We’ve had saints give us descriptions of Hell. Few of us have considered the spiritual reality of an eternity without the capacity to endure love. Imagine a reality of impatience and a forever of boredom. Consider an infinite hunger and an unceasing bloat. Reflect on never experiencing wonder, or surprise or joy. Hell tires of everything, longs for anything and values nothing. The absence of being able to give or endure love leaves the soul coated with the dull dusty... Read more
Christmas Day is in nineteen days. Cue panic. My kids created a contest for the season, the Mariah Carey count. Every kid made a guess. The winner gets a karaoke microphone or earplugs –whichever they prefer. The current pace would indicate +100 by December 25th. It has rejuvenated everyone’s enthusiasm both for the song and listening to Christmas carols. It’s a kid whistle when the first three notes chime forth. How do we keep the holiness of the season... Read more
Is always the same. Stay home. Do not under any circumstances cook or shop. Make a microwaved warm turkey stuffing gravy cranberry mashed potatoes sandwich. Two hours later wonder if I should make another. Discover children had the same brilliant idea and one of these ingredients (usually the mashed potatoes) is no more. Remind myself not to cook. As the leftovers thin, this resolution becomes less and less tenable. I go to the kitchen. Husband is already prepping a second... Read more
One thing I love about being Catholic, is the grounded nature of our faith. It never denies our capacity to engage in self-deception and genuine self-examination or to be both a prayer warrior and the wounded one being carried to Our Lord by others. We come to the cross with all our wounds and we wound Our Lord by our sins. Christ takes on all our sufferings, all our sins, all our pains, and offers us His friendship and somehow... Read more
I know, I wrote that last time…but we’ve spent the past week dealing with an injury. My daughter broke her ankle and had to have surgery, which has put the rest of life on hold. We’ve discovered our home is decidedly not ADA-compliant. I’m wanting to enlarge every door by six inches and now hate any and all stairs. The mini-van has become the MVP car of the house. Writing got to wait behind bills, grading, managing my daughter’s pain,... Read more
I’m not putting a picture here of a messy world or people screaming at each other or declaring that justice is impossible or committing injustices because they’re easy to find. If you want that sort of stuff, just go to the first web page of what used to be your local news paper. The world is full of people, and all of them are broken, and all who came before were too. The world is screaming from the wounds caused... Read more
Some of you know I teach high school English. Others now know. I have eighty students and fifty-seven essays I need to finish grading before Friday. Add to that Halloween with nine of ten children even if most are adults, and there just has been no writing time or spare moments in the past two weeks. Also, I’m an Astros fan so I’m watching and hoping they can beat the Phillies in the World Series…and so far, that’s been a... Read more
The Blessed Mother longs to talk with us and listen. She doesn’t mess around. I wrote this column and immediately afterwards, was invited to be part of a 54 day Novena of Rosaries…think she means business. The Everyday Wonder of the Rosary is published over at the Catholic Standard. Read more
We are always on the road that goes ever ever on, and it is always both the narrow gate and the wide and easy part of our journey. The sufferings of yesterday, we can bear and ponder, for the lessons we extract from their being completed. However the pains of today, still puzzle. We are forever being meeked, forever being given the opportunity to cling to the cross rather than merely observe it being offered. This is the hard grace... Read more
Yesterday I sat at a meeting discussing donuts and flyers. The sharing of labors and stories and sufferings led as it often does, to friendship. My sister called to talk about the stresses of moving and homeschooling. When I got home, a friend texted me requesting songs for planning a funeral. Google could have given answers but she didn’t want lists. She wanted someone to look over the words and find the right ones that might comfort when all... Read more
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