The road less traveled by Four hundred and fourteen miles. Three states. Breakfast (ok, coffee) in Memphis, dinner in Bay St. Louis. There’s roads and there’s roadsAnd they call, can’t you hear it?Roads of the earthAnd roads of the spiritThe best roads of allAre the ones that aren’t certainOne of those is where you’ll find meTill they drop the big curtain— Bruce Cockburn Read more

Blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily Road trip. Heading to the Delta, which starts, or so they say, in the middle of the lobby of the Peabody Hotel down on Union Avenue, where I happen to be crashing tonite in Memphis. On to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi tomorrow. Trip photos TK. When you haven’t got a prayer, boy, you’ve got a prayer in Memphis. GG Read more

How do you make love last?:Musings on the most beautiful wedding Once again, I emerge from self-imposed blogging exile (for the month of July) to post something because I simply couldn’t keep it to myself. Over the weekend, God Girl and Crime Boy attended the wedding of one of our dearest friends in a place called Buzzards Bay. There were no buzzards, but purple martins flirted around the huppah and buzzed the top of the reception tent. When two remarkable... Read more

Happy July 4th: Remember, it’s ‘Independence Day’ OK, so I know I said I was going to forgo the blog for the month of July to concentrate fully on sinning boldly, but this was so good — so cogent, so strong, so prophetic, so important — that I just had to post it. Thank you, Keith. And Amen. Now, back to the writer’s garrett for me, where, thank God, I still have the right to say whatever I choose. For... Read more

July 1: It’s time to take some time … July has arrived and, with a kind of sadness I never expected to feel about this venture of mine here in this space, I have to bid you adieu. Until August. The new book is calling, demanding, rightly, my full attention. I must attend to the muses and graces that want to have their thoughts put down on paper and/or pixels. I’ll still be writing my weekly religion-and-popular-culture column, which you... Read more

GODSTUFF ANNULMENT: THEOLOGICAL SLEIGHT OF HAND Wedding season is in full swing. I know this because of the four giddy, gorgeously engraved save-the-date for or invitations to nuptials that have arrived in the mail in recent weeks. One of my husband’s sons got engaged earlier this month and one of my best friends from college, the guy we thought would sooner become a monk (he’s an atheist) than get married, announced he’s tying the knot in August with a brilliant... Read more

St. John’s Eve: ‘Give us good summer!’ Over the weekend, I attended one of the groovier social gatherings I’ve ever been blessed to attend in Chicago. The occasion was St. John’s Eve — an ancient celebration (with its roots among my pre-Christian Celtic ancestors) that marks the night before the Feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24. As an aside, St. John the Baptist’s feast day is only one of three in the Catholic tradition that celebrate the... Read more

Saying No As I grow older, it seems each day there are more decisions, more choices, more tough calls to be made. Occasionally, the choice is between good and better. And those are the hardest ones to make. But I pray, I listen to my gut, throw caution to the wind, answer. Sometimes the answer is no.And hope it’s the right one. Reminds me of something one of my favorite people said …. Is there a time for keeping your... Read more

TODAY IN GOD:RELIGION NEWS BITES FOR YOUR SNACKING PLEASURE ____________________________________________________________________________________ Why The Germans Hate Tom Cruise Tom Cruise may suit up nicely as an American flying ace or an acrobatic crime buster, but when it comes to portraying Germany’s most beloved anti-Nazi, Germans would prefer a different actor, bitte. Cruise is due to play German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, celebrated for trying to kill Hitler in 1944, but the German Defense Ministry has warned that if Cruise gets... Read more

Come on out and meet God Girl in person … WHAT: A signing and reading of The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People WHEN: 7:30 PM Tuesday, June 26 WHERE: The Borders Book Store in Oak Park (at the corner of Harlem and Lake) This is the last scheduled public event for the little God Factor that could. If you’re in the hood, please come by and say hello. Read more