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 was a few hours from home, towards the end of an eight-hour drive from visiting family in Nebraska. It was dark and my three kids were asleep. I needed something engaging to keep me going. A few weeks earlier, I had put on my playlist the audiobook version of a few different parenting books,…
Have you ever wondered about the compatibility of your own vocation, season, station in life and the invitation to a contemplative way in the world? In October 2018 I was in my early thirties, married for three years, having just welcomed our first baby six months earlier. I traveled to Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist Monastery…
I live in a neighborhood filled with vibrant, Mexican art and murals. Some of my favorites are mosaics. I love admiring a cohesive image from afar, then drawing close and realizing how many different shades and colors are really there. From close up, it can be hard to imagine how these little shapes could possibly…
Joyfulness is one of the things I most admire in other people; perhaps one of the main marks of an authentic Christian life. I gravitate towards people who exude joy, and I aspire to do the same. Unfortunately, despite what feels like a long road of seeking to build a joyful life, the emotional ups…
Since the lifting of Title 42 on May 11, United States’ news outlets have bombarded us with conflicting and confusing accounts of its repercussions at the US-Mexico border. The best reports tell stories of adults, youth and families with young children, giving us a glimpse into the challenges faced by those seeking to enter. These…
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…
We missed the first Sunday of Advent. While we’ve missed nearly every Sunday mass for the last two years, this one felt particularly discouraging. Maybe because the day before I was heard on more than one occasion saying, “I’m going to go to mass tomorrow if anyone wants to join me,” verbally attempting to hold…
After my father died in 2020, I began to have dreams about him returning from the dead. Sometimes we found a way to revive him. Sometimes it turned out he hadn’t been dead at all. I once dreamed we had buried him by mistake, and I had to dig him up again. My brother and…
Moments like this kindle sparks of life in me: pausing meal prep to watch birds gathering on the feeder I hung outside the kitchen window; keeping a field book handy so I can learn their names; discovering that the new birds showing up, those who look both like and unlike cardinals, are not a different…
Heaven is uncomfortable for me to think about. Sometimes talk about heaven juxtaposes Earth as an evil, tainted place and our bodies as temptations to be subdued until the day when our souls are finally freed. I have long preferred to accept heaven as a mystery beyond my understanding and focus instead on the call…
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…
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