"Father, take this cup away from me… but not my will, but yours be done."Growing up was full of endings and beginnings: winters and springtimes, leaving home, going to university, finding work, getting married having children… Children who continually take me right back to where I started… Children who continually remind me that I am not perfect, that I need help -- that I need God…
"Father, into Your hands I commend my Spirit…"And every day life is full of mini-struggles: mini-desert experiences, mini-agonies in the garden, mini-crucifixions, mini deaths -- deaths that are oh so necessary to bring forth new life.
"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."And how can we teach our children this? How can we help to make it easier for them? Just when they begin to feel at home, we uproot them by send them to a new school. How can we help them feel safe and at the same time help them accept that change is inevitable -- change is necessary…"It's ok", I said, "you needed to put it away anyway." "But it was hard work!" he said, crying now. "You need to take it apart so you can build new things," Sheri said.It's the taking apart that is so painful, so scary. And I am just now beginning to understand that I am not ever me at any given moment -- rather, I am always changing. This is what is hard to teach: that life is change, change is growth, growth is love, love is God, and God… God is life."It was hard work," he said, again and again, crying as we held him. That's all we could do: help him feel safe -- giving him a bit of strength for the journey that is to come."It was hard work," I said, "Come, let's build a new one" and with that, despite the little death that had just happened a new life was begun…
In this month of June, the Holy Father invites us to pray that the world might grow in compassion, that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his Heart, learn to have compassion on the world.
Gianpaolo gives us a behind the scenes look at his upcoming Behold segment on the York University Catholic Chaplaincy.
On Sunday, June 8, 2025, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of Movements, Associations, and New Communities and spoke about how the Holy Spirit helps the apostles overcome "their fear, shatters their inner chains, heals their wounds, anoints them with strength and grants them the courage to go out to all and to proclaim God’s mighty works."
Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly and referred to Pope Francis and mentioned spouses who have been beatified and canonized, like the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Pope Leo XIV chose his name primarily to highlight his most recent namesake Leo XIII, whose "historic encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question" to the challenges of his time. What concerns does the encyclical address? How does it speak to its time? And what has been its legacy 134 years later?