It apparently is not a matter of great concern to Canada's political leaders that advance polling for the May 2 election will be conducted on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Monday. A Christian nation would surely find a way to avoid having the electoral process trampling on the most holy season of the year.

Christians are perhaps more accepting of this situation than we would have been a few decades ago. After all, just about any religious holiday has been open season for shoppers for some time.

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

Few books have garnered as much respect during the past five years as has Charles Taylor's A Secular Age.

That respect is well deserved. Given secularity's convoluted history, there isn't any one, normative study that traces its evolution; but, if there was, Taylor's analysis might apply for the distinction. Deeply versed in history, philosophy, literature, theology and spirituality, Taylor has a deep well within which to dip to make his analysis. Few scholars, to my mind, bring so wide and deep a scholarship to the area of history and faith.

JOHN CONNELLY

Easter — April 24, 2011

When I think of Easter I think of a sunrise. A sunrise like no other. Light, happiness, peace. Joy that fills our entire being. A hope that will never fade. A new beginning for all who desire truth, justice and love to reign.

We Christians need to meditate on Easter and its meaning for our lives today. It is the great miracle of re-creation. The song that brings life to the world. The moment when the veil of human sorrow is lifted from our hearts.

MARK PICKUP

Have you ever been so heartbroken and had your hopes so shattered that you could scarcely consider what your future holds or whether you even had a future? That is what it must have been like for the disciples the day after Jesus was crucified.

They had placed their faith in him and dared to hope he was the Messiah and now he lay dead in a tomb. The terrible events of the previous day left them numb and heartsick. The raw grief within the remaining 11 disciples must have felt like a gaping wound pulsating in their chests.

SR. LOUISE ZDUNICH, NDC

Tell me about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.

BOB MCKEON

The Jesuits in the United States have published a book on Catholic social teaching with the title Our Best Kept Secret. I am dismayed how often this turns out to be true, even with Catholics highly committed to practising their faith.

Twice in recent weeks I have sat down with Catholic men who over a period of many years have lived out their personal commitments to social justice though active involvement in their trade unions. In each case, they said they had never heard about Church teaching that addresses issues of human dignity in the workplace and that affirms the vital role labour unions play as agents for justice. In each case, they regretted not learning about their Church's social teaching decades earlier.

As we enter Holy Week, and journey through the events of Christ's passion and death, we find ourselves once again beneath the cross with Mary. At first glance, she doesn't appear to be doing anything there. Scripture doesn't record any of her words or cries of protest.

However, Father Ron Rolheiser notes that her presence at the crucifixion is a Hebrew show of strength. She is standing firm and "pondering" in the biblical sense, beholding the work of God.

Grieving — the painful physical, emotional, and spiritual journey that we go through to come to terms with the loss of someone through death, separation or divorce — is among the most sacred and the most human things one will ever undergo. It plummets us into the mysteries of life.

On a weekend during this season of Lent, members of my family experienced an emotional roller-coaster, marked by both death and new life.

OTTAWA — Canada's Catholic bishops have asked Elections Canada to accommodate workers who want to attend religious services on Good Friday, the first day advance polls are open for the May 2 election.

But the chief electoral officer says those who accept employment know in advance the days and hours for the polls.

Edmonton - Looking forward to the next two years as archdiocesan president of the Catholic Women's League, Gladys Brown says, "I'm excited, I'm nervous."

It won't be a typical two years for the new president. In August 2012, the archdiocesan CWL will host the league's national convention at the Shaw Conference Centre and Westin Inn.