Category: General

The symbolism is just too hard to resist.  My city center parish church was definitely adorned for Christmas —with an interlaced network of harsh, metallic interior scaffolding. On Christmas Eve the priest and the few intrepid parishioners who attended in person had to tuck themselves around and duck under galvanized bars that twisted throughout the…
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This year, we are living out salvation history. I cannot remember a time when our experience mirrored the Christmas story as well as this year does. We had our wanderings in the desert, our Advent, and now our fragile moment of joy. We move forward with hope knowing that there will be difficulties along the…
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I believe our Christmas joy this year is a silent one. It is more profound but less wondrous, more extensive but less exuberant, more calming but less soothing. It has a disquieting sadness at its core. Bells don’t jingle and ring as much as toll. Yet, with all its silence, we still recognize it as…
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How could we ignore the current kerfuffle about Dr. Jill Biden’s use of “Dr.,” which was prompted by a Wall Street Journal Op-ed by Joseph Epstein last weekend?  For 45 years, WOC has worked for priestly ministry by women to be recognized, validated, honored. What Mr. Epstein has done to Dr. Biden is done to…
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The poet, Christian Wiman, asks this question, and it is such an excellent one, especially now, especially at this time of year, and especially if we take it to a much higher sphere than just material desires.  When we can’t stop wanting, what we want is often really so painfully obvious: suffering, heartache, despair and…
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Gaudete Sunday is almost upon us. In the midst of waiting in ever-advancing darkness in this Advent season, we are given a liturgical breather. In the midst of our penitential preparation for the birth of a new life and a new way, we can take a moment to rejoice that it is coming and celebrate…
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Looking through the Catholic press this week, I see images of four churchwomen whose bodies were assaulted and raped before they were murdered forty years ago. Members of El Salvador’s National Guard killed Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, lay missionary Jean Donovan and Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford on Dec. 2, 1980. Pope Francis…
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I remember chastising my children (and, at times, husband), “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it,” of course in a tone of voice that completely nullified what I had just said forcing me to follow with, “And do as I say, not as I do!” (So humbling.) But the point of my…
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I’ll be dining alone this Thanksgiving– perhaps as many of you– for the first time in my life. Of course, it’s sad. I’m tempted to fill the next line with a series of tearful emojis, comically expressing what is – let’s face it a bit of heartbreak – okay, actually a large slice.  Still… Like…
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Sometimes you read something that is a sharp reality check. For me this week, it is a reflection by Molly Cahill in America: “An open letter to the bishops, from a young Catholic who’s only known a church in scandal.”  Could that be true? What does that do to her feelings about the church, her…
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