making sense of life in the details
In this time of crisis, we’re being stripped of quite a lot. Roles, practices, relational habits and interaction, labels, even jobs or our health. In addition, the way we practice our faith has completely changed. Within my own church tradition, Catholics are being told we can confess our sins directly to God without a priest... Continue Reading →
“I just can’t wait until this is all over and things can go back to normal.” I felt the fatigue and worry in my friend’s voice as she spoke these words, and I feel it, too. I want to see my preschool music students face-to-face, want to gather with my friends and family. I want... Continue Reading →
I remember one morning from a few years ago. It was very early, before the sun was even up, and I was driving my high school daughter to a waiting bus for her Washington DC class trip. I hugged her and watched the bus pull away, and on the way home, saw the sun was... Continue Reading →
There was a fire in my church. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of destruction, but the smoke damage remediation will take several weeks and so we’ve been unable to have mass. It brings me back to the catastrophic fire which took place at Notre Dame in Paris almost one year ago and how the devastation... Continue Reading →
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 →
To know the definition of a thing, it can be helpful to know its opposite. For example, I know that cold is the opposite of heat, up is the opposite of down, right is the opposite of left. But what, dear friends, is the opposite of Catholic? I asked a group of faith writers this... 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 →
