Fasting is a pillar of Lent whose challenge I’ve long avoided. It is mid-January and I’m crossing through a busy, crowded airport. With my duffle bag hanging on my shoulder, I sweep my white cane side to side and walk with a wheelchair attendant who pulls my suitcase. As we cross through the terminals, he…
It’s Lent in the Catholic world. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving. I love Lent. It’s my favorite liturgical season. I think it’s because I’m action-oriented and Lent is about changing behaviors and seeing how that impacts both us and others for the better. Whether I’m fasting, giving, or praying, the whole season seems to say to me,…
Am I the only one who feels dizzy from daily news slaps? Minneapolis. Venezuela. Greenland. Last year we had a solid alternative vision. Pope Francis declared 2025 as the Jubilee Year of Hope and we were all pilgrims, journeying together in faith. I grasped that proclamation like a lifesaver. It anchored me as I watched…
we join Love in the desert,
disoriented, dizzy. we thirst
as we wander rending
I sit at my desk, gazing out the sliding glass doors as snow falls in large, deliberate flakes — like manna falling from heaven, I think. In a moment that feels like a meandering journey through an unforgiving desert, the image of nourishment is welcome, even if it’s only enough for today. Open and face-down…
I can’t anymore. Sometimes urgently, sometimes softly but persistently, several times a day these words echo in my brain. They seem like an interruption and they need to be heard. I can’t anymore. In a world on fire, I am exhausted. As a spiritual director, I am a professional listener. Everyone I listen to right…
Since the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis, I have found myself in some grim conversations with people I care deeply about. Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny themself, take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save their…
I’ve been thinking about misogyny and the church even more than usual. A week ago, an ICE agent shot and murdered a woman named Renee Good, without reason or provocation. Days later, men who identify as Christian continue to defend the murderer, mock the victim, make jokes about her death, and say that she was…
In the walled-in Old City of Jerusalem, in the Armenian Quarter, sits a large pile of rubble with an Armenian flag planted at the top. This pile of rubble, the flag, and the Armenian Quarter itself all tell a story of resistance and nonviolence. This past October, I traveled to the West Bank with a…
Even today in households where division of labor is not definitively gendered, women do the work of Christmas: To stretch the dollar to make a feast or to fill Santa’s sack, To soothe agitated family relationships or countless other ongoing worries, To accept the duty left to them to carry forward family traditions, To maintain…
I wake up at 4:20 a.m. Unable to get back to sleep, I brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee, and curl up in a rocking chair in the living room. My cat sits nearby. Christmas tree lights illuminate the dark room with a warm glow. The day before, I attended my kids’ Christmas…
Emmanuel,The choirs sing peace on earth while the festive crowds feast and dump waste into bins. Meanwhile migrants are offeredthe opposite of welcome, The planet needs healing, Violence and conflict rage and Many people are without the basics:Food, shelter, water, warmth, love.Forgive us for how we have wandered Far from the meaning of your glorious Incarnation, from the simplicity and purityof your love…
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