Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not/keep that vigil, how they must have wept/so utterly human, knowing this too/must be part of the story. — Mary Oliver One of the reasons I believe the gospels are true is the realistic portrayal of Christ's disciples. They leave everything–fishing nets, families, worldly wealth, everything–to … Continue reading The Utterly Human Peter: Lord, Save Me
In 1933, a 29-year-old French social worker moved to a communist suburb southeast of Paris to begin a remarkable undertaking. Madeleine Delbrêl and the women who joined her would live Gospel-infused lives in a working-class city dominated by Marxist ideology. Madeleine's life witnesses to the grace God can grant when souls commit themselves to love … Continue reading Engagement and Love: Madeleine Delbrêl’s Mission to Marxists and the “Ordinary People of the Streets”
A priest who served our parish a few years ago made an unforgettable request of us one Sunday morning. Father Stephen had often reminded us of our material blessings. A joyful Nigerian, he commented many times about how much, in the midst of all our possessions, we Americans complain. This, in a semi-arid mountain valley … Continue reading The Day I Left my Shoes at Church
Sarah Clarkson, in her incredibleThis Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness, describes her Holy Saturday during the Covid 19 lockdown of 2020. She’d been out for a walk on the downs near her English home, where in the first phase of the pandemic she was allowed only one walk a day. “The … Continue reading Halloween, Holy Time and our Longing for “Days that Are Different”
The pandemic's reality was slow to strike my relatively isolated, poverty-stricken mountain valley. For weeks we watched the worldwide spread of COVID-19 through phones, laptops and television screens, but our lives were going on as usual. In mid-March, everyone at my little school left for spring break and there still wasn't a case in our … Continue reading The Prisoner and the Pandemic: The Gift of the Right Read at the Right Time
"Simon, Simon, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat." I find those words some of the most troubling in all scripture. I know what happened next. The night of Christ's execution was the night of Peter's sifting. The overconfident man whose passion for Christ was so strong he proclaimed that … Continue reading Satan’s Sifter: Why Judging Others Is Always Wrong
She never shied away from the contentions of political engagement. She practiced what she preached, responding to the wretchedness of Depression-era poverty by co-founding a movement that established a newspaper, communal farms and "Houses of Hospitality" for the homeless. She had an abortion as a young woman but would ultimately regret it and defend human … Continue reading Toward Authenticity in the Cultural Moment: Three Lessons from Dorothy Day
It was almost 20 years ago when I entered the small-town high school gym and found a seat with a good view. The seniors waited in cap and gown for a slightly off-key band to begin "Pomp and Circumstance." And the banner above the platform proudly proclaimed, "The question isn't are we ready for the … Continue reading Beyond the Résumé and the Eulogy: Virtue, the Little Way
Camping and reading intertwine beautifully as pleasures. Many a backpack trip's rocks and ridges meet in my memory with the book I chose to carry. In my twenties, Middle Earth and Narnia leapt alive on hikes with my husband in the mountains west of Denver. Immersed in Tolkien or Lewis, it seemed Legolas or Tumnus … Continue reading The Lab Girl and the Contemplative: A Campsite Convergence
