Living Abundantly
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When Easter Doesn’t Feel like Easter
I have spent far too much of my time lately lamenting many things – no mass, no confession, no perpetual adoration. I feel, like many others, spiritually parched and wishing for some sense of normality again. I wish it would feel like Holy Week. I wish Easter would feel like Easter with celebrating at mass, with family, fun and good food. But this has left me thinking and praying a lot. What do we do when Easter doesn’t feel like Easter? When the holiest week of the year feels anything but the holiest week of the year? Do we “skip” it? Pretend it didn’t happen this year and chalk it…
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Beauty from the Ashes
This time last year I was reeling from a miscarriage, still actively grieving. I was also struggling to come to terms with the loss of my job in youth ministry. Lent felt very much like the desert last year. Time can be a beautiful thing though. It offers some distance, healing, and much needed perspective. Standing here, a full year later offers many glimmers of hope and beauty. I have settled into the rhythm of being a stay at home mom with Lucy, who truly is a light. And now we are expecting again, after nearly a year of trying. Beauty from the ashes. But then life throws a wrench…
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Unmet Expectations
Let’s get real for a moment and talk about unmet expectations. We all have hopes and dreams for how our life should be, but if you’re a normal human being, from time to time what you think your life should be and what it is simply don’t match up. A solution to this problem could be to live without expectations. But it’s hard to live without expectations, though one could argue this brings a level of peace and contentment to our lives. When we drop the expectations, we can be open to receive whatever happens, good or bad. In my experience though, this is very hard to do. I find myself…
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Mary’s Poverty
We all have areas of poverty in our lives. These are areas where we seem to lack something. Areas of deep emptiness and deep suffering. If you need help identifying these areas in your life, consider one where you feel as though you have no control. If you feel out of control, you are likely suffering deeply in this area. This is an area of poverty for you. This is also an area of great promise and potential. Why? Because God works most fully in and through our nothingness. Being in a position of need reminds us of who we are before God – beggars. It reminds me of a…
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Run with the Saints
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2 This past summer, I decided I needed to start running again. It was high time to get back in shape. When I lived in Des Moines, I did a fair amount of running, doing some 5k races and even a 20k and half marathon. While running is still not my sport of choice, I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after…
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5 Tips to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
In trying to live fully and joyfully, one big struggle that I constantly encounter is comparison. Male or female, married or single, student or worker, this struggle doesn’t seem to discriminate. At every stage of my own life, I have struggled with comparing myself to others. In college, I always wished to be one of the girls with a boyfriend who would get engaged senior year and married soon after college. After college, I still struggled with being single when everyone around me seemed to be getting married and having kids. Even now, comparing myself to other moms is very real. The truth is, the seasons of life have changed over…
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O, Death, Where is Thy Sting?
When I was in college, noon mass on Fridays was typically celebrated by Fr. James Albers (now Abbot). At the end of mass, we would always sing The Ultima, a Benedictine prayer asking Mary to intercede for us that we may have a happy death. Fr. James would always remind us to keep death before our eyes, not in a morbid sense, but to remember the hope and glory before us in eternal life with Jesus. Those words have been on my mind a lot lately. Do you keep death before your eyes? Do you keep the end in mind, that you may not forget the goal of this earthly…
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What’s essential?
After a youth group meeting, a student who had been absent most of the year came up to me and apologized. This student apologized for not being there, but was ready to jump back into meetings now that their other activities were over. And then this person said something that I’ve never quite forgotten. “Mrs. Peiffer, I have a lot of priorities, and this is definitely still one of my top priorities.” Hold that thought… “This is definitely still one of my top priorities.” What’s a priority? In the dictionary, priority means “the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important.” This student was absent for most of…
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New Beginnings
See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19 I can vividly remember the anticipation of the first day of school each year. Even in grade school I can remember the excitement of seeing friends and classmates after a long absence. I can remember the desire to look a little different than the year before. Since I grew up going to school in polos and plaids, looking fresh meant a new haircut, fun shoes, a cool backpack, or the most awesome Lisa Frank folder (do they still make those?!), or maybe if you were lucky, growing an inch or two over the…
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Getting Away
Jesus got away. When you read through the Gospels, it seems like he was constantly going away to quiet, solitary places by himself to pray. It was how he fed his soul, his ministry. He needed to get away from the demands of daily life to pray and be connected to his source, his heavenly Father. “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:35 “…he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.” Luke 6:12 We are no different. In our seeking to live abundantly, it’s so important to get away from…