Anne Thériault

Oh yeah, few things compare to a whole congregation belting out “FALL on your KNEES, o HEAR the angel VOI-CES”

Ah geez Louise this genuinely made me cry ❤️

Trying to compose a smart yet funny yet relatable tweet that’s basically just “I’m so tired of myself, and I’m sorry if you’re tired of me too”

Jesus - and I cannot stress this enough - Christ

Advent is a thrilling time when the clergy is decked out in purple, there’s a special candle situation, and you get to sing absolute bangers like O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Yes! The big ole lunkhead

It’s beautiful in its own strange way!

He’s so beautiful and stupid. I love him.

A thrilling experience: my youngest and least intelligent cat just accidentally flushed the toilet and a panicked chaos ensued

I once had a freshman couple go through an excruciating 2.5 hour breakup on my front lawn (he seemed like a real jerk and she could have done better!)

Hah, I love that. And agree, it’s not good for either group to get too close to each other.

My mom lives right at the edge of town and there’s a pack of coyotes that roams nearby. Sometimes when they’re howling at night you’d swear they were surrounding the house.

You can tell someone is a bit hazy on what they’re talking about when they use a lot of academic jargon.

Yeah, she’s got an incredible story!

Whoa!! Thank god the hiker was able to get the post-exposure prophylaxis. Poor coyote!

(Sidebar: I feel like coyotes are generally so misunderstood and abused by humans)

You know you are living in a university town when someone is monologuing at their friends on the sidewalk outside your house and they use the terms “Marxist dialectics” and “ontologies” in the same sentence

Hahahaha exaaaaactly that voice

Me: … and she’s referred to as the Madonna of the Apocalypse
14yo: what does madonna mean?
Me: “my lady”
14yo: 🙄 oh, ANOTHER Our Lady, what a surprise for the Catholic Church

(You have to read this in the driest, most sarcastic teenage delivery possible)

To this very day

My then 4 year old son lying down on the sidewalk on Avenue Road

Happy tenth anniversary to the time my kid staged a nonviolent protest on a Toronto sidewalk because he was tired of walking and I said I couldn’t carry him all the way home

Sira, by María Dueñas. It’s the sequel to The Time In Between, which I read when I was in Spain

Girl Guides of Canada Inclusion makes Girl Guides of Canada stronger. It ensures that girls and youth have a place to build confidence, develop the skills to thrive and connect with a community that sees them for who they truly are. Girl Guides of Canada welcomes all girls - cisgender and transgender - as well as non-binary people who are comfortable in spaces that focus on and are driven by the experience of girls. Learn more about our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility at girlguides.ca/inclusivity

Girl Guides logo with a trans flag ribbon in one corner.

Girl Guides of Canada has made a statement, likely in response to the cowardly decisions of Girlguiding UK. 🏳️‍⚧️

I’m reading a Spanish novel (in translation, obviously) set in the mid-1940s. One of the characters is an intrepid lady journalist from Toronto who writes for the Globe and Mail. Excellent CanCon!

It’s so rude, honestly!!!

Genuinely unfair that my body’s reaction to stress is intense insomnia. Like, come on, this is when we need sleep the most! Anyway, I slept for three hours last night, and two hours the night before. Hot poubelle.

I think what threw me is that the event organizer said “St Paul’s on Bloor” and my brain went “oh, right, the United Church in the Annex” and then I foolishly didn’t read the address. If they were churches on two different streets I don’t think I would have messed it up!

Actually, one of the places the anthropologist I interviewed did her field work was in an Episcopal community! I had no idea that there’s, like, a “high” version of the Episcopal church that is similar to the high Anglican Church (though I know the two churches are from the same root)

Aw thank you, this is so nice!

Ms. Thériault once again hooks me with a topic that otherwise wouldn’t cross my mind because it’s not a prior interest.

But Anne is just such a *writer* that I was all in after paragraph one—and so you will be, and you’ll be entertained as well.

Why today’s spiritual seekers are reviving ancient practices | Broadview Magazine Contemplative Christianity offers calm in tumultuous times

I wrote for @broadviewmedia.bsky.social about modern contemplative Christianity in North America — its roots, how it’s practiced, who’s practicing it. This was a fun piece to work on and it led me to interview a lot of fascinating people!

You’ve written some amazing and beautiful things, but this is my personal favourite because that song still gives me goosebumps (also, I am delighted whenever you turn up on a podcast I like!)