In my philosophy degree, the first caution given to us was that of "double-ignorance." Its a type of ignorance that we remain unaware of. Today Christ reveals to us that He cannot cure this type of ignorance, when it results from our owns sin. We must come to a place where we allow him to teach us, even through people we never thought could.

Today in our local community of Stratford and St. Mary's we celebrate the solemnity of St. Joseph, one of the patron's of our three Churches.

God offers us Hope so that we can endure the dark times of life. He offers this to the Apostles as they go up the mountain with Him, and see His glorified nature to be finally revealed after the Crucifixion. We need to treasure these moments when we get tunnel vision with life's difficulties.

At the root of all temptation is a lie about our Heavenly Father. It is meant to instill within us a fear that leads to prideful decisions. During Lent we must uproot these lies with Jesus at our side who counteracts each temptation by speaking the Truth about His Father.

Every Lent, in Stratford area, an Ecumenical gathering of various Christian traditions come together to share a meal and have a guest speaker offer a reflection. I was asked to kick things off on Ash Wednesday, and here is the talk I gave. I might mention St. Thomas Aquinas, of course ;)

As the Church hears its call to be holy, we rise to the occasion to evangelize. A holy community is not insular but seeks to bring others closer to Christ - it seeks to draw others to the source of all that is Holy: God Himself.

Autonomy in its etymology means "self-law" or a type of self-regulation. In our culture it carries with it the connotation of defining for ourselves right from wrong through our own personal freedom. Yet this is not real freedom as a Christian understands it. Rather its pride, and its rooted in an enslavement to fear.

As a logical consequence to the sin of pride Envy enters because of our self-centred centrality. Envy is frustrated when others take the centre stage, because then we are displaced from our own centrality. Wrath then follows envy so that we can eliminate the competition.