This weekend, throughout the world, Franciscans will gather to celebrate the feast of our founder, St. Francis of Assisi. On Friday evening we’ll pray in holy spaces and remember his Transitus, his holy death. On Saturday we’ll gather for Holy Mass and celebrate his whole life, and the influence that he has had and continues…
On a blazing, Washington, DC summer day in 2021, I walked to the Mount Pleasant farmer’s market with my friends and housemates Joy and Ashley. Joy had been volunteering with Mt. Pleasant library, and at their table they were selling tote bags, stickers, and shirts that said “What’s more punk than the public library?” Joy,…
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…
Over a week ago I celebrated a milestone: my 40th birthday. In the days since, my life has been a whirlwind of joy, labor, celebrations and commotion. I drove hundreds of miles, celebrated my younger biological sister’s 35th birthday, celebrated my Franciscan Sister Meg’s first profession of vows and her birthday, helped empty a house…
In the light of the epiphany star and the glowing headlines this week, the Spirit is convincing me that it’s time for us to get back to basics, to recenter on the core values of the Christian faith. It seems that from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, the…
In the Northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day of the year, the day when we experience the least sunlight. We’re still in the season of Advent, the season of longing and hope. Even if the preparations and Christmas celebrations of this season have had you feeling busy and stressed, you still have time to…
It’s indisputable that today’s signs of the times point to heartache, injustice, division and confusion. The truth seems to be debatable. The persecutions of the little ones — from immigrant children, refugees, victims of natural disasters and targets of sexual assault; those who are on the margins — often are the ones who bear the…
Happy Thanksgiving! During this time when we pause to give thanks in the USA, I take this Scripture seriously: In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. –1 Thessalonians 5:18 But, the truth is, gratitude is only some of what is stirring in my heart. I…
“Be in the world, not of the world.” “Live countercultural Christian lives.” “Be radical for the Gospel.” Such mottos of countercultural Christian living have been ingrained in me for much of my life. Lately they have been going around in my mind like a record, while I have been pondering instances of divisiveness and polarization,…
Happy Easter!! It’s time for joyous, bright, colorful feasts and celebrations. (Whoa, did you hear the news that we have two new Pope Saints?! Hooray!) I especially love the Easter season for the Biblical readings that we pray with. We get to hear many of the inspiring stories from the earliest days of Christianity, when it…
My Christmas Every Day experiment is starting to get awkward. Advent hasn’t even started yet, but Christmas’ crazed and over-weight relative Consumerism is already in town, on the news, and wasting your gasoline and money as he drives all around town shopping. Meanwhile, I’m crowding with others in the cozy chapel, savoring peace and quiet and adoring God’s…
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