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The World is Thy Ship and Not Thy Home
After college, I moved to a new city with a new job and a new car. I didn’t know too many people, but I made good friends and found new roommates. The trouble was each time I found a new roommate, they would inevitably get engaged soon after and usually after about a year of living together, they’d move out and get married. Thus forcing me to repeat the process of finding a new roommate and/or a new place to live. I wasn’t in a financial position to afford rent without someone to split it with. I longed deeply for stability and permanence, and, quite frankly, to find my vocation.…
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Follow Me
This daily reading reflection was originally written for the Nativity Parish blog for Friday, May 29, 2020. You can read the corresponding mass readings here. Follow me. These words echo through my heart whenever I read this Gospel. But before Jesus’ command to follow him, we see a divine display of mercy, a threefold opportunity for Peter to heal and restore his threefold denial of Jesus. An exhortation for Peter to become the next Shepherd of the church on earth. A foretelling of the manner in which he would lay down his life in the ultimate sacrifice for the Kingdom. And finally, the call to action. Follow me. Isn’t this…
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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…