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beloved. be loved.
A beloved theology professor of mine in college used to start each class with a simple prayer, repeating, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). One line spoken slowly, one word dropped each time until there was only “be.” Years later, a favorite writing teacher did the same during a week-long workshop.…
READ MOREa decade of waiting: Advent in the body
Advent is a season of strange stories and wonder-full waiting. Angels. Dreams. Miraculous pregnancies. Surprising visitors. But in a season of powerful Scripture and symbols – light, darkness, watching, waiting – we can forget that the first Advent was embodied, too. Without pregnancy and birth – messy, physical experiences – Christmas could not have happened. What…
READ MOREthe spark of prayer
He leans forward, eyes bright. Three Hail Marys are his. Each one he has started, and we have followed. He is four years old, sandy brown curls flopped in his eyes. His brothers have taken turns leading decades for weeks, and now he clamors for his chance, with all the gusto of younger siblings. He knows…
READ MOREjustice for us: Catholic social teaching at home
What does it mean to live justly in the world today? How does our faith invite us to work for peace and justice wherever we are – even at home? My friend Haley wrote a wonderful book on how her family embraced a counter-cultural lifestyle of seeking the Gospel more intentionally – The Grace of…
READ MOREhearts of flesh & hearts of stone
He and I stare down at the freshly laid gravestone, edged by spring-green grass. “When people come into our office for this,” he trails off, shielding his eyes from the morning sunshine, his weathered face suddenly young in disbelief. “It’s the absolute worst when this happens,” he shakes his head, unable to speak the words…
READ MOREholy anger
I’m mad. Spitting mad. Irate, outraged, furious, frustrated, livid, fuming. Angry doesn’t have enough synonyms to sum up the fury I feel at the most recent sex abuse scandals to shake the Catholic Church. I can heap adjective upon adjective, yet everything falls flat in the face of depraved evil and systemic injustice. The men who…
READ MOREGrieving Together: a book on miscarriage for couples
Before we lost our twin daughters after birth two years ago – suddenly, tragically, publicly – there was another loss. Smaller. Earlier. Quieter. Five years ago we lost a baby to miscarriage. I wrote about this loss here and in my book Everyday Sacrament. Miscarriage was devastating. It upheaved what we knew about parenting. How…
READ MOREI wanted the miracle. We got the revelation.
Here is today’s first reading. The promise of the new Jerusalem, part of the prophecy of Isaiah. Here is today’s Gospel. The healing of the royal official’s son, the second sign in the Gospel of John. And here is my whole heart, caught between the two. The same Scripture passage from Isaiah was read at our daughters’…
READ MOREwhen hearts become ashes
Two years ago, I had two hearts beating beneath my own. Twins. I was overwhelmed most of the pregnancy, to be honest. Worry multiplies with multiples. How would we care for two babies at once? What would life look like with five kids? Deeper, darker questions slid underneath, slimy and squirming. How could I love…
READ MOREchildhood & creation: this sacred everyday
“Here is your ice cream cone,” he declares. Satisfied and soapy, he hands me a cup full of bubbles. He eyes me intently, underneath wet curls. “What flavor is it?” I know to ask. The joy sparks: she sees it, too! “It is chocolate-ish strawberry vanilla. It is served in a cone and a dish.”…
READ MOREwhen the hurricane hits
Last week we watched Irma, that swirling monster of a storm, with twisted stomachs and sick hearts. Friends we love live in Florida. We wanted them to be safe, their homes to stay dry, their schools and workplaces untouched. We read their anxious updates, prayed for protection, watched the weather forecast. It looked like the…
READ MOREall that we carry
I put off packing the hospital bag as long as I could. I didn’t want to jinx it. I didn’t want to think about the last time I packed it. Mostly I didn’t know what to put inside. The usual necessities, of course. Pajamas. Hairbrush. Baby clothes. But I was bringing so much more with…
READ MOREThank you to all who have shared their back-to-school lists with us as part of our 1st crowdfunding effort! For weeks now we’ve been telling you about Mothering Spirit, the new ecumenical, collaborative community we’re launching this Labor Day to share stories, prayers, and resources from diverse voices to help you pray through parenting. But…
READ MOREWant to learn how to introduce Catechesis of the Good Shepherd to your kids at home? My background Over the past year I’ve shared about our family’s home atrium on Instagram (part 1 and part 2) and in my Holy Labor newsletter (here). After I completed Level I training in the Catechesis of the Good…
READ MOREOne month ago, I was in the hospital. The same hospital where my baby girls were born four years earlier. The same hospital where they each died in my arms, days later. One month ago, I was holding our newborn son. The same baby I pleaded to God to keep safe as I spent day…
READ MOREExactly ten years ago this month, I started a blog. I told exactly no one. Not even my husband. My first baby was six months old. I was working part-time, overwhelmed and tired. I craved connection and community. I wanted breadth of thought and depth of prayer. I couldn’t find anything like what I wanted…
READ MOREWherever they are, they have traveled far. Not at home, known and comfortable. Not on the road, exhausted from the journey. Arrived but unsettled. No room in the expected places, no welcome in the usual way. Whatever they expect, they can only imagine. Preparation leads to prayer’s edge: picturing what might be, trusting what could…
READ MOREThe told story is not the whole story. We tend to grasp onto moments as the whole. In a culture obsessed with tiny tweets and shiny surfaces, it’s easier to outrage or comfort ourselves with sound bytes that echo the thoughts between our ears, daily dulling our curiosity. We take the smallest sliver for the…
READ MOREPregnant women inhabit time in a whole new way. I’m 20 weeks, we declare. As if we were the child within us. As if we were the time itself. Our relationship to these womb-weeks is totalizing. Time means everything: how much time the baby needs, how much time we have left. But womb time is…
READ MOREWhen we were dating, then engaged, then married, I used to catch a glimpse of him and think—God, please send us daughters. Because I had never met a man like him, so strong and gentle all at once, so humble and quietly confident, so genuinely kind and caring. I watched how he treated his mother,…
READ MORETheir feet crush me. Tiny toes curling, ancient reflex. Baby socks lost in the dryer like doll clothing. Toddler tiptoes to reach the sink. Preschool slip-ons for circle time. Sport shoes for season after season—cleats, sneakers, boots. I know their feet intimately. Kiss them at diaper changes, sweet antidote to stink. Bathe them in bubbles…
READ MORESitting at my desk, working on words of loss, I watch a thousand cottonwood seeds drift by the window. White wisps rising on the breeze, lifted from my sight. Summer’s snow globe, shaken and set to spin. I remember noticing them, as if for the first time, the summer after our twins died. One afternoon…
READ MOREEach year on Mother’s Day, my heart goes out to those who struggle with this holiday. Inspired by this column on “How to Widen Our Hearts On Mother’s Day,” I’ve gathered prayers from readers into a litany to be prayed at church or at home – to remember all the mothers. Feel free to adapt…
READ MOREAt the request of readers, I’m rounding up my favorite posts on Holy Week and Triduum. For wherever you are and wherever God may meet you this week…blessings on all of it, the mess and the joy. If you’re expecting: Labor’s Stages: A Triduum. If you have a new baby: Baby’s First Holy Week. If…
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