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Inspiration, Not Frustration
The Church designed Advent for inspiration, but often December is a time for frustration. Tangled strings of lights, tilting trees, off-key concert pieces, burnt cookies, and long lines at the cashier cause more than one frustrated “Bah! Humbug!” Someone told me that she starts Advent in mid-November regardless of the real date. The extra two…
Read MoreEnergizing Our World with Love
Advent readings in Isaiah abound in nature images. “Streams will burst forth in the desert.” “The burning sands will become pools.” “I will set in the wasteland the cypress.” And why? “That all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has…
Read MoreThe Same Path
A family of four walked the red trail ahead of me. I passed the baby carriage and the mother who told me the baby was a boy. Ahead raced a father and a little boy about three years old. As I caught up to these two, I said to the boy, “In a couple years…
Read MoreAccompaniment is Musical Welcome
I am blessed with the ability to play piano, a gift my family gave me. My older sister taught me the basics, and eventually my parents paid for lessons. I have not become a “real” musician, for I have never had the chance to study theory or even a college course beyond the two basic…
Read MoreProvince Feast
We Sisters of Notre Dame have a custom that each province celebrates a special feast, usually one of Mary: Immaculate Heart of Mary for Covington, Our Lady of Good Counsel Indonesia, the Visitation in India, and so on. We in Toledo, as well as the Sisters in Tegelen, celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 8.…
Read More‘Tis the Season of Predictability–or Not
Whether Hallmark movies and mysteries or round-the-clock Christmas programs, you can be sure to find a movie that’s predictable. A chance meeting leads to living happily-ever-after. Persons in grief or depression have bright eyes and big smiles by the last two minutes of the program. Yet the first Christmas was anything but predictable. A virgin…
Read MoreLove at the Roots
With a few mild days of autumn left, I have cleared the yard of dead vegetation by cutting back perennials. Whatever was decaying or dead came up easily. The living part—the roots—remained in the ground, the energy tucked in and dormant until spring. All creation shares the energy, the energy of the Big Bang, the…
Read MoreHigh-five Reconciliation
Recently second-graders made First Reconciliation. When Father raised his hand in absolution above a boy’s head, the boy raised his hand and gave Father a high-five. Although amusing, it made sense that the ritual of receiving God’s forgiveness deserves a high-five.
Read MoreAn Aunt’s Funeral
My aunt’s funeral landed on Friday the 13th. It was funny that no one in my huge relationship even mentioned the inauspicious timing. The perfect temperature and sun may have been part of the reason. And no one could have wished a better life for this 95-year woman who was always out and about and…
Read MoreEmptying Ourselves to be Filled with the Power to Suffer with Others
Has there been even one evening over the past few weeks that we watched the evening news without sorrow and empathy for the suffering of thousands throughout the world? Devastating natural disasters and violence make us feel helpless. Walter Brueggemann writes in The Bible Makes Sense: “The Godness of God does not consist in his…
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