Spring finally showed up in Toronto. And along with it, the cherry blossoms in High Park, a week-long canopy of blossoms. The park was packed with people guzzling in Spring, creation's bacchanalia of juice and joy. Spring - Gerard Manley Hopkins Nothing is so beautiful as Spring – When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely… Continue reading All this juice and joy
Missed it by that much. Notice came out last night that Mumford and Sons are playing one of their surprise club shows tonight in Toronto - a small venue called Lee's Palace. Tickets went on sale for the show this morning - it was a long shot (and should be such an amazing show tonight)… Continue reading Would’ve been a fine ending to Lent
“… it is mainly for some clue to where I am going that I search through where I have been, some hint as to who I am becoming or failing to become that I delve into what used to be.” Frederick Buechner There’s alot about New Year’s to love. Besides the gatherings and good food… Continue reading Rest in grace this new year
Advent is a season for broken hearts. In stark contrast to the holly and jolly of the cultural calendar, the church year reminds us that a few toys or presents are crappy substitutes for the bigger ache in our lives. The Advent season is a time of hard longing for something more, something better than… Continue reading Homesick
That was some fire my brother stoked up during our Thanksgiving camping weekend.
New camera + recent trip to the U.K. = many occasions for shooting photos. So a few images from our recent trip.
That's no happy face there - it's the current yellow badge, or Judenstern, of Iraq. The N', or ن in Arabic, is the symbol used by the Islamic State (ISIS) to identify who is a Nazarene - a Christian. It has been drawn on doorways and painted on house-fronts in captured Iraqi cities, allowing ISIS militia to… Continue reading We are N
The great urbanist Jane Jacobs observed that the presence of children in the city is a sign of urban health. She was echoing the prophetic words of Zechariah who pictured God's salvation in the earthy terms of a safe city: "The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there." (Zech. 8:5). That's… Continue reading Friday Photos
Ours is an age of anxiety; we idolize security, seeking to live ruling out risk or failure. Exhibit # 1,043: helicopter parents hovering protectively over their children's bubble-wrapped lives. Doesn't that seem a bad way to live? Jesus seemed to think so. I love Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Jesus' parable of the talents, the master says… Continue reading The crime of living cautiously
A few weeks ago Pope Frances canonized two pontifical predecessors, Paul XXIII and John-Paul II. In my last post on Saints, I looked at the fairly chronic aversion to saints and yet explored the warm biblical use of the term and concept of saints. Ok, so what now? How then might saints function in the Christian… Continue reading Saints? for sure (part 2)
Squinch 