Devotions
Best Flowers, Best Oil, Best Friend
My dad sends my mom flowers every other week. The arrangements are simple, a dozen roses, some daisies, or her favorite, hydrangeas. But every other week, usually on Monday or...
Journey to Jerusalem with Jesus
Growing up in a Jewish home, I have indelible memories of our yearly Passover celebration—the intense preparations of removing all leaven, cleaning, shopping, and cooking the special meal, followed by...
Home in His Sanctuary
My five months in Europe were some of the loneliest of my life. I usually found myself alone at Mass each weekend in a different church than the week before,...
Challenges, Both Epic and Everyday
Today’s Psalm gives us this vivid passage: "The breakers of death surged round about me, the destroying floods overwhelmed me; The cords of the nether world enmeshed me, the snares...
Little and Big Yeses
I have a confession to make: my relationship with Mary has never been as great as I would like it to be. I think part of the reason for my...
To Have Holy Courage
Even though I was heartbroken a year ago when our local churches stopped offering public Masses, I was filled with gratitude that at least the doors were still open. I...
Hear My Cry, O Lord
I slammed the door and stomped to my car. If one more thing went wrong today, I was going to lose it! Then I saw it—a flat tire. I could...
Living in the Tension of Joy and Sorrow
The older I get, the less I claim to know. The world, with all its complicated brokenness, has undone so much of my certainty, and discerning how God is working...
If You Had Been There, Lord
Growing up, it was the most natural thing in the world that my dad’s first stop in the morning paper wasn’t the front page or sports section, but the obituaries....
Truth Hide and Seek
Ding! I groaned as I read the incoming text. “Did you happen to get to that letter of recommendation yet?” I mulled over my response as the half-finished letter sat...
Go to Joe!
As we continue to journey with the Church through this beautiful Year of Saint Joseph, we celebrate today the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The...
Never Abandoned in Our Sorrows
I headed for the bathroom, tears streaming from my eyes. I’d finished off the box of tissues, and toilet paper was all that was left to dry the mess of...
