RELIGIONS IN A SECULAR SOCIETY
Father John Walsh

Today’s world is a secular world. We are living in a secular age. Humans are now in charge. The gods have been abandoned. There is no supernatural world over and against the natural world. There is no God over and against the world in which we live our daily lives. Cultures are godless and society is soulless. In a secular setting religious traditions are unreasonable and simply no longer offer reasonable answers to the world’s most pressing questions. The Enlightenment of the seventeenth and …

THE MESSAGES OF HIJRAH — HERE AND NOW
Imam Dr. Zijad Delic

The season of Hajj signifies a time of forgiveness, mercy, sacrifice, commitment and renewed opportunities for unity among all Muslims. The new Muslim Hijri year of 1441 starts on Friday, August 30th. The new Hijri year brings together Canadian Muslims with the international Muslim family (Ummah) to recall the Prophet’s Hijrah (migration) from Makkah to Madinah (Medina). The Hijrah has an historical perspective, but Muslims have always been encouraged to contemplate Hijrah on a far deeper level. Hijrah is based …

HOW TO START A HARD CONVERSATION
Rabbi Michael Whitman

The Jewish calendar is not just a way for Jews to mark time. It is also a textbook, a source of universal lessons about every aspect of life relevant to each of us. We are currently experiencing one of the most important lessons our calendar teaches. We are approaching the Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement), with its heavy subjects of judgement, apologies, and forgiveness. Each of us has moments in our lives …

WORDS TELL US ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE
Father John Walsh

Words matter a lot. Words of praise can buoy a person up for days, if not weeks or months. Everyone needs to be thanked for a job well done. We all need to be recognized. Our identity is often dependent on the manner in which we are recognized. Grade school nicknames are carried by some people throughout their lives. “Oh him, he’s a clown!” “Her, she’s … you know. “ Words can shatter a person for life. In our North American …

CHANGING THE HORIZON DURING ELECTION TIME
Father John Walsh

 
There is an election buzz in the air. The dates are approaching and the buzz is getting louder. Much is sound and fury signifying very little! The significance of the American elections is that they are geopolitical. More than many want to recognize, they will affect the whole world. They have affected us as Canadians in the past, and, perhaps, will affect us much more in the near and long-term future. In the almost immortal words of Pierre Elliott Trudeau on March 25, …

Quebecs Moral Quagmire
What Bill 21 Means for Religious Pluralism in Canada
By Michael W. Higgins
July 9, 2019

It wasn’t supposed to happen, but happen it did. Having thrown off the shackles of clericalism and everything else Catholic, the once-pious province—a Quebec steeped in the life of a church seen as sole protector of French identity, culture, and religion in the New World—has embraced a new form of dogmatism and intolerance: the radical secularism of laïcité.
On June 16, a week after Pentecost, the National Assembly in Quebec City passed Bill 21, a draconian …

THE CHALLENGES OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Father John Walsh

The twenty-first century is opening many new ways to understand ourselves as human beings. In fact, we are writing a new human narrative; perhaps even creating a new way of being “human.” To whom can we turn for advice and counsel to find our way and to become comfortable in a brave new world. Charles Taylor has impressively treated how we became who we are in his opus Sources Of The Self – The Making Of Modern Identity and writes: “the intention of …

JUST JUMP
Rabbi Michael Whitman
 

The Exodus from Egypt, which Jews celebrate on Passover beginning this Friday night, April 19, is an event that creates our identity as Jews. It is also an event that provides inspiration and meaning for everyone, in every generation struggling under oppression. Its significance applies equally to nations, peoples, and individuals. Here is a message each of us can use in our own lives.
Shortly after leaving Egypt, and thinking they were finally safe and free, the Jewish People see Pharaoh’s mighty army coming after them. With the …

WILL THE CHOICE BE AI OR CONSCIOUSNESS?
Father John Walsh

A modern author raises the question, will we chose AI or consciousness? It is a question that we must all face. Ai has already turned us upside down. We are the implication if we choose AI? The effects o AI are already at work in our lives. AI is reducing the number of menial tasks human beings were forced to do. However, the greatest effect so far is that AI is turning each of us into an algorithm. What is an algorithm? …

YOUNG WOMEN AND MEN ARE CHALLENGED
Father John Walsh

General Romeo Dallaire, in the latter part of his book, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Lie Children (Random House Canada. 2010), challenges youth to accept the task of eliminating child soldiers. I believe Romeo Dallaire’s words to youth could be adapted as a Charter of Challenges for Youth. He enjoins youth to not wait for leaders to take action but to assume responsibility as youth and act as leaders. Dallaire reminds youth here at home that they must find inventive ways to …