Posts by Saint Gabriels Newsroom

I was about to ride a snowmobile up a ramp onto a pick up truck for the first time. “I’m afraid,” I admitted to my friend. “I want you to be afraid,” he replied. Fear warns us of danger. It is supposed to make us alert and cautious, and, to that extent, it is good.

My son Matthew is 3 ½ years old and, like most little children, he is enthralled with the world around him. Books on a shelf, stuff in drawers, cans in a cupboard and similar things fascinate him. He points to each item and asks, “What’s that?”

As I get older, I see that all of our earthly lives involve some form of tragedy: We must work at jobs we dislike. We are forced out of our jobs. Our spouses are unfaithful. We grow old. We loose our hair. Our teeth fall out. Our feet turn purple. We live in chronic pain. Our children rarely visit.

In my final year of University, I was 24 years old and living in residence. I befriended a 17 year old named Steve. During one of our frequent conversations, I had referred to myself as an adult…