Curled up with the book one evening, I listened to the sounds of my husband opening drawers and stirring pots in the kitchen. My soon to be 7-year-old, came over for a snuggle. He grasped the book from my hands as he curled into my lap. I had just started the first story and my son read to me in his little voice sounding not unlike a Peanuts character. I stroked his hair as he rubbed his foot against mine.
Read More'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel' is a somber sounding hymn, made more solemn in the darkened church, lit only with candles as we wait for Christ's birth.
Read MoreImagine the delight of my devout Native-Mexican mother-in-law when her sixth child, my husband, was born on December 12, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Read MoreHushed whispers echoed around me as tourists watched through the bars of Islip Chapel in Westminster Abbey where I knelt before an Anglican priest inside. Her words of prayer dropped on me like love.
Read MoreI love sharing where I have been finding inspiration. These posts might become a habit as I share some of the ins and outs of my daily life with you.
Read More“I will send down a shower of roses; I want to spend my Heaven doing good on earth.” St. Thérèse’s feast day is October 1st! Here’s what her faith story might mean for yours.
Read MoreIt is rare that I’ll remember a sweet memory associated with my father. Most of my memories of him are intertwined with fear and anxiety. And yet...
Read MoreGod and the maintenance man: my reflection on finding grace in an unexpected place.
Read MoreWhy I taught my kids to call our homeless neighbors 'Peace Men'
In these women and men I see my sister, myself, my God.
The night I found out my childhood friend, committed suicide, I listened to Iron & Wine’s song The Trapeze Swinger on repeat--for hours.
Read MoreEven as a Seattle Art Museum member it took me a few months to secure tickets for the Yayoi Kusama, Infinite Mirrors exhibit.
Did you get tickets? Have you gone yet? friends would ask.
The hype was palpable.
Read MoreWhen I started attending St. James Cathedral in Seattle 11 years ago, I said to a friend, “St. James? Which one is he again?”
“He’s one of the Sons of Thunder!” she said, a little too loudly with a sort of spirited superhero look on her face.
I nearly spit out the double tall vanilla latte I was sipping, doubling over with laughter. “Sons of Thunder?” I asked.
Read MoreWill he come to me when he doesn’t make the team or when his first crush turns him down? Will he look to me for comfort? I imagine a basketball player of a boy, my lap overflowing and know he will not draw to me in this same way for long. Yet I hope I can always provide a safe place for him to land, to renew.
Read MoreOlivia Laing describes loneliness as “difficult to confess; difficult too to categorize. Like depression, a state with which it often intersects, it can run deep in the fabric of a person, as much a part of one’s being as laughing easily or having red hair.” Laing’s words left me gasping, like a sucker punch to the gut.
Read MoreScripture says that at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enabled the Apostles to speak in other languages, previously unknown to them. Native speakers heard the stories of kindness, peace, love, and redemption in their own languages.
Read MoreFrom experience, I know I couldn’t stay home during Spring Break with my boys. I knew my husband had to work and wouldn’t’ be able to go anywhere with us, so I made it simple, returning to our happy place, Orcas Island.
Read MoreMy short snippet about POWER in Motherhood has been featured on Tribe Magazine. Read it here.
Read MoreWe gathered in the school gym across from the Cathedral as we do every year on this day. The children are giddy as we pick out our palm fronds to wave. Parishioners without the obstruction of pews, are socializing with friends and family. The gym is full of electricity as we look forward to joining the processional across the street and into the church
Read MoreWhen I returned from our vacation to Mexico City everyone asked me, "How was the food?" They asked because they knew the answer: It was amazing.
Read MoreAfter hearing a conversation between her two young sons, Shemaiah Gonzalez was led to reflect on the importance of not saying Alleluia during the Lenten Season
Read MoreThrives on moments where storytelling, art and faith collide.
I must pinch myself that I am part of this collection from Ignatius Press ! It comes out next month but is available for preorder now.
How easily we forget that we are, at every moment, shaped with care by a Creator. Artists, however—who know intimately the blood, sweat, and tears of the creative process—can help us sense how marvelous it is to be created: the patience, the detail, the joy. In this essential collection, thirty-one Christian artists from various disciplines, from music to poetry to film to sculpture, offer personal essays on the strange experience of following God’s lead by making beautiful things.
Goldberg is much more practical than many of the texts that I have read. She gives you much to hold onto.
If you know me, you know I love encounters with strangers. Here is one that left me encouraged.
First time writing for Catholic World Report. I have wanted to tell this story for a long time. Read my essay on the theology of the body as it pertains to our last moments here on earth.
If we keep our eyes on Jesus, small acts of service and love, like those lived out by St. Francis Xavier, will reap more rewards than we could ever imagine.