making sense of life in the details
I’m a Catholic music minister, and I’m wearing gray as I stand at the front of the church and sing the opening notes of the entrance song. A gentleman from the funeral home leads pallbearers with the casket down the aisle, and following them are a group of tearful mourners, wearing black and clinging to... Continue Reading →
For the past several years on New Year’s Eve, our sweet hosts have pulled out a sheet of cardboard on which everyone writes their goals for the year ahead in permanent sharpie. One year I wrote that I would find our dog, Bailey, and I did. Another year I wrote that I would run a... Continue Reading →
In April of 1970, a team of engineers, astronauts, and support personnel put the finishing touches on the Apollo XIII mission. Their aim was to be the third crew to land on the moon, but the lunar landing was aborted when, two days into the mission, an oxygen tank failed due to the ignition of... Continue Reading →
I used to think that God worked in details, orchestrating events and people in time like a tapestry. Then I didn’t believe it. Then for a long time, I hoped it was true. Yesterday, God showed off in a hatful of ways about the veracity of that belief: even if we can’t always see it, God is... Continue Reading →
I’ll just say it: like so many of you who came before, I’m now obsessed with The Great British Baking Show. I didn’t think I’d like it because I’m much more cook than baker. I aim toward flavor, texture and contrast and away from precision, but there’s something about the tone of the show, the... Continue Reading →
As I settled on my yoga mat before class, the room echoed the static dissonance in my head. One classmate had just moved her only child into college and was trying to make sense of her own new landscape, another had a friend suffering deeply the loss of two grandchildren and was facing the reality... Continue Reading →
Christian sisters, O the time has come. The world’s a messy place these days and somehow you find more conflict and consternation in a corner you wouldn’t expect: between Christians of different denominations. In the wake of the sudden loss of progressive Christian author Rachel Held Evans, you see the divide in the contrast between... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Our friend Fr. Joe Callahan passed from this life on Easter morning. He was the spiritual director of our retreat house, and had held that position for almost twenty years, affecting the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people who lived cursillo and other retreats at the house. When I heard the news, I did... Continue Reading →
