If there is a way to misunderstand God, we in our freewill and predisposition to sin will find it. By most measures, this has been a good Lent. I’ve forgotten a few times about my chosen fast, but I’ve attended mass more, gone to confession and adoration more, and been more able to pray. At the same time, I’ve found myself in a desert of my spiritual life, discovering how needy I am in everything. How empty. How grieving. How... Read more
We live in a world that cannot bear the reality of reality. The cross itself indicates to us the delicate ballance of truth, that our lives are not merely horizontal or vertical, but always both and. We are a sinful, suffering, fallen people, who are also beloved of God. One does not negate the other, we remain the prodigal son and the older brother, both puzzled to no end by the infinite generous love of the father, knowing that the... Read more
We live in difficult times, but in truth, we have always lived in difficult times –it’s just we did not recognize the difficulties before us except in hindsight. These days, hindsight is fifteen seconds from now. Everything seems to be happening everywhere all at once. The reality is, as my sister wisely observed, “to love the ones in front of you.” That is the way out of darkness. Saint Mother Teresa said, if you want peace, go and love your... Read more
This week, I finally got to see the animated film that won best feature for 2024. “Flow” for those who don’t know, (also known as “Straume” in Latvian) is a wordless animated film directed by Gints Zilbalodis, with co-writing and production by Matīss Kaža. Visually, it is lovely. Narrative wise, it follows the adventures of a single black cat surviving in a post-apocalyptic world when the Earth flooded. There are no words. However, if you watch, you see the Gospel... Read more
This morning, I woke and felt like somehow, I’d missed Lent even though it only started last week. I’d resolved to stop doom scrolling, and found myself wedded to the phone more than ever over the weekend. Fasting from bread? I forgot on Saturday and ate tortillas. Prayer? Yes, some, here and there, more, a fledgling step towards God, and back steps too. My writing sits waiting for me to hit it again even as I urge my students to... Read more
With all due respect to Elon Musk’s vaulted opinion, given credence by the number of dollars that he maintains in his bank account, the world suffers not from an excess but from a scarcity of empathy. It is a lack of love for one’s fellow human being that leads to war. A lack of love leads to all the ills that society struggles to address. Not being able to see another person as having innate dignity is what makes people... Read more
I own a dog. She’s cute and friendly and endlessly entertaining. What she doesn’t do, is work. Working like a dog in my house means nothing, because she is at best, a creature of leisure. She likes pillows or sleeping on our bed, preferrably on a pile of clean laundry. Somehow we managed to get through thirty-three years without this creature, and now, we rejoice to have a beastie that spends sixteen hours sleeping and the other eight requesting to... Read more
These days, if you look at the news, there’s a strong case to be made for feeling a bit like Alice falling into Wonderland. The disorientation is strong. Couple that sensation with the constant shifting sands of existing government policy, spin, and the take over of the Washington Post by Jeff Bezos, and discerning what is, from what is not, becomes much less managable. As a graduate student, I was taught by a very wise professor to look at every... Read more
The pope is in the hospital. It’s the Jubilee Year of Hope. Given how he started his papacy with a Jubilee year of Mercy, I pray he has many more Jubilees here to celebrate. So I pray for his health, his restoring to fullness. I know what it’s like to struggle with breathing. I’ve followed Pope Francis since he became Pope, covering his visit to the United States and the Basilica back in 2015 during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. ... Read more
Happy Saint Valentine’s Week! Why limit ourselves to a day? Why not a lifetime? Want more joy in your life? More happiness? More love? Then decide today, you are going to be a person who gives. Be a gracious and generous Martha. Love and resentment cannot grow in the same heart, one will overpower and destroy the other. If you are counting how many times your spouse does things that help you out, you need to stop counting. Love... Read more
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