Stranded on the Mainland: Inner Pilgrimage and Living Alone as a Spiritual Path:

It's late. I wake up an hour into the Funeral Mass for Pope Francis in Rome. I turn on the television. The station that comes on is City News and it has distracting news headlines crawling across the bottom of the screen. With that said, my remote control is not working again. So, because I can't change channels easily, I surrender to the couch and prepare to watch the whole thing on one channel. Today is also the vigil of the Feast of Divine Mercy. My lectio last night was from St. Faustina's Diary (884):  "Oh, how beautiful is the world of the spirit! And so real that, by comparison, the exterior life is just a vain illusion and powerlessness."   The camera zooms in on presidents and heads of state, watch my temptation to judge. Deep breath. At the beginning of this post I mentioned distracting news headlines. I don't know what moves me to write them down in my journal while watching the funeral? Maybe for me they are a kind of necessary Canadian context g...

I'm at my local grocery store enjoying all the people. In the check-out line a man and I start talking. We're talking about (among other things) our favourite childhood cereal. I tell him I love talking to people in line-- I say I'm a writer who works at home and I don't get out much! The man asks what kind of writer I am? I tell him I'm a blogger and I write about 'faith and trauma'.  What comes next takes me by surprise: The man asks, "Would you like to have an  International Women's Day  pin?" Long story short I say, "yes,"-- I add that I wrote a paper on International Women's Day while at university. Next, as the man digs in his coat pocket for the pin, I notice the printing on his sleeve--it says UNIFOR. I'm getting emotional. All this is really hitting me for some reason? Pause. Continuing, he finds it (the pin). I reach out my right hand to accept it, and with my left hand I point to the  Miraculous Medal  on my coat. I...

Timing is everything: Around 8:35PM on Saturday, April 12 in Scarborough Ontario, I unexpectedly found myself at a Carmelite Palm Sunday mass-- LIVE from Lismore, Australia. Seems I made it to Palm Sunday mass one day ahead of time-- or behind? I'm still not sure? Then next morning, I watch the recorded Palm Sunday mass from St. Basil's in Ottawa: At the blessing of the palms, the priest looks directly into the zoom camera. Poetically speaking, our eyes meet and he splashes holy water right at my screen. I bow my head and cross myself saying-- Father, Son, Holy Spirit . Now I fast forward back to a recent (for me)  Carmelite Horizon's talk on the struggles of St. Teresa of Avila to pray. Are you with me still? Good. So the talk is about St. Teresa being weak and wounded. I too am weak and wounded when it comes to political temptation; I struggle to pray when politics is happening all around me. I can binge on opinions, political shows, and polls until I'm overwhelmed (...

We are almost at the halfway point of the Canadian federal election. Mark Carney is still leading in the polls-- But, they're tightening with conservatives closing the gap. That said, I had a chance this weekend to speak to regular renters (millennials, older and seniors). My Spidey sense tells me that liberals need to start talking about a rent-rebate program to replace the carbon rebate. I know folks who work in banks, daycares and offices who count on the carbon rebate. Many folks I talked to didn't know the carbon rebate was ending until I told them. They say they may vote NDP next time if the liberals win, this time. I just might too if we're not made whole after the election.  Continuing. I will be very transparent here: I was rennovicted from my downtown Toronto Holyburn apartment in 2019. I am now learning that Mark Carney is connected to the company (Brookfield) that rennovicted me. That's a gut punch, being a federal liberal voter. Next. I think Mark Carney co...