New life is waking up all around me. The first spring flowers yawn open. The bees pay a visit. A pink-headed hummingbird swoops down only to pause, suspended and in motion, so close I can see its feathers glisten. The green of seedlings planted weeks ago peek up from the blackness around them. All reminders of this simple fact: winter doesn't last forever.
Read moreHow Questioning My Faith Led to Knowing Jesus
I sat on a large rock, knees pulled up, arms stretched behind me for support. The dry desert breeze whispered past as I gazed at the stars hovering overhead. Majestic and distant, they magnified the smallness I felt confronting larger-than-life questions I could no longer ignore.
Read morePraying or Wishing?
I’ve been hoarding my desires in prayer, bringing to the light only those things that I want most - protection from the virus, safe delivery of this baby, and not to be separated from him or my husband. I’ve prioritized these requests, and hidden away everything else.
Read moreChoosing Trust Over Fear
This past weekend, I let fear grip me.
For the most part, following the stay-at-home order has meant small sacrifices for us. We miss seeing friends and family, but have loved connecting in other ways.
Read morePraying the Morning Offering
Have you ever tried praying a daily offering? A few weeks ago, Samantha suggested adding these prayers to your Lenten practice. The Morning Offering, which seems to have originated in the 19th century, is both an easy and profound way to place God at the forefront of your mind when starting your day.
Read moreUsing Negative Feelings in Discernment
The word discernment is like the word vocation. We hear it and immediately think of the priesthood or religious life - something specific and set apart. We do this even though we know that God is calling us, too. Yes, we are all called to a life of holiness, and some of us live that out by taking specific vows. But discernment is not only about hearing God’s call in the “big picture” decisions of lives. It is a much broader practice of becoming attuned to God’s call as it manifests in our everyday lives.
Read moreMy Daily Bread
I’m always perplexed when I see people at concerts trying to film the experience. What we can capture on our phones won’t look or sound all that great – certainly not as great as the recorded version or professional photos we could look up later. Really, the purpose of being at a concert is just that: being there. Feeling the music vibrate through you, being among the crowd of fans, enjoying proximity to someone whose talent you admire. None of what is great about a concert can be captured by our devices. In fact, trying to do so actually places distance between us and the experience we seek to capture.
Read moreGod Works in the Waiting
I am not a person who waits. I take my time to think, to research, to plan and to pray. But once I reach a decision, I do not like to delay execution. When I made the decision to enter the Catholic Church, I did not want to wait. The image I have of my excitement is Harry’s line at the end of When Harry Met Sally: “Once you realize that you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” I wanted to receive Jesus in the Eucharist as soon as possible.
Read moreA Prayer for "Good Girls"
I am, and always have been, a good girl. I don’t break the rules. I arrive prepared. I don’t make trouble. I earn everyone’s affection, including the Lord’s (at least I like to think I do).
When I imagine myself in the story of the prodigal son, I am the older brother – the brother who is glad when his good-for-nothing sibling leaves home because it makes him look so much better by comparison.
Read moreCome Out of Your Hiding Place
My daughter eats crayons. She is a crayon eater. In the past, it has been just a nibble here, or a bite there. This time, I came out of my son’s nursery to discover her hiding under her toddler-sized table, crayon wrappers littered about.
“Why are you hiding?”
“Because I did something bad.”
Read moreLet God Clean Up
“I can’t clean up.”
I explain to my daughter that we must clean up before we move on to the next activity.
“It’s too hard,” she whines, looking at the array of evidence we’ve left scattered in our wake. This could be anything: colorful spills from watercolor painting, a mighty block tower crashed, pieces littering the floor, or a village of little people waiting to be returned to their proper home. Really, the stuff that makes up the mess isn’t important; if the mess is big enough, my daughter’s response is the same: “It’s too hard.”
Read moreWhen We Don't Get a Miracle
My daughter is in a “why” phase. Lately, our conversations go like this:
“Why is my sandbox so wet?”
“Because you left it out in the rain.”
“Why did it rain?”
“Because that is how God feeds the thirsty plants.”
“He’s a bad Jesus to make it rain in my sandbox!”