• The third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete Sunday” and is marked by the rose candle on the Advent wreath. Its name comes from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.Indeed, the Lord is near. This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, […]

  • A prayer for my Sweet 16 daughter, Lucy, who celebrates her birthday on the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 💙 Take heart, dear one. The world you were born into is loud, unkind, and crude. It will cast judgments on you and cancel you quickly. You are right to be afraid. Danger looms around each dark […]

  • St. Nicholas is in my “Saint Posse,” the name I’ve given the group of patron saints I feel especially close to and inspired by. It is thought that Nicholas may be the patron saint of more causes than any other saint, including children, sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, brewers, pawnbrokers, toymakers, unmarried people, students, and […]

  • Recently Jason wrote about God’s Gym, and I’d love to share my two cents on this same topic. Simply put: My husband is spiritually buff. He put the reps in, day after day after day after day. It’s a bare minimum of 60 minutes in his prayer chair, showing up often in the dark. No […]

  • The old joke states, “Never ask God for patience because He’ll give you opportunities to practice.” We laugh because it’s true. That’s the comedy. The tragedy is when we follow this terrible advice. I mean, it would be ridiculous to say, “Don’t tell a trainer you want to build muscle, because he might start asking […]

  • It was like driving through a sea of black ink. The trip back to our hotel from the Lamar Valley was harrowing. It being Yellowstone, the specter of animals hanging out on the road is always a possibility. We’d reveled in the wildlife of the North American Serengeti, but now the sun was gone and […]

  • This painting is called “Love is in the Air.” Our eyes draw us to the billowing steam from the geyser forming the shape of a heart. Indeed, it is a fitting representation of the way most of our society views love. Like the steam, it is a little mysterious, always changing, and dependent on which […]

  • Do elk have the choice of being a morning person? Are there some elk, hidden away in the woods, “sleeping in?” Some who stayed up late contemplating the universe, or were up all night partying with other woodland creatures? Alas, I assume that elk are wired the way they are wired, and they don’t have […]

  • Our family didn’t go to Yellowstone to see moose, specifically. We went for the scenery, and we did want to see as much wildlife as possible. One afternoon, we settled into a nice spot in the shadow of the Grand Tetons called Schwabacher Landing, and waited for moose. We’d heard the odds of seeing them […]

  • One of the most memorable lines in the movie The Princess Bride is, “As you wish.” At the start of the movie, we learn that the beautiful Buttercup has a farmhand named Westley, whom she bosses around. To each of her requests, Westley responds, “As you wish.”  Later on, when Buttercup pushes Dread Pirate Roberts […]