What’s New

I've been spending time with Henri Nouwen lately.  Yes, I know he’s dead but as he himself says, “Every time I read the life of a saint I experience a powerful call to be as loving and devoted as that holy one of God was in life…not just canonized saints that call us...

Sometimes, when working one-on-one with a prisoner or an immigrant or an unlettered, needy person, one gets a sense of... what is it...? Beneficence, charity, giving of oneself, which comes pretty close to a feeling of superiority. “I have something you need, so I...

Hopeful persons are not necessarily full of hope, but they have an orientation towards life, and all that is life-giving. Most of us, if we stop to consider for a moment, are hopeful, no matter how often we are distressed by continual outpourings of “bad news” in the...

by Louise Sandberg I am really loving the world of Gregory ”G” Boyle in his book Tattoos on the Heart. I love the way he loves the gang members and their families, how he calls them "my child," "my son," "my daughter," “mijo.” I have shared the same thing with the...

Sometimes getting away from home helps us realize what’s going on at home. A trip to the Windy City—Chicago—unexpectedly served this purpose. It was a trip of planes, trains and automobiles and a whole lot of wind and snow. My daughters and I, plus a very young...

Most of us associate the season of spring with fresh growth in plants, and the period of time that follows winter when the days grow apparently longer and brighter. Some do not readily associate this pleasing association of spring with the liturgical season of Lent....

In the pathways of sadness, sweetest lilies may grow: Let us sow seeds of gladness- let the joy overflow. - Eliza E. Hewitt   An insightful chapter by Fr. Greg Boyle in Tattoos on the Heart is on "gladness."  The stories he shares bring the deep meaning of...

In February, winter gifted us with an especially powerful snowstorm dropping fourteen inches in one day. At twilight, I put on some snowshoes and walked around the property. It was utterly quiet. At first I only heard the crunching of the snowshoes. Then a chickadee...