Compulsive scrolling, the 24-hour news cycle, utilitarian education, and rising anxieties—all symptoms of a society that has forgotten how to experience transcendence within time, has forgotten how to live the Sabbath.

“Sunday,” observed St. Jerome, “is our day.” Pope St. John Paul II promoted it as the day “at the very heart of the Christian life.” But how do we protect it? How do we joyfully live it?

Join the Gregory the Great Institute for this year’s Annual Renewing Culture Conference, Bringing Back Sunday, as we explore the path to cultural renewal through the lens of Josef Pieper’s masterpiece, Leisure: The Basis of Culture. Pieper’s central claim is that “Culture depends for its very existence upon leisure, and leisure, in its turn, is not possible unless it has a…living link with the cultus, with divine worship.”

Through lectures, liturgy, and festive hospitality, we will dive into the practical restoration of the Sabbath to explore questions such as: How does contemplation nourish faith, and how do we confidently live the liturgy within our homes? How can noble art and classic literature order us toward eternity, and how does the Sabbath foster liberal education and political wisdom?

Whether you are a student or professional seeking intellectual depth or a parent building a domestic church, this weekend conference is designed to equip participants to become leaders in renewing culture and to embrace the spirituality of what the Church Fathers called the “eighth day”.

Event Details & Registration

Dates: Friday evening, October 2 – Saturday evening, October 3, 2026

Location: Mt. Carmel Spirituality Centre, northwest of Edmonton, AB

Includes: Saturday lunch, refreshments, conference materials, and an opening wine-and-cheese social. (Optional additional Saturday Banquet - limited seating)

Accommodations are not included. Limited rooms are available at the Retreat Centre, which can be booked directly by emailing events@mountcarmeledmonton.ca or calling 780-963-0896.

There are also hotels nearby in Stony Plain and Spruce Grove.

Ticket Price: $125 (Special pricing available for couples, students, seminarians, and clergy; contact info@gregorythegreat.ca if you need a discount).

Speakers

Dr. Andrew Kaethler, Catholic Pacific College at Trinity Western University, BC

Talk Title: Resting in the Resurrection: Sunday as the New Sabbath

Talk Description: Time finds its meaning and its centre in the Resurrection, and because of this Sunday, not Saturday, is the Sabbath. The Catholic Sunday obligation reflects this. It is not an arbitrary rule but a response to the meaningfulness of time. Therefore, as embodied relational creatures, we fulfill our very selves by orienting our lives according to the Sabbath.

Bio: Andrew TJ Kaethler, PhD, is Executive Vice President and the Benedict XVI Chair of Theology at Catholic Pacific College in Langley, Canada. Kaethler specializes in theological anthropology, particularly in the work of Joseph Ratzinger and Alexander Schmemann. He has published in various journals including Modern Theology, New Blackfriars, Pontificia Academia Theologica, Humanum Review, and Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture. His most recent monograph, The Eschatological Person: Alexander Schmemann and Joseph Ratzinger in Dialogue, was published with Cascade Books in 2022. Kaethler lives in Langley, British Columbia Canada with his wife and six kids.

Mr. Brian Holdsworth, Edmonton, AB

Talk Title: Divinity Hidden in Leisure

Talk Description: God’s apparent hiddenness is one of the most difficult obstacles to faith. Our cultural sensibilities and discursive preferences for inquiry tend to obscure God’s presence in our daily lives. I share how he has revealed himself to me in moments of true contemplation which is a habit that is foreign to the perpetually distracted and stimuated.

Bio: Brian Holdsworth is a writer, speaker, videographer, and entrepreneur living and working in Edmonton, Canada with his wife and 8 children. He joined the Catholic Church at the age of 22 and ever since, has found himself trying to respond to a restless desire to share the faith that changed his life. He publishes video essays on a bi-weekly basis on his YouTube channel, on topics ranging from apologetics, culture, philosophy, politics, and theology. So far, his YouTube channel has generated over 25 million views and 225,000 subscribers. You can find out more about Brian by visiting https://brianholdsworth.ca. Brian is Vice-Chair of the board for the Gregory the Great Institute.

Dr. Celene Sidloski, St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan, SK

Talk Title: Spinning Straw into Gold—Two Visions of Work and its Relation to Culture

Talk Description: An oft-unacknowledged obstacle to culture is a distorted conception of—and relation to—work. Josef Pieper, echoing Aristotle, reminds us that “we work so that we may have leisure.” But even our “work” can be either metaphysically, and thus culturally, integrative or dis-integrative. Contemplating this problem through a famous fairy tale, this talk proposes that only work undertaken in consonance with the “givenness” of the natural order can lead properly into leisure and rescue us from the hellish metaphysical sacrifices that entrap us in “total work.”

Bio: Dr. Celene Sidloski earned her B.Ed., B.A., and M.A. (in English Lit.) at the University of Saskatchewan, and her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. She teaches literature and writing courses at St. Thomas More College and structural grammar at the University of Saskatchewan. She is an executive member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Canada, and the founder and director of Rebuilding Catholic Culture, a non-profit apostolate devoted to the exploration of the Catholic intellectual tradition through its art, literature, philosophy, and theology. Celene is a board member for the Gregory the Great Institute.

Mr. John Paul Meenan, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, ON

Talk Title: Learning to Live a Leisured Sunday, by Custom, Tradition and Law

Talk Description: We live in a world that is becoming radically secularized – in the strict definition of that term, to the very root or core principle of the attempt to build a society without and apart from God. This goes back to the Tower of Babel, but in more recent history to the so-called ‘Enlightenment’, the consequent French Revolution and the disintegration of Christendom. Even if we cannot return to the ‘good old days’ of the Middle Ages, we can, and must, return to the principles of that era, to re-integrate the laws, customs and mores of our various societies, public and private, with the truths of Christian revelation. We will limit our focus to the need for Sunday rest and leisure, but what will be discussed can be applied to numerous other aspects of life, in our pilgrimage to heaven.

Bio: John Paul Meenan, born in Scotland and raised mostly in Canada, is one of the founding faculty members of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, which began as the ‘Academy’ in the Jubilee Year 2000. While completing a graduate degree in neuroscience at Western University, he then discovered the great treasures of philosophy, theology and the other liberal arts studying at the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in Toronto. His desire to offer this trove of truth to the younger generation, even in some small way, has prompted and motivated his work in education these past years. He currently teaches various courses in theology, natural science and culture at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College, and also edits the on-line and long-running journal, Catholic Insight.

Fr. Michael Bombak, Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in the University at St. Michael's College, ON

Talk Title: Overcoming "Total Work" with "Leitourgia- the Work of the People"

Talk Description: In "Leisure: The Basis of Culture," Pieper warns of the pitfalls of embracing a culture of "total work." Through this talk, Fr. Bombak will unpack the connections between Pieper's philosophical contemplative worldview and a Liturgical worldview, as illustrated chiefly through Alexander Schmemann's "For the Life of the World." He will conclude with practical suggestions for overcoming a culture of "total work" through intentional contemplation and liturgical renewal.

Bio: Fr. Michael Bombak is the Chaplain and Programming Coordinator at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in the University at St. Michael's College, UofT. He is also the pastor of Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Greek Catholic Parish in Toronto, Ontario. He is a Doctoral Student through the Toronto School of Theology and a Research Fellow of the Gregory the Great Institute. He is married to Kim Bombak and they have five children.

Mr. Patrick Stewart, Madonna House, ON

Talk Title: Nazareth and Grad Kitezh: Grace in the Shambles

Talk Description: The Roman Catholic community of Madonna House, rooted in the spirit of the Holy Family of Nazareth, was founded in 1947 by Servant of God Catherine Doherty, the author of Poustinia and many other spiritual classics. Interweaving the story of Catherine's life, her writings, and our Madonna House way of life with my own journey, I will offer a model of incarnational life, enriched by western and eastern liturgical and cultural traditions, that is available to all.

Bio: Patrick Stewart, born in Germany and raised in the USA, is the Director General of Madonna House Laymen and has been a professed member of the community for 34 years. Before joining Madonna House, he was on active duty as an officer in the United States Navy for 11 years. He has served as director of Marian Centre Edmonton, Marian Acres Madonna House in Salem, Missouri, Madonna House Training Centre and a Formation Director in Combermere, Ontario. He is a figure and landscape oil painter and illustrator, with paintings held in private and public collections in North America and Europe.