We wish to thank editor Glen Argan and the entire WCR staff for creative, informative and professional service over many years. At the end of an era, we assure you of our prayerful support as you seek new employment and embark on new paths.

October is the month of the holy rosary. While the holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is primarily a prayer of love, honour and respect for Jesus Christ and Mary, it is also secondarily/simultaneously an act of war against the devil and all demonic forces.

The Sept. 3 Edmonton Journal's Homes section featured the 2016 Caritas DreamLife Lottery grand prize $1.8-million home complete with a stage and seating area and adjacent bar/lounge, 5,350 square feet with a luxury hotel feel, four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and an attached five-car garage that comes equipped with in-floor heating! Mary Jo Leddy in her book Radical Gratitude had a conversion moment when a woman who had just arrived at the Toronto home set up to give shelter to refugees asked, pointing to the garage visible from the kitchen table: "Who lives in that house?"

We talk about reconciliation, apologies and forgiveness in relation to First Nations, but we never have a truthful solution. We get only negativity to do with problems on reserves. What we need to do first and foremost is abolish First Nations reserves and their isolation from the rest of society. Segregation does not include people or make them feel part of society.

My grandmother never said much about the "old country." I can remember her telling my little brother and me about the day Joseph Stalin's men came to round up her brothers and her dad. They lined them up against the barn to execute them. Then, for some unknown reason, they changed their minds. After Stalin's men left, my great-grandfather said only one thing to his family, "Run! Go, two by two, go to Canada - they're accepting us."

In Laudato Si', Pope Francis calls each of us into action - to care for our common home. He invites us to reflect and act upon issues in our daily lives that need our care. He holds up the poorest of the poor and the oppressed for our special attention. There is an oppression within rural Alberta that is threatening the livelihoods and indeed the lives of rural Albertans.

We talk about reconciliation, apologies and forgiveness, but we never have a truthful solution to First Nations issues. We get only negativity to do with problems on reserves. What we need to do first and foremost is to abolish First Nations reserves and their isolation from the rest of society. Segregation does not make people inclusive or feel part of society.

I commend you for capturing so well the spirit of Pope Francis' comments on mercy in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) ("Pope Francis: Open hearts will lead the brokenhearted to fullness of life," WCR editorial, May 16). These are the very things we need to say to our Catholic LGBTQ students: we need to offer them mercy, not the law; a mother, not a taskmaster; in order to welcome them into a relationship with Jesus who has mercy on them.

My young sons come running for me after each visit to town and the local credit union. "Daddy, blow up my balloon!" I know, after a great deal of practice, the toughest part of filling the balloon with air is the initial push. This is similar to filling our culture with the truth of the Gospel. The initial push takes great self-sacrifice and suffering.

Who can judge my quality of life? Here I am; aging, relatively healthy but having faced the fragility of my life through illness. What is to become of me if the lines of communication with society are severed? Who has a right to judge? If I lose my sight, hearing and ability to speak, I am still me. If I then lose my ability to taste, smell and feel, I am still me. I am still here.