I remember reading Columbus’s diary with our kids (we homeschool). He says all sorts of delightful things about the Native Americans. One I particularly remember goes something like this: “By the power of the Holy Spirit we will make them all subject to our Queen.” My son looked up at my wife and said, “So Columbus was a bad guy?” My wife, who’s knew to this, creaked out a slow “um…yeaaah…I guess he IS a bad guy.”

Still, I think the Jefferson quote might be a little overkill. In the context, isn’t he saying that if the Natives join with the British that we’ll destroy them? I think he would have said the same about Germans, Italians, or anyone else. Not quite the same force in context.

Larry – Yep, it’s true, we are back in the u.s.a. I regret that we weren’t able to hang out more. I’ll be back regularly though. Please stay in touch.

What? You’ve already left town? Missing you already here in Toronto.

This morning during our Advent I Mass at the U of T Newman Centre, I glanced across the chapel to realize that you are no longer here in our midst. This reminds me now of a song from the musical “Oliver”: “You can go, but be back soon”. (Ooops, must be shards of an advent response developing here)

But thanks to this incredible blog and the technology of internet communication, these challenging and edgy insights which you posted here are still available for our reflection and further adventures into developing a spirituality of being faithful to the gospel. Inevitably, this means being counterculture in a society and a continent still gorging itself on more than 5 centuries of greed and selfish exploitation of natural beauty.

But then, this tradition began much earlier in the human journey,didn’t it? In what has been described as the ancient primordial loss of original blessing and innocence and our human pursuit and development of the culture of death.

Your work on themes of sacrifice and eucharist are much appreciated.

Gracias! Muchas gracias!

I think we have to work out our protests a bit differently. For example, I considered going to my local Wal-Mart this morning with a big sign offering to help people get out of debt fast (by cutting their credit cards in half), but decided that to travel ‘round the city with coffee, bagels, and socks to share with homeless folks was a much better manifestation of the Kingdom whose inbreaking gives me cause for thanks.

Thoughts?

Peace to you,
Tim