“Hope in God.” “Have Faith.” “Hang in there — God’s got this!” For real? Are these phrases (which I hear so often now, with so much distress in the streets) — are these pious phrases just “opium for the masses,” as Karl Marx famously declared of religion? When I can’t get a break; when my […]
NO MATTER HOW BLACK THE PICTURE LOOKS: “BUT GOD!”
I sat with my grandmother in the hospital toward the end of her life, miserable to think that she would soon be gone. As was typical with her, she was the one comforting me. At 22, I couldn’t imagine life after anybody’s death . . . but she could. “But God, Sarah,” she said. “…but God! No […]
WHEN YOUR CROSS IS HEAVY: Seek His Face!
The view from the Mount of Transfiguration (if it was, indeed, Mt. Tabor that Jesus was on that day) is spectacular. It’s a long, winding trip to the top. The road today is so narrow and crooked that only small taxi buses or people on foot make the trek. I like to imagine Peter, James, […]
SIX GO-TO VERSES WHEN WE ARE WEAK
I’ve never been so aware of my own weakness as the day Mark and I set out in a canoe, oblivious to the approaching storm. One minute the water was glass; the next it rose around us in hungry waves. For some reason I was in the power seat up front, while my husband had taken […]
GOD, I NEED HELP! — Psalm 61
I have never been fast, and even at four I knew I could never outrun a dog — let alone two big ones, as happened to be the case. They came charging across the lawn and all I could do was cry for help. Richie came out of nowhere and grabbed me, made me stand […]
FINDING REFUGE IN THE PSALMS – Psalm 46 and 146
I was at the home of a friend when the winds came, bending trees low to the ground and howling through the cracks, shaking the old house to its foundation. A large branch hit the house with a thud. A vase fell to the floor. My friend and I ran for the basement. Refuge! I […]
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 […]
WHEN IT FEELS LIKE GOD IS NOT THERE: WAIT! — Psalm 62
Before our daughter could walk, I would set her on the floor on a blanket with a few toys while I did the dishes or dusted or opened the mail. She always played happily by herself – as long as I stayed within sight. If I stepped into the next room for even a minute: […]
WHEN YOU’RE ANXIOUS AND TROUBLED: WHERE ARE YOUR EYES?
It was a crazy morning. I was racing around the house throwing clothes in the hamper, dishes in the dishwasher, trying to get it all done before going to work. My husband passed me on his way to daily mass and I exploded. How could he be going to mass?! Doesn’t he think I want […]
“HOW LONG, O LORD, HOW LONG?” – Psalm 13
I remember the day it all got to be too much for me. Our house had finally sold after two years sitting empty, but that hardly made a difference. We sold at a loss, and my husband had been without work for months. There was no money in the bank. We had a toddler and […]
