Mary

  • Mantle – 2021

    Mantle – 2021

    Each year between Christmas and New Year’s, I lean in close to discover my word for the year ahead. Last year a scripture caught hold of me hard and I thought for sure that my word was embedded within it.  It was Isaiah 43:19, and I scribbled it on an index card and affixed it to…

  • Statues

    Statues

    As a lifelong Catholic, statues have been a part of my faith experience from the beginning.  I have worshipped in spaces with statues, watched them paraded on feast days, and seen them adorned with flowers.  I have stood in front of dozens of Mary statues and prayed to Our Mother, holding hands of stone and…

  • Quilt

    Quilt

    “What’s that yellow thing behind you?” asked a book club friend on our shared zoom call.  I turned to look behind me at a pair of quilts that are draped over the rocking chair in my bedroom.  Made up of squares from the long-outgrown clothes of my children, these quilts are in the background of…

  • The Story

    The Story

    It’s Good Friday, and in this coronavirus time, we’re not gathering in our churches for the Stations of the Cross or for the services we’re used to.  We’re not venerating the Cross or singing the solemn songs together.  It may be harder for Christians to enter into the Story than it’s been in Holy Weeks…

  • Listen

    Listen

    I’ve been having the hardest time hearing God in prayer, and so today, I asked some friends to listen for me. What they said changed everything. For the longest time, I had what felt like a pretty clear channel between me and God. I said all-the-things and sometimes I heard back with images, words, or…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Raise

    Raise

    In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to…

  • Window

    Window

    There is a large interior window in a dance studio where I teach early childhood music. On one side of the window is the seating area for waiting families and on the other, my teaching space. As I was prepping for class this morning on my side of the glass, my students came in with…