Adult friendship and Gospel living

Adult friendship and Gospel living

The radio buzzed in the background when a friendly voice, coming through the airwaves, caught my attention. I paused, briefly, to listen before I turned off the car and rushed to my next appointment, learning that the friendly voice belonged to a children’s songwriter. She said, “This song is about making friends. It’s also a…

A Personality Mosaic: How Enneagram Connects the Pieces

A Personality Mosaic: How Enneagram Connects the Pieces

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…

Truth-telling and Healing for Racial Reconciliation
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Truth-telling and Healing for Racial Reconciliation

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is well known for his work opposing apartheid and facilitating reconciliation and forgiveness after the fall of South Africa’s apartheid regime. In “The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World,” Archbishop Tutu and his daughter Mpho defined forgiveness as “the capacity to make a…

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…

To Listen to the Trees: A Review of “The Overstory”
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To Listen to the Trees: A Review of “The Overstory”

When I was in first grade, I made a stapled-together picture book about the pear tree in our yard called “My Friend the Tree.” I drew her in each of the four seasons with me, a smiling face attached to legs, right alongside her. I sensed that before I knew how to talk about it…