• Do you know the underrated villain of the Christmas story? No, not King Herod. He’s definitely the worst, but he also hogs the limelight. I’m referring to the innkeeper. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for […]

  • The second week of Advent this year is a BIG one for Mother Mary! 💙 Go Team Mary! 💙 We celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Monday (Lucys’ birthday!), Our Lady of Guadalupe on Thursday (my MIL’s birthday), and a day that I’m just starting to learn more about and LOVE, Our Lady […]

  • Let’s talk about jigs. Not the lively dance with leaping movements, but rather the device for guiding a tool or for holding machine work in place.  The older I get, the more I appreciate that the Church has liturgical seasons. I’ve come to think of them as jigs that keep us on track spiritually. And this world has no […]

  • You don’t need to put a gift in a box and wrap it in fancy paper for it to be a gift. It’s still a thoughtful and generous gesture of love or appreciation. But the wrappings add mystery, magic, and a key ingredient that makes it truly special: anticipation. Anticipation is one of two things we’ve […]

  • 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 […]