My next door neighbour and I have a friendly bet going. The grass in both of our backyards is all brown and dried out because of the great deal of sunshine, heat and lack of rain we’ve had this summer. We were wondering what to do about it.

My suggestion was to do absolutely nothing. The grass is merely in a dormant stage, I said. It would...

I have a very clear memory from my childhood.  It has to do with food.  But also more than food.

At our house, we had a beautiful vegetable garden all along our fence in the backyard.  I remember my parents out there in the evenings, tending and watering, weeding and harvesting.  My specific memory is this: when I was young,...

Again, like last week, we see in today’s Gospel, Jesus out and about feeding the hungry, calming the anxious, and assuring his disciples to “not be afraid.”

We see a Jesus who is all about showing deep and abiding love, in tangible, visible actions. Sharing food. Calming storms on the sea. Repeating words of assurance, like...

One can’t help when reading and hearing this Gospel passage, but get a real sense of finding rest in God, experiencing healing and refreshment in Jesus.

I mean, there’s Jesus, inviting his disciples to a time of rest and renewal: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Jesus is giving them...

In the news this past week, Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was in Britain this past week, addressing both houses of Parliament. She was there to ask Britain, and others, to help the movement of change in her country toward democracy and to be the “watchdogs” as these changes begin to take shape and form.  After...

On a camping trip to Ayer’s Rock, in central Australia, Lindy Chamberlain, cried out that her baby was gone. She had gone back to the campfire with her husband, while her nine week old daughter, Azaria, was asleep in the tent. Hearing Azaria cry, she went to check on her, but instead saw a dingo, a wild dog, walking away from the tent...

Mark’s Gospel today portrays Jesus as this Multi-Tasking Miracle Wonder-Worker. In rapid succession, Jesus heals, and answers the deep longings and prayers of two different people – a young daughter of Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, and an older woman with a debilitating, long term disease.

But we wonder. What about me? What...

We modern, 21st century North Americans like logic and rational thinking. We like to analyse everything, to dissect, pull apart, and examine anything and everything.

In our scientific, fact-based, information-obsessed culture, we find it hard to deal with open-ended questions, or living with not knowing something, or encountering a real mystery...