E=mc2 The God in Einstein and Zen: A Skeptics Search for the Meaning of Life and Personal Redemption

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After he built a successful business, the church required him to marry a second wife. Wallace fathered twenty children, but he never felt comfortable with polygamy or many other FLDS beliefs. On the day the FBI arrested Warren Jeffs for child rape, the prophet was en route to reclaim Wallace's second wife for himself. Wallace defied the prophet and soon ended up in a coma. With today's movement against male abusers, Wallace's story reminds us that power and position don't corrupt all men.

At the same time, he renews our concern for the thousands who still live under FLDS control, including some of Wallace's own children. Les was a pastor who had to endure the horror of finding out that his handicapped child had been systematically raped by an older man from his church. Then, after being arrested and released on bail, this man came back to the house and killed his son and wife. Or maybe shake your fist at Him?

Have you ever had questions and no answers that were worth a plugged nickel? Life happens to us all. When good turns to bad, the journey from bad back to good can seem impossible. In this candid book, Les Ferguson shares his story of when he struggled to believe, not that God existed, but that he cared. The questions of faith and doubt shared in Still Wrestling show the journey Les took through tragedy to a deep, renewed faith. Les approaches Scripture from an entirely different perspective than you might hear in Sunday school. With Les as your guide, you can learn to read your Bible in fresh, new ways and relate to the people of Scripture, examining their humanity, seeing their fears, and acknowledging their weaknesses.

His perspective on brokenness will encourage you to bring your entire life, even your doubts, before God. Navy, Les Ferguson Jr.

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After the murder of his wife and son, Les temporarily stopped standing behind the pulpit. He has since married his childhood sweetheart and returned to preaching. They have six sons and one grandson between them. Join Drew and various religion reporters from an assortment of news outlets, as they catch up on happenings in the world of Religion, Faith and Cults Oh My! Throughout the year, Drew invites various interns to help out with social media and video production.

What did they think they were getting themselves into? He has recorded 8 critically acclaimed albums, and a brand new one just about to drop in July, called Wilderness Years. Jory Nash is a past Artistic Director of the Shelter Valley Folk Festival, and is the co-founder of an annual large scale, multi-artist concert celebrating the music of Gordon Lightfoot. Jory Nash plays acoustic guitar, piano and banjo and his warm, unique voice urges you to listen to his thoughtful lyrics and intricate melodies.

He tours regularly across Canada and the United States playing folk festivals, house concerts, folk clubs and soft seat theatres. He has also several times been a featured performer in the Home Routes house concert series. May 26, Special Guests Tom Jackson — Actor, Recording Artist, Activist Now, at an age when most are pulling back, the year-old Tom Jackson is barrelling towards the busiest and most glittering chapter in his towering plus year run at the forefront of contemporary film, TV, and music.

While living on the streets of Winnipeg, his personal search for identity led to bonds with those outcast and marginalized. His voice became his way off the streets — figuratively and literally — and into radio stations, television studios, film sets and theatres. Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment.

She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most. Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. He has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. He has trained countless clinicians and caregivers in the art of mindful and compassionate care. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over decades of selfless service offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.

Flor Edwards was born into a cult. She spent her entire childhood preparing for the apocalypse that would never come. Despite being denied a traditional education as a child such as learning to read and write, she took it upon herself to complete high school, complete an MFA in creative writing, and pen a moving debut memoir, Apocalypse Child. This memoir details her early life as a member of The Children of God.

The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in Flor would be 12 years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where they would eventually disband, leaving Flor to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around her.

Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real-life Kimmy Schmidt, Edwards' clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes. Join us as Da Bomb gives us Da Truth about the latest acts of terrorism.

Comprised of all original music, one can discern that Avery has matured into a strong songwriter, with catchy melodies, strong lyrics and a real sense of musicality, not often seen from someone so young. Johnson is a leading innovator in the field of couple therapy and adult attachment. Sue is the primary developer of Emotionally Focused Couples and Family Therapy EFT , which has demonstrated its effectiveness in over 30 years of peer-reviewed clinical research. Johnson has received a variety of awards acknowledging her development of EFT and her significant contribution to the field of couple and family therapy and adult attachment.

As author of the best-selling book: Hold Me Tight, Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, Sue Johnson has created for the general public, a self-help version of her groundbreaking research about relationships — how to enhance them, how to repair them and how to keep them. This best seller has been adapted and developed into a relationship education and enhancement program. Her most recent book, Love Sense, The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships outlines the new logical understanding of why and how we love — based on new scientific evidence and cutting-edge research.

Explaining that romantic love is based on an attachment bond, Dr. Sue trains counselors in EFT worldwide and consults to the 50 international institutes and affiliated centers who practice EFT. After 29 years of marriage, Drew and his wife separated last year. After our 1-hour special with relationship expert Dr. What role did YOU play in the end of your relationship? Lama Tsultrim Allione is founder and resident lama of Tara Mandala.

After living in the Himalayan region for several years she returned her vows and became the mother of three, while continuing to study and practice Buddhism, particularly focusing on the lineage of Machig Labdron and Dzogchen teachings. In , Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala, a acre center outside of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, near Durango Colorado, where an extraordinary three-story temple in the form of a mandala, dedicated to the sacred feminine in Buddhism has been constructed and consecrated.

In while traveling in Tibet she was recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdron at the historic seat of Machig Zangri Khangmar by the resident lama. This recognition was confirmed by several other lamas, and in she was given the Machig Labdron empowerment by HH the 17th Karmapa. As an incarnation of the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Tsultrim has a unique perspective on female strength and enlightenment.

In Wisdom Rising, she shares from a deep trove of personal experiences as well as decades of knowledge as one of the preeminent teachers of the mandala of the five dakinis. Brooklyn Doran was interested in music from an early age. The record went on to sell over copies and has received extensive radio play nationwide.

Doran followed this release with a pledge to play shows during , documenting the journey on her personal blog as she drove herself and her tourmates from coast to coast. Currently in the studio working on her next release, Doran has her sights set on a busy year of touring. This year will see Doran embark on another show tour, this time including performances at festivals across the country such as Tay Creek, Living Roots, and an already sold-out performance at the In The Dead of Winter Festival supporting Rose Cousins and Fiver.

The secret, she has learned, is kindness: In Kind Is The New Classy, Candace reveals the thought patterns and practices that have empowered her to stay centered in who she is while practicing radical graciousness toward others. Kristi Funk is an expert in minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment methods for all types of breast disease.

Her mission is to educate as many women as possible about what they can do to reduce the risk of breast cancer before it starts. Their announcement led to a permanent increase in preventive testing for the BRCA gene. This strategy-filled guide to total breast health arms women with the most up-to-date tools for prevention and a compassionate and complete guide to treatment options.

Every year, one million cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed globally, with more than , in the US alone. Kristi Funk is a board-certified breast cancer surgeon and cofounder of the Pink Lotus Breast Center. She has helped thousands of women through breast treatment, including well-known celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Sheryl Crow. She is also the founding ambassador of the Pink Lotus Foundation, whose mission is to provide low-income, uninsured, and underinsured women free access to breast cancer screening and care.

They want their balls back. Currently, she writes for The Washington Examiner. Everything it teaches about the topics above will land the marriage minded woman in a ditch. So if you're rockin' it in your professional life but struggling in your personal life, ask yourself this: Is it possible that how I've been taught to think is the underlying problem? She connects with audiences on a deeply emotional and spiritual level, borne out of an early life of one misfortune after another. Through her artistic performances and constant giving to others, she has transcended the tragedy of losing her parents and the humiliation and shame of childhood sex abuse, redirecting her energy into a more positive channel.

KELITA is a much in-demand speaker who mesmerizes audiences with her many talents—singing, comedy and piano playing—and genuine tales of triumph over tragedy. On February 7, Mandy Bass suffered a brutal attack on her life when a college senior Kevin broke into her home in a drug-induced rage and nearly beat her to death. In her book Taming the Tokolosh: Hailed as a child prodigy, Keith started drumming at the age of two. His abilities led him to a national tour at the age of three, a starring role as "Little Ricky Ricardo" and various acting stints on television, including The Andy Griffith Show, Route 66, The Shirley Temple Playhouse, Hazel, and many more.

Since Thibodeaux's last name is Cajun French and "difficult to pronounce," Desi Arnaz changed the young actor's name to Richard Keith for the show. While attending the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Keith joined and recorded with the then mainstream rock band, "David and the Giants. As a drummer, singer, and songwriter for the Dove nominated "David and the Giants," Keith toured extensively for 10 years in the United States, Canada, Jamaica, and England, recording 9 albums before leaving the group in to pursue other interests. In January of , he joined his wife Kathy on the road with Ballet Magnificat!

In addition to his current responsibilities at Ballet Magnificat! Through My Father's Eyes takes an intimate look at Billy Graham's incredible life and unstoppable calling through the unique perspective of his son, Franklin. As a beloved evangelist and a respected man of God, Billy Graham's stated purpose in life never wavered: This was a calling that only increased over time, and Billy embraced it fully throughout his active ministry and beyond.

Yet Billy pursued his life's work, as many men do, amid a similarly significant calling to be a loving husband and father. And while present and future generations will come to their own conclusions about Billy Graham and the legacy that his commitment to Christ has left behind, no one can speak more insightfully or authoritatively on that subject than a son who grew up in the shadow of his father's life and the examples of his father's love. This vulnerable book is a look at both Billy Graham the evangelist and Billy Graham the father, and the impact he had on a son who walked in his father's steps while also becoming his own man, leading ministries around the world, all of it based on the foundational lessons his father taught him.

The fourth of Billy and Ruth Bell Graham's five children, Franklin is the author of several books, including the bestselling autobiography Rebel with a Cause and the release of Operation Christmas Child: A Story of Simple Gifts. He and his wife, Jane Austin, live in Boone, North Carolina, and have four children and twelve grandchildren. Possessing a rare blend of artistic passion, creativity, and business savvy, Gilles Paquin has been involved with the North American arts and entertainment industry for over 35 years as a manager, promoter, producer, and entrepreneur.

As President and CEO of Paquin Entertainment, Executive Producer of Koba Entertainment, Gilles career has led him to opportunities around the globe, working with many of the leading luminaries in the entertainment world. In Gilles founded and launched Venue Coalition, a company dedicated to programming arenas and theatres around North America, with sports, music, theatre, comedy and family events.

In Gilles sold Venue Coalition and it continues to grow and now serves over 65 venues across North America. As a producer of film, television and theatre, he continues to work on select projects. A comprehensive list of completed projects is available upon request.

The duo recently finished a new album, Home Away From Home. Anna piano, vocals grew up in various states and provinces, but her family ties connect her to rural Manitoba.

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Her musical roots trace back to classical piano studies and the inspiration of dance and theatre, which led her to study music at Trinity Western University and composition at New York University. During this time, Anna began writing songs, released a solo album in Patrick guitar, vocals was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up in Fergus, Ontario. His music lineage goes back to the family campfire and songbook. Patrick has spent many years representing Canada in wheelchair basketball and is a three-time Paralympic gold medalist.

Judge Robert Lung was sold and trafficked by his own father when Robert was a child, until well into his teenage years. These days though, in addition to presiding over a diversified District Court docket in Colorado, Judge Lung provides presentations nationally and internationally on issues such as human trafficking, childhood trauma and resiliency. Judge Lung presents to diverse audiences including law enforcement, social service caseworkers, attorneys, the military, judicial officers, nurses, first responders, faith-based organizations and others.

Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. From sold-out stadiums to a cameo on The Simpsons, Randy Bachman reached rock royalty status decades ago. Now in his 70s, he's still takin' care of business: A man who achieved the rare feat of number one hits with two different bands—"American Woman" The Guess Who and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" Bachman Turner Overdrive —Bachman eschewed the rock 'n' roll lifestyle of his contemporaries to focus on his craft. For this guitar virtuoso, it's always been about the music. Featuring interviews with Neil Young and Peter Frampton, Bachman lovingly profiles a legend who continues to inspire.

In , Canadian-born Jean Vanier visited a psychiatric hospital near Paris. Together they created L'Arche, a commune at the edge of a beautiful forest near Paris. A quiet revolution was born. Now in his 80s, and still at L'Arche, Jean has discovered something that most of us have forgotten - what it is to be human, to be foolish, and to be happy. Amid the ancient trees, Philippe, Patrick, Jean and the others welcome us into their lives. If there are rules to break, they will be broken and if there is a truth to be told, they will tell it.

Michel reveals his war torn past, Andre is desperate for a date, and young David will prove himself a hero in the fight against the forces of evil. Vanier, now 89, still lives in Trosly-Breuil, where most of the film is set. The film will open in Canada on April 30 following its release in Los Angeles on April 6 before spreading across the U. They have taught me about what it means to be a human person — to learn to love and let the barriers down. It reads like a gripping crime novel…except this story really happened. Racial tensions had long simmered in Benton Harbor, a small city on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, before the day a white narcotics officer--more focused on arrests than justice—set his sights on an innocent black man.

But when officer Andrew Collins framed Jameel McGee for possession of crack cocaine, the surprising result was not a race riot but a transformative journey for both men. Falsely convicted, McGee spent three years in federal prison. Collins also went to prison a few years later for falsifying police reports. While behind bars, the faith of both men deepened. But the story took its most unexpected turn once they were released - when their lives collided again in a moment brimming with mistrust and anger. The two were on a collision course, not to violence, but forgiveness.

On April 28th, a place known as one of the best listening rooms in Canada will be celebrating their re-birth. Police, family and volunteers searched the banks of the river from Grand Valley to Belwood Lake, every single day. Even the father of Tori Stafford who was abducted, raped and murdered back in joined the search for Kaden.

Two months to the day after Kaden disappeared. Today we will speak with volunteer team leader, Richard Croft. Traditional Celtic tunes, soulful roots-rock originals and high-energy covers that he makes his own, David Leasks seamless combination of looping and effect pedals deliver an amazingly rich, big sound. Originally from Jedburgh, Scotland, David is a powerful performing songwriter, who has built an artistic bridge between the influences of his birthplace and the fresh possibilities of his adopted Canadian home to produce five critically-acclaimed CD's and numerous international songwriting awards in different genres.

Songwriters Magazine called David, "the most consistent Canadian songwriting competition winner. A gifted songwriting teacher, David has been a songwriting mentor for 10 years with the School Alliance of Student Songwriters, on the songwriting faculty for Guitar Workshop Plus, and has conducted numerous songwriting workshops at Folk Festivals and on behalf of the Songwriters Association of Canada. April 21, LIVE!

Her career heights have taken her around the world on tour — from Russia to Central America, from India to touring all over the U. Everyone knows who Bif Naked is, she is a legend and an icon. Bif has pushed the boundaries of acceptability since day one. Her screaming loud creative has never been muzzled as she has unleashed a continual and seemingly endless string of blazing live performances, recordings, videos, quotes, soundbites, spoken word, and visuals that have established Bif Naked as one of the most acclaimed and interesting performers to grace the rock stage. Bif was born in New Delhi, India, and adopted by American methodist Missionaries who didn't know any better.

They returned to the United States, after decades in India, to raise their family and work. Professors and academics, The Torberts emphasized the Performing Arts in the lives of their three daughters. Bif was a boisterous and spirited middle kid, and began her studies of ballet and spoken poetry at the age of three, and performed in Fine Arts Festivals to her parents' delight. Wild Wild Country is the true story of when a controversial cult leader built a utopian city in the Oregon desert and conflict with the locals escalated into a national scandal.

She was also convicted in a conspiracy to kill a Presidential appointee. Hands joined in greeting, a soft smile playing on his lips, he moved towards the chair placed there for him. He seemed to float towards it. Silent tears of joy filled my eyes as I gazed on the vision of celestial beauty. I was sure I was in heaven and God had come to speak to the assembly. Bursting with pious devotion and honoured to be among the chosen few, it was inconceivable to me that everything I felt and saw was simply a projection onto the pristine white screen standing before me.

If someone told you that they would willingly give away their freedom, you would shake your head in disbelief. But that is exactly what I did. As a young Australian wife and mother of two small children, I happily handed over my freedom to someone else. In doing so, I entered into a prison of my own making in which I was both guard and prisoner and all the while the deception was so complete that I thought myself to be an independent and free individual making wise decisions for myself and my family, and for the good of mankind.

It was not until I was locked into a physical prison with high stone walls and metal doors that clanged when they were shut that the extent of my self-deception slowly began to dawn on me. This is the story of how I came to relinquish my freedom, of what it took before I realised what I had done, and of the years that followed as I faced the devastating consequences and struggled to win back the priceless treasure I had recklessly thrown away.

Decades have passed since the story began. I am a grandmother now who keeps house, tends the garden and bakes with her grandchildren when they come to visit. All stories have a timing of their own and mine has taken long. It spanned many continents. There were no shortcuts and it was necessary that I walk each and every step of the way. This act of faith radically propelled her into a future she could not have hoped for or imagined. It brings life to the broken and light to those in darkness. She believes that God is real, he is alive, and his love brings us to life. They traveled to South Africa in July , where they adopted their son.

Realizing she literally had nothing left to lose, Victoria finally understood that in order to live her truest life, she had to be willing to find a way to let go of her fears and the nagging voice in the back of her head. She chose to become intentionally homeless, embarking on a metaphoric and literal road trip to find her way home to her truest self.

Highlighting the importance of a daily practice of joy -- the pure and simple delight in being alive — by starting a successful blog, traveling to China to visit the country where her mother grew up, and surrounding herself with friends who no longer judge her or condemn her dark places — The Way of Being Lost is a reminder of the importance of making peace with our past in order to expand our futures and live our most authentic lives.

Police, family and volunteers have continued to search the banks of the river from Grand Valley to Belwood Lake, every single day. Even the father of Tori Stafford who was abducted, raped and murdered back in has joined the search for Kaden. Canadians have all been processing the tragic loss of 16 lives cut short after the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus collided with a tractor trailer last week, on the way to a playoff game.

But how did our society get to the point of expecting spiritual leaders to always have the answers and to appear steadfast and certain? What are the spiritual questions that really need to be talked about in the aftermath of such a horrific event? Despite his recent diagnosis with cancer, his positive demeanor and zest for life remain. Sportswriters and fans have frequently called for Henderson to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on the strength of his performance.

He was first inducted as an individual in , and again ten years later along with his teammates. These interactive sessions provide players with a message, a prayer time and an opportunity to talk about what is going on in their own lives. People can become so consumed with winning at all costs that they struggle for inner peace and purpose beyond the game.

And for those players and families that do recognize the importance of peace and significance outside of hockey, the demands of the sport make it difficult to fill that need through consistent worship opportunities. Hockey Ministries has stepped into the gap by bringing much needed spiritual support for those in the world of hockey. Ted DiBiase became a professional wrestler in the summer of and he paid his dues in the early years of his wrestling career, traveling thousands of miles by car, spending many nights in less than luxurious hotels, and making little money.

It was from here that his career skyrocketed. Ted literally traveled the world with the WWF, wrestling in some of the biggest venues in the world. After six years with the WWF, seeing his likeness made into action figures, characters in video games and his face on everything from T-shirts to pinball machines, he ended his active career at the end of due to a neck injury.

He then went on to be a ringside manager and commentator with the WWF from to the fall of As he was ending his wrestling career, Ted was already turning his talents elsewhere and looking to the future. A recognized worldwide authority on religion and spirituality, Asian history, world philosophy, Buddhist science, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert is an eloquent advocate of the relevance of Buddhist ideas to our daily lives. In doing so, he has become a leading voice of the value of reason, peace and compassion.

Thurman travels internationally lecturing to universities, companies, conferences and think tanks. He reasons passionately that H. In , Lama Tsultrim founded Tara Mandala, a acre center in southwest Colorado where an extraordinary three-story temple in the form of a mandala, dedicated to the sacred feminine in Buddhism has been constructed and consecrated.

The Meeting House is a multisite Anabaptist congregation in Ontario, Canada where thousands of people connect to God and each other through Sunday services, online interaction, and a widespread house church network. He is also gaga for movies. Fun for the whole family! What are Christians to be and to do in the world?

What does faithfulness look like in these complex and confusing times?

Christians are often told either to take over the world in God's name or to withdraw into faithful sanctuaries of counter-cultural witness. John Stackhouse offers a concise, vivid, and practical alternative based on the teachings of Scripture about the meaning of human life in this world and the next. Why You're Here provides an accessible, concrete program for the faithful Christian living in today's world, fraught as it is with ambiguity, irony, and frequent choices among unpalatable options.

Stackhouse speaks directly to everyday Christians who are searching for straightforward advice on some of their most complex quandaries and the challenges inherent in staying true to the Bible's teachings. Politicians, medical professionals, businesspeople, professors, lawyers, pastors, students, and anyone else concerned to think realistically and hopefully about Christian engagement in society today will find here a framework to both guide and inspire them in everyday life.

He collects research from a wide range of sources, corrects currently popular interpretations, and connects audiences with information and insight they can put immediately into practice. He is therefore a skilled guide in helping us chart a course through the prospects and impasses of modern society. And she is inviting you to join her! Rose lives in Orillia, Ontario with her husband Rob and their four children.

She is a runner and an active member of Connexus Church. He has had 26 top ten songs on Canadian Radio.

The first, The Journey: The more we got to know each other, the more it was clear that our wives are incredible inspirations to us, each in their own unique ways. We wanted to write a song that would celebrate them and the thankfulness we have for being in their lives. Once we began moving in that direction with the song, it kind of started to write itself.

American evangelical Christianity is a uniquely American Phenomenon. Ingrained in culture and politics, fundamentalism ascribes to strict theological and political dogmas in ways that seldom mirror our vast human experiences. Their parents and family members who support them are often forced to choose between their churches and their loved ones.

Other believers have simply noted the overt moral hypocrisy of their leaders in favor of political power, and have begun to question their faith as a whole. They discover how evangelical Christianity evolved out of the larger Christian faith, and why for them, in a world of fundamentalist absolutes, there is a struggle to separate belief from truth. The book addresses feelings of anger, depression, and fear of eternal damnation that many people struggle with when walking away from their faith, or reframing their view of God. Tim Rymel offers a unique perspective on the topic of evangelicalism in America.

Toronto-based folk pop artist Angela Saini is all about second chances and empowering others. Her ability to combine humanistic and honest themes laden with catchy hooks and memorable melodies make her entertaining as well as relatable, two amazing qualities for any musician to have. She was the frontwoman of her high school rock band Supernal, which catapulted Angela to Toronto after 4 independent releases and thousands of kilometres touring.

The rocker-turned-songstress released her first solo EP in , after her refined songwriting skills and natural vocal ability got the attention of Tragically Hip drummer Johnny Fay. Heartfelt lyrics with a genuinely positive outlook reflect her life-affirming perspective: Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before.

Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live. The Chapman family began with four employees and two trucks, and moved into the cramped and primitive rooms above an old creamery in town. In , Chapman's opened a distribution center in New Brunswick to better serve its customers in Atlantic Canada.

Although Chapman's Ice Cream has grown substantially, it is still firmly rooted in the community and deeply loyal to its employees. The distribution centre in Ontario covers about , square feet and can house over 6 million units of product, which gets delivered right across Canada on over 50 trucks.

Changing the Timeline of Our Destiny. Busting the Myths of Karma, Hell and Punishment. Sitting in the Lotus Blossom. The Sun My Heart. The Book of Light. Ascension and the Nature of the Present Time. Intuition and the New Age. The Marriage of Spirit: A Spiritual Philosophy for the New World. The Power of Self. Seeing Through the Game of Life: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. The Instruction Manual for Receiving God. The Nature of Being: Thoughts from a Fellow Cosmic Traveler.

The Enigma of Self-Realization. The Carousel of Time. The Tao Te Ching. A Guide to Sacred Awakenings. The Real Far Country. The Nature of Awareness. The Interface of Science and Spirituality. Reflecting Upon Life's Ultimate Questions. Conversations with a Friend. The Soul Of The Messenger. Removing Illusions to Find True Happiness. Freedom Comes from Understanding. But it won't be what we expect, because our expectations are limited by our words.

Then you won't be all confused about how to change your life; it will change it for you. In this connection I always remember the words of St Ignatius of Antioch 1st-2nd century: I was really shocked by that and I asked my three grandchildren if God loved them. When I asked them about the commandments they hadnt heard of them. At least they know that God loves them. But will it make them better? Will knowing the right answer make them grow up to be more loving people…? Aged seven, I was a bit of an expert on the ten commandments. Still, it is better than a wrong one, or none at all.

But thoughts are just as weightless as words, and can fly up just as easily. Unless the heart flies up, in some sense, it is only a show. It is the experience of love that raises the heart, and most people, even children, are expert at distinguishing the real thing from the show. A catechism, no matter how modern, could never substitute for a loving family. In the 19th century William Blake wrote: A human baby has potential beyond measure, but if it is not evoked it never surfaces. That boy never learned anything much, despite being taught for five years by a genius. He never learned to speak, for a start.

It is a state of nullity and barbarism… a state in which the individual pitifully hangs on without intelligence and without feelings, a precarious life reduced to bare animal functions. He never learned to love anyone. We are taught how to love by being loved. This idea seems to go all the way to the top! In the previous verse, fear is specifically ruled out as a motive: I think a particularly important part of the pedagogy of love is the dismantling of hate. Think of it as somewhat akin to defusing landmines.

Children need wise and patient grown-ups who will sit down with them and listen to their hatreds, as well as their fears and their anger — and talk them through, taking time, not running ahead with moralistic answers, helping them to understand their emotions. This is where words can have full effect — certainly fuller effect than words learned by rote and without context. Grandparents are especially important here! Traditionally they have more time than parents have, and are less weighed down by anxiety.

The transmission of culture has usually been from grandparents to grandchildren. Older people often suffered from arthritis and the like, so they were not up to romping around with their grandchildren. Instead they kept them quiet by teaching them songs, poems, telling them stories…. I know that today you will have to compete with computers and iphones.

So you will just have to make a bigger effort, Tom! I find it so satisfying, at times, to sit on the sideline!

271,28 RUB

I was talking with someone I went to school with many years ago and it brought up all sorts of memories. She remembered things I had forgotten and I remembered things she had forgotten. That evening I was going over it all in my mind and I began to feel so sad. I had the feeling that my life was nearly over. I'm afraid of sinking into depression.

I'm not one who runs to doctors for everything, but maybe I'll have to see a doctor at some point. But first I thought I'd see what you had to say about it. I'd be grateful for a little advice. Thanks for your website…. Yes, the passage of time is the most pathetic of all the mysteries. Other mysteries we can choose to ignore, but this one stalks us all our life and pounces on us in unexpected moments. We all get old, withering a bit as we do so, and eventually we die. Those are the terms, and they are not negotiable. So the only choice we have is to accept this or to try to resist it.

Resisting the thought of ageing and death won't help much; so the big question of our life is how to accept it. In the push and shove of our daily life we mostly try to bin that unpleasant thought — which of course isn't a successful move this piece of rubbish keeps coming back. How can we bring ourselves to accept ageing and death, and still live with some degree of joy?

Still standing at a certain distance from it, we can say: The covers of magazines you see in the supermarket never have tired and timeworn faces on them — only fresh and beautiful ones. That is bound to be a false picture of human life and besides, all those images are Photoshopped. Unless we have managed somehow to avoid nearly everything, our older self has more depth and resonance than our youth. Thinking about our life this way, we are like people standing at a distance, surveying it, measuring it, assessing it. But in reality we have no distance from our life.

How do we get right into our life? Do we mean the dates they will write after our names when we die? Or could it be something else? The something else is just this moment. This present moment, with its content what I am doing, and what is happening around me: This may sound a little forced, but it is not so at all.

We are quite often immersed in this awareness. Whenever something wonderful is going on I am wholly taken by it; I am fully in that moment; I am immersed in my experience, there is no distance between me and my life. It is only when we are bored or frightened or worried about something that we distance ourselves from the present moment; we attempt to stand outside our experience. Many people spend the bulk of their life alienated from themselves in this way. But when we immerse ourselves in our experience we pay no attention to the passage of time.

The time is always now. Nothing ever happened except now. The moment of your death will likewise be now. This is what the wise ones tell us. Go for depth, they all seem to say, rather than just for length. In this perspective, a realisation of the shortness of life may be the road to depth. Measuring it is a way of being subtly separate from it. Worrying about the future is a way of being separate from the present.

Wondering how long we have to live is a way of not living now. Running through all this is the kind of awareness that is meditation — or mindfulness, if you prefer that word. There are many questions and answers on that topic in this website. If you had to distil meditation or mindfulness down to a single and more familiar word, that word would be love. I do a bit of meditation…. It seems a bit out of this world to me — very far removed from work and family and paying bills. Can you assure me that it is for sensible people who have a lot of things to do? I'd be only too happy to drop it completely if thought I was wasting my time….

It is like navigating by the north star, which is reliable because it is out of this world: In our topsy-turvy world meditation is a sure help. The north star was never just for gazing at in an abstract manner. Sailors depended on it for navigating their ships. Here on land, meditation has a similarly practical meaning. It is about orientation, it is about taking steps in a sensible direction. There are probably tens of thousands of practical people working in munitions factories around the world, who seldom if ever have a qualm about the meaning of their work.

The fact that some piece of behaviour is practical is no guarantee that it is right or sensible. Meditation is the background to everything we do. If a background seems less interesting to us than a foreground, it is because we have chosen to be more interested in the foreground. If we focus intensely on a foreground object, the background obligingly fades from view.

In this way we keep our eyes on the ground, like sheep, and we nibble ourselves astray. When background is ignored, there is no perspective and no direction. We call it meditation. We all have moments when we do this spontaneously — moments when we are completely absorbed by something. Positively, when you get the knack of this you will find that you are at home in a different state of mind from your usual one. Call it a mood, if you wish, or a feeling of spaciousness, a freedom from clutter. That absence of clutter gives you a sense that you are not separated from anything around you.

Without making an object of it, you have been focusing on the background; you are in a state of meditation. It is easier to say this than to do it. Through the ages, people in different traditions have devised skilful means of discouraging the active mind from keeping you immersed all the time in objects. Concentrate on your breathing, they advise us; or repeat a mantra…. No doubt the group you attend have gone into these methods. It will help keep you from getting lost in a train of objects.

It is like looking up and breathing and entering the full space that is yourself. Then you are properly aligned to receive something from beyond that has no name — because it is not an object. I hope I haven't made it sound lofty or obscure. It is basically down to earth. Someone approached a meditation teacher once with a lot of questions about reaching higher levels. Meditation is all here on the ground. Would you recommend mindfulness? I have a couple of friends who swear by it. But I notice that you write alot about meditation but not about mindfulness.

Is a mindfulness course a worthwhile thing to do? I'd like to hear your views on it…. A great many of the practices that have become common today are like Venn diagrams — circles that partially overlap. There is a lot of common ground, especially between meditation and mindfulness. Mindfulness is meditation on the hoof, you might say. In Zen this is called kinhin. A friend of mine worked for many years with the deaf. When she moved from regular teaching to that work, she was very struck by the intensity of attention that deaf children pay to everything and everyone.

Yes, that would come as a big shock to any teacher! Rapt attention to their teachers is not something we associate with children. In this noisy age inattention is the new normal for adults too. Ears, it seems, are for not hearing. Everyone has ears, but not everyone has ears to hear. Likewise eyes are for not seeing: The animals do, because unlike us they depend on the sense of smell for survival; with us it has begun to atrophy.

People go looking for new restaurants to tease their jaded taste-buds, because they never allow themselves to feel hunger. The way to relish your food is to skip a couple of meals — a cheaper and more effective remedy than even the best restaurant. We are becoming more and more like dead people. We are losing our senses. The absent-minded professor is a figure of fun, yes, but crucially not a subject for political correctness.

His absent-mindedness is not seen as a disability but as a somewhat endearing trait. Besides, it is badly named: Chesterton said that a madman is not someone who has lost his mind, but someone who has lost everything except his mind. If it comes to that, mindfulness is badly named too. What it means is full presence. The human race has not always been as dead as this. Look at the following couple of paragraphs from St Augustine 5th century , and notice that he uses all five senses. You shone upon me; your radiance enveloped me; you put my blindness to flight.

You shed your fragrance about me; I drew breath and now I gasp for you. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me and I burned for your peace. On another page of the Confessions he is figuring out what it is we love when we love God. This is what I love when I love my God. St Augustine can write boringly too; but when he wants to, he can write passages like the above; his language then is more like music; it is like a magnificent organ played to its full capacity — while the rest of us play with one finger. But living comes before language. If we could live in a full-bodied way, using all the sensitive capacities that are ours by nature, how rich our lives would be!

We would never know boredom — because the remedy for boredom is to open our eyes and our ears, all our senses. Nothing special, just common sense. If you think that joining a group for a mindfulness course would motivate you to live in a more sensitive and appreciative way, then why not join one? Be another refugee from a crazy world.

I have a feeling that I must be very stupid or shallow. Is it always deep like that, or is there a lite version for ordinary people? What can you do for someone who feels highly intelligent, etc.? St Thomas Aquinas famously had an experience that led him to say to Reginald his secretary and friend "The end of my labours has come; all that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me. Have you heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? It goes something like this: If I am incompetent in some area, then I am incompetent to know just how incompetent I am!

To see my limitations I would have to be beyond them, and so they would no longer be my limitations. That is certainly an interesting idea to play with. You and I acknowledge that we have limitations, and so we are somewhat protected from being completely narcissistic. I knew an elderly man who entered a religious Order. He had been in banking all his life, so it came as a surprise when he announced during his novitiate year that no member of that Order could teach him anything about philosophy.

His name might as well have been Dunning-Kruger. He was like a blind man. Beside that kind of ignorance, all other kinds pale into insignificance. But it tends to bother grown-ups except the ones who are snug in their Dunning-Kruger. It is important to remember that everyone is ignorant, only about different things. To know that I am enclosed by limitations is not a disgrace; it is a testament to the truth.

So just dive in with the rest of us and enjoy the fun. The only people who claim to understand religion fully are non-religious people: But we have more fun. The point is not to try to understand everything, but to understand one or two things as well as you can — things that are close to home, things that truly engage you. Every single thing is deep, if you give it sustained attention. No matter how small or slight it may seem, anything that brings you to an awareness of God is profound. I want to ask you about meditation because a friend of mine told me you are one of the people to go to.

Am I missing something? Thanks for your website. Yes, the idea of meditation seems very simple in itself, but it can be difficult to get a handle on it in practice — because the practice is even simpler than the idea. Trying to find our way to it is like trying to eat with extremely long-handled cutlery: You are experiencing this yourself, and that is an indication of how serious you are about meditating. I met someone once who said he was interested in it for many years, but it turned out that he had never even once tried to meditate.

He was interested in the idea of it, not in the practice. From other people, and from books, you can only get second-hand knowledge. The normal mental tools are very good for that kind of knowledge, but not for bringing you to meditation. Judging widens that space.

This is a good thing in most situations, but it is just here that meditation is different. Meditation is closer than close. We like to command a view. All these titles suggest a lofty perspective, noble detachment, sublime impartiality. The outsider, the observer, the critic: Swift, in the 18th century, called them "the tribes of Answerers, Considerers, Observers, Reflectors, Detectors, Remarkers. But that is just what it is not: There is an irreducible subjectivity that our mental tools are unable to handle. It is more like awareness or feeling though it is more than a feeling.

It has come to mean biased, jaundiced, influenced by personal tastes and opinions. These would certainly be problems in the field of objective knowledge. Think of the headlamp of a car: All the light comes from there, but just behind the light is darkness. How do you step back into it? First, make sure you are not trying to get your head around it; that would be the wrong kind of effort. Then, follow the advice we are given: When your attention strays, bring it back — again and again. You just stay put.

There is nothing there for the ego. Like any unfed thing it will make its hunger known. But hold your station. One glorious day it will become clear to you. What St Bernard said about love of God is equally true of meditation: Evagrius of Pontus teaches that impassibility is the goal of the spiritual journey. I seldom get a technical question like this, so thank you for providing variety. If so, I would not agree that Evagrius saw it as the goal of the spiritual journey. That would have been to transform the Christian faith into a cult of tranquillity.

It would be like saying that the whole purpose of a car is to run smoothly. This condition makes pure prayer possible. The goal of the spiritual journey is union with God , which is attained in such prayer. Like all the Desert monks, what he had in mind were the disordered passions, the sicknesses of the soul. He enumerated eight types of logismoi: Your question is a topical one for us today, when we see a bewildering variety of approaches to meditation.

There are some who look askance at this variety and dismiss it as a cult of tranquillity, an escape, an easy option; I have even heard someone say with the kind of certainty that is attained only through perfect ignorance that it is a cult of the self. Those ancient monks knew what it was to grapple with a human mind. They had deliberately deprived themselves of external distractions, so they got to know all about the internal ones.

This is what we do in meditation: All the old favourites are there, though some of the detail may be new. Instead of wandering chaotically after our logismoi — our emotionally loaded trains of thought — we hold our station. All our sick thoughts come from self-love, Evagrius says, and they all involve a false notion of God. God has no shape or form or complexity, so the mind, to be united to God, must shed all shapes and forms. The more clear-eyed we are about ourselves, the more clear-eyed we will be about God.

He says striking things about the translucency of a mind that is undisturbed by unruly passions: I googled the words good news and found your website. I need a bit of good news. I said it to a friend of mine and she said, Well Jesus never laughed, did he? Should we all be dead serious the whole time? I'm not like that at all and I'd hate to be like those people. By the end of a meeting I'm depressed myself. Tell me there's a better way. That should be evidence enough that he did!

If he had never laughed, that would be something so remarkable that it would have been recorded. How could someone who spoke like a poet not have a sense of humour? His teasing nickname for Simon may be an example. But Peter was exactly the opposite of a rock! He got his sense of humour from his Father. See instead if you can pull them up. You will be doing them a favour. Let them see how one jolly good meal can thaw a century of gloom.

I read the question and answer from last month and I can see where that woman is coming from. I get bored stiff at Mass every time. Same priest, same prayers, same people, same everything. Is it meant to be liked that, or is it because they make no effort? I can't see myself still going to Mass a year from now. I'm just getting fed up. I tried what you were suggesting to the other woman, I tried to look at the people and see Christ in them, but I know them too well….

Ok I'll keep on trying for the present anyway. Maybe you could tell me something that would help me in particular…. The present is the only time in which we can try. Everything is the present. Yes, the Mass is repetitive. It is ritual, not drama. Ritual, on the other hand, is expected to be always the same. Christmas, birthdays especially twenty-firsts , weddings, funerals…. Try changing or ignoring any of the rituals of those events and you will soon feel the pressure to keep them the same. And if you feel you are only a spectator at any of those events, you are left feeling lonely and miserable.

No, we are happy to be just spectators at drama, but in ritual we expect to be fully involved. The Mass, like all ritual, is repetitive. But it is repetitive only on the surface; it is not repetitive all the way down, so to speak. It is repetitive to someone who is only a spectator, observing it from the outside and therefore seeing only the surface; but to someone fully involved it is new every time. At a deeper and personal level, when we turn off the television, Christmas is a fresh experience of family, with the children or grandchildren a year older, and the whole life of the family moved on one year.

Likewise, at the deep level of experience the Mass is always a new experience. The problem is not just the Mass. It is the wider problem of a culture that makes us permanent spectators even of our own lives. There are people who are never disconnected from the social media, who have no solitude and have lost the capacity for it.

Nothing is direct or first-hand anymore; everything is mediated — in the most literal sense now: We have to find a deeper way, a way that does us justice as full human beings. Have you tried meditation? It is remarkable that the new enthusiasm for meditation cuts across all boundaries: But in meditation all lines meet right here, in the heart. One of the most profound effects of meditation is this awareness that all people — no matter what they are like — are indeed our brothers and sisters.

People can be understood, up to a point, as objects: So the people at Mass, no matter what they are like or what compromising things we know about them, are our brothers and sisters in Christ. All the lines that connect them meet right here in the heart. It is a challenge to see that. To most people that day it was a gruesome show put on by the Romans. Not only then, but through the centuries, large crowds would gather to witness an execution.

But to the people who had faith in Jesus it was a life-changing event. To join a group of fellow-Christians for Mass is to be contemporaries of all the people present at that event in Jerusalem long ago. Thanks for the opportunity of meeting with you last week. I found our conversation a great help…. All the people there were locked in their own worlds. Nothing happened at that Mass. No palms, no choir, and no microphone for half the Mass. I need to talk to you again…. What can lay people do to keep their faith going…?

Yes, it is a depressing scene, but I can assure you that there are parishes that are alive. The best are ones in which lay people are deeply involved. The demoralisation of the clergy is a whole chapter in itself. Many feel lost and isolated. The lasting shadow of the child-abuse scandals hangs over us all, and many live in deep gloom. Still, the clergy are not the Church. Through the centuries it has survived many Judases. I have heard of parishes that came alive only when they no longer had a resident priest. Only then did they fully realise that the parish was their parish.

Priests come and go, but they remain, often through several generations of their families. In my village, years ago, the priest one day got his paint-brushes and his cans of paint and his ladder, and began to paint the exterior of the church badly needed. The very next day he was joined by half a dozen sturdy farmers, and the job was finished in record time.

That priest found his way into the hearts of the people — so much so that a woman asked him to paint her chimneys. He spoke their language, which was the language of manual labour. No amount of preaching could have done it. I haven't forgotten that you are asking specifically about Mass. It can become a routine performance — which is strange when you stand back and think about it.

The original was the most emotional experience imaginable. I saw a harrowing piece of video showing a mother holding the socks and shirts of her son who had been executed. What theory would she or anyone have to describe her relationship to those items? Were they signs or symbols of her son? But we get entangled in the theory of transubstantiation, turning it almost into a piece of magic. We would have to be cold-blooded creatures indeed to be satisfied with that. If we think the essence of the Eucharist can only be expressed in Aristotelian language or rather a corruption of it , we haven't been reading the New Testament.

The presence of Christ has to be pervasive in every possible way at Mass. The Second Vatican Council tried to broaden the picture, rather than letting it be focused exclusively on the consecrated elements. It mentioned four ways in which Christ is present: In the Eucharistic elements, 2.

In the Word proclaimed in the readings, 3. In the person of the minister, and 4. In the assembled People of God. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy , n. If we could be encouraged to enter deeply into these, it would surely make a difference. Take the fourth one:

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