I went out for supper with a good friend recently, and we had a very interesting (and quite extended) conversation about all things religious. I wish I had taken notes, because we covered a lot of ground. One part of our conversation that particularly grabbed me was the question "What is a Christian?", quickly followed by "What is a Catholic?"
I just attended a lecture this morning on the topic “How does a person with a mental illness get treatment and care within the system”. It was fascinating, and I must say I learned a great deal about how we handle these things here in Quebec.
I taught my course at Concordia University last night. The lecture was “Theology in a society of plenty”. We live in the wealthiest society human history has ever known. What does theology have to say about that?
Anyway, we got to discussing consumerism, and I proposed that there are some things that money just can’t buy. Money, for example, can’t buy love. The principle seemed self-evident to me, but the reaction from some of the students was laughter, and the comment that (in fact) money can buy love.
Yes, I know you knew that. But He truly is. And full of surprises. If we let Him, he won’t cease to delight us.
Case in point: With the pastor, Fr. Gilles, away on an Alpha weekend, I had a heavy Saturday-Sunday lined up. 4 Masses to celebrate, a 50th anniversary renewal of wedding vows, and baptisms Sunday afternoon. But it was honest work. It needed to be done, and I was the guy around to do it. No muss, no fuss – just do it.
I got back from Ottawa about an hour ago and took a look at today’s Gazette. I found the following article, “A theatre of prayer without popcorn“, about a new Baptist church in my area using a local movie theatre for Sunday services.
This movie theatre, it turns out, is in the boundaries of my parish, which means by default that the new church is reaching out to my parishioners.
