Author: admin

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.

For someone who never attended his own university graduations, it’s ironic that I’ve ended up in a profession where I spend upwards of 10 to 12 hours a year on convocation stages. Such is the somewhat charmed life of an academic: we have the opportunity to join a platform party and watch the excitement — sometimes the outright terror — of our students as they reach a critical milestone shared with family, friends, and the community at large.

As a university and college president, I have had the honour of delivering dozens of convocation speeches — to my own institution or as a commencement speaker for others — and I am always impressed, and sometimes humbled, by the energy and passion of the teams that put these events together. Standing in front of sometimes hundreds of nervous graduands, it is easy to see that few, if any, take the momentousness of the occasion for granted.

I always begin my speeches by quoting one critic who observed that convocations are strange events “where a speaker tells hundreds of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.” While that’s certainly a playful truth, it’s also always evident how unique all students are as they move toward you to shake your hand, to shyly or boldly wave to the crowd, or even to deliver a student address that moves you to the core.

This year’s St. Mark’s and Corpus Christi College Convocation was bittersweet. Sweet because the largest graduating class in our history marked St. Mark’s 70th anniversary, and Corpus Christi’s 25th anniversary, as Catholic post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. Bitter because we bade farewell to our longtime chancellor, Archbishop Miller, spiritual head of the Archdiocese of Vancouver for nearly 19 years.

In a typically powerful closing address, Archbishop Miller — himself a former university president — reminded us of the value of education generally, and of the special quality of a faith-based post-secondary experience.

“The education you’ve received here entails more than a diploma. It is a calling to lead with the integrity of truth, to serve with compassion armed with the Church’s social doctrine, and to walk humbly with the Lord. Let faith be your compass, knowledge your guide, and love be the virtue imbuing your future,” he said.

He also noted:

“You are receiving diplomas at the beginning of a new Pope’s term, a Pope who has taken the name of the symbol of St. Mark’s College, the lion, which in Latin is leo. I want to suggest that this might have particular significance for you.”

Our student address, delivered by actor, boxer, and newly ordained deacon Zak Santiago, spoke with equal passion:

“It is about equipping yourself for professional ministry … to approach any vocation through a life-lens of service, grounded in the Gospel.”

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Is 66:10–14
Second Reading: Gal 6:14–18
 Gospel Reading: Lk 10:1–12, 17–20

Traditionally, we can substitute the word Church for Jerusalem in the Psalms and the Old Testament readings. It is the Church — “that Jerusalem which is above,” whom Christ “loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “It is she whom he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly nourishes and cherishes.”

Therefore, we can say this Sunday, “Rejoice with the Church and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her — that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast.”

Is this how we see the Church? Perhaps we see her more as our own parish — with a building that may depress us, a priest who may bore us, a congregation that may sing flat, and laws that say “no” to everything we want to do.

Perhaps we forget that God has “put all things under Christ’s feet and made him, thus exalted, Head of the Church, which is his body.” Through him, “the whole body grows, and with the proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament, builds itself up in love.”

The Church is not just a human institution. True, it has you and me in it, so it is finite, weak, sinful, and unattractive. However, it has Christ as its Head, so it is infinite, strong, true, good, and perfect.

Many people see only the human members of the Church, who often let them down. However, even they are far better than we sometimes realize.

First, there is the man Jesus, who was sinless. He never let us down: he healed, consoled, forgave, and comforted or strengthened us.

Second, there is Mary, who was completely without fault.

Third, there are the saints.

To the canonized saints we may add the millions of “ordinary souls” who have gone before us with little or no recognition. We may also add the many good people we know in our own lives — people who try to do God’s will and usually succeed.

Despite all the good there is around us, we often see only the bad. We are often guilty of what the Catechism calls rash judgment: the assumption, without sufficient foundation, that someone else is morally at fault. To avoid this mistake, the Catechism says, we should be careful always to interpret other people’s thoughts, words, and actions favourably, as far as possible.