. John and Christine from Arnprior board an earlier flight to Toronto. When they get to the gate for Tel Aviv, their bags have apparently not made it to this flight. After a tense search everything is resolved. A smooth flight to Tel Aviv on Air Canada in their newest B787 Dreamliner.

Leaving the plane, another mishap. Marie inadvertently leves her wallet on the plane. After another tense wait, they find it and bring it to her. Hey, we are pilgrims and these things happen.

We head for Nazareth with a tall concrete wall on our right separating the Jewish State of Israel from the Palestinian West Bank settlements. There are gaps so it seems artificial and not needed but this is Israel we learn.

Our hotel is comfortable. Nazareth‎ is very hilly and a large city. Much bigger than in Jesus time. The streets are narrow. We stop for a chicken shawarma sandwich lunch, yum.  As we leave the restaurant, the call to Muslim worship sounds. A man looks at me and says to slow down. It’s time to pray. I say we heard this too in Istanbul. He says that is a good place.

That night we celebrate Mass and enjoy awonderful buffet dinner complete with humus, mediteranean style lamb stew, beef, roast chicken and dozens of sauces and spices.
We sleep and sleep at last. Thanks be to God for this pilgrimage and safe journey.

Dave and Marie

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April 18, 2026 · 2:44 pm

Silence

This 1966 book by Japanese author Shusako Endo reads like a theological thriller. It tells a very graphic story of two Jesuit priests who go to Japan in 1640 in search of their former teacher and superior who has apparently apostatized and disappeared. Christianity was banned in Japan from 1614 to 1853. They will be at extreme personal risk should they go there.

And of course they go and are caught after a Judas type figure they had befriended turns them in. They are locked up after ministering to local Catholics who were worshiping in secret ever since St. Francis Xavier landed there in 1549. The story explains in graphic detail how these poor Christian peasants were tortured unless they would apostatize. They were told to stomp on a fumie, a small image of Christ or Mary set on the ground, and to say that they renounce the faith. If they refused to do this, torture usually until death would follow.

A fumie

One of the priests dies along the way and the other eventually meets up with the apostatized former superior. Initially full of disdain for him thinking that he had apostatized to avoid suffering, he is more determined than ever that he himself will never do the same and instead will die a martyr’s death.

However, he is put into an moral and theological dilemma by the crafty authorities. I will not tell you the details or how it ends. The principal question Endo explores is where is God when innocent people suffer and secondly, what does faith mean when God is silent.

Among the most difficult of questions to answer in the Christian faith. Endo leaves us with the notion that even though God does not intervene to change outcomes, He still maybe present in compassion, weakness and endurance. And furthermore, mercy trumps faith in our lived experience.

Monument to the 26 Christian Martyrs killed in Nagaski in 1597

Extremely controversial, Pope Francis recommended the novel as a serious exploration of faith under extreme human suffering. I rate this book 10/10. A must read for serious Catholics. There is also a 2016 Martin Scorsese motion picture of the same name that I would love to see sometime.

When Emperor Meiji opened up Japan to the world allowing Christianity in 1853, the returning missionaries found a large number of Christians still worshipping in secret there after nearly 250 years!

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July 26, 2025 · 4:49 pm

The Galilee Centre of Arnprior

The Galilee Centre in Arnprior is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It continues to nourish our spirits after 15 years of involvment there.

At a time of daily world upheaval, Galilee continues to provide a quiet place where I can seek the truth about God, my relationships, my life and myself. Many religious retreat houses have closed due to lack of staff, aging infrastructure and changing world views. Not so Galilee. They have found a way to keep going due to the dedication and hard work of their leadership and staff as well as the support of fellow truth seekers. I am truly grateful.

Galilee front lawn view of the Ottawa River

As I had not been on a retreat in about 5 years, I recently signed up for one there on the spiritual writings of Thomas Merton. Entitled Adjusting Your Life’s Vision by authors at the Merton Institute of a series of Merton guide books entitled Bridges to Contemplative Living.

Contemplative living is defined as a way of responding to our everyday experiences by consciously attending to our relationships. It deepens our awareness of our connectedness and communion with others, becomes a positive force of change in our lives, and provides meaningful direction to our journey and sense of well being. (p. 6, Introduction).

Thomas Merton at Gethsemani Monastery

Well it worked. I came away feeling very connected, enriched and renewed with energy and peace. The mystery of hospitality, becoming an instrument of reconciliation and finding our place in God’s scheme of things were some of the topics we explored, There was rich sharing among the participants, many of whom came from afar.

So thumbs up rather than elbows up after a great retreat. Cannot recommend the Galilee Centre enough: their hospitality, their programs their retreats, their community. Hope to see you too there soon.

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April 14, 2025 · 8:42 pm

Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary

In 1957 or 58, I briefly attended Hilson Ave Public School in Ottawa’s west end near Island Park Drive. We were living on nearby Northwestern Ave while our new house on Georgina Dr further west was being completed. I was in grade 2 or 3.

After school I would walk home east along the sidewalk. I remember very clearly a tall stone wall that sheltered some kind of institution behind. You could not see anything at all – just the big wall. I remember wondering who is in there and what are they doing? It was a big mystery until recently.

The other day I drove by. The area has been developed now, the wall is gone and you can walk right up beside what I have since learned was the Monastery of the Visitation of Holy Mary. It’s very interesting history is documented here.

Wow, a cloistered group of nuns – as many as 60 of them – spent their whole adult life in total silence, dedicated to the love of God. In today’s secular world, it is hard to believe that just a generation ago, religion was that strongly embedded in our culture and that many of these places existed and thrived.

I found an absolutely fascinating video where in 1981, local journalist Charlotte Gobeil visited the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood contemplative monastery also in Ottawa, to show to the outside world what these sisters’ life was like. A little long, and sometimes awkward due to the language issues, it is well worth the watch here.

All this makes me wonder how important religion still is to Canadians. Very much so it seems when it comes to baptisms, weddings and funerals. Less so in terms of regular church attendance. Religion is largely a private affair in Canada and nowhere as culturally embedded or as participatory as it is in Mexico where there are religious festivals, shrines and images everywhere.

The Sisters of the Visitation of Mary were a beautiful Order but largely gone now. But so too is that wall. Hopefully the site will be preserved.

The Elms Villa dating from 1865 with the Monastery behind dating from 1913

Here is some additional info: Here

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April 13, 2025 · 4:13 pm

The Path is Made in Walking

I am posting this link to series of blogs in 2013 in France and Spain I wrote entitled The Path is Made in Walking: click here.

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September 22, 2024 · 6:22 pm

Season of Creation Eucharistic Celebration

We attended this annual outdoor Mass again thanks to our awareness of it through the Galilee Centre in Arnprior and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was jointly sponsored by St. Basil’s RC Parish and the Kateri Native Ministry in Ottawa. It was truly a wonderful and moving Eucharistic celebration.

The location is at Naatagama Camp, a rustic undeveloped property owned by Kateri beside the Ottawa River right near the Quyon ferry terminal. As a boy I remember attending one or more events here when it was a Cubs camp property in the early 60s. It hasn’t changed much since then. Quiet, simple, relaxed and beautiful.

The Mass was co-celebrated by Fr. Eric Sorensen, SJ (on right below) and Fr. Daryold Winkler (on left) of St. Basil’s who himself is Indigenous from Manitoulin Island, Ontario.

The Season of Creation is a proclaimed annual time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation, that was initiated in 1981 by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I. It is now celebrated around the world by many Christian communities and resonates well with Indigenous respect for the Creator and nature. It is something that we do not hear much about in our local parish.

On a beautiful sunny day about 100 people celebrated Mass, initiated with a purification smudging and included singing, a dance followed by a picnic lunch. The readings were particularly poignant and resonated with me in a many ways:

Job 12:7-10

But ask the animals and they will teach you. Or the birds of the air and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth and it will teach you. Or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord had done this? In God’s hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all humankind.

Romans 8: 19-25, 28

All of creation waits with eager longing for God to reveal his sons. Yes there was hope that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know up to the present time, all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his sons and daughters and set our whole being free. For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. We know in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

Matthew 6: 25-29

And this is what I tell you: do not be worried by the food and drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn’t life worth more than food? And isn’t the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds: they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it? And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.

I thought the event was very well organized and that it was a privilege to be there. A moving spiritual journey.

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June 28, 2023 · 6:30 pm

Book Report -The Quest for a Moral Compass

This is a remarkable book. Not because the author tells us what is right and wrong but because he explains what it is to be human, what humans should be and the relationship between the two, according to the world’s greatest philosophers, theologians and moral thinkers over time. If you have ever wanted to better understand what Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Erasmus, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Mohammed, Marx, Lao Tzu, Hegel, Locke, Kant and Buddha to name a few were trying to say about who we are and how we should live, this is the book for you.

Malik exposes their contributions, contradictions, strengths and weaknesses in layman language using well reasoned argument and humour to get at the way they saw how humans are and the way (at least some of them) thought we ought to be. The way we think about moral issues has changed over time due to social change, history and different cultural perspectives. Think about the moralistic changes you have seen in your own lifetime. We are polarized between those that subscribe to rules based morals as in the monotheistic religions and those what believe we can get at what is right and wrong by using reason and science. Another trending view is that there is no objective moral code at all and that all morals are simply a matter of personal “preference”.

And he writes this book in a way as you read it you think, OK this is his favorite thinker e.g., Hegel, wow. But then he goes on in equally exuberant detail about the next thinker e.g, Nietzche only to expose his limitations and shortcomings too. Malik has no favorite thinker it seems – it is the depth and breadth of his coverage which is simply amazing.

In reading this book I discovered a couple of interesting subjects I wish to follow up on. The first is that of the largest successful slave rebellion the world has ever seen led by Toussaint L’Ouverature in 1696 Santo Domingo (Haiti). A book written years ago about this subject is now high on my list to read: The Black Jacobins. Author Malik says this rebellion was the kernel of anti-colonialism still unfolding today and is as equally as important as the French and American revolutions.

A more recent subject Malik addresses was a book written about dozen years ago entitled When China Rules the World. According to the author Martin Jacques, China is a “civilization” not a nation state, is firmly grounded in its history, has the world’s most competent government with the strongest support and has very different views of how “democracy” should work. We tend to judge China using our western lens assuming that it will become more western. Not true according to the book’s author. It is the world that will become more Chinese as China (and India) assume more global leadership and control in the not too distant future. Perhaps China is not the rogue state we have been led to believe it is. Intriguing indeed.

Just a couple of examples of how stimulating and enjoyable a read this was for me. I rate The Quest for a Moral Compass 5 full stars and will likely read it again.

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