Were you in Madrid this summer for World Youth Day? Were you, like so many others, in the middle of an immense sea of people unable to get the view you wanted? WYD Madrid just uploaded this video to their still-active YouTube page, a one hour look back at whole week of WYD. Titled “Cronica de una semana inolvidable” or “timeline of an unforgettable week”, the video includes footage from TeleMadrid and 13TV, the official broadcasters of World Youth Day Madrid. If you understand Spanish you’ll enjoy the excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s homilies.
What makes up a Christian workplace?
January 12, 2012 By 1 Comment
In a report recently released, Compassion Canada has once again made the short-list of Best Christian Workplaces. As a matter of fact, Compassion Canada is the only Canadian organization to make the list this year.
Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI) conducts annual employee surveys. They publicly recognize particular organizations that meet the highest standards of excellence in the work world. Employees have the opportunity to answer questions on topics relating to personal development, management, job satisfaction, commitment, benefits and pay.
First and foremost, the nearly 90 employees who make up Compassion Canada aren’t afraid to share and proclaim their company’s mission: releasing children from poverty—in Jesus’ name. Compassion’s employees are passionate about heading to work each and every day, knowing they are making a difference in the lives of thousands of children around the world.
Reading this report made me take a step back and wonder, “What makes up a Christian workplace?”
There is so much to reflect upon with this question. I’m quite happy that I didn’t have to walk far to find the answer. Let’s begin by considering the work, people and incredible institution that Salt + Light has grown to become.
Many will agree that Salt + Light is an incredible success – born on the heels of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto. It’s safe to say that our ability to reach out to the world is not what continues to make us a success. Don’t get me wrong – that is an important part of our work, as we strive to live out the call to proclaim the New Evangelization. It’s much more than that. It is the energy, the warmth, faithful devotion and youthful faces that make up this incredible office.
Just because the majority of our office is under the age of 40 doesn’t mean that we are a youth office. Really, we aren’t. At all times, we exemplify the highest professional standards you will find, anywhere in the secular Journalism and Communications industry. We multi-task often, work under strict, unpredictable deadlines, yet have the privilege of having our very own Chapel in our studios. Not many Television and Film stations can boast that.
The best part about Salt + Light is that it is much more than a Catholic-Christian workplace. It is a “home,” where we can come together, at the end of the day, to laugh, cry, share and rejoice in this important work of New Evangelization that we strive to carry out. Just like Compassion Canada, the staff of Salt + Light is passionate about heading to work each and every day, knowing that we are bringing flavour to the gospel and light to the world. We share this with the world by being at the service of the greater Church. Everyone is passionate and committed. You can see it and most of all, you can feel it. How beautiful!
There’s so much to be thankful for in this New Year. One thing I’m thankful for, as an employee, is for the gift of Salt + Light in today’s world. Hopefully you are too.
Amen.
Perspectives Daily – Wednesday, Jan. 11
January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives: We tell you about the Pope’s meeting with a Cuban crocodile. Also, we learn about how one diocese is leaving the light on for their faithful this coming Lenten season. Finally, friends of the late Cardinal John Foley remember him at a special Mass in Rome.
Edmonton celebrates Canada’s newest Cardinal
January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
With last week’s Epiphany announcement that the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins would become a cardinal, Canada is rejoicing.
Although his face and name are associated with the Archdiocese of Toronto he was previously the Archbishop of Edmonton. This week the Western Catholic Reporter published this story offering insight into what kind of impact he made on the faithful of Edmonton.
Perspectives Daily – Tuesday, Jan. 10
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives we tell you about a special trip to the Holy Land and how the locals celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. We also take a look at some events happening across the country.
The cost of our discipleship
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A Biblical Reflection for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
The readings for this Sunday are: 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42
Reflecting on today’s readings, especially the call of Samuel and of Andrew and his brother, I remembered something that the German Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison in Nazi Germany, that “only by living unreservedly in this life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities … does one become a man and a Christian.” Bonhoeffer experienced what he called so poignantly “the cost of discipleship.”
The Prophet Samuel and Andrew and Simon Peter experienced this cost in their own lives. First let us consider the story of Samuel’s call – a dramatic story exemplifying the dynamics of God’s call, and offering to us a model to follow in our own lives. Eli was old and nearly blind. His sons, who were the priests of the temple, had been unfaithful to God. Their time was nearing an end, so God called Samuel to begin a new era. [Read more...]
Praying-in the New Year
January 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Do you think it’s possible to have 30,000 people welcoming the year in prayer? What if the majority of that group are youth? Does that seem possible? That is exactly what happened this year in Berlin at the European meeting of the Taize community.
The meeting actually begun on December 28 and ran until January 1. During those days all the boys and girls who chose to spend their last days of the year in prayer and reflection gathered in the German capital united in their love for Christ.
The Taize community is an ecumenical society of more than 100 brothers who take vows and commit themselves to the apostolate of reconciliation. It began in 1940 when brother Roger Schutz obtained a house in the French village of Taize. Since then this community has attracted lots of people mainly because of the simplicity of their way of life – which is reflected in their prayers based on the liturgy of the hours.
[Read more...]
The New Evangalization – an old concept
January 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
If we were to step back for a moment and look at the extent to which traditionally Christian societies have become secular in recent history, we might conclude (quite reasonably) that by all appearances the Faith is dying, if not dead already. So dangerous is the perception of this cultural shift away from God, that it has become a focal point of Benedict XVI’s Pontificate, as the 2010 creation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization proves.
If you follow current events in the Church you have heard the phrase “New Evangelization” many times. Simply put, it is the challenge of the whole Church to find new and effective ways of articulating the gospel message, particularly in those societies once firmly Christian in structure and practice (e.g. Canada, Europe).
But the phrase should not be misinterpreted as something entirely novel or conceived. The task of evangelization, and even innovative (“new”) evangelization, was undertaken by the first Christians themselves. They had to break-out, so to speak, in order to be Christian; and this ability has been characteristic of the Church ever since. Early apologists like Justin Martyr sought to articulate Christian truths in light of the predominant Greek philosophy of the day. Missionaries from Ireland sprang across the continent when the Roman Empire fell, and planted the seeds of Christendom. Matteo Ricci journeyed to China in the 16th century where he immersed himself in the culture of that great empire. Thirty years later the church in China numbered in the hundreds of thousands (We may wonder what China might look like today had papal politics not interfered). And the list goes on. [Read more...]
Perspectives Daily – Monday, Jan. 9
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Tonight on Perspectives: Pope Benedict XVI keeps some traditional post-Christmas appointments including baptisms at the Sistine Chapel. Also, Archbishop Paul-André Durocher reaches out to his Muslim neighbours.
The Baptism of the Lord at the Vatican
January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Every year for the feast of the Baptism of the Lord the Holy Father takes part in a special tradition: he celebrates Mass in the Sistine Chapel with the Vatican workers who have had babies in the last year and baptizes the little ones.
The tradition began with John Paul II in the first year of his pontificate. Pope Benedict XVI continued the tradition after his election. The Mass is perhaps one of the most visually interesting papal liturgies of the year, not only because of the spectacular back drop but also because of the varied reactions of the newly baptized. Some sleep, some cry, some follow the pope’s every move wide-eyed. Then of course, there’s the look of serene joy on the Pope’s face as he carries out the most fundamental of priestly ministries.
This year he told the parents of the newly baptized that prayer and sacraments will give them the strength and guidance they need to promote their child’s well being.
For more on the homily take a look at this report by Catholic News Service
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Photo courtesy of CNS/L’Osservatore Romano/Reuters