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Crying Out
Much of our lives is anxious waiting. It might be waiting to start a new job or for a baby to be born or for a school semester to end. For some it’s a waiting in hope: for a cancer treatment to work....
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Lenten Practices
Lent is always a funny time. For some it becomes a kind of second-chance for new year’s resolutions. For others it’s a chance to give up sweets or set a goal to lose weight or exercise more. One of my...
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Giving up Catholicism for Lent?
Last Lent you may have seen Stephen Colbert’s bit on Ash Wednesday (see the video at the bottom). The broadcast opens on Colbert with ashes on his forehead. “The ash on my forehead is a Christian...
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Open up!
A couple Sundays ago I went with a friend to her non-denominational church. They always have great music and good sermons. Before the pastor began to preach, a lady went to the podium to talk about the...
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Oops, I’m Human
As Christians human beings, we are very afraid of making mistakes. We can become perfectionists and not readily admit to it. But mistakes make us better, don’t they? They teach us what works and what...
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An Ignatian Reflection on Palm Sunday
Every year we celebrate Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. It celebrates Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the crowds buzzing with excitement. All four gospels have a Palm Sunday account....
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Grace from Suffering
A year ago I was working as a chaplain at Georgetown University Hospital. It forced me to grapple with hard questions around suffering and the mystery of life. I recently wrote a reflection on how we...
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Broken and Poured Out
A couple weeks ago Loyola Press offered a 3-Minute Retreat on the following verse of scripture: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break,...
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My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
On this Good Friday, we recall Jesus’ words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” from Psalm 22, which foretells Christ’s crucifixion. The Bible just has this one line, but chances are Jesus...
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Command: Activate
There’s something exciting about newness, isn’t there? I just had a major life change and have been transitioning into a new job and life situation. It’s exciting. I could have just sat around but then...
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Can brokenness make us whole?
It’s a ways past the presidential elections of November and the president has already been sworn in for another term, but as we approach Lent and begin to consider our sinfulness, become more...
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The Bishop with the Candlesticks
Reading: 2 Cor 5:17-21; Luke 15:1ff Lent offers us a unique gift to view the Christian story in its deepest sense. For this year’s Fourth Sunday of Lent the lectionary presents readings that couldn’t...
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Serving With Only What You Have
This is a guest post by Catherine Brunell. It is Hank’s week in our house. This is a Lenten tradition borrowed from a childhood friend. Each member of her family got a week during the season where...
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How can I die peacefully?
With Lent beginning this week perhaps it’s a good time to talk about death in the light of life. Author and doctor Rachel Naomi Remen tells a story of a patient who said she was afraid that she...
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The Penance of Noticing
Work can be a daily ascetical practice In the past I have offered some creative ways of approaching the Lenten “fast”. In addition to giving up something, we often hear the alternative of taking...
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The Suppression & Restoration of the Jesuits
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the Society of Jesus. For 41 years the Jesuits were in the darkness of suppression. Its story of apparent death and ultimate resurrection...
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Daily Dying and Rising
Lent is nearing its end and this week we enter the solemn mystery of Holy Week followed by the exuberant joy of the Easter resurrection. In those few days on which the Lent and Easter season pivot we...
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Purple Rain: Ash Wednesday
To listen to this week’s meditation, click play. “[Lent is] particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as...
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Grittiness is Next to Godliness: An Ash Wednesday Reflection
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Ash Wednesday liturgy to me is the human interaction that occurs when one person reaches out and marks another’s forehead with a cross of ashes. The gentle...
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Purple Rain: 1st Sunday of Lent
To listen to this week’s meditation, click play. “Baptism places into the world a community of displaced people.” – Maxwell Johnson 1 Peter 3:18-22 Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous...
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