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Pilgrims will once again take to trails, parks, and parish pathways this summer as two popular pilgrimage series invite Catholics to walk in prayer and fellowship.

Fraser Valley Camino | July 22–25

Now in its third year, the Fraser Valley Camino will lead pilgrims 83 km over four days, from St. Anthony’s Parish in Agassiz to St. James in Abbotsford. The route passes through St. Mary’s in Chilliwack, then Yarrow and Sumas, ending on the Feast of St. James the Greater.

Organized by St. James Parish and part of the Jubilee Year’s theme of “Pilgrims of Hope,” the Camino offers a chance to grow in faith through shared prayer, walking, and reflection. Pilgrims are welcome to walk the entire route or join for shorter segments.

Registration closes Monday, July 14. For details, visit beholdvancouver.org/events or contact the parish at 604-864-8800 or stjamesabbotsford@gmail.com.

Holy Family Caminos | July & August

In Whistler, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish is again offering its Holy Family Caminos — a series of walking pilgrimages with daily Mass and retreat-style reflection. Pilgrims must bring their own food and gear for the wilderness treks.

• August 17–22: St. Joseph’s, Squamish to Our Lady of the Mountains (96 km). A challenging six-day backpacking pilgrimage through remote terrain, with five nights of camping.
    Cost: $25 admin fee plus $18 group campsite fee.
• August 29–31: Mount Currie to Our Lady of the Mountains (50 km). A three-day route with two nights of camping.
    Cost: $25 admin fee.

Pilgrims will hike scenic trails and spend time in silence and community, with daily liturgy and reflection along the way.

To register or request packing lists and waiver forms, contact whistlercatholicchurch@telus.net.

Whistler Hiking Masses | July–August

The parish is also offering short outdoor Masses on local trails this summer. All start at 9 a.m. on Saturdays:

• July 12: Blueberry Trail (2 km)
• July 26: Train Wreck (2.6 km)
• August 9: Rainbow Falls (5 km)
• August 23: Loggers Lake (2 km)

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My 6-year-old daughter and I recently started reading chapter books together. The experience of a narrative slowly unfolding mesmerizes her. The story, “Wildsmith,” by Liz Flanagan, pulls her in, capturing her interest and holding it tightly over the days it takes us to complete the book. Each night she begs for “just one more chapter” and scans the occasional illustration for hints at the upcoming plot. These encouraging signs of a lifelong reader warm the hearts of her bookworm parents. 

What a gift to journey into a story with someone experiencing it for the first time. What a blessing for the seasoned reader to wade into the narrative alongside someone completely unaware of the tried-and-true tropes and where the winding stream of plot will whisk them. 

The wonder, excitement, and sheer enjoyment of these first encounters with a story convey magic to the reader. Reading alongside my daughter reminds me of that time long ago when I first cracked open a beloved book; the first time I came across a lamppost in a snowy wood, or a hobbit snug in his hole until a knock sounded on the door. 

These moments of discovery linger with us as readers. They grant us a glimpse of something beyond our world and yet intrinsically connected to our own experience. We need to be reminded of these original moments of magic, of those times in our lives when the story was fresh and more powerful for it. 

My daughters remind me of this wonder of discovery in more than fiction. When we read stories from Scripture, their reactions are undiluted by familiarity. Each plot point is baffling and at times frustrating for them. Their flabbergasted interruptions of: “They put Mary in a stable? With animals? Why wouldn’t anyone give up their hotel room?!” are all valid questions. Their practical queries raise similarly astute concerns, “If God gave Adam and Eve clothes made from animal fur, which animals had to die? Or did God just make fur without the animals?” 

Their reactions make me think — why don’t we consider these things more deeply as adults? We should be outraged about the Son of God being born in squalor; we should ask what the fall meant for the animals. We too need to engage with Scripture as if it is our first time reading it, with the eyes and hearts of children, taking in every detail and asking the hard questions. 

Whether it’s desensitization after years of hearing the stories, or mere laziness, I often lack the vivacity of my children when reading Scripture. My oldest daughter cannot get enough of stories from the Bible.

The global success of Angel Studio’s The Chosen has demonstrated that audiences are hungry to see the stories of Scripture honored through excellent filmmaking. Amazon Studios has responded with an excellent offering of their own: House of David. 

House of David is a multi-season Biblical drama that depicts the unlikely rise of the young shepherd-boy David as he ascends to the throne of Israel and the correspondent demise of David’s predecessor, King Saul. The first season was released in Spring 2025 and it follows David throughout his teenage years as he journeys towards his climactic confrontation with the giant Goliath. It is a sweeping story that deftly follows a contingent of compelling characters as they journey through primitive warfare, tender romance, disconcerting prophecies and the intrigues of a kingdom that is torn between the call of God and the ambition of man. 

I found that House of David offers artistic excellence while also remaining steadfast in its recounting of Biblical truth. The show takes creative liberties, but they do so in a way that remains true to the overall truth of Scripture. This is not a secularized version of King David’s story: God is embedded and honored at the forefront of the entire show. The script manages to convey the deep, spiritual nature of the story without betraying the audience with corny sentimentality or preachy exposition. 

I was personally struck by one of the show’s central themes: the experience of receiving a calling from the Lord. God speaks intimately to many of the show’s lead characters and He calls them forth with challenging prophecies that often bewilder or surprise them. Along with the theme of calling, a theme of waiting upon the Lord runs throughout the show. David – along with other characters – clearly hears the call of God upon his life and he has the understandable urge to immediately act on what he has heard. But God is gentle and quiet in moments when thunder and action might have been expected. An anointing comes… and then a call to wait and trust. The mystery of God’s pacing weighs heavily on David. 

Multiple characters wrestle with a desire to do great things with their lives, to fulfill what they believe is the call upon their lives, to satiate a great longing within themselves, and they are met with the mutually confounding and consoling realization that their lives are not their own. Their desires and calling are of Divine origin and as such the fulfillment of desire and the realization of their calling is primarily the work of God, not the work of man. The show maintains an urgent pace while leading the audience through the tension of characters who are wrestling with their desire to move and their call to wait – and the consequences that unfold when man chooses to act in contradiction to the voice of God. 

In this episode of Way of the Heart, Jake & Brett are joined by long time friend, Peter White. Peter is a Registered Clinical Counselor that has known Jake professionally for years and watched Brett hoop during his prime basketball years. They discuss a wide variety of topics including the beauty and difficulties of marriage, how men and women respond differently to conflict, how conflict can lead to great things & the importance of good fathers. This is one of our deepest conversations yet and we hope that it speaks to your heart.

Key Points

• The beauty and difficulties of marriage.

• A discussion about how people, especially men, get married without an understanding of what it takes for a marriage to thrive.

• Trends in boy’s/men’s personal growth since the feminist movement

• Psychologically, men tend to have a fight or flight mentality. Women tend to have a tend and mend mentality. This dates back to the earliest humans. Men tend to fight alone. Women work together. 

• Conflict in marriage can be generative.

• The importance of fatherhood. Inviting our sons to something higher by letting them punch a little above their weight.

• The distorted desire to build an empire instead of serving your neighbor.

• How to drop the facade and get to more of your true self.

  References
  Peter’s Website
  Warren Farrell’s Website

Fr. Mike explains how being at home with our family is one of God’s favorite ways to make us holy—if we are honest about the areas where we need to grow in our relationships with family members. 

Fr. Mike has observed that college students often have a profound encounter with Jesus through their college’s Catholic community. They find that they are praying more, receiving the sacraments more, participating in more service opportunities, and so on. Then they get back home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or—in the most recent cases—a lockdown. They realize, in their interactions with their family that they’re not as holy as they thought they were. 

Why do we struggle to be loving toward those whom we claim to love the most? It’s harder to love family members sometimes because—Fr. Mike explains—you didn’t get to choose this group, and they can make demands on you. 

It’s easy to be generous when it’s on your own terms. Our relationships with our family can reveal the impatience and lack of generosity inside us—the unedited version of us. 

Be honest with God and admit that the things you thought you defeated are still somewhere inside you. Surrender these things to Jesus. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with your family. They love you. Ask family members where they want you to grow this week. 

Pursue holiness at home. Like St. Teresa of Calcutta said, find your own Calcutta.

My get-up-and-go has got up and went!

Is that statement merely a joke, or a declaration of fatigue—or a sign of something worse, perhaps even deadly? In this second in a series of a renewed look at the seven deadly sins (part one is HERE), we’ll be looking at the sin with the unfortunate name of “sloth.”

“Sloth” suggests a lack of industriousness, a lack of “busy-ness.” Unfortunately, overemphasizing that aspect of this sin can mask today’s more common and deadly forms. Let’s replace “sloth” with the Greek term “acedia” meaning “lack of care.” We’ll see why in a moment.

I’ve observed students in the library, with their laptops lit up, their screens cluttered with various social media programs, some streaming videos, a game running, and maybe, just maybe, something school related. At the same time, they’ve got some form of audio stuffed into their ears. Their eyes and hands are on their phones. Somewhere nearby, there may be a textbook or school-related notebook. They’re very active, but little is getting done. They will leave the library tired, but with no sense of satisfaction, and little or nothing accomplished. They say that they’re “multi-tasking”; I say that they’re “multi-slacking.” Why do I describe such frenetic people as slackers? 

They’ve spent an enormous amount of energy doing lots of little things very briefly; they’ve scattered themselves widely even while sitting in one place; they’ve attended to little, and invested themselves in even less. They’ve accomplished nothing and worse than nothing. The most likely end result of all that time and energy spent is that they’ve further entrenched in themselves an addiction to electronic stimuli, while wasting precious resources and failing in their duties.

They view this dynamic as acceptable because they see it as inevitable—they just don’t see any other way of proceeding, and they have a lack of care—acedia—for their duties as students. This dynamic is not unique to students; workers of every kind, and even vowed religious (who should certainly know better!) cultivate this restless and fruitless way of proceeding. What’s the spiritual import of all this?

Acedia, according to Aquinas, is a kind of sadness, “a species of sadness according to the world.” I describe it as an interior sulky whining and pouting because doing the right thing (including doing one’s duty) is often hard, often quite unglamorous, and, very often, not immediately fulfilling or stimulating. Typically understood, sloth is what prompts us to hit the snooze button repeatedly, or, worse, prompts us to refuse to get out of bed at all. But the restless, fidgety “multi-slacking” I described above is also acedia according to Aquinas, because one sets one’s energy on the trivial, rather than on the more demanding (and more rewarding) spiritual goods.

The period of engagement is an exciting time for young Catholic couples. The planning of the upcoming wedding is paired with endless anticipation for how wonderful married life together will be and a slew of celebrations to bolster support for the soon-to-be-married among the broader community.

Imagine my chagrin then, when my parents insisted that my (then) fiancée and I take what was certain to be an exceedingly boring course before we got married called “Financial Peace University.”

We watched 60-minute videos about emergency funds and investments. Not exactly riveting material.

My wife to this day maintains that the course had its fair share of mind-numbing moments. Still, both of us cannot deny that taking the time to learn about budgeting and wise stewardship of our finances along Biblical lines has had an outsized impact on our marriage.

It’s not a secret that one of the more common causes of divorce is financial issues and this makes sense. How to spend money (or perhaps more commonly, what to do when there’s not enough) can easily become a topic of contentious debate. 

When my wife and I first got married, we were both working as part time baristas at Starbucks. While we both were fortunate to upgrade our careers fairly quickly, we’ve never made that much more than we need to get by. Still, the habit of keeping a monthly budget together has helped us to stay out of debt through the entirety of our married life, handle a lay-off and subsequent move across the country, and give generously to the needs of the Church and our community.

Budgeting may not come naturally to some (it certainly didn’t to either of us) but having a plan for our finances helps us to stay on the same page and feel as though we are working towards the same goals with our money. I tend to be a bit of a “free spirit” when it comes to money (in other words, without discipline money doesn’t stay in my bank account for very long), while my wife can be so thrifty that she avoids buying things she needs or really wants. 

When these attributes of ours come into conflict with each other, it creates the opportunity for us to share openly and honestly about our desires and fears around money and the life we want. Instead of seeing these conflicts as hindrances, we try to use them as an opportunity to show empathy and then to gently and lovingly encourage the other person to grow. Making and sticking to a budget has helped the both of us to not only reach a more moderate place with our finances but also to deepen our unity.

Cloverdale–Langley City MP Tamara Jansen has introduced a private member’s bill to stop the expansion of “medical assistance in dying (MAiD)” for mental illness alone.

Jansen’s Bill C-218 would amend the Criminal Code to prevent mental disorders from being considered a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” for the purposes of medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

The bill was read a first time in the House of Commons on June 20 and is scheduled for second reading at the next sitting of the House.

Speaking in the House, Jansen said, “Imagine your son or daughter battling depression for some time, after losing a job or maybe a broken relationship. Imagine they feel the loss so deep that they’re convinced the world would be better off with them, without them.”

Starting March 27, 2027, such Canadians “could walk into a doctor’s office and ask them to end their life,” she said.

“That’s not a future scenario, that’s the law right now waiting to take effect.”

The Trudeau government delayed expansion until 2024 and again until March 17, 2027, over concerns from medical and legal experts.

“Clinical experts have warned that there’s no evidence-based way to determine if someone with a mental illness would get better, and most do,” said Jansen. “But still the government is moving forward.”

Jansen said the proposed law sends a message to “struggling Canadians, trauma survivors, those battling depression, schizophrenia, PTSD” that “death is a solution we’re now willing to offer” in response to suffering.

“That’s not health care. That’s not compassion. It’s abandonment.”

She told MPs, “Mental illness is treatable. Recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help.”

Jansen’s bill is similar to 2023 legislation that was narrowly defeated in Parliament but delayed implementation of the federal law.

Abbotsford Conservative MP Ed Fast introduced Bill C-314, which would have stopped the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia regime. It was defeated at second reading on Oct. 18, 2023, by a 167–150 vote.

Fast gathered cross-party support for his legislation, with all 24 NDP members voting in favour of his bill and eight members of the Liberal Party breaking ranks from their colleagues. The Bloc Québécois held the balance of power on the vote, as each of its members voted against the Abbotsford, B.C., representative’s endeavour.

During the oral question period preceding the vote, Fast condemned reports “of Canadians crying out for help and being offered assisted suicide instead.”

He attacked “the sorry state of our mental health system,” saying, “Millions of Canadians oppose the government’s fascination with assisted death.”

A Christian political advocacy group praised Jansen’s bill and called on MPs to support it regardless of party.

PHOENIX — The B.C. Catholic and the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s communications office were recognized with a combined 21 awards at the Catholic Media Association’s annual conference.

The awards were announced June 27 during the association’s annual gala, concluding a four-day conference attended by more than 350 Catholic media professionals from across North America.

The B.C. Catholic earned 18 awards for writing, investigative reporting, special issues, photography, advertising, and editorial design, including multiple honours for its continuing coverage of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in Canada.

Contributing writer Terry O’Neill received First Place in Best Investigative News Writing for “MAiD Accounting Shows Death is $283.85 a Person,” and Second Place for “MAiD and the Catholic Hospital,” examining the ethical and financial implications of MAiD and its proximity to Catholic health care. The paper’s “MAiD in Canada” special edition also earned Third Place in Best Special Supplement.

The awards are the latest recognition of the newspaper’s coverage of euthanasia and end-of-life care, an issue it was honoured for in May by the Canadian Christian Communicators Association, with O’Neill taking second place in the news story category for “MAiD and the Catholic Hospital” and the province’s decision to open a euthanasia facility on the grounds of St. Paul’s Hospital.

O’Neill investigating reporting on the growth of MAiD goes back to 2022 when he earned two first-place writing awards from the CMA and two from the CCCA for his reporting on the Fraser Health Authority’s MAiD practices.

“I’m deeply grateful for the recognition of our work — especially Terry’s investigative reporting on MAiD,” B.C. Catholic editor Paul Schratz said. “It’s a critical issue that’s barely being covered in Canada, and we had the chance to expand on that during our presentation on the role of Catholic journalism.”

In a two-hour master camp titled “What Makes Journalism ‘Catholic’?” Schratz and Canadian Catholic News members Laura Ieraci of ONE magazine and veteran Catholic News Service journalist Barb Fraze explored the nature of Catholic journalism, from fidelity to Church teaching to the pursuit of truth and charity in storytelling.

“When we explained what’s happening with euthanasia in Canada and put it in an American context, equivalent to more than 170,000 deaths,  people were stunned,” Schratz said.

“We had a line of people asking questions about our reporting ” Schratz added. “And all week long, people kept coming up to thank us for shedding light on a crisis they realize is coming their way.”

VATICAN CITY — Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith was among 54 new metropolitan archbishops who received the pallium from Pope Leo XIV during a solemn Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica June 29, a sign of their communion with the Pope and responsibility to lead with unity, fraternity, and missionary zeal.

In his homily for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Pope said archbishops must set an example of “fraternity and reconciliation” within a Church that needs “unity in diversity.”

“The whole Church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between lay people and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the Pope,” he said during his homily at Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.

“Fraternity is also needed in pastoral care, ecumenical dialogue and the friendly relations that the Church desires to maintain with the world,” the Pope said.

“Let us make an effort, then, to turn our differences into a workshop of unity and communion, of fraternity and reconciliation, so that everyone in the Church, each with his or her personal history, may learn to walk side by side,” he said.

The feast day celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica included the traditional blessing of the pallium, the woolen band that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders over their Mass vestments and symbolizes an archbishop’s unity with the Pope and his authority and responsibility to care for the flock the Pope entrusted to him.

Pope Leo revived a tradition begun by St. John Paul II in 1983 by personally placing the pallium around the shoulders of the recently named archbishops.

Pope Francis had changed the ceremony starting in 2015. The late Pope had invited new archbishops to concelebrate Mass with him and be present for the blessing of the palliums as a way of underlining their bond of unity and communion with him, but the actual imposition of the pallium was done by the nuncio and took place in the archbishop’s archdiocese in the presence of his faithful and bishops from neighboring dioceses.

The Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff issued a formal notification June 11 that on June 29 Pope Leo would preside over the Eucharistic celebration, bless the palliums and impose them on the new metropolitan archbishops.

According to the Vatican, 54 archbishops from more than two dozen countries who were named over the past 12 months received the palliums. The Pope blessed the palliums after they were brought up from the crypt above the tomb of St. Peter. Each archbishop then approached Pope Leo by the altar and either knelt or bowed their head as the Pope placed the pallium over their shoulders.