Prayer is listening to my heart’s longing
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Prayer is listening to my heart’s longing

“Well, what do you want? What do you desire?”  At the start of my final year as a student at a Jesuit University, I felt like a spiritual mess. I had recently returned from studying abroad for four months in El Salvador through a service-based educational program that effectively upended what I knew about myself…

Confronting contradictions in the Church: Struggles in faith and a question of conscience 

Confronting contradictions in the Church: Struggles in faith and a question of conscience 

I remember sitting between my fellow Catholic classmates at an evening student mass in my first year at a Jesuit University. The Jesuit offering the mass confidently explained, to us eager young Catholics, that by attending and participating that night, we were showing ourselves to be different from our peers who were forgoing the opportunity…

‘Let the Children Come to Me,’ Except Under Capitalism
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‘Let the Children Come to Me,’ Except Under Capitalism

As a little girl growing up in a small Catholic parish in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, my favorite part of weekly Sunday mass was being called forth with the other kids to participate in Sunday school: a special space, just for kids, in a world mostly made for adults. I remember well one of our favorite…

An Examination of Conscience: How Might We Take Capitalism Out of Being Catholic?
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An Examination of Conscience: How Might We Take Capitalism Out of Being Catholic?

When I was 10 years old and preparing for the sacrament of reconciliation at the small Catholic parish in Minnesota where I was raised, I vividly remember sitting alone in a church pew, earnestly trying to concentrate on examining my conscience. At the time, the examen was pretty straightforward. I asked myself, “Was I holding…

Finding Care in the Collective: Is Individualism Weighting You Down?

Finding Care in the Collective: Is Individualism Weighting You Down?

It was 7:30 a.m. on a brisk morning in the Andean mountains of Bolivia back in 2013. I was immersed in my first year of life as a Franciscan lay missioner and one of the only foreigners participating in a overnight workshop on organic agriculture and forest farming. That day we were invited to visit…

The Ministry of Presence is a Radical Path
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The Ministry of Presence is a Radical Path

Somehow in my years of formation as a young adult Catholic preparing to “change the world,” I missed the part about the power of presence. As a student at a Catholic university, I was skilled at social analysis, advocacy and activism rooted in Catholic Social Teaching. I was busy. In an environment bent on creating…

A Global Pandemic, Culture Crisis and Spiritual Solutions
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A Global Pandemic, Culture Crisis and Spiritual Solutions

My partner and I intentionally live simply. We have carved out, over a number of years, a low-cost way of living that allows for neither of us to work professionally full time.  We also moved out of the city a couple of years ago, radically shifting our priorities and our environment from busy and overwhelming…

We need each other, not more consumption

We need each other, not more consumption

Every year around this time, companies ramp up marketing campaigns that do their best to connect contentment with consumerism. Feeling lonely? Buy a candy cane latte. Feeling grief? Buy more holiday decorations. Feeling afraid and anxious as you watch the daily news in a world plagued by family separations, endless wars and mass shootings? Buy…