Exactly a year ago, I was back at work for the first day since my pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome. Today I’m back at work for the first day since my mother’s funeral. Her journey through the last few weeks of her life was filled with anxiety and struggle. I had prayed for her last year in Italy. I...
Vatican II opened on my first birthday, October 11, 1962. So tomorrow I turn 51 and the Church celebrates the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Council. I grew up with the changes. My mom had been in study groups at our parish for years, and they began learning about the Council almost immediately. And...
“Catholics get it. Catholics get the sacraments.” This was the message of the homily I heard this past Sunday. Sacraments connect the things of God with the things of earth. Catholicism isn’t a heady, intellectual faith. It’s woven into our lives, experienced with all of our...
My mom is dying. It’s not cancer, a heart attack, a stroke; it’s not anything overtly physical. It might be Parkinson’s. It might be depression. It might be a strange sort of emotional dementia. It’s hard on her and it’s hard on us. She wants to die. We want her to find peace.
The prayer I most...
Last Saturday, the Perseid meteor shower was at its peak. Lying in the backyard right around midnight, I struggled with needing to focus on one piece of the sky. I was constantly tempted to look someplace else, that maybe the next falling star would be over here, or over there, or wait, maybe I have a better...
