By: Carla M. Thomas, OP Today, sisters and brothers, the Church invites us to reflect on two familiar passages of scripture. The first reading from the prophet Zechariah offers us royal imagery for the establishment of God’s reign in Jerusalem and beyond. The context is the land of Judah where the people have lived under foreign domination for several centuries. In this oracle the prophet summons ancient Israel to remain firm in faith and to hope in future salvation. He urges them to look beyond the burden of their present circumstances to the day when their own king would arise...Read More

By: Mrs. Andrea Di Giovanni, op President of the Dominican Laity of Canada   Today is the 13th Sunday of OT, and the 16th Sunday of Masses in Isolation. By my count, in 2020, we experienced only 10 Sundays of “regular” Mass, and so oddly enough, our weekly Zoom eucharists (or as Darren likes to say, zeucharists), have truly become the new normal. Frequently, Mark and I have marvelled about our current way of life, saying something like, “At Christmas, we couldn’t even have imagined that this would be our situation now…”. A corollary to that expression is that any...Read More

By: Daniel Cadrin, OP   Today, Jesus invites us not to fear. It is the tune of this Gospel: three times, he says to his disciples: do not fear. And this is part of his speech on the mission, the whole chapter 10 of Matthew. Jesus sends the disciples to proclaim the Good News. It is exciting but also it raises fears of all kinds. It is normal when we face the unknown. We understand the disciples and also the prophet Jeremiah (1st reading) confronting hostility. How to face the challenge of mission with confidence and audacity? Do not fear....Read More

  Today we celebrate the renewal of creation when the risen Lord appears amidst his disciples and breathes life into them, as God first breathed life into Adam (Genesis 2:7). But today the last words of George Floyd—a 46 year-old father of 2 brutally murdered by police because he was black—echo in our midst: “I can’t breathe.”   This week the Ontario government warned that confinement and distancing regulations will not be relaxed as expected because of the increase of Covid cases. We see these especially in lower income and new immigrant areas of the city where pockets of racialized...Read More

By: Daniel Cadrin, O.P. We celebrate today the Mystery of the Ascension of the Lord. Just before Pentecost and after Easter and the Passion. So it is surely linked to all of this and not a separate component of our faith. It is part of the Passover, connecting earth and heaven, God and its people, all centered on Jesus Christ and Lord. We have two narratives about this mystery, one from Luke and one from Mathew, very different in their style and approach. But they have something in common: they talk about a departure. Jesus is leaving. And he is...Read More