Bravest Thing (He Ever Did)

  I am sharing this because I know many readers are faced with pressing decisions requiring great discernment. I know my wife and I are at the moment. I am sharing an interview by Bonnie Landry with John Paul Meenan. Meenan is a professor at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Ontario (he used to teach me, way back in the day!). He goes through the steps of discerning major decisions in life (and lesser ones too), and the role reason, faith, and prayer play in it all. I highly recommend this interview for all people.  I found it very helpful. Click HERE . Note: The interview is also available on iTunes. Just search: Make Joy Normal.

  Times are tough. I know. Blah blah blah. But they are, and they wear us all down. The expression on everyone's face is a mix of stress, exhaustion, anger, and worry. How I long for simpler, happier times! Like 2019, or something. My wife asked me yesterday, "Do we know anyone who is full of happiness? Where you could go visit them and they pump you up?" This is not a shot at my friends or colleagues. It's not like visiting people is miserable. Far from it. However, we're all struggling, and a true non-superficial visit inevitably reveals real-life hardships.  But my wife continued, "Jude! He's always happy!" Jude is our two-year-old son. As only a two-year-old can, he is a spark of energy, joy, smiles, and craziness. He runs to me in the morning with a big smile. He runs to me when I come home from work and shouts my name. He runs to me when he doesn't want to go to bed at night. He is a non-stop bundle of laughs. Everyday, and I mean everyday,...

Not everything has been going our way lately. Because of this, yesterday was a very good day. Two things to complain about: the rain and the Mass. The rain has been plentiful this summer. Too plentiful. The only thing more plentiful than the rain has been the mosquitos. Meanwhile, the Mass has been frustrating. Mass? I Meant Massk. Or was that the holy sacrifice of the Mask? Call it what you will, but when a priest becomes afraid of COVID, it becomes a hellish nightmare for the parish. Or what's left of the parish. God is good. Yesterday we ended up at a Mass in a nearby town. Our third in four months. The Mass there is usually a challenge, liturgically speaking. But what a difference four months makes. The Mass yesterday was just a normal Mass. No incessant talk on The Virus. No masks and gloves.  No hand pumping of sanitizer every 34 seconds. Just a small, practical, and very normal Mass (liturgical challenges and all). I cannot tell you enough how refreshed our souls...

It is fitting that, on this Mother's Day, I announce we are expecting our fourth child on August 24, 2019. Now a baby always brings great change into one's life. This upcoming baby, it seems, will amplify this principle. It is no secret to anyone that we have been seeking out the traditional Latin Mass for quite some time. It is a great spiritual treasure which we yearn for each week. It is also no secret that we would love to live on an acreage near Saskatoon, thereby living in close proximity to such a Mass and, dare I say, actual friends. However, what has held us back is the job situation. There are too many teachers, and too few students. With this, and many other considerations in mind, Becca and I have decided that I will be taking a parental leave covering half of the upcoming school year. The purpose of the leave will be, of course, to help out around the home. However, it will also provide me with time to learn new skills which hopefully ...

Picture a quiet and peaceful Sunday evening. It would involve watching the end of the football game, a snack and story with the kids, and then saying our prayers and getting them into bed. Such an evening would inevitably involve me laying down with my four year old and settling him down to sleep. He would snuggle in close, probably chat too much, and drift off with heavy and contented breaths. The reality for that Sunday evening was that he was taken to the hospital once again to deal with an impetigo which, we were convinced, was not actually impetigo. Our suspicions were confirmed, and the young lad was given a large dose of antibiotics. We were told to bring him to the hospital every eight hours for more medicine. However, by 1:30pm the next afternoon his condition had deteriorated, and his sick body was filled with a painful rash. He could hardly move. We were stunned. Now life in small town Saskatchewan can be wonderful, but a drawback is that it is nearly impossible to attra...

Gratitude and yearning for greatness should not be in tension of each other. A baseball player can be thankful he is playing professional baseball for a living, and yet he still strives to win the World Series each year and ultimately enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. What a simple concept: Gratitude and Greatness. Why is this so difficult?   I wish to examine the Catholic parish in my small town. My family and I are consigned to a Saturday night mass. The music, "liturgists" and overall disruptiveness of the Sunday morning mass are too burdensome to bear without blowing a spiritual gasket. Let me just say that the Breaking Bread hymnal should be classified by the UN as an instrument of torture. As should welcoming all visitors with a round of applause (the rite of mortification). We are reduced to attending a Saturday night Mass. W hat we have: There is no music on Saturday night. Elderly ladies serve at the altar, unable or unwilling to so much as genufl...