Flying Houses
My patronal feast, Our Lady of Loreto on December 10, was elevated on liturgical calendars in 2019. I love this title for Mary, even...
Advent Began Early This Year
I sometimes have trouble focusing on the season of Advent and its message of hope. No matter how well-intentioned I am to keep the...
Carrying the Cancer Cross
During a Mass for the Anointing of the Sick, the priest referred to the famous Caravaggio painting The Calling of St. Matthew. In it,...
Quiet Lives
One evening, after the children are asleep and the porch light has been switched on and my husband and I can hear the hum...
Fitting In or Standing Out
I no longer recognized myself in the mirror. I am a 52-year-old woman, and I am completely bald. Cancer treatment does that. I had...
The Present Moment
“Blessed are those who live in the present moment, for they shall see God in all things.”
If I had been around when the Beatitudes...
Hydrated in God’s Love
Most people would assume that water beads as tiny as pinheads are useless and worthless. But add water, and they fluff up to be...
Creativity and Love
Recently, I was babysitting my eight-year-old nephew, Joshua. At day’s end, we were snuggled in and had said some prayers. Ever inquisitive and curious...
A Discipline of Noticing
There are lines from a poem by Ted Kooser to his mother that I think about often. In the poem, simply called “Mother,” Kooser...
Dealing with Annoyances
Last year, I wrote a book on the topic of forgiveness, and lately I have been thinking about a separate but related topic: how...