Need a useful prayer tip? Listen with the ear of your heart
Listen. Stop reading this article for a moment and just listen. What do you hear? Birds singing in the trees? Rain pattering on the window? A cooing baby? A barking…
What to know about being Catholic on the Church’s birthday
The Easter season concludes with the feast of Pentecost, often referred to as the birthday of the Church. It was on Pentecost that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles,…
Getting to know God in the Catechism
Back in the fall, I started the Catechism and Bible in a year reading plans. Well, let’s say I started the “Catechism and Bible in however long it takes a…
How to cultivate the routines that are essential to living the Faith
Sometimes when I’m at work, my fingers poised over the keyboard to write another email, I daydream of leaving it all behind. I’d get in a camper with my husband…
Ladies, we are made to be resilient like Mary
All Catholics, particularly Catholic women, are called to emulate Mary. In his “Letter to Women,” Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The Church sees in Mary the highest expression of…
When there is nothing left to say, say ‘Jesus’
My 1-year-old son has been practicing some new words recently. He loves to look around the house and point and name people and things: “Nana,” “Papa,” “Dada,”’ “Mama,” “Kitty,” “Nana.”…
How to find joy in Easter when you feel forgotten by Jesus
It’s Easter. But maybe it doesn’t feel like Easter to you. Maybe you’re still in your own Gethsemane, weeping, feeling alone in your agony. Maybe you’re still on the cross,…
Carrying the cross: A reflection on suffering
Suffering. Every human being experiences it at some point in this life. Rich or poor, old or young, male or female, it makes no exceptions. Grief, disease, anxiety, guilt, hunger…
Our greatest act of worship is returning the gift of the Cross
What do you get the person who has everything? God is clear throughout the Scriptures that the act of giving gifts is central to his relationship with us. From manna…
It’s time to keep watch with Our Lord
“So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?” (Mt 26:40). For many years after my conversion, I never went to Eucharistic adoration. For me, it was shrouded…