-
First Sunday of Advent: Bearing Life into the World
Nine months pregnant. Aching back and feet. Exhaustion. And on top of it, traveling by donkey for three whole days in order to fulfill a command from a far-off governor to count the inhabitants of Bethlehem. Yet – Mary never claimed exemption because of her circumstances. I probably would have tried to claim exemption. I have claimed an exemption for jury duty for much less than three days on a donkey at my due date. Why didn’t she refuse to go or claim an exemption? Why didn’t she make it easier for herself? Caryll Houselander puts it in hauntingly simple terms: “...Mary never claimed exemption from the common lot, from…
-
May You Find the Light in the Darkness
We found ourselves in the emergency room with our six week old. Our house was yet another casualty of RSV this season, and despite our best efforts to protect our six week old from it, we found ourselves rushing him to the hospital because we were concerned by his breathing that night. After getting him evaluated, he was given oxygen and his body found some rest and relief. And they wanted to admit him. An outcome I honestly wasn’t expecting when we took him in. As we sat in our dimmed room waiting for a hospital bed to be prepared for us, I contemplated the darkness of that moment. The…
-
Learning to Surrender
Who likes to be in control? To plan? To know the next steps? Or at least choose those next steps? I do! But life has a tendency to get in the way. It feels like so often we are thrown into unwelcome circumstances and situations that we would never have chosen for ourselves. Back in February we found out we were expecting again. Happy news, certainly. After having had a miscarriage in the past, it always comes with certain levels of fear and anxiety. Around eight weeks pregnant, feeling sick as ever, I was able to go on a unique retreat. It was a beautiful and peaceful (and deeply nauseating)…
-
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.…
-
Embrace Your Suffering
This has been an exhausting year full of suffering for so many. Our world is as divisive as ever. There are so many things to capture our attention and upset our peace. And in the time between writing and posting this, the world has been flipped upside down with war in Ukraine. Winter brings its own host of issues with cold weather, short days, and illness. Lots of illness this year. And regardless of what is going on in the world around us, our own lives carry on as usual, with all of its demands and stresses. It can feel overwhelming. For our family, illness has been rampant this winter,…
-
A Parade of Priests: Thank you for being there.
When my dad was in the hospital, the priests kept coming in. The nurses were perplexed as to why there was a seeming parade of priests in and out of my dad’s hospital room. My mom let them know he’s the catholic bookstore owner in town. His network is large and he knows quite a lot of people and priests. And let me tell you, they showed up, and it was a beautiful witness. Friday On Friday, Fr. Eric Powell, our pastor, showed up to anoint him. He sat with my mom for some time as well. He likened this time to keeping vigil, a Holy Saturday of sorts. After…
-
My Little Cloister
The cloister of Carmel is called by Claire Dwyer, author of This Present Paradise, “an inheritance of silence and solitude and perpetual prayer” and is one of many paths to holiness. Great saints and Doctors of the Church have arisen from this tradition. St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, and the somewhat lesser known St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, to name a few. Family life is very different. And though many great saints have arisen from the tradition of silence and solitude, many great saints have arisen also from the great tradition of noise and chaos, of love and laughter, otherwise known as…
-
The Hidden Holiness of Parenthood
Do you ever feel like being a parent isn’t “holy”? Some days I’m left feeling the monotony of parenthood. Other days I’m left feeling inadequate. Still, some days I feel as though I failed my children, whether it’s because I lost my temper again or spent too much time looking at my phone. Raise your hand if you can relate. When I was discerning back in college (and for several years after), I couldn’t shake the idea that being a religious sister was the holier option. Religious sisters get time built into their schedule every single day for mass, prayer, silence, and yet still more prayer and time to be…
-
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…
-
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…