There’s a tension among Christians today between those who would extend God’s mercy everywhere, seemingly without any conditions, and those who are more reticent and discriminating in dispensing it. The tension comes out most clearly in our debates concerning who may receive the sacraments: Who should be allowed to receive the Eucharist? Who should be…
Margaret Atwood once wrote that sometimes a thing needs to be said, and said, and said again, until it doesn’t need to be said anymore. That’s why I write a column annually on suicide, mostly saying the same things over and over again. The hope is that, like a note put into a bottle and…
The Sunday Gospel Mass this Sunday puts aside the purple vestments of Lent and the white vestments of Eastertide as we return to the green of Ordinary Time. We take up from where we left off before Lent with Luke’s Gospel as our guiding light for the rest of the year. There is an old tradition that,…
There are still people everywhere who believe there’s no longer any issue regarding the status of women. Widespread is the belief that today, at least in democratic countries, women enjoy full equality with men. As well, for many, feminism is a bad word, politically charged, representing a radical liberal ideology whose agenda is at odds…
The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is a celebration of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. It is an astounding belief. We would not dare to hold this belief except that it is based on the very words of Jesus himself. “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone…
If we genuinely trust scripture, our own experience, and our own sanity, we can only conclude that God has a sense of humour, and a robust and sneaky one at that. Where’s the evidence? A generation ago, Peter Berger wrote a remarkable little book entitled, A Rumor of Angels. Unlike Aquinas, Anselm, Descartes, and a…
The Sunday Gospel As he was about to ascend to heaven, the Lord Jesus instructed the apostles to go, make disciples of all nations, Baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In those days, baptism meant being immersed in water, plunged into the triune life of…
Farewells can be hard. When we love someone who is going away, there’s always a sadness, and a particularly heart-wrenching one when that loved one is going away in death. Yet, we know from experience that at the end of the day farewells are not so much a death as a transition. One way of…
The Sunday Gospel May I begin by wishing us all a joyful birthday. It is the birthday of the Church, the day when the coming of the Holy Spirit utterly transformed the apostles from being fearful and directionless into a community empowered to carry on the mission of Jesus. Jesus promised them: “when the Advocate comes,…
Not everything can be fixed or cured, but it should be named properly. Richard Rohr said that. James Hillman suggests something similar when he wrote that a symptom suffers most when it doesn’t know where it belongs. Some of these seemingly contradict each other, but all of them merit some thought. I leave them for…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser