Finding and Keeping Faith During a Pandemic
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I wrote about finding encouragement during the pandemic from St. Paul and some ways to keep connected to Christ during a pandemic.
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Finding Meaning in Laundry and Dishes
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I have spent more time in my house this year than any other. I know you have too.
Because I have been in my house so many hours, days, weeks, months, my life seems to be all about laundry, dishes, vacuuming and cleaning that little area right around the base of the toilet.
Read MoreThe Moment of Inhale
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Caravaggio’s art is incomplete without our gaze, the painted narrative waits for our eyes to unravel it. He needs us, the viewers, for the mystery in his paintings to be revealed. As his hues and figures set the stage for a narrative already in motion, Caravaggio allows the viewer to interrupt a story in progress, beholding the precise moment that the narrative curves from ordinary to astonishing."
Read MoreTrumpet Joy
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My ten-year-old plays the trumpet. I’m not just saying this because I’m his mother or because we have the same soul-searching eyes and fiery tempers, but this kid can play. I mean, he swings. He blows, bounces, and blips like he was born in the wrong decade.
Read MoreFind God everywhere with writer Brian Doyle
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Absolutely honored to write about my hero and favorite writer, Brian Doyle for U.S. Catholic Magazine! In Doyle I found a kindred spirit. Like me, he found God in the ordinary...well everywhere really. His words breathed life into my faith.
Summer Prayer
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Will we look back at this time with nostalgia? Will we be reminded of the time we learned to be our true selves, the ones you created us to be? Will we remember this was the beginning of something beautiful or sacred?
Read MoreThe Hope of Sidewalk Victory Gardens
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“I love the sheer audacity of these gardens. In the midst of a global pandemic and civil unrest, there are people who endeavor to thrive.”
Read MoreIn Times of Suffering, God's Love Strengthens Us
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My latest column for Northwest Catholic . St Paul wrote that nothing can separate us from the love of God. These words for a Roman community facing oppression connected with me as 15 year old goth wannabe and speak to me now in our new found isolation and turmoil.
Read MorePicture This: Using Art As a Path to the Holy Spirit
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Today I sit with artist Andrew Wyeth’s “Wind From the Sea”…I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths to quiet my heart and mind. I invite God to speak to me through the picture.”
Read MoreShow and Tell
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Your childhood sounds magical.
It was not. My childhood was filled with fear and want. Love dissipated like morning fog in the afternoon sun.
Looking at shadow boxes with my son, I know his childhood is magical. I created the world he was placed in.
Read MorePatience: Catholics are people who wait — and people who love
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We are waiting. Waiting for what? We don’t really know.
We used to wait in line, on hold, in traffic. We waited with anticipation for dinner with friends, our cousin’s wedding or that big vacation. Now, waiting for a routine cleaning at the dentist office sounds like a luxury.
Read MoreResisting the Spirit of Fear
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I know how easy it is for me to fall back on fear. It’s my default. Wired in me. If I look away from Christ for a second, I am lost, and all I can hear are voices telling me lies. I must remind myself of what is true and not to give in to fear.
Read MoreBook Review: Spiritual Conversations with Children
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I can now add reviewer to my resume.
Check out my book review on Spiritual Conversations with Children: Listening to God Together by Lacy Finn Borgo for U.S. Catholic Magazine
Read MoreQuarantine Notes: Inside/Outside
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These quarantine notes, called Inside/Outside were inspired by the Japanese poetic form Haibun.
Stripped down to its essentials, Haibun uses detached language, no personal pronouns and concentrates in sensory details.
The Body Of Christ Speaks: Where Did You Find Joy Today?
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I had so much fun writing this piece and then making this video for my parish, St James Cathedral in Seattle. I hope you enjoy it just as much. And let me know, where did you find joy?
Read MoreJohn Singleton Copley's The Ascension
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I was asked to make a video reflection on John Singleton Copley’s painting The Ascension for Loyola Press’s Waiting for the Spirit retreat.
Read MoreSt. Joan of Arc's mission as portrayed by artist Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel
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Wrote about Joan of Arc with Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel’s exquisite panels as illustrations to her life story.
Read MoreVirginia Woolf's "I am Christina Rossetti"
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It is not only royalty who are allowed to use the royal “we” when addressing the masses, commoners are allowed too, especially if you are literary royalty such as Virginia Woolf. Woolf uses the royal “we” in her point of view right from the start in her essay, “ I am Christina Rossetti.”
Read MoreBlessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
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The first time Mary became part of my faith, I was a sleep-deprived new mother. I hadn’t grown up Catholic and converted just a year before my son joined our family. As I nursed him in a darkened room, in the middle of the night, I realized that Mary had fed Jesus just like this. I found this comforting as I looked down at my son, his long eyelashes wet with tears from calling to me in the dark, and prayed that he too would know her Son.
Read MoreReal presence is the heart of Catholicism
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I was completely honored to be asked by U.S. Catholic magazine to write the companion essay for their reader survey on being Catholic in the US.
Read how the Eucharist connects us, not only to Christ, but to each other, locally, globally and through the span of history.
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I always come to this prayer time with auspicious expectations. I know God is going to show up. I just don’t know how. I am always surprised how he does.