church

  • Name

    Name

    “Bye, Kristen!” I called to the beautiful, curly-haired Mom I had met a few weeks before at church. We had been in similar circles over the years, but had not officially been introduced until that Sunday. When I extended my hand and told her my name, Kristen laughed and replied, “Everyone knows who you are.”…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • One

    One

    I had what really looked like a breakthrough on the writing front. A Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of a house I really respect wrote me personally, said he thought I had a lot to say and could help a lot of people. I was beside myself, of course, fully believing my dream of book publishing was about to…

  • Ordinary

    Ordinary

    In my church tomorrow we’ll celebrate the twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time refers to the weeks in the liturgical calendar that are not set apart, no special feasts or seasons such as Advent, Lent, or Easter, no distinct sacrifices or practices. It’s regular, ordinary, normal. Tomorrow, the particular set of readings that is…

  • Over

    Over

    Structures are falling down all around us. In our country, church, and world, we’re finding our shared values are shared no longer. Institutions are collapsing under the weight of abuse and scandal. The world feels as though it’s spinning off its axis. During troubled times, we tend to look to those things that are immovable,…

  • Under

    Under

    When I was a kid, we had a pool in our backyard. My memory is that it took quite a while for me on those summer days to get in and swim. I’d sit on the deck and put my feet in while my sisters swam and my Dad’s transistor radio played. On particularly hot…

  • America

    America

    Our church community has a long-standing tradition of singing patriotic songs on or around Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and the Fourth of July, so we weren’t surprised when a parishioner asked me and my music-minister husband just which such song we would be singing this past Sunday, but we were conflicted. For a while now,…

  • Love

    Valentine’s Day is a hard day for a lot of people. I have friends who are still searching for a partner, friends whose marriages are in trouble, friends who are divorcing or divorced, friends whose spouses are in Heaven. For them, this is a day in which they are bombarded with images of romantic love,…