Faith

  • Making Time For Time

    Convivium contributor Father Tim McCauley reflects on the necessity of creating space to enjoy the passing of time and the discipline that must be cultivated in carving out time for rest, the sacredness of contemplation, love, and worship. 

    It is almost summertime in Canada – vacation time – so we can finally give ourselves permission to discover some of the hidden treasures of wasting time. In life, we must take time, make time, and even "waste" time in order to accomplish anything truly huma...

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  • This Manner of Love

    Emergency surgery becomes the opening for Doug Sikkema to encounter some ribald characters, the troubled heart of a city, and the service of Christ suffering, Christ risen.

    Life is a hospital, in which every patient is possessed by the desire to change his bed.

    Baudelaire. Paris Spleen.

    The whole earth is our hospital/Endowed by the ruined millionaire,/...

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  • City On A Hill

    The Cardus Ottawa office stands juxtaposed between the political temples of Parliament Hill and the soup kitchens of Lower Town. In this place where two sides of the city meet, Andrew Bennett sees signs of human dignity in the message of a homeless man.

    In two months I will be 45-years-old. I am told, or perhaps I have gleaned from others, that this is the age at which reminiscence becomes a confirmed pastime rather than something seen to be quaintly practiced by aging parents and grandparents.

    In a...

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  • For Peace Comes Dropping Slow

    His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, participates in a non-partisan and apolitical way, at a variety of events across the country to meet with Canadians in order to encourage dialogue, promote national identity and foster national unity. On May 18, 2017, His Excellency attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa during which he delivered these remarks on faith.  Convivium is delighted to publish his inspiring words.

    I would like to address three interrelated topics today—faith, service and love—and I will do so in the context of my own faith as well as of my role as representative of our head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who also serves as defender of the faith.

    ...

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  • Closing The Apology Book

    On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met Pope Francis and asked him to offer the formal apology recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Father Raymond J. de Souza commented on that recommendation on  December 22, 2015 in the National Post. Convivium reprints it below.

    The release of the final report of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on the residential schools system spoke of the need to move from "apology to action."  Yet there was apparently some unfinished business on the apology front, as the T...

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  • Barren Grace

    Photographer Laura Brandt's capture of the craggy landscape of Iceland, the viewer is prompted to ask, "Where does the essence of ordinary grace unfold?"

    Nestled in the midst of craggy outlooks scattered under open sky, small figures cluster on outskirts of an outcropping. Photographer Laura Brandt's shot evokes a sense of smallness, the figures juxtaposed against her landscape in such a way so as to suggest...

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  • Illumination and Arrival

    Photographer Peter Stockland captures a shaft of light that evokes, for him, a sense of anticipation. 

    Framed so as to position the viewer almost as a member of the Good Friday processional as captured by photographer Peter Stockland. The sense of presence in the photograph is nearly palpable. Notes Stockland, "I was at the front of Montreal's Notre Dame Bas...

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  • God In The Trunk

    Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland interviews Cardus co-founder and Executive Vice President Ray Pennings on the findings revealed in last week's Angus Reid poll. Learn more about what Canadians think about sin, faith, and prayer. Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland also took the time to speak with Ray Pennings on the findings revealed in last week's Angus Reid Poll.

    Amid data amassed by the Angus Reid Institute in conjunction with Cardus’ Faith in Canada 150 initiative is the comforting statistic that about 75 per cent of Canadians pray at least sometimes.

    ...

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  • Hand It To Atwood

    Convivium Contributor Josh Nadeau reports on the carefully layered nuance of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale and makes the case for why readers should give it a closer look. 

    In 1985, the same year the Titanic was discovered, Steve Jobs quit Apple, and Nintendo unveiled their first game console, Margaret Atwood released what would not just become her most successful novel, but one of the more haunting dystopias of the 20th twent...

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  • Schools Bridging Faith and Science

    Data unearthed by the Cardus Religious Schools Initiative at the University of Notre Dame debunk popular caricatures of religious schools as sinkholes of anti-science obscurantism.

    Controversy over religion and science is nothing new. That’s certainly true in the world of education. Indeed, a recent commentary in the ...

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  • Renewing Faith in News

    Practicing what Tony Carnes calls “sympathetic objectivity,” reporters with the Journey through NYC Religions project find stories in every church, synagogue, mosque and place of worship in New York City. His article below is part of Cardus’ Religion and the Good of the City publication released this week.

    Practicing what Tony Carnes calls “sympathetic objectivity,” reporters with the Journey through NYC Religions project find stories in every church, synagogue, mosque and place of worship in New York City. His article below is part of Cardus’ ...

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  • Moments of Beauty Break In

    In literature and in physical creation, author Carolyn Weber tells Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi, are instants when the bird before our eyes becomes the miracle that God delights in making normal.

    Convivium: In 2001 you published Surprised by Oxford, an autobiographical retelling of your journey to faith. How did you decide to publish your story?

    Carolyn Weber: I never anticipated writing a memoir in ...

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  • Emptied Out of Egypt

    Convivium Editor in Chief Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the significance of Pope Francis and Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, addressing a peace conference hosted by the Al-Azhar mosque in Egypt tomorrow. 

    On Friday, Pope Francis and Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, will be together in Cairo to address a peace conference hosted by the Al-Azhar mosque and university, sometimes called the “Vatican” of the Sunni Muslim world. For the leadership of globa...

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  • Witness

    Chris Rowe's profound image serves as a visual backdrop to poet Liana Esau's reflections on prayer, death, listening, and love.

    I

    This morning my eyes are deeplocked

    on a whiteout sky. Prayer leaks like water

    from my cupped hands—I hope

    not to be afraid.

     

    This morning God is obvious

    the snow is falling soft

    ov...

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  • Cardus Law: You, Me, Community

    With the release of a new research paper this week exploring relations between law, faith and government, and with planning underway for launch of a new religious freedom institute later this year, Cardus Law Program Director Andrew Bennett took time to catch up with Convivium.ca publisher Peter Stockland and discuss the critical balance between individual and institutional faith rights. 

    Convivium: Cardus Law has been extremely active these days, Andrew. You’ve published a paper this week from a leading U.S. legal scholar dealing with institutional religious freedom, and you just released one by Canada’s own Douglas Farrow, of McGill, on er...

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  • The Politics of Apocalypse

    Debate rages on whether it’s possible to engage a militantly secular age, or if retreat is, in Leonard Cohen’s words, “the only engine of survival.” Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson in their book How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith & Politics at the End of the World, find the answer in Daniel, a prophet who profited from an apocalypse by his strategic sense of loyalty.

    The Hebrew prophet Daniel is an apocalyptic guy, so of course we’ve adopted him as our patron saint of the Apocalypse. We meet him first in the sack of Jerusalem by the Babylon King Nebuchadnezzar. It turns out he’s a total stud (Daniel 1:4 says he...

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  • Debating Rod Dreher

    Earlier this month, Convivium featured a review by John O’Brien, S.J. of Rod Dreher’s disputatious new book The Benedict Option. Today, readers respond both to O'Brien's piece and the conversation that Dreher has opened within the contemporary faith community. 

    Earlier this month, Convivium featured a review by John O’Brien, S.J. of Rod Dreher’s disputatious new book The Benedict Option.

    Dreher’s work has become a conversation kick-starter by proposing Western Christians seek communities that are m...

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  • Art and the Divine

    This weekend our Convivium team is hosting artist Juss Rani Kaur, transforming our office into a showcase for her “Reflective Mantra Art Series" as part of Sikh Heritage Month. Publisher Peter Stockland reports on Kaur's story and her connection to the Divine. 

    As part of a think tank dedicated to renewing North American social architecture, the Ottawa office of Cardus is not everyone’s idea of a show place for religious art.

    But then as a mother of three adult children, teacher, Oxford PhD, and volunteer l...

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  • Utterly Transformed

    Publisher Peter Stockland reflects on the "why" behind the annual Stations of the Cross tradition he participates in each year in downtown Montreal, Quebec. He asks readers to consider the value of a community and the depth of our belief in the one who gave us His all on the cross. 

    There is something simultaneously curious and rigorous about walking in community through mostly empty city streets as a gesture of deepest Christian faith.

    The curiosity is the way the almost unnoticed public act propels intensely rigorous private i...

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  • The Empty Tomb

    Editor in Chief Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the power of the empty tomb as we head into Easter weekend. 

    This Easter will look different at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the large church built over both the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. Last month, the recent restoration of the Edicule – the chapel built over the burial place of Chri...

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  • Cathedrals of Time

    As Christians and Jews journey through Holy Week and Passover, Father Tim McCauley finds Montreal’s St. Joseph’s Oratory a place of worship, yes, but even more the embodiment of time God gives for our rest and renewal.

    It is an unforgettable experience to visit St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. Crowds that would be anonymous in the city below are now pilgrims, united in a purpose that makes them the people of God.  On human faces, the colours of every race are seen, and m...

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  • The Boundless Hope Option

    John D. O’Brien, S.J. reviews Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option citing its value in igniting conversation, observing also the ways in which Christians might at once be different from and love the world at the very same time.

    Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option is valuable for the conversations it has ignited, reviewer John D. O’Brien, S.J. writes. But its premise is flawed history and its pessimism ignores the rich possibilities of Christian faith, he says.  

    Obser...

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  • Tiger’s Twisting Moral Tale

    Editor in Chief, Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the Masters and the legacy of Tiger Woods.

    The big news this week at the Masters is that the world’s top-ranked golfer, Dustin Johnson, had to withdraw before play even began Thursday. He injured his back after falling down the stairs on Wednesday. The other news is that due to chronic back injuries...

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  • Who Is My Neighbour?

    In the final installment of his Outremont series, Convivium correspondent Gideon Strauss reflects on the truth he has learned from journeying alongside his neighbours and the true nature of belonging.

    “My anger and irritability are the flip side of my frustrated desire to connect, my desire to feel a part of my street, to feel I belong to this place.” ~ Joseph Rosen

    With great...

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