I know, I know – George Frederick Handel’s famous work is actually an Oratorio. (A musical would require lots of period costumes and at least one big dance number! Now imagine combining that with Mel Gibson’s gratuitously blood-letting Passion of the Christ. No, let’s not.) This was the time of year, probably forty years ago, [...]
“I brought a book I think you’ll find interesting,” my cousin said as we sat down for lunch recently, handing me a paperback copy of The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I believe, now having read it, that she might have been nudged to give me this book because she knows, perhaps as much as [...]
Holiday stories are nothing if not repetitive. These memories crossed my mind again today so, after double-checking to see that I had covered mostly everything, I’m left only to re-post! From 13 December 2009, I give you Christmas church candles and Coca-Cola chuckles.
The family piano is on its way to southern Ontario from Perth, having been wrapped in quilts with care this morning, under Mom’s watchful eye, and loaded into a moving van. It is about to find another appreciative home at my sister’s where my young niece and nephew are at a good age to learn [...]
Crédit-photo: Massicotte et Dignard Une traduction ( +/- ) suit. That glass atrium between the church on the left and the social hall on the right was, until renovations began, an empty space most of the time – except in the weeks leading up to Christmas when a pre-fabricated wall, about half the height of [...]
Millions of Roman Catholic pilgrims climb the 283 steps to St. Joseph’s Oratory – praying on their knees. In the early days of my AIDS diagnosis I used to go to a “healing mass” at Our Lady of Lourdes on Sherbourne Street here in Toronto. I can’t say I wholeheartedly believed there was much hope [...]
Praying over bread and wine (or grape juice) used to make them the body and blood of Christ – literally, according to the faithful. Then someone dressed Jesus in a white wafer and, poof, a melt-in-your-mouth Christ. And, while I could see how it would upset the modern-day Pharisees, such a fuss over spontaneously giving [...]
Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Originally uploaded by Kenn Chaplin La Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (loosely translated as Chapel of Our Lady of Safe-keeping), known as The Sailors’ Church, backs down the hill towards the edge of Montréal’s Old Port on the St. Lawrence River. It is almost as striking from the rear with the large statue of Mary greeting sailors [...]
As I walked up to the subway this morning I passed a young Tamil-Canadian family crossing the street from St. James Town to attend Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church – so a confession is in order. I have received Communion from Jesuits there which, as a Protestant, I am not permitted to do. [...]
As I followed some suggestions, during a morning stroll through YouTube, after viewing an organist handle a Bach piece with flair I found another one with a story much like one I can share. Many years ago, I’ll bet it’s pushing forty years now, my mother was asked to play for a family friend’s wedding. [...]
