Category: Articles (Page 6 of 9)

The Closing of the Canadian Mind: Selective Open Mindedness and Learning to Take Offence

August 15, 2018 / Greg Garda

There have been a few people on mind lately for various reasons. An Amazon delivery man who recently delivered a package to us. This gentleman patiently waited at our front door until I was able to open it. Most amazon delivery persons drop the package and book it. He kindly greeted me as “sir” (even though he was at least twice my age) and with a warming personality wished me good night. Two of my admittedly favourite people to speak are two of my wife’s friends from her days in university. Warm hearted, compassionate, and loving are the first three ways I can describe them. One my good friends, who has a great sense of humour, is classy, and just a joy to hang out with. My sister is hard working, always puts her whole being into tasks and is a loving aunt of whom my daughters can’t get enough of. Finally, last year, at an interfaith event I spoke at I had a brief discussion with a young woman who had two toddlers who were about the same ages as my daughters. We shared a few laughs about the similarities of our experiences.

Besides being exceptional human beings they all share something else in common. They all have different belief systems then myself. The Amazon delivery gentlemen, one of my wife’s friends, and the young woman with toddlers are Muslim. My wife’s other friend is Hindu. My close friend and sister are agnostic, based on previous conversations we’ve had about religion. Oh by the way, I respectfully disagree with their belief system and I love asking them critical questions.

Wait a minute…. So I am delighted to be around these human beings, I respect and even love some of them, but I am critical of what they believe? For some, the idea of caring for individuals, disagreeing with them and potentially offending them is oxymoronic, even if the criticisms are regarding matters of facts. It is in this “oxymoronic” mode of thought that I witnessed the closing of the Canadian mind this past weekend.

Avoiding Starvation in Your Spiritual Journey

August 12, 2018 / Greg Garda

Attached to the church I work at is a residence for seniors and for individuals with disabilities called “The Lodge.” In the Lodge lives an elderly lady named Rose. Rose is one of a kind person. Once you meet her it’s impossible to forget her. On weekends before and after the masses she can be seen greeting people as they enter the church, guiding people to empty seats, and making sure people with disabilities get accessible seating. After the masses she can be seen handing out cookies to young children. If you’re a new face at St. Luke’s on a Sunday, Rose will find you and get to know you. You can’t miss her. She loves speaking to new faces and sharing exciting parts of her life and about her memories at St. Luke’s in her heavy South African accent.

During the weekdays, early in the morning (and I mean really early, like 5am-6am) she can be found cleaning up the sanctuary. She will organise the hymnals and straighten up the donation envelopes. Some have lovingly given her the nickname “The Church Mouse.”

If you have a chance to meet Rose, immediately you will notice that she speaks with confidence, has a positive attitude, shows genuine interest in your life, is overflowing with joy, and loves to share stories. …Oh before I forget, she is her 90s, she lives on her own, her children and grandchildren live out of the country, and her husband has been suffering with dementia for over a decade in a nursing home. Despite all this she is full of life. What the heck?!

Why Some Catholics Miss Out on the Christian Life

August 5, 2018 / Greg Garda

There are many things in my life that are routine. I wake up sometime between 5:30am and 6am to pray and have a coffee. I get ready for work. I kiss my wife and my two daughters before I head out the door. I will attend morning mass at my parish and then tackle my ministry related “to do list.” When I get home in the afternoon I usually play with my daughters or prepare dinner. Then we go for a walk as a family and upon returning home we proceed with our bedtime routine with the girls. This is a general snapshot of an average day in my life.

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

I got to be real with you. My mind isn’t always focused on the activities at hand out of the ones I mentioned above. Some mornings, my mind is on something important I have to finish at work, so I passively and quickly kiss my wife and girls and quickly shoot an impassionate “I love you” at them. Sometimes when I am playing with my daughters in the evening my mind is on a YoutTube video I’m looking forward to watching after they go to bed.

Early this morning I was sitting with my morning coffee in the silence of our home gazing out at the sun creeping over the horizon. A cliché question popped into my mind as I was listening in prayer. If I knew that I had a short time left to live, but I still had to do the routine things in my life, how would I approach them?

The word “intentional” popped into my mind. To spare you the boredom of reading through my intellectual gymnastics as I processed my thoughts, in short I resolved to focus on the task/activity at hand and nothing more. FULL immersion in all the moments I mentioned above.

Checklist Catholicism

Like the everyday routine moments in our lives, Catholics (including myself) risk the danger of reducing their faith to a list of routine tasks void of significance.

January 22, 2018 / Greg Garda

Discipleship and The Privatization of Religion

A Reflection on Mark 1:14-20.

Is God Afraid of Smart People? Why Has God Revealed Himself to “Simple People” First?

July 11, 2017 / Greg Garda

Some time ago I was reading the late Christopher Hitchens’ book “God is Not Great.” If you are familiar with Christopher Hitchens you will know that he is one of the leading figures in the “New Atheist” movement of the 21st Century. In his book one of the claims he makes against belief in God is that God always seems to reveal himself to the uneducated, vulnerable, and the poor, who, in his judgment are more naive and gullible. If God is real why is he so afraid to reveal himself to those who are well educated, hold prominent societal positions, or might pose tough questions towards him? So the assumptions ago.

Is this a valid question?

Courtesy of Unsplash.com by Mari Helin-Tuominen

Weekend Scripture Reflection: What is Holiness?

February 17, 2017 / Greg Garda

If I were to ask you if you consider yourself to a holy person, how would you respond?

I think it’s safe to say that most of us would hesitate labeling ourselves as holy because over time “holiness” has come to be associated with images of hypocrisy in the Church.

Courtesy of Unsplash.com by Aaron Burden

Desire Jesus

Holiness is the desire to be like Jesus. Holiness is less of a state of being and more of a disposition of the heart. Do you desire to be more like Jesus? If the answer is “yes”, then you are holy. If holiness was dependent upon perfection, then no one would be holy.. Pope Francis refers to the Church as a “hospital for sinners.” If everyone had the capacity to be perfect there would be no need for a church and we would still be living in the Garden of Eden. It is possible to be holy and yet still find ourselves being hypocritical. In fact every time we sin, whether it’s visually apparent to others or not, we are being hypocrites. If you’re a hypocrite then you’re in the right place. Jesus established the Church for you and for me.

A Reason to Live? How Euthanasia Has Erased Hope and Purpose.

November 19, 2016 / Greg Garda

What comes to mind when you think of “mercy.”

Mercy, like many other human virtues, cannot be comprehended without an objective moral law which gives objective meaning to mercy. Therefore, it follows that moral law must have a moral law giver.

The problem in our aggressively, and dare I say, ideologically secular society is that the moral “law giver” has has become the human person. As a result we have seen misguided and erroneous approach to mercy. An approach that has a seeming obsession with death. The latest example being an aggressive push for “assisted suicide.”

Courtesy of Unsplash.com by Matthew Henry

By What Authority? Determining the Objectivity of Secular Values.

October 28, 2016 / Greg Garda

I remember visiting a person and discussing the moral implications of abortion. My interlocutor held the position that abortion ought to be legal because a child is not considered to be living until the child is outside the mother’s womb.

So I proceeded to ask who has the authority to decide when a human person is to be considered a human person. Thinking for a moment he responded by saying it’s simply the secular law. “So, who is the lawgiver or law creator then? And by what authority does the lawgiver decide that a law is objectively just?” I asked. He responded “It just is?” What an odd answer.

The Crux of the Matter

I wish to discuss 2 questions in brief:

What is secularity?
Are secular values objectively always true and what is the standard by which we decide if they’re true?

Let’s start with the first question.

Coutesy of Unsplash.com by Claire Anderson

Manly Conversations and Measuring Sticks: Walking the Fine Line of Pride and Humility

October 21, 2016 / Greg Garda

Is it possible to be a proud and humble at the same time? I think so. But in order to understand how we can balance pride and humility we need to turn to scripture (the Bible).

“Manly” Conversations

This past Thanksgiving weekend our family was invited to a baby shower. As I was speaking with someone in the kitchen, in the living room area sat most of the husbands of the wives of whom were invited speaking about “manly” things.

Courtesy of Unsplash.com by Jonathan Pendleton

“Prayer? Sorry…There’s No App for That”: A Common Misconception About Prayer

October 12, 2016 / Greg Garda

There are many reasons that people can turn away from faith in God. The top three reasons I hear most are the following:

The assumption that science disproves God…
The problem of evil and suffering…
And unanswered prayers

I have spoken on all three of these issues in previous written and video posts (which you can check out on my blog), but today I would like to revisit the third one. The problem of unanswered prayers.

Courtesy of Unsplash.com by Ben White