Grace and gracefulness never guaranteed… Back in high school, I danced. Eventually, either the teachers tired of my persistence and/or I managed to get good enough to perform with the advanced troop on some occasions. One such moment included being on stage with a live Jazz Band Orchestra. We did a medley that transitioned from 50’s up through the ’80’s. We wore these poodle skirts with pedal pusher pants underneath. We were supposed to rip the skirts off at the... Read more
“How can heaven be paradise if some people will be divided from their loved ones? Say I go to heaven and the person I love most goes to Hell. I could never know permanent bliss without the people I love?” This is a tough question, and it’s not a theoretical one. It’s a voiced fear. How can Heaven be good if not everyone I love makes it? Here are the facts: 1) Hell exists. Jesus tells us as such, and... Read more
I crave approval and attention. Additionally, I want to be thought of as smart. I wish I didn’t want these things. Wish I didn’t worry about it –but I’m still somehow the kid who didn’t make it into the accelerated classes on merit, but on befriending the teachers. I’m still somehow stuck, convinced everyone else in the room is not only smarter than me but wondering why the hell I’m even here. Part of how I fight this, is to... Read more
Why I ordered new pants today… So I called my mom today and we visited. The subject came up about how we need to learn we cannot do it all, the opposite of what the world teaches. I’d just filled out forms to take a leave of absence from work, and I’d heard about my siblings, all who seemed to be overtaxing themselves in many directions. None of us thought we could do less. I thought about my growing up,... Read more
We hear the Gospels but we’ve heard them so often, sometimes we’ve lost our imaginative understanding of the reality they convey. In today’s Gospel from Luke 17:1-6 “Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to... Read more
The problem with being a writer is, you have your past words to remind you of what you thought before you went through something. I’ve written about suffering, about embracing the cross, about the graces that come with enduring what must be, and that all love is based on sacrifice. Catholicism is beautiful and redemptive and restorative and full of hope and promise in reality, but one must will to embrace it. Living the day to day minutia of a... Read more
INSERT PICTURE OF ANNOYING SALES PERSON SAYING BUY NOW OR RUIN ALL HOLIDAYS FOREVER WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY HERE. If there’s a theme to November television, it’s buy now or regret forever. The commercials are convinced we will be dueling over dented cans of beans and oversized packages of white tennis socks if we don’t order everything for Christmas now now now now now now NOW. The world wants all the trappings of Christmas and trimmings of Thanksgiving... Read more
It’s hard to know what to call this person I know who died today. He’s my dad’s friend, but I’ve known him since I was around the age of four or five. He hunted and fished with my dad and my brothers. He owned dogs. He married into our family (cousins), and was family in the way that cousins are when kids know there are adult cousins. We don’t do the family tree, we just say, “He’s a cousin,” and... Read more
Discussing the Joyful Mysteries connection to something of life, other than just happiness, something that demands more of the self. Joy feels effortless, but it is a response to the world and its demands, and it is willed. Here’s the beginning: The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary Inspire Joyful Witnesses to the Gospel “To meditate upon the joyful mysteries … is to enter into the ultimate causes and the deepest meaning of Christian joy.” (Pope St. John Paul II) Bartolomé... Read more
How we are the both ands, not either/ors. We are to love God first, and our neighbor as we do ourselves. To live this reality means all, and it is intended to mean all. That’s how big our hearts need to grow, so that our finite selves never put a limit on love, because God does not. This does not mean embracing the abuser or pretending someone isn’t racist, it means praying for their conversion, for that “Amazing grace,”... Read more
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