Laura Kelly Fanucci
Recent Posts
A Prayer for Moving With Young Children God who is unchanging through our changes, Be our companion through this transition of moving to a new house. More stressful than we planned, more exciting than we realize, this move is pure chaos – but precisely what you use to bring forth new life. Sit with us…
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My son’s favorite is Ancient One. Mine is (no surprise) Mother. But on frazzled days I remind myself of Source of Peace. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso’s lovely book In God’s Name has become a recent naptime favorite. Strangely my young son is smitten with the most ancient of God’s names. Every time we reach the page…
READ MOREWe’ve been tackling lots of house projects lately – windows, floors, closets. So I find myself thinking a lot about this home we’ve created, this place we became a family. There is a deep joy in making a house a home, a fulfillment I never imagined when I was an energetic twenty-year-old, hauling tattered boxes…
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I glimpsed her at the back of a long line trailing down the aisle, shuffling forward in the slow side-to-side dance of people waiting their turn. She wore a bright fuchsia trench coat, hair coiffed in a cute side sweep. Behind her bobbed the heads of two bright-eyed daughters, brunettes like their mother. In her…
READ MOREI recently read Fred Edie’s Book, Bath, Table, and Time: Christian Worship as Source and Resource for Youth Ministry for my research on vocation and youth. Drawing from his theological work with teenagers at the Duke Youth Academy, Edie writes about simple ways to retrieve the holy things and practices of the church to engage youth. I’m…
READ MOREA few days before Lent, I sat my son down for a serious conversation over crackers. “So buddy, Lent starts on Wednesday. Lent is a time when we get ready for Easter. And during Lent we don’t sing Alleluia. So we’re not going to sing Alleluia for a while.” His sea-blue eyes sparkled up at…
READ MOREI planned to seize the year’s extra day with all the gusto I could muster. When the Winter-That-Wasn’t lobbed one last Hail-Mary of a storm, cancelling my meetings and leaving us with a snow day to enjoy, I envisioned curling up with the boys, a cup of tea and a pile of good books. An idyllic day…
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Last night I lingered in a long line of blinking tail lights to turn into the parking lot. I wondered about the growing crowds at each year’s Ash Wednesday services. What packs the pews this evening every Lent? As I waited, I thought of four young girls killed in a weekend car crash. Freshmen roommates, victims…
READ MOREMy babies were each a few days old when I placed them in their great-grandfather’s hands. Seated each time on the same couch in my in-laws’ living room, he and I gazed down together at the peaceful beauty of a sleeping child. Their bodies hardly noticed the transfer from arm to arm: heads simply flopped from…
READ MORE2:00 am (after a night of naps): My head is going to EXPLODE. How is that baby screaming again? I cannot handle his yelling. I’m going to lose my mind. Didn’t I JUST get up and feed him? Sigh. I could sleep for weeks and still not get enough. God as my witness, I am…
READ MOREThere’s nothing like a season of travel to make you appreciate home. We spent Christmas with one family, New Year’s with the other. Paused briefly for a week to unpack and pack, then jetted off for a vacation to sunnier climes. Timing wasn’t ideal, but that’s how the planning shook down. Each brought celebration and…
READ MOREThe elderly woman shuffled down the aisle, pausing at the end of our pew as she buttoned up her coat to brace herself against the winter cold. She watched as our toddler lunged across his father’s lap to topple a stack of hymnals, nearing knocking his already-screaming baby brother to the floor. I was trying…
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