There is an audible gasp as each person walks into the room. Conversations started are now cut off. Footsteps soften. Although it is not a church, there is a sense of reverence in this space. In this room there is sanctuary.
Read MoreWhat if we weren’t intimidated by the task of living with full-throated joy?
Read MoreOne morning, when I returned to my car after my workout, the parking attendant told me he was taking a walk in his neighborhood and saw a building with James’s name on it. “Is it our James?” he asked. Yes, it is. I told him a story James told me long ago. He was an alcoholic, made a mess out of everything, and found himself in prison, at rock bottom. It was there in prison, as he got clean, that he could hear God’s voice more clearly. He knew he was loved by God, and he wanted others to know that love.
Read MoreRhymes with papaya. This is what I tell strangers when they ask how to pronounce my name. I know my name is different. It is difficult to remember. I tell people that it does not hurt my feelings if you ask for the 2nd, 10th or 100th time.
Read MoreI cringe now even thinking of it. Even the seconds after I asked, I cringed inside. Because how could I have cheapened the moment like that?
I was really excited to meet him. I wanted to share the moment online and with a friend who respects him too.
And snap.
I ruined it all.
Read MoreThank you to all the support I have received lately. Consider supporting me with a free or paid subscription to my Substack, Undaunted Joy, where I explore Christ's presence through Joy in the world--and ultimately how Joy is an act of Defiance in the face of evil. Paid Subscriptions pay my bills.
Read MoreAs my sister Sara Jaimes says, Go Spread your Seeds of Discontent somewhere else!
My latest for Ignatian Spirituality on having a cheerful heart.
I was asked to speak on the Jason Rantz show about how I lost my column at NW Catholic when I spoke up against Gender Ideology being taught at my kids Catholic Prek-8th grade.
Read MoreMy personal essay for Our Sunday Visitor on being the hands and feet of Christ.
Read MoreGrateful to National Catholic Register for publishing the my personal essay on explaining the theology of the body to my sons.
‘Man is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day’ (Catechism 364)
Read MoreFinding freedom in a crowded house. My latest for Everyday Ignatian.
Read MoreSomething happens when you deprive yourself of comforts voluntarily, whether in fasting, abstaining, or finding yourself in an old monastery in the middle of the English countryside. With only two meals a day, a chill I couldn’t shake, lack of internet and cell service, something happened in that space which is usually cloaked by comfort. Call it magic or mystery but the words of the liturgy I heard several times a day became part of my cadence, placing me in some sort of liminal space; a space between this world and the one we cannot usually see.
Read MoreHave you ever heard quiet so loud you could hear your stomach digesting? Or been in a room so still you could hear the electricity buzzing through the wiring?
Read MoreAs we make our way through Lent, we act against the temptation to assume all forty of these days must be gloomy. In fact, in the Lenten sparsity, we find beauty and hope — and these poems and songs will point to exactly that.
Read MoreMy latest for Ignatian Spirituality on learning to be fearless
Read MoreThe books I read in January. These are all very short books. Less than 200 pages.
Find your next read.
Read MoreForgiveness can be painful. But forgiveness marks a life transformed by Jesus and a relationship with our Savior. Join us as we explore what scripture says about forgiveness and hear stories of that transformative love of redemption.
Join me at St Patrick’s Church
Read MoreHow do you explain this great mystery in just a few minutes or words? Or try to convey to these teenagers why sex is for the confines of marriage when the rest of the world tells them otherwise?
This reflection for Ignatian Spirituality has been published while I've been gone. Read the background on all this JOY!
Read MoreThrives on moments where storytelling, art and faith collide.
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.
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.
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.