vocation

  • Christian Sisters (All Hands In, Part Two)

    Christian Sisters (All Hands In, Part Two)

    Christian sisters, O the time has come. The world’s a messy place these days and somehow you find more conflict and consternation in a corner you wouldn’t expect: between Christians of different denominations. In the wake of the sudden loss of progressive Christian author Rachel Held Evans, you see the divide in the contrast between…

  • All Hands In

    All Hands In

    We were at the wake of our friend, Fr. Joe, when I saw the most beautiful prayer. A young man kneeled at the casket, held his open hands out so that his fingertips just touched, and closed his eyes. He then raised his open hands to his forehead, touching it briefly, and then got up…

  • Fr. Joe

    Fr. Joe

    Our friend Fr. Joe Callahan passed from this life on Easter morning. He was the spiritual director of our retreat house, and had held that position for almost twenty years, affecting the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people who lived cursillo and other retreats at the house. When I heard the news, I did…

  • Small

    Small

    I met and held the teeniest, tiniest, most perfect baby today. She was so impossibly light, both in luminescence and weight that it was hard to believe I was holding a real live person; she is so small. As a Mom of college kids, it’s easy to forget. My two babies were small once, just…

  • Re-fine

    Re-fine

    A teacher I work with stopped me on my way out of class this morning and offered me a hug. “You didn’t seem yourself when you sang at church on Sunday, and I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” The truth is, I’m not. Friends, I’ll preface this by saying it’s not the most…

  • Face

    I have seen the Face of God. My eighteen-year old daughter was late to mass this Sunday and I was unaware. As a music minister at the front of the church, I didn’t see her sidle around the back corner and into the last pew. As it turns out, she, who had hoped to go…

  • Dreams

    Dreams

    I’ve had some weird dreams lately. I dreamt that Lin-Manuel Miranda and I had coffee and we danced in the street and he brought me into a ticket booth and got me on-stage seating for Les Miserables that night. I dreamt that Jose Andres and Tina Fey almost came to fisticuffs in the street, but…

  • Re

    Re

    There is a lightness in my heart today and it’s fragile and warm and cool at the same time. It is a physical feeling in my chest that I feel when the Holy Spirit is present and communicating, a gift of a feeling that I’ve had maybe a dozen times in my life, maybe less…

  • Cultivate

    Cultivate

    I’ve participated in the #oneword365 project for a couple of years now. It’s a pretty simple exercise; you prayerfully pick a word that might help define the year, and then allow it to lead you into new growth in the year ahead. It works. In 2017, I was continually reminded that if things weren’t as…

  • Holy

    Holy

    I walked into church, and found an earwig in the holy water. It was a picture of how I felt today; a skittering, slimy creature swimming in the midst of all that’s holy and spoiling it for everyone else. It’s been a rough couple of days (and months and years), and it’s sometimes hard for…