Down with Distractions During Prayer
Apparently our brains have more than one track. Maybe as you’re praying the rosary, you’re planning what you’ll have for dinner and before you know it, you’ve prayed the closing prayer. Maybe you’re reading a prayer, like the Divine Office, and your eyes are following the words, but when you’re finished, you don’t know what […]
Christmas Greetings: God’s Love Gift
May you have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! During these days of Christmas you might ponder this: God so loved me that he sent his only Son so that I may not perish but have eternal life. (adapted from John 3:16) My gift to you … https://binged.it/2EFSIxn
Kindness Is Contagious
Three times this week kindness has been the topic of a homily I heard or a reflection I read. I’m taking this as a sign that I should write about it. Besides, the world sorely needs this virtue today. My community has created the decal pictured here to promote kindness. Aristotle defined kindness: “Helpfulness towards […]
Communities: From the Trinity to Us
In a few days, I will be moving to an apartment building where I will live with about forty Sisters of Notre Dame and a growing number of laypeople. We will form a community that will be a new experience for me. I’ve lived with large and small groups of Sisters, I’ve lived alone, and […]
Looking Forward to a Heavenly Home
I’m in the throes of moving from a large house to an apartment in Notre Dame Village in Chardon. This means reducing what now fills two floors, an attic, and a basement so that my personal belongings, furniture, and office will fit into four and a half rooms. Maybe you’ve had this experience. If […]
Children of the Trinity
As I reflected on Trinity Sunday, my thoughts flowed along this path: We believe that the one God is three divine Persons. We also believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are God’s adopted children. It follows then, that we must bear a family resemblance. Of course, we will […]
Encountering Jesus
This week someone told me how much she liked my book The Fisherman’s Wife: The Gospel According to St. Peter’s Spouse. She said it made the Gospel come alive for her and helped her realize more what it was like for Jesus to live on earth. She also appreciated the humor. So this week I […]
Signs of Compassion
Recently a group of us Sisters met and talked about compassion. Using quotations about it as a springboard, we reflected on how Jesus told us to be compassionate as our Father is compassionate, how God’s amazing compassion was shown in sending Jesus and ways Jesus had compassion, and how compassion is an infinite ocean of […]
Scars of Love: Jesus’ Wounds and Ours
My father was not one to demonstrate affection to us kids either physically or verbally. However, while he was in the hospital dying, one day he held up his hands and said to my mom and me, “I showed my love by these hands.” Dad always worked night shift in a factory and came home […]
Easter: Jesus Is Pro-Life
This week a white oak tree in Lakewood, Ohio, that was about two hundred years old was cut down because it was decaying. However, efforts are being made to keep it alive by grafting parts of it. We are all in favor of keeping things alive. When one of our plants is withering, we feed […]
