The Aftermath of Genocide

Peter Stockland

December 11, 2018

On International Human Rights Day, survivors of histories and geographies torn apart by crimes against humanity used a Parliament Hill panel discussion to etch a path of repentance, repair, reconciliation and renewal. Convivium’s Peter Stockland reports.

We’re all familiar with the formulation: how can a just and merciful God abandon all to horrific death or, what is in many ways far worse, save some but not others? Bollegraaf met the enigma head on by saying it asks us to look in the wrong place, that is to blame God for what the work of human hand...

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Home at the Library

Peter Stockland

December 10, 2018

Today, Peter Stockland writes a letter to his past self, and extends his gratitude to the people whose words lined the library he liked to call home. These minds shaped him, and lead him to keep asking the questions that keep him coming home to wonder.

Remember fighting off knowing the time would come when you’d have to leave the underground undergraduate library for the last time? When you’d have to go through the library doors and up the stairs into the world where the worries were? It was a world where even those silly girls could have their co...

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Beneath the Summer Jobs Controversy

Peter Stockland

December 6, 2018

Promised changes to the embattled summer student employment program won't resolve the deep divide separating Canadians of faith from the Liberal government's “true believers” in radical secular autonomy, Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett tells Convivium’s Peter Stockland.

Bennett said particulars of the changes unveiled today by Employment Minister Patty Hajdu to the 2019 summer jobs application do show the government took seriously the backlash it provoked with the 2018 modifications Bennett said it’s understandable to him why a pro-choice Liberal government would b...

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George Bush - Death of a Patriarch

Raymond J. de Souza

December 6, 2018

The funeral of President George Herbert Walker Bush moves Convivium Editor in Chief Father Raymond de Souza to meditate on the nature of rightful fatherhood.

...

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An Alley of Darkness

December 5, 2018

A narrow path, buildings rising far above. It seems a valley of darkness.

The only need is to step out of the alley of darkness into the light of day. ...

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A Letter to My Grandma

Krista Ewert

December 4, 2018

The gift of art is something that will stay with Krista Ewert forever. In her letter thanking her grandmother for what she gave up to raise her, she sees how, amidst the chaos and brokenness in her life, her grandmother gave her a place to belong.

Yet each of us invariably encounters one or two people who truly influence us, shape us, give us the gift of being ourselves – and to whom we find ourselves giving frequent, albeit inner, thanks I didn’t really get to know you very well until I was six years old – just after my parents got divorced ...

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Laundry Day

December 4, 2018

A mothers’ work, up well before the sun. Reaching out the window to put up the morning washing.

Now it flutters in the slight breeze that passes through the street, slowly drying so that before night falls she can bring them back in through the window, a day’s work done. ...

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Finding Home

Valerie Michailovich

December 3, 2018

Between Russia, Israel, the USA, and Canada, each place Convivium contributor Valerie Michailovich has called home has given her something distinct. Rather than a place of stability or a foundation, which many associate with the concept of home, Michailovich sees it as a place where one learns, grows and builds. 

I think that I will always struggle to grow roots in one true home, and so I believe that any place in this world can bring me in, welcome me, and provide me with a space that I feel comfortable enough to call my own Any place that feels comfortable and welcoming has the potential to become a home A...

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Open Windows

December 3, 2018

Doors and windows line the alley. Cracked open to the world.

Do we open our windows to the world around us? Do we look across the alley way to the people we do life with everyday? ...

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Searching for Beauty

December 1, 2018

The sun is searching to make an appearance in such a narrow space among the shops, doors, signs and people. A messy alley.

There is always beauty in the mess, sometimes it just takes some searching. ...

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Darkness

Melissa Payne

November 30, 2018

As the days grow darker, Melissa Payne reflects on the way darkness and cold weave themselves into the pace of our living. In darkness lies more than despair, Payne writes.

Just as we let our physical bodies be cared for in these months approaching, with warm baths, and soups, blankets and early nights in with a friend or a book; let yourself be cared for in the times of pain I can’t tell you how your own box of darkness (as Mary Oliver writes) will shape your life The...

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Our Country, Our Gospel

Raymond J. de Souza

November 30, 2018

At a prayer breakfast today in Markham, Ontario, Convivium’s Father Raymond de Souza serves a reminder that Canadian Christians should be as proud to share the Christian Gospel as they are to be Canadians. The reason, de Souza says, isn’t triumphalism but the pure joy of speaking God’s Word.

Paul writes to the Romans: I am not ashamed of the Gospel! The young Catholics at the chaplaincy, like so many other religious believers on campuses around the country, know well that others want to push religion out of our common life The key role that faith plays in our common life is the sign tha...

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To Each its Story

November 27, 2018

Each tree, unique in its own way, possessing its own story. Tall and straight, standing for their own existence.

Are we like a one of the trees telling our own story? ...

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Tranquility

November 27, 2018

The thick mist descends upon the tall forest. Rays of sunshine trying to make it into the thickness.

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Light of Hope

November 27, 2018

Warmth flooding through the darkness, shadows being cast.

Do we try bring light with us, or do we simply hide in the shadows of darkness? ...

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