Christ’s Presentation in the Temple: A Light for All of Us
/
Four years ago, we were in Mexico City for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. I finally got around to writing about it for Busted Halo . Read about it here.
Andrew Wyeth's Snow Hill and the Subjects of Art
/
"The snow is untouched. No footprints lead in or out. Have they danced through a snowstorm? Have they been there forever?"
Read MoreJamaica Kincaid's A Small Place
/
Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is a small book of big truths. Kincaid tells the story of the small island of Antigua in the British West Indies; the colonialism that brought them to the place they are in and the difficulties pulling themselves out now that freedom has been attained.
Read MoreHope for 2021 and the Love of God
/
Paul's letter to the Romans gives us a message of hope and love in 2021.
Read MoreFinding God in Silence
/
When I was young and somehow given the chance to stay home alone, I loved to sit in the quiet house and hear what I could hear. It was strange to me that even without my sisters playing or my great-grandmother’s television blaring, the house was not quiet. I could hear the hum of the refrigerator and the lull of the cars on the main street beyond ours — even our house crackled as it settled.
I wanted to get beyond those sounds to hear silence. I wondered what silence even sounded like and what I’d find there.
Read MoreMeditating with Giorgione’s painting ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’
/
Imagine: You are bundled in your warmest coat, hat and gloves. It is the week before Christmas in 1938 and you are shopping for the perfect gift for your loved ones along Fifth Avenue in New York City. You peak into the S. H. Kress & Co. department store window for a few ideas and instead come face to face with this early 16th-century painting, “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1505).
Read MoreBook Review: Brandy Schillace Death’s Summer Coat
/
Why are we so afraid of death? It wasn’t always so. In Death’s Summer Coat: What the History of Death and Dying Teaches Us about Life and Living, Dr. Brandy Schillace explores how our society has sanitized death and made it foreign and unfamiliar.
Read More
In the Dark
/
I have an essay in this gorgeous digital issue of Ekstasis Magazine on my experience listening to a music performance completely in the dark. Still reliving Emerald City Music fantastic performance.
Read MoreThree Advent Poems
/
I really enjoyed the process of writing these poems about the miracle of birth, hope growing in darkness and the journey to Christmas.
Read MoreImagining the infant Christ
/
I couldn’t sleep. It was a cold and cozy December night. Maybe I ate too many cookies. Or had a list that wouldn’t stop unrolling itself in my head. All I know is I was awake. I left my husband snoring deeply in our bed, curled up on the living room couch with the remote and searched for something to watch on television.
Read MoreMy Favorite Reads of 2020
/
Most years, I read 50 books a year. Each year, someone will inevitably ask me for book recommendations. I thought I’d share some of my favorite reads for this year. Maybe you need Christmas gift recommendations or are just stocking up for the next lockdown. Here are my favorite reads from this year.
Read MoreMotherhood: A Confession by Natalie Carnes
/
What if St. Monica had written Confessions instead of her son? In Motherhood: A Confession author Natalie Carnes responds to St. Augustine’s work. Each of the thirteen chapters of the book center on a theme found in Augustine’s Confessions which is written as a prayer to God.
Read MorePermission to Notice
/
Why not notice the sweet, simple things all around us each day? In giving ourselves permission to notice, to hold onto these small moments, we build a life of gratitude.
Read MoreBook Review: Stories of the Saints
/
Check out my book review on Carey Wallace’s Stories of the Saints for U.S. Catholic
Read MoreMemento Mori: Confronting Death to Live Well
/
The spiritual practice of memento mori confronts death, until we no longer find it frightening.
Read MoreEverything is Precious
/
There are moments when I am driving in my car or taking a walk and everything my eyes land on is beautiful and precious to me. These moments do not happen often, so when they do, I really notice.
Read MoreAll Souls’ Day: Reflections, traditions and prayers
/
If you were to walk past my parish on your dark and damp walk on the evening of Nov. 2 in years past, you would have heard the strains of Mozart’s Requiem drifting outward from the bronze doors of St. James Cathedral, Seattle.
Read MoreSecond Degree Joy
/
My mother loved the sound of the sea. Listening to its rhythm subdued memories that shifted in her heart and soothed pain she carried in the present. There weren’t many books on our shelves at home but there were bits of the sea: sand dollars, bleached white in the sun, starfish and coral with their neon colors and iridescent abalone, mementos from childhood vacations.
Read MoreJoan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking
/
Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking examines the year after her husband John dies of a heart attack. During this year, not only is she grieving the lost of her husband, but their only daughter is gravely ill. In this year of intense grief, Didion thinks to herself, John might return.
Read More