It’s Already Ours

What do you long for? More time?  More money? A change in habits or attitudes? Whatever you long for, “If we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire” (Simone Weil). God puts into our hearts the desires that will help us become the person we are meant to be,…

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Digging for Good

Our unusually warm and wet winter may set our sights on spring much earlier this year. Gardeners are becoming impatient to clear the ground. George B. Shaw claimed “The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.” So maybe those who are saying “Isn’t it Lent yet?” are…

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Who Shall I Be Today?

“Who shall I be today? The answer is more obvious than the question. Of course I’m going to be me. Me yesterday, me today, me forever. But if I were to start my day with the question “Who shall I be today?” I’d have to start with a decision bigger than Honey Nut Cheerios or…

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Subtle Disguise

Ronald Rolheiser’s book Sacred Fire is written for “mature disciples.” In one section he discusses “the religious faults of mature disciples.” Rolheiser claims that mature disciples find the seven capital sins disappearing from their lives; however, these “seven deadly sins” may just be in a subtler guise. He writes that pride in a mature disciple…

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A Salute to Our Ursuline Sisters

Today is the feast of St. Angela Merici, the foundress of the Ursuline Sisters. We Sisters of Notre Dame have close connections with the Ursuline Sisters here in Toledo. These sisters and their employees have taken care of our older Sisters with much love for several years. Some Ursuline Sisters, such as Sister Stephanie and…

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Did Jesus Ever Ask “Who Me?”

Between Christmas and Lent the little space of Ordinary Time gives us stories of Jesus’ boyhood and young adulthood. Jesus grows up.  And Jesus goes out—away from the carpenter shop, away from his home town. He heard a call or he felt growing pains or maybe his mother said, “It’s time.” Whatever it was Jesus,…

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Get Busy Living

Many parishes distributed the book Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly as Christmas presents. The title and its cover message “why we sabotage ourselves” stop us in our tracks. Who would resist happiness?  Who would sabotage themselves? Yet Kelly writes almost two hundred pages to showhow we really do resist happiness. Each chapter proposes a remedy.…

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The Thin Veil

Recently I was told this true story.  The husband had died in early December. Christmas was a sad time for the bereaved wife, children, and grandchildren. His presence was felt, though, when the wife gave her children and grandchildren pillows made from his shirts. Each had a pocket containing a message reflecting what Dad or…

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Anointed One of God

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit. That Jesus of Nazareth really was the Anointed One of God was the earliest profession of faith. To be a Christian, one had to believe that Jesus was the Messiah or the Christ (both terms meaning “anointed one”).  The earliest believers in Jesus of Nazareth as…

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Happy Birthday, Sister Maria Ignatia Kühling!

Sister Maria Ignatia (Lisette Kühling) is the co-foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, the faithful friend and co-teacher of Sister Maria Aloysia Wolbring. It is interesting that their birth dates are only one day apart. Of Sister Maria Ignatia it is written “Everything reminded her of God and spoke to her of God’s goodness.” …

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