On Love and Labor We shouldn’t need applause to do good. But what about the ones who are never applauded? The ones who labor in the shadows? Unseen labor is often essential labor. Just think back to 2020. Oftentimes, those who were considered the most essential workers were not paid very well. As Isabella Backman wrote for the Yale School of Medicine, “In 2020, while stay-at-home orders emptied many offices, in industries deemed ‘essential,’ many employees once again were not... Read more

tw: discussion of abortion. Many argue that the usage of the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration as well as at the pro-life summit fyesterday was an isolated incident. But it sets a dangerous precedent. It’s not as though we as progressives in general didn’t know they had authoritarian tendencies, supporting figures in government who push white Christian supremacy and nationalism in our country. But I suppose they’ve decided to stop pretending, even as they say they’re “joking.” How can anyone... Read more

I really, really like Hazbin Hotel. It’s about a girl, Charlie, who gets the idea that human souls in hell deserve a second chance at attaining heaven. Despite its cartoonish animation, much of the subject material is very heavy and adult-oriented. I feel a lot of fear surrounding my interest in this show. Yet it is very much a favorite of mine. Charlie opens a hotel with the intention to rehabilitate those who land themselves in hell. Hell is hierarchical,... Read more

Love is not merely positive feelings and joy; it is not merely soft kisses by a lake on warm summer evenings. Love includes such experiences, but it can be very uncomfortable. Love is seeing people as they are. All their wildest joys, deepest sufferings; their accomplishments, and their mistakes. It is the powerful and intense experience of being seen for who we are.   Read more

Franciscan University of Steubenville (called Steubenville for short from now on) is a Catholic university in Steubenville, Ohio. I often jokingly call it Catholic BYU because of how many of the women I knew in high school went there looking for a spouse instead of a degree. They also have conferences for 13-18 year olds. The conferences have so many teenagers that go, that they not only have around 5 Main Campus retreats last time I checked, but also regional... Read more

I don’t know what I believe about the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist. As someone who grew up in the Catholic Church, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist seems to be one of the last explicitly Catholic doctrines I have continued to internalize. Now I am struggling. What I do know that I believe is that communion, at the very least, represents something beautiful. All those believers, all over the world, having comm-union, community, with each other through... Read more

It’s the Fourth of July in a country deeply divided. Inflation rises, Twitter is a mess, people make fun of each other on the internet and in person over things like gender identity and gender roles. Hatred rises, and people lash out at each other in pain and fear. Laws are being made that restrict trans people’s rights. Christians are complicit and even encourage the state to use its heavy hand on other groups of people.  I hate to see... Read more

According to a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey in August of 2022, 72% of Ukrainians identify with some variant of Orthodoxy. Their results were not likely to be significantly affected by the war due to the similarity of Ukrainian religious identity across occupied and unoccupied regions. Another 10% identify with atheism, 8% with Greek or Byzantine Rite Catholicism, and the other ten percent identify with Protestantism or Latin Rite Catholicism.  Lviv, Ukraine, the city closest to the Polish-Ukrainian border,... Read more

We are all born members of Christ’s body. Baptism doesn’t change the fact we are God’s Creation. It was never meant to become a delineating factor between “good” and “bad.” Galatians states, “there is no longer Jew or Greek,” and I believe God says there is Christian or non-Christian in Them either. It is meant to bring us into a community that tells us we are holy, and good. Of course, our communities are often less than perfect. God often... Read more

Recently, I’ve been enjoying several musicals. I watched Hamilton on Disney+ about a year ago, and I started listening to the soundtrack on repeat afterwards. My love for Hamilton would’ve died if it weren’t for the paper I wrote on it in my first semester English class last semester thanks to an assignment to write a movie review. One musical ended up leading to another. My YouTube recommendations ended up recommending other musicals, and my love expanded to Six, Beetlejuice,... Read more