I was first moved this season by a Christmas carol at Blaise and Acadia’s school Winter Celebration a couple weeks ago where home schoolers presented their various talents of martial arts, dancing, singing, comedy, sketches, and playing instruments. Two young brothers played their violin and piano duet of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Still reeling from … [Read more…]
Lots of politics lately. War. Guns. Refugees. Women’s rights. Climate Change. Racism. All of it explodes on Facebook and traditional news. I find most of the time the issues are incredibly complex with stakeholders on all sides. I have Facebook friends on most of these sides too. Then there’s me. I’m a teacher. I work … [Read more…]
Archbishop Lazar Puhalo presents us with what is really a pastoral book on the care of sinners. He tells us the reason for helping ministers make the connection between sin and the mind (or more specifically the brain) is to ensure that confessors are not neglected, mistreated, or exorcised when they might need a referral … [Read more…]
I found this book (Something Beautiful for God: The Classic Account of Mother Teresa’s Journey into Compassion) at the Calgary Reads Book Sale in early summer. I’ve always been fascinated with Malcolm Muggeridge since reading about him in the Diaries of Adrian Mole and then his short story of the leprous heart. I learned he … [Read more…]
This is an introduction to early Christian history, covering essentially the first 500 years of the interactions of Jesus’s followers. The book draws me in because I want a framework in which to read early Christian writings because they form the basis for my core beliefs and I have only read three documents, all by … [Read more…]
I started at Bearspaw Christian School about 6 weeks after our family returned back to Canada after serving 3 years in Guatemala. The adjustment was rough. The overwhelming sense of entitlement as compared to Guatemalan students, the enormous wealth and luxury of the families connected to the school, my varied teaching assignment. My colleagues and … [Read more…]
This is a beautiful book. Just gorgeous. Author Brad Jersak takes on the dichotomy of the angry, retributive, wrathful God and the compassionate, life-giving, sacrificial Jesus. Diving into both ancient theology and biblical understandings, Jersak explores what it means to view an unchanging God through the lens of His truest revelation, Jesus. The book is necessary … [Read more…]
This is our family’s fourth time attending the frenetic Calgary Reads Big Book Sale in the 7 years living in Calgary and I think it will need to become an annual tradition. I met my family there after work. They spent the day downtown already for the Children’s Festival. I have to be very careful … [Read more…]
I remember hearing in a podcast of Thomas Hopko (Speaking the Truth in Love) about how at one point in history, bishops were expected to have memorized the entire catalog of Psalms (all 150 of them) in order to be ordained as a bishop. In fact it may have been just to enter the priesthood. … [Read more…]
A few days ago, a childhood friend of mine shared this video to Facebook. He grew up in the same church as I did and about 3 or 4 years ago he abandoned his faith to become an agnostic. Following the video are some comments between him and one of our high school classmates who, … [Read more…]