Have you seen this on the news over the last couple of weeks; this crazy custom of people in their bathing suits, running and jumping into icy cold water? Some kind of New Year’s tradition, or something like that.

Apparently, in Eastern Europe at around this time of year, there’s a custom which commemorates the baptism of Jesus,...

In my early teens, my parents, brother and I used to make road trips to Florida on our summer holidays. On the way, we’d drive through South Carolina and Georgia.

And occasionally we’d to stop to buy pecans, or to admire the palm trees.

But what I remember most about those roadside stops was the way the local people would talk to us,...

New Year’s Eve for me has always been one of those wonderful moments in time, when I’m reminded of our human impulse, indeed my own impulse, for renewal, new beginnings, fresh starts.

And certainly, the Christmas and Easter themes of birth, and new life, and resurrection, feed into this impulse of hope for new beginnings.

St....

What do we see?

When we look out on the world, on people, on the news events that we hear about and read about, what is it that we see?

Certainly we see a lot of fear, destruction, and violence. The world often seems to us a dark and scary place, on the brink of destruction, on the brink of “catastrophic failure”, by its own...

I’ve wondered why in the Bible, the Sacred Text of our faith, when you flip through and read some of the passages, why so many times, you see often repeated, the encouragement to “trust in the Lord”. Especially in the Psalms and Proverbs, over and over again, we read: “trust in God”, “trust in the Lord.”

...

Are you an “early morning riser” or a “late night owl”?

Even if we typically like seeing the strike of midnight, I’m sure many of us, at some point – whether because of a trip, or job – have had the wonderful experience of witnessing the beauty of a pre-dawn sky – the dark stillness, the cool...

There’s a funny scene near the end of the movie “Chocolat”.

The previously strict, restrained and pious mayor of a little French town finally gives in to his secret yet overpowering craving – chocolate.

In the town’s chocolate store, he literally dives into a large display of chocolate candies.

Eagerly and...

It happens every time.

Once or twice a year, we round the familiar corner, go over that same small hill, and right there before us, spreading outward toward the far-off horizon, is the expansive waters of Lake Huron.

Even as a child, I remember that feeling of excitement that always came with seeing, for the first time in a long time, that wide...

What do you make of the disciples arguing amongst themselves about which one of them “is the greatest”?

Doesn’t it sound too much like some childish school yard fight? Doesn’t it make you wonder why it seems so hard for the disciples “to get it”; to get what Jesus is all about?

I mean, the disciples, up to...

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...