Redeeming a Doofus Sweater

John Robson

December 21, 2018

Our reviewer, John Robson, caps his acid pen after discovering that a musical version of “The Hockey Sweater” scores where Roch Carrier’s original short story whiffed worse than the Leafs trying to make the playoffs.

What? No redemption? No character development? Everybody hates everybody? Boo! I couldn’t imagine how anyone could turn this into a musical you’d want to watch even if you like musicals, or indeed into a musical at all since it’s barely three pages long For starters, Roch’s mother is much more three...

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Advent's Moment of Meaning

Raymond J. de Souza

December 20, 2018

Today is a time, Father Raymond de Souza writes, not just for counting down the days to Christmas but also an opportunity to more fully understand Christ’s birth.

And so Luke introduces John the Baptist first by chronos and then by kairos In applying to the Baptist the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, Luke reveals to us that God is powerfully at work in this John, son of Zechariah ...

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Standing Out

December 19, 2018

Rows of green on rows of brown leading up into the sky.

It is hard to imagine that each of the rows is made up of individual plants all standing side by side ...

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Fruits

December 19, 2018

Red apples wait for harvest. The crunchy sweetness drifting through the air.

...

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Daycare Double Standard

Andrea Mrozek

December 19, 2018

Childcare activists are attacking the Ontario government for changes to ratios for independent providers but praise even lower standards in Quebec and Sweden, notes Cardus Family Program Director Andrea Mrozek. The price of raising a child, she argues, is eternal parental vigilance.

These systems with poor legal ratios (Quebec) and a lack of adherence to any ratios (Sweden) have earned the loud praise of Canadian child care activists If child care activists were truly concerned about Ontario’s new standards in the independent sector, they would need to show at least some concer...

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Spinning Out of Control

Jocelyne Freundorfer

December 19, 2018

Within the span of 20 minutes, Jocelyne Freundorfer's life spun out of control before just as quickly being put back on track. So just where was God's message in all this? Could it be that this small, terrifying moment pointed to deeper understanding of life with a spirit of poverty?

As Philippe explains in The Eight Doors of the Kingdom, true poverty is a situation that is “sorrowful, suffering, precarious, humiliating…” Poverty is when your wife is sick with cancer, when you can’t resolve some difficult tension with your teenager, when you discover your husband is an alcoholic...

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God's in His Heaven and All Right With A Joke

Ray Pennings

December 18, 2018

Now is the ideal time for non-religious Canadians to lighten up around discussions of faith, says Cardus Executive Vice-President Ray Pennings, citing polling data showing religious Canadians are happy to debate their beliefs in good humour.

A full 72 per cent of Canadians say it’s never acceptable to make fun of someone’s religious beliefs (while 74 per cent say the same for teasing someone’s lack of beliefs) That jumps to 75 per cent among non-religious Canadians but falls to just 37 per cent among those who actively follow a religiou...

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Hiraeth, Home

Gideon Strauss

December 18, 2018

For a time, Gideon Strauss led such a peripatetic existence that he jokingly referred to airline rows and seat numbers as his address. Now home is Canada. And South Africa. And the annual voyage between.

But after 2014 the shape of my life changed in such a way that it became possible for me to live and work in South Africa every June and July (and sometimes longer), while I live and work in Canada for the duration of the academic year (from roughly September to May) When I once again hear the laugh...

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The Winter of Life

December 17, 2018

Dense fog descends over the barren rows. The promise of bringing forth fruit seems distant, unimaginable, and possibly unattainable.

Such an illustration of the season in life which come and go only as short moments. ...

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Shopping's Pleasure Principle

Milton Friesen

December 17, 2018

Buying local doesn’t have to be driven by guilt, writes Milton Friesen, Cardus program director for social cities. It can meet the deep human need to actually the people on the other side of an exchange.

Imagine that you visit your local bookstore, owned and operated by someone who shares your love of books – something you know by having gone there many times and engaging in a human exchange with the owner, a common practice called a ‘conversation’ (ask someone born before 1990 about it) It’s more t...

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Solidarity Blessed by Blood

Raymond J. de Souza

December 13, 2018

Canadian Muslims stood in solidarity last month with Jews shattered by slaughter in a U.S. synagogue. Now, Father Raymond de Souza writes, Islamic Algeria has welcomed beatification of Catholic martyrs killed by murderous fanatics claiming to act for Islam. The past, Father Raymond reminds, does not define the future.

If it should happen one day—and it could be today—that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country The murder of the French mo...

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Patchwork Quilt

December 12, 2018

Strips of light green, brown, dark green. All fitting together in what seems like an orderly fashion. A patchwork quilt.

The beauty of the fields from above is equally as gorgeous as the work of hands in earth itself. ...

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Painted Meadows

December 12, 2018

Frolicking cows free in the meadow. Blue skis with cotton clouds.

...

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Fellowship of the Rings

Farhad Khadim

December 12, 2018

After last month’s mass murder of Jews at worship in the U.S., Toronto Muslims formed Rings of Peace around local synagogues to manifest compassion and solidarity. Today, Farhad Khadim reflects on the power of the gentle gesture as way to stand against bigotry, and touch hearts afflicted by hatred's pain.

As Imam of the Syed’s Khadija Mosque, he leads the Canadian Council of Imams and is active in promoting harmony and interfaith relations amongst the various faith congregations in the Greater Toronto Area Their families too, and the entire Jewish community would have painful memories of a day when l...

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The Road of Calling

December 11, 2018

Open, golden, scattered with homes. A road breaking apart the large expanses.

Even with destination unknown it must be followed, the path assigned ones name. ...

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