Watch this short video on the four facts about fasting by Chris Stefanick. 

Aside from fasting from food and abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the spirit of fasting goes beyond merely depriving ourselves of food. The act of fasting is an act of emptying ourselves in order to make more room for God in our lives. It is an act that tells us that we're okay even when we don't eat as much or when we do not snack at all as we focus our minds and hearts to the Lord.

Eating can often become a mindless activity that fills our boredom. Fasting reminds us that our core belongs to God and that we ought to be detached from whatever distracts us in order to be fully attached to God, to be grounded in Him.

As we fast and abstain from meat, we detach ourselves from our usual comforts and open our minds and hearts to the needs of others, especially to those who are suffering from the ravages of war. We unite our prayers in solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters as we turn our backs on our petty concerns. 

This is the spiritual workout which will help us to become saints... no longer focused on ourselves but on God and with the needs of those who are suffering.

Consider this... This sounds noble... "I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”" (Luke 18:12) but this was the line of the Pharisee who did the right thing but did not have the right heart. 

Let our fasting be one that will change the heart and the mind... may our fasting help to free us as we have been made to be free to honour and worship God.

In this very short video of Chris Stefanick, he uses a line that should make us think about our ability to not only gauge where others are but also set the stage for where others can and perhaps should be. Chris reminds the students that they have the power to bring joy in the lives of others, that we are all called to serve others in humility.

​So he says, "Don't be a thermometer that gauges the temperature of that room. Be a thermostat that sets the temperature of that room." 

Isn't this true? We can choose to either be passive and we become bystanders in life, or we can choose to be active and contribute to the life of others. Christ calls us to be "salt" that changes the flavour of everything.

Consider this... Does the room turn dark when you enter or does it light up when you're around? Are you remembered for your kindness and concern for others or do you just like to blend in and disappear? Christ calls us to be more!

We live in a very connected world. We hear about the bad things happening across the world in an instant. Good and heartwarming videos can easily go viral. And yet sometimes it feels like the people you live with do not even know what you're going through. While it certainly feels like you are alone, you are not alone! Watch this video on mental health and know that there are many who feel disconnected, lost, and isolated. 

It's important that we reach out to someone and try our best to overcome the hesitation to talk to someone. If you need to speak to someone in the field of mental health, or visit this link for information. Alternatively, you can call 211 to access services that may make you realize that you are not alone and there is help available for whatever burdens you.

Contact 211 to access to an entire network of community, social, health and government services. Your call, text or chat will be answered by a professional 211 Community Resource Specialist who is trained to assess your need and refer you to the most appropriate service or services. 211 is available across Alberta and is offered in over 170 languages over the phone.

Why would I contact 211?

• I need food, shelter and/or transportation
• I need financial support to help pay my utility bill, rent and/or damage deposit
• I need to find mental support
• I need information on Government programs and phone numbers
• I don’t know where to go for Legal support
• I want to volunteer for an organization
• I want to make a donation of furniture and/or clothing
• I am concerned about a friend or family member
• I am looking for services for a client Gain access to thousands of other services

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​Consider this... we are made to walk this life together. 

Our homes hold a lot of what is near and dear to us. For starters, our family. The home provides shelter for the people we love.

Aside from our belongings which we need in order to function in life, our home is a shelter for the things that define us, objects that hold special meanings. Be it a special painting, a family heirloom, or that memorable walkman from the 80s.
In a Catholic home, some of the objects that hold special meaning to us are holy images or religious articles that help us think of God and the communion of the saints and the angels. 

Some Catholic homes have home altars or prayer corners/rooms where the family can spend time of prayer, meditation, or teaching the Faith. This YouTube vlogger, A Catholic Mom's Life, features her prayer room as a place not only to pray but also to read and hang-out as a family apart from the living room or the kitchen. 

Tips for starting your home altar/prayer corner or room...

• It would be helpful to have the home altar or prayer corner/room situated in an area where there is some silence and privacy.
• Imagine one focal holy image. Ask yourself what image will move you to pray and have a conversation with God.
• You can choose to have only one large image or statue flanked with candles or have one large one and a few small images or statues that hold some significance for you.
• Think about your preferred posture when praying at home. Do you tend to sit on a comfortable chair, kneel, sit on the floor with pillows, or the combination... have this set up near or around the home altar/prayer corner or in your prayer room.
• Consider the lighting. A space for prayer would need to have soft or ambient lighting to make it cozy, soothing, and easy to slide your way to an intimate time with God.
• If you like to pray and meditate with soft sacred music playing in the background, perhaps have a device for playing music nearby.
• To keep the area neat and tidy and free of distractions, make sure that things are placed and organized in presentable storage boxes that do not need to be seen until needed. Keep the area clutter-free.
• Once you have all of these set up, figure out the routine or times of prayer in your home.

Having a home altar or prayer corner/room can help us consciously make room for God in our lives.

Consider this... Our homes should be a refuge, a place where everyone can come home to rest, to be nourished, and to be re-energized for the next day. Carve a place for prayer and let the peace of Christ dwell in your house. 

Catholics, or Christians in general, can sometimes forget that we are both body and soul as human beings. We are not spiritual beings like the angels even when our human nature also has a spiritual dimension. We are human beings beautifully made by God, body and soul. 

• Watch this 10-minute video by Christopher West on the unity of the body and soul to understand how we should understand and see ourselves according to the teachings of the Church. 
  
  

Sometimes we can go on extremes with how we take care of our selves.

• We can focus so much on our bodies that when something goes wrong with our bodies we may think and feel like it is no longer worth living. Vanity will have a lot of control and influence on our lives, and we become enslaved by it. We can become like hollow shells.
• We can also see ourselves mainly as spiritual beings trapped in the shell of a human body. We can overspiritualize things and begin to neglect the proper care of our bodies. Some even begin to form an inherent hatred towards their bodies.

How we see and treat ourselves will often shape how we see and treat others.
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Christ became one of us as a human being, body and soul, in His incarnation while continuing to be God at the same time. He even bothered to be raised both in body and soul in His resurrected state because we matter. We matter to God both in body and soul and only death separates both from each other. Thus, the Lord opens for us the path of the resurrection to eternal life.

If you struggle with always being late.... It's a new year and an opportunity for an improved version of you!
Watch this video and learn from Jackie Angel (Ascension Press) on some practical tips on how to overcome this bad habit.  
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How to combat this habit?

• Find the underlying cause of why it's hard to be on time so that you can have it addressed:
  • Are you struggling with anxiety or depression? 
  • Is it the result of procrastination? 
  • Are you having a hard time with time management?
• If not the above, think about how you perceive and respect other people's time.
  • Evaluate your punctuality when you meet an important figure or someone you look up to versus your friends or family. 
  • If you are only late when meeting those who aren't 'important', know that you might be dealing with the sin of pride. 
• Let's do something about it. Reach out to your friends and tell them about your efforts to be punctual. Let them know that you need their support. If you haven't already, start the habit of notifying others if you are running late, even if it's only for 5 minutes. 
• To those with friends who are always late, help them by letting them know of your expectation for being on time and the consequences of being late. Charitably of course. ​

Watch this video and learn about a very simple financial principle that will require some discipline to live faithfully.
*The video is used for illustration purposes and is not an endorsement of the financial institution.

We must all live within our means. Even with more money, without any clear purpose, we can spend more than we make. Without this clear purpose, we can get into debt which causes a lot of negative impact on our spiritual, mental, and even physical well being.

Let's keep these in mind: 

• Everything that we have is a gift from God and is to be used to glorify Him. When our spiritual lives are not in order, one of the most common symptoms of this disorder is financial mismanagement. We may get into debt trying to pay for a lifestyle we cannot afford. This lifestyle choice is often an attempt to fill the void in our lives. The more we fill this "unfillable" void, the more money we spend and the more we get into debt thinking that we can always pay for it later.  
  
  Let God fill that void. The mathematician, physicist, and Catholic theologian, Blaise Pascal, said, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Only God can truly make us happy and free. We must overcome the habit of buying things to address the emptiness that we feel and must turn to God.
  
  
• Steps to take to stop the cycle of overspending and start paying your debt:
  • Calculate your total income and monthly expenses. The goal is to have your expenses lower than the income. If you are always overspending, the first task is to lower the expenses where you can and begin to live within your means.
    • Some practical tips: use cash, not cards, and decide the budget for food, presents or entertainment in marked envelopes; for gift giving, consider a joint gift with others; make your own gifts; avoid unnecessary trips to supermarkets or the mall so to minimize exposure to temptation; movie nights at home instead of the cinemas; hot chocolate by the fire or in the park vs a coffee shop visits, etc. You get the idea.  
  • When you are in debt, include monthly debt repayment in your monthly budget and work towards paying off debt. If you have multiple credit cards to pay off, you may want to consolidate them into the credit card that has the lowest interest rate or to a personal line of credit if you have it. To ensure that you will be able to totally pay off debt over time, stop adding to the debt by always living within your means. ​
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• A banking institution has this clever slogan, "You are richer than you think." Ultimately, it's not just how much money you earn but how much you spend that determines if you have enough. The financial principle is simple but the discipline required to live it is grounded in the personal conviction that only God can truly fulfill us and not material things.

Consider this... does your money own you or do you use your money to serve God and His purpose for you?

Christmas is a season and not just a day. Watch this video and learn more about the days of Christmas.

Consider these during the Christmas season

• Tempted to take down the tree this week? Give yourself a break and enjoy the tree until Sunday, January 9 on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. 
• Christmas trees are often placed in the part of the home where the family gathers for fun and relaxation. Hang out more often by the tree during the Christmas season. Play board games, have your favourite snacks and drinks, play your favourite Christmas music, and make the days of Christmas different by relaxing the usual schedule and busyness. With the pandemic being this long, you will not regret celebrating Christmas differently this year. 
• Greet others with a "Merry Christmas" and not a happy holidays. Christ is the reason for the season! 
• Avoid shopping or returning /exchanging gifts you've received for Christmas. Keep your mind peaceful and don't lose that peace. It may be prudent to keep away from crowds anyway to avoid being sick. 
• Have a bon fire if you have a fire pit and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa. Go ice skating and walk in the snow! 

Celebrate how blessed we are with the gift of the Christ child not in a day but for a season. He is Immanuel, God-with-us.

Feasts during the Christmas season are about family, friendship, and the expression of gratitude, but for many of us, often these feasts can lead to overeating. 

​Watch the thought-provoking video by Fr. Mark Mary of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal on our relationship with food, material attachments, and our sisters and brothers in need. 

Consider these when eating especially during the Christmas season... 

• Food is a gift from God, cherish the gift by treating food with respect and approaching it with gratitude. Remember to pray to thank God for the food and the company before beginning the meal. 
• Avoid overfilling your plate. You can always help yourself to more later - pace yourself as you eat and do not panic. 
• Be mindful of the food you are eating and savour it well. But do not give it too much attention to the detriment of enjoying the company. It is really not just about the food but instead, it is about eating together and sharing a meal. Compliment the cook and don't fixate on the food. 
• Develop a healthy relationship with food. Avoid using food as an escape to loneliness, boredom, or stress. Do not eat or snack on autopilot. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. 
• If you tend to spend so much on food, aside from reducing it, think of donating the same dollar amount to charities that provide food to those who are experiencing poverty. 

​Share with others the gift of food, made with an abundance of love.

In his recent apostolic visit to Cyprus and Greece, Pope Francis addressed the youth... 

​"Realize that your worth is in who you are and not what you have. Your worth is not in the brand of the dress or shoes you wear, but because you are unique.

Here I think of another ancient image, that of the sirens. Like Odysseus on his voyage home, in the course of this life, which is an adventure-filled journey to the Father’s House, you too will come across sirens. In mythology, the sirens by their songs enchanted sailors and made them crash against the rocks.

Today’s sirens want to charm you with seductive and insistent messages that focus on easy gains, the false needs of consumerism, the cult of physical wellness, of entertainment at all costs... All these are like fireworks: they flare up for a moment, but then turn to smoke in the air. I understand, they are not easy to resist." 
(Athens, December 6, 2021) 

Consider these during Advent... 

• The Holy Father's message does not only apply to youth but to adults as well. What are those "sirens" that give you false hope and pull you away from true happiness?
• Does the passing of each Christmas season add to the richness and meaning of your life or does it leave you feeling more empty after Christmas has come and gone? How might you try to make your Christmas different this year? Advent is not over yet. You have time to examine your preparation and planning for Christmas and make the necessary tweaks. 
• It's important to be connected. Connect with God, first and foremost. Then connect with the people who may be significant in your life. Often, this is clear. We love these people in our lives. Sometimes, however, we dream these people away by wishing that they would be different. Ask the Lord if He wants these people in your life. If He does, He might like for you to find His presence in them and in the circumstances you find yourself. There might be lessons that needed to be learned. ​Put God first and everything else will fall in the right place. ​

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In 2017, Canada Post broke a record for most parcels delivered in a day - 1.83 million. And this was pre-COVID. Watch this video and learn the best options out there for your Christmas shopping.

Consider these for faithful living:

• Give the gift of presence and not just presents. Be there for others by reaching out to them by phone, text, mail, or through an in-person visit. Take an interest in them and pay more attention to them.
• Issue "gesture of love" cards where you promise to do something for them that they would certainly appreciate. This could be promising to take them out for coffee/tea, going for a walk with them somewhere special, helping them buy Christmas presents for others, shovelling their driveway and walkways, driving them to their medical appointments... the possibilities are endless. 
• Be prepared for presents to arrive late when purchasing online instead of insisting on a last-minute delivery. Just let your loved one know that the gift is on its way. A late gift is not necessarily a bad thing. Gifts received after Christmas Day do not compete with the other presents unwrapped on Christmas Day. Plus, Christmas is a season, not just a day. 
• To take it up a notch, consider implementing at least one of these 3 #LaudatoSi Eco Christmas action items:
  • Buying even one fewer gift is a move toward a more meaningful and sustainable lifestyle
  • If you drive to purchase Christmas presents, make as few car trips as possible, or take public transportation
  • When buying gifts, commit to spending 5 to 10 minutes researching ethical and sustainable sources. 

Remember that Christmas ends after the the feast of the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. It does not matter what you give as presents for others. It's the heart and thought behind the gifts that matter. 

Often our "privatized" and individualistic mentality or lifestyle can make us believe that we live in isolation, and that our lifestyle choices only affect ourselves individually, "My choices, my life." But we belong to one another and no matter how private our actions are, they affect others through a ripple effect either directly or indirectly. If we believe that our life and all of creation are gifts from God, we owe it to God to care for one another by caring and preserving our biodiversity. 

Fundamentally, we depend entirely on the planet’s living systems for survival. We’re a part of these systems and we cannot exist without them. The better we understand how the systems of life work, the more sustainably we can live. The less we know, the more likely we’re going to continue causing irreparable damage to Earth’s ecosystems. (Source: Dr. Peter Raven).  

Ecological destruction and the loss of biodiversity obscure our ability to see and experience God, and are an affront to the Creator. The fate of the natural world and human life are fully intertwined. Ecological destruction harms human life, and human social injustice inevitably has ecological consequences. Source:Celebrate Life: Care of Creation, 1998, The Bishops of Alberta and NWT.
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Consider these for faithful living:

• Make lifestyle choices that care for all creation, being aware that our personal choices do affect each other eventually. 
• Learn more about how our actions impact global sustainability and teach our children to care about biodiversity. 
• Human life, animal life, and plant life - we are all in this together. Support ecological causes aimed to foster biodiversity, and those developing policies for the care of the earth.
• We know the choices we are making today will shape our communities, our economy, our health and the health of our planet for years to come, so let’s make sure our transition is towards a just economy that addresses integral human development. Support "People & Planet First" - Development & Peace Caritas Canada campaign this year. Learn more

​One major contributor to the world's waste problem is fast fashion and textile waste. An average person throws away 37 kg of textiles annually and North American send over 10 million tonnes of clothing to landfill every year. Globally, new garments produced annually now exceeds 100 billion, double the amount compared to the year 2000. (Source: WCWRCanada) 

​This infographic tells the story of textiles in Canada, from the first shoemaker to what it will take for our circular textile future.  

Consider these for faithful living:

• Avoid fast fashion, and consider getting items that are timeless to wear for years to come. Buy used clothes, or swap clothes regularly with family and friends.
• Repair your clothing instead of buying new. 
• Sell and donate your clothes to consignment or thrift stores.
• Support companies using sustainable fabrics with ethical business practices and inspire more companies to do better. Here is one for inspiration.
• Watch "The True Cost" documentary and find out who pays the real price for our clothes. 

Every year a significant proportion of electronic waste (E-waste) is exported from high-income countries like Canada to lower-income countries. There, e-waste is dismantled, recycled and refurbished in environments where infrastructure, training and environmental and health safeguards may be non-existent. (Source: WHO)  

The eye-opening video documentary: Welcome to Sodom - shows how children and adolescents in Agbogbloshie, a waste site in Ghana, dismantle recycled electronics in toxic smoke. Here, a child eating just one local chicken egg will absorb 220 times of the daily limit for intake of chlorinated dioxins. 

But there is hope. And it can start with us. This infographic tells the story of E-Waste, from the invention of the telephone, to the story of the first electronics recycling program in Alberta, and to what it will take for a circular future.
 
Consider these for faithful living

• Use the gadget you already have for as long as possible. 
• Purchase used or refurbished electronics before purchasing new. More importantly, ask yourself: Do you really need that extra gadget? Do you really need to upgrade?
• Sell or swap unwanted electronics before recycling. 
• Know where to recycle electronics in your community or to donate used electronics to social programs.