Laura Kelly Fanucci

Recent Posts

the wisdom of generations: ordinations and baby showers

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / June 28, 2011

A few weeks ago, our parish celebrated the ordination of one of our own: a local son who had grown up in the congregation, attended the parish school, and stayed close to our church throughout his years at seminary. It was a joyful celebration to see him preside over the liturgy, with his family beaming…

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prayers for anxiety in pregnancy

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / June 15, 2011

One of the best things about blogging is seeing what brings perfect strangers to your writing. Everyday I can see the list of searches that bring people here. What brings more visitors here than anything else? Prayers for pregnancy. Over time many of these searches were phrased in ways that broke my heart, that found me wondering about the back stories, even…

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settling: maybe not such a dirty word after all

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / June 2, 2011

Walking the miles, singing the blues Learning to love what God gives to you  – Brandi Carlile, “Way To You” Last night I took the dog out under a twilight of dramatic clouds. As I waited for him to sniff the entire row of pine trees in search of the perfect place to do his business,…

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to comfort and to challenge

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / May 7, 2011

Hanging next to our front door is this Irish woodcut print with the prayer below: God, keep my jewel this day from danger From tinker and pooka and black-hearted stranger From harm of the water and hurt of the fire From the horns of the cows going home to the byre From teasing the ass…

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the liturgical calendar of parenting

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / April 27, 2011

Pregnancy is a mix of Advent and Lent. I came to this realization yesterday morning, in between revisiting (there’s a nice euphemism) my first breakfast and scarfing down my second. Here it is – Easter! Spring! – and I’m still feeling crummy. I had hoped the change of seasons, liturgically and naturally, would bring a…

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what it means to wash feet on Holy Thursday

The Footwashing

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / April 21, 2011

We are growing everyday in what it means to do the footwashing. A friend shared these words from Abbot John Klassen at Saint John’s Abbey, from a homily he gave on Holy Thursday a few years ago. Today these words came back to me as I thought about what we celebrate at the start of…

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ways to live lent as parent

How to Live Lent as a Busy Mother

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / April 3, 2011

We moms who want to nurture our relationship with God—but also lead busy lives with children—often find ourselves caught between a rock and hard place. Prayer practices seem to require 1) undivided chunks of time; 2) quiet; 3) a peaceful environment. I don’t know about you, but those three almost NEVER occur at our house.…

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great expectations

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / March 30, 2011

I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. Halfway through this pregnancy, I’m supposed to be feeling good. The morning sickness should have subsided, the second trimester energies should have kicked in. Right now is supposed to be the glowing part of pregnancy. Instead I find myself every week, more mornings than I care to admit,…

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the call to friendship

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / February 7, 2011

One of my best friends from college came to visit last weekend. She lives 400 miles away, and as a physician, she leads a unenviable schedule in one of the most demanding professions around. But she had a rare free weekend, so she dropped me an email and said she could catch a bus if…

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Parents this is my body broken for you

This is my body. Given up for you.

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / February 3, 2011

The bodiliness of parenting young children. The meaning of the words from the Eucharistic prayer—“This is my body, given up for you”—have taken on a profoundly different meaning after the experiences of bearing, birthing, and nursing a child. I remember being overwhelmed with emotion (and postpartum hormones, no doubt) at the first few Masses I went…

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on advent acceptance

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / December 10, 2010

The teenaged lector looked nervous in his (untucked) shirt and (crooked) tie, peppering the intercessions with quiet stammers and awkward pauses. My heart sunk for him, remembering how mortifying it felt to read in front of peers in high school. The church crammed full of faith formation students, bored or giggling or texting under their…

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what to expect when you’re adventing

By Laura Kelly Fanucci / November 30, 2010

Advent came alive for me two years ago. In the span of one season, one calendar month, my world was transformed from infertility to fertility. The first Sunday of Advent had brought with it deep breaths and a resolution to Just Forget How Awful Advent Felt Last Year And Make It Through Mass Today Without…

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