Almost exactly eleven years ago, my grandmother passed away; she would have turned one hundred years old just ten days ago. When she died, I travelled to my hometown to attend her funeral. As we were getting ready to walk to the chapel for the Requiem Mass, the parish priest suddenly asked me to deliver a sermon. We need to…

What do Taiwan, Ukraine, and Greenland have in common? All three have faced serious threats of forceful acquisition by more powerful neighbours. In Ukraine, this threat has unfortunately manifested itself militarily, resulting in an unimaginable death toll and suffering for its population. Each country shares a common desire among their respective populations to prosper as democratic countries, guided by the…

A wee boy in the church was watching the priest, who had raised his arm and shown the congregation a white circular thing held in his hand. When the priest said, “This is the Lamb of God”, the boy spontaneously thought that that thing wasn’t a lamb and didn’t even resemble it by any stretch of the imagination. Several decades…

“A baptism of fire” is a phrase widely used to describe a difficult introduction to a new job or activity. It’s been our collective “baptism of fire” in reverse over the last week or so. We were still wishing each other “a happy New Year” when it greeted us with heavy and frequent snowfalls. The initial winter wonderland quickly turned…