Jesus

  • Red

    If you ask any of my former preschool-aged music students what they remember about my classes, they may sing one of two phrases back at you. The first is ‘sticks on your shoulders’, which is sung to an annoying, but memorable tune. It’s a reminder to the kids to keep their wooden rhythm sticks on…

  • Sing

    Once there was a girl who walked down a road. Her dress was tattered and her hair dirty and knotted. She thought she was alone, but she was wrong. When she finally felt his hand in hers, she looked up and smiled with recognition. And kept walking. One day, he started to speak to her…

  • Page

    When I was a child, my faith life was whatever my parents taught me. There was a loving God, and rules, and if you did the right thing, and helped your neighbor, all would be well. If my early-adult life was a house, I would have painted one room ‘religion’, another ‘family’, another ‘work’, another…

  • Boat

    Sometimes when I’m looking for a little direction, I’ll click on the ‘Laudate’ app on my phone, which contains the readings of the day. When I scan through, a phrase might pop out at me from a psalm or a gospel, or a whole reading might strike me in a new way, or some days…

  • Walk

    I am one of a small handful of women in the world who dislike getting pedicures. The language barrier and my ticklish feet are part of my discomfort, but the biggest issue I have is that I don’t like the feeling of being served. Today, as the temperature inched over seventy degrees for the first time…

  • With, and a Little Ahead

    My dog, Bailey, walks with me and a little ahead. She can often smell or sense things I cannot, so in those moments, she’ll take the lead, but otherwise she stays with me, side by side. With me and a little ahead. It brings back a memory of when I was twenty, invited on retreat…

  • Communion

    I went to four daily masses this vacation week. I didn’t plan on it, not at first, but it just kind of happened. Pre-breakfast mass with Dad, one with a friend, one for a church event, one a funeral, none in my own parish. The wisdom that poured out of good priests during their homilies…

  • Character

    When we were young, our mother would gather me and my sisters on Good Friday to read the story of the Passion. Wearing pajamas and carrying mugs of tea, we sat from noon to three, for once not rebelling against her wishes. She told us that every aspect of humanity could be found in that…

  • Christians

    In the wake of news that America is seeing a sharp decline in those who call themselves Christian, discussion seems to be centered in two areas: why the faith is not relevant today, and the value of organized religion to our society. Lots of the commenters I’ve read claim this represents a new age of…

  • Outer Banks

    In the long, snowy, record-breaking Winter that led up to our Outer Banks vacation, I would often imagine myself on the beach in April. I thought, if I can just make it through the cold and snow, I’ll be rewarded there. I imagined myself flat on my back in what I hoped would be hot…