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  • Joy

    Nothing in my circumstances changed, but I could feel something shift, some tiny glowing ember in my spirit today that was new and yet something I recognized from long ago, like an old friend. I felt it grow stronger as I saw the faces at church, so grace-filled and kind and good. I felt it…

  • Mystery

    A mysterious thing happened today. Absolutely wrecked by a hacking case of bronchitis, I sang through an entire funeral Mass for a gathered group of family and friends. I didn’t want my illness to draw attention from what the bereaved were there to do, and so before I began, I just asked God to sing…

  • Connect

    I’ve been thinking about the idea of connection, how we are designed ideally to fit together with one another to build something better, like a great big community of legos. A friend of mine recently said that this time in life is about finding your people. Obviously, everyone is not for everyone and we are…

  • Broken

    “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway I love this quote. Hemingway places two words together which many wouldn’t expect but which absolutely belong: broken and strong. I look around and see how people struggle, I see my own struggles, and it’s crystal clear to me that we…

  • Bridge

        I was reading about a new suspension bridge that recently opened in China. Called ‘Brave Man’s Bridge’, it is made of ¾ inch glass on a steel frame, is 984 feet long and is just under 55 stories high. It’s suspended across a chasm. Originally intended as a wooden bridge, the builders experimented…

  • If I Knew

    If I only knew Instead of only guess The thing might still be wretched It might still be a mess   But when you really know Instead of only question The path grows underneath your foot One rock to the next one   Gaseous, empty vapor Tossing to and fro Instead, I’d like a place…

  • Memory

    When my youngest sister was five, and I was thirteen, I taught her to speak a couple of French phrases one Fall afternoon. I distinctly remember it because it was such a cozy scene, she and I cuddled in her little bed and hearing her say, “Ma crayon est rouge,” in the sweetest little-kid accent.…

  • time

    it marches when I wish it would bend and loop and stop even in just one room while the rest marches on without me collect it in a pocket spend it or save wind it around dream for a day while the clock quietly slows and a single day stretches and my heart finds a…

  • It’s a Boy!

    I passed balloons tied to a lamppost while walking my dog on the eve of my son’s 18th birthday. Someone in the neighborhood had recently had a baby, and the sight of those “It’s a Boy!” swaying balloons immediately brought me back to when we brought Brian home from the hospital. The lead up to…

  • Best Worst Mass

      “That was the best worst Mass,” my daughter said at the conclusion of a morning that was filled with mistakes. And she was right. As music ministers during the busy Advent season, we grapple with new Mass parts and seasonal music and we do our best to bring a prayerful spirit to what we…