In March, we took a few weeks off from being in communication. He said he needed time to sort things out. The plan was to be together in June. He would begin his leave of absence then. I gave up alcohol for lent that year. My emotions were so raw I knew I needed every possible brain cell to get through it. That Spring I began to understand what all of those crazed love songs were about. All... Read more
First Things has published an attempted takedown of the late Toni Morrison’s faith and writing, and it’s a breathtaking example of white people missing the point. Senior editor Julia Yost, apparently weary of seeing tributes to and eulogies for the black woman who was arguably America’s greatest living writer–and a Catholic convert–accuses Toni Morrison, who died August 5, of having merely “distilled the spirituality of the suburbs” with her Nobel Prize-winning literature. Imagine the willful ignorance required to misread or misrepresent a... Read more
We don’t like to admit it, but the demands of love are changeable. Different situations and different people call for different responses. This is obvious, but it’s also challenging. Love requires us to live with uncertainty and ambiguity. We don’t always know the right things to do or the right ways to love. It is so much easier to think of our lives in terms of rules to follow and obligations to fulfill. This Sunday’s readings are about obligations, but they tell us something... Read more
As Catholics, we take it for granted that the One, the Be All, End All, Beginning and End of every breath, the Alpha and Omega, is the bit of food we grind between our teeth. Willing, He allows us to salivate over him; to swallow Him; to be digested and become one with us. In the turning of that last phrase, we come to the realization that Communion – consuming the Almighty as the food in our hands... Read more
I do not feel filled with the Holy Spirit right now, I’ll admit. I’m 40 weeks pregnant (due date was yesterday), and all of a sudden, half the family is sick, including my husband and birth partner. It’s a holiday weekend as I write this (on the computer my sick husband just used); my two older children are home, screaming at each other in tones I don’t think I’ve witnessed their whole lives, and every person in this family... Read more
“The great wisdom teachers and mystics say in various ways that you cannot truly see or understand anything if you begin with a no.” Richard Rohr, The Sacred Now My husband, a lapsed Catholic who began attending church again once we had small children, describes his entrance into ministry as beginning with “yes.” One morning, someone asked if he could teach Youth Sunday School. As often happens in churches, that morning slipped into weeks, then months, then years, until... Read more
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” ~ John 14:27 I remember this Scripture in the form of a song from my childhood, “I have the peace that passes understanding down in my heart … WHERE? DOWN IN MY HEART! WHERE? Down in my heart to stay…” But where was the... Read more
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. In this age of social media vitriol, where everyone is vying to be RIGHT, it might be hard to recognize what it is to love one another. It looks like this: Every night, there are mothers up in the wee hours comforting their children. There are fathers pacing the floor trying to lull a baby back to sleep. There... Read more
Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” The parables are tricky. It’s easy to feel that we “get” them. They may have been new... Read more
Post-Resurrection, Jesus shows up in some unexpected ways. He takes a stroll with his disciples on the path to Emmaus. He appears to Mary Magdalene as a gardener. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus arrives at the Sea of Tiberias, helps his disciples catch some fish, and eats an early morning breakfast with them. We’re supposed to notice several things here: first, Jesus’s miraculous aid in the disciples’ capacity to catch fish, which had been eluding the group until Jesus got... Read more
Sick Pilgrim
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