My favorite thing to do with my children as a parent, is read them stories. Those moments felt like perfect motherhood. They were throwbacks to rocking them to sleep, to simply enjoying their presence without any other purpose. Reading aloud, I could do nothing else but be present to them. They all know my favorite saying, “Whoever multi-tasks does two things poorly.” They also know mom perpetually multi-tasks. It means a lot of what I do…is not quite fully what... Read more
As a freelancer, I write for many different publications and am as a result, a member of the Women of New Evangelization, W.I.N.E. It’s a lovely acronym, accurate and biblical, and memorable. Over the year of Corona, we watched all seven seasons of Agents of Shield, and even now, I still need to look up Strategic Homeland Intervetion Enforcement and Logistics Division. But WINE, I remember easily. I bring up this little bit of trivia from my brain for two... Read more
I wrote the title before I wrote the piece, and didn’t know quite what it meant except that there’s a tremendous amount of discussion online and at committees and with speakers and religious directors, laity, Catholic media and people who know such things about the reality of our church as a religious organization, and the absence of people from the pews. We have been scattered, by sin, by scandal, by Covid, by fealty to whatever part of Catholic teaching one... Read more
She is preparing for confirmation this year. Thirteen years ago…She was born on Friday the 13th. We weren’t expecting to have a daughter in our hands for another three weeks. But then, we weren’t expecting an emergency c-section either. I didn’t know I’d even had her until they whisked her by in a blanket, all cleaned up and capped. It all seemed so unreal. One minute we were hooked up to the IV and getting that drip that makes contractions... Read more
Saint Therese of Lisieux talks about becoming like a little child to become a saint, with the wisdom, “God wouldn’t inspire us with ambitions that can’t be realized.” jumping out at me because I’d been asking, why did I take on this project of a devotional with the Doctors of the Church. I’d also seen in a Facebook feed the quote, “Today, do what love demands.” attributed to her. I did a quick google search but did not find this... Read more
We’ve been watching old movies and I’ve discovered, movies I loved, now feel dull, and I wonder at how charmed I was then. For instance (unpopular Catholic blog opinion time), I loved, loved, loved, loved Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ring series. We watched it over and over again. We watched it with the extended versions and in some cases, with elvish subtitles. Now, I found myself distracted, some how unable to quite see why I found it so engrossing... Read more
We’ve completed the Holiest week, the high week of our faith, and now we have these eight days to celebrate the Easter Octave…but how? WE’VE HAD A PLAN FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS, NOW, WHAT DO WE DO? We’ve spent fourty days (more or less), wrestling with our Lenten promises and discovering (at least in my case), my will is weaker than my flesh, and my flesh, likes fighting more than my will does. Easter came and is, and I... Read more
Today, the tabernacle is bare. Today, we are the presence of our Lord’s body wounded yet whole, crucified and ressurected, but not yet fully because we have not yet fully participated in that passion. Today we know something of how hollow this world can make itself. Today we’re reminded, we’re not made for here, we’re made for forever. It’s why the hint of not forever that is death, is so jarring to our hearts. It makes no sense to the... Read more
My sister wrote this, and when I read it, I felt the fullness of the prayer in the story, and of the heart. I asked if I could share it and she agreed. Today is the three year anniversary of the day I prayed like Abraham. Natalie had been in and out of the hospital for asthma, fevers, and neutropenia. I rushed her to Texas Children’s ER around noon on Good Friday of 2018 when she could no longer stand... Read more
What do you want Mom? They ask this question around Mother’s day, Christmas and my birthday. I’ve learned…they don’t really want to know. Perhaps having ten children, I’ve been skewed so beyond normal that my wants remain too outside standard deviations to be tolerated, or perhaps, to survive having ten children, I’ve learned what I need to want to thrive. For the curious and for my children in case they want proof in writing about my personal quirky wants for... Read more
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