“The serpent asked the woman, ‘Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’” (Gn 3:1) “The tempter approached and said to Jesus, ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.’” (Mt 4:3) There’s a reason these passages are paired in […]
THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the sin of Lust
This continues a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here. Week 5: Psalm 102 — “From the sin of LUST, O Lord, deliver me…” I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line, our constitutional right to “the pursuit of happiness” has come to mean, “if […]
UNTO YOU A CHILD IS BORN! – Welcoming Jesus with the O Antiphons
“HEY! Unto YOU a child is born!” Tough and scrappy little Gladys Herdman, one of “the worst children in the history of the world,” may not have been the most likely choice to play the angel in the Christmas play — but she knew how to deliver her line! I watched “The Best […]
SACRED MUSIC: A WINDOW TO HEAVEN
Have you ever heard angels singing? I think I have for real, once at a charismatic prayer meeting. But earlier this week, I swear the angels came down and joined the choir at Mass. Or maybe it was we who were lifted up into heaven, “joining our voices with angels and archangels” as the liturgy […]
ARE YOU LOST? FIND YOUR WAY IN JESUS
I woke this morning from a dream of being lost. In it, I found myself suddenly alone in a strange place with no purse or phone, with no one to ask for help. It is a dream I have had before. I struggled to wake up, to get going on the day and fill my […]
FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION: Priests in Nazareth pray the Angelus
On a visit to Nazareth in the Holy Land, I had the privilege of entering into the grotto at the Basilica of the Annunciation that marks the traditional site of Mary’s childhood home. Imagine – this might be the very place where she heard from the angel Gabriel! On the altar it says, in Latin, […]
STAY CONNECTED: A New Series for Catholic Women
My corner of the office is festooned with little gifts from women: a tiny pewter teapot that reads “Women are like teabags; we don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water” (Eleanor Roosevelt). Another tiny teapot made of cloisonné. A hand-lettered prayer. A card engraved in red: “We will always be friends […]
COME PRAISE AGAINST THE DARK!
The tune is 60’s-folk and more old-school than retro-cool. But it is embedded in my memory and comes to my rescue on days when I wake up under a load of problems and can’t see my way out. Personal problems are bad enough. But now it seems our government is being pulled apart and polarization […]
HIS MIRACLES COME THROUGH OUR BREAKING
“This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad” I roll out of bed groggy, but give thanks before my feet hit the floor the way Dad taught me. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good — his mercy endures forever” The verses rise unbidden from some dark […]
CARING FOR PEARLS (Or, Turning Trials Into Things of Beauty)
Talk about a “pearl of great price”! A Filipino fisherman this week revealed the unusual good-luck charm he’d kept hidden under his bed for ten years: a 75-pound pearl. No, that’s not a typo – his two-foot-long, fresh-water treasure weighs as much as your average 5th-grader. The extraordinary beauty of natural pearls comes from the […]
