Contemplations on Service & Spirituality
Six Observations that Bring Hope – Rebecca Ruiz
Looking to the Upper Room to Make Sense of our Times: Six Observations that Bring Hope as we Journey toward Pentecost IVC…
Stand and Wait – Caroline Park
Stand and Wait Caroline Park is a vocalist, pianist, violinist and guitar player. She performs folk, jazz, and other genres with her quartet, The Caroline Park Quartet, and enjoys songwriting and arranging music. On a different note...she is a fisheries attorney with...
Waiting for Pentecost: The Key to the Next Door – Rev. Kevin Burke, SJ
We ponder Pentecost, the coming of Spirit, in a time of global pandemic, of Eucharistic hunger and fasting. The days of waiting between Ascension and Pentecost recall “Holy Saturday.” That day of silence between the cry from the cross and the cry of Resurrection...
The Stone Which the Builders Rejected… – Barbara J. Menard
“The Stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…" One of the blessings of the “Stay-At-Home-Order” or “Sheltering-in- Place” is the fact that each day is open-ended. I don’t need to hurry up to get ready to drive to work because I am working from...
Pentecost during Pandemic: A Reflection on Invitations and Challenges – Kathy Coffey-Guenther, Ph.D
While our Old and New Testament readings can invite our own musings and imaginings of invasions by locusts, blight, and varying plagues, I doubt that many of us ever imagined that we would actually be part of this global reality in contemporary times. And as our...
Shelter Me – Fr. Michael Joncas
The following is an excerpt from The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The full article can be found here. Father Michael Joncas, a prolific liturgical composer whose best-known hymns include “On Eagles’ Wings,”...
In the Upper Room of our Quarantine – Christine Eberle
In the Upper Room of Our Quarantine My heart goes out to the people in that upper room in the first chapter of Acts. Once upon a time, they had been capable fishermen, efficient tax collectors, competent homemakers, and women of means. After meeting Jesus and being...
Ignatian Spirituality in the Time of Pandemic – Fr. James Martin, SJ
James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, member of IVC's National Advisory Council, editor at large of America, consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication and the author of many books including Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide and, most...
Solace in a Time of Isolation – Janet Ruffing RSM
Solace in a Time of Isolation The Poet David Whyte writes: “Solace is not an evasion, nor a cure for our suffering, nor a made-up state of mind. Solace is a direct seeing and participation; a celebration of the beautiful coming and going, appearance and disappearance...