Let me set the scene It rsquo s a weekend morning and for once I actually have no commitments I open the front door to let in the fresh morning air and I am ready to ride five miles on the exercise bike in my office spare room I am trying to beat my best time But my dog is in the back yard ba

When you grow up Catholic you learn early on that Sunday Mass is non-negotiable Unless you are dying or certifiably contagious you go to Mass I was in school before I had a friend who was not Catholic and whose denominational road to salvation did not mandate Sunday attendance My first thought

The spiritual season of Lent sometimes brings out the creativity in people In fulfilling our Lenten obligations of prayer fasting and almsgiving we try to come up with something new something more meaningful something that will change our lives I recently heard in passing of a different kind o

I recently overheard an exchange between my sister and her four-year-old daughter one that apparently takes place frequently ldquo Who rsquo s better than you rdquo my sister asked in her best football coach voice ldquo Nobody rdquo shouted my little niece And I prayed that she will believe

In another example of a so-called first world problem Christmas has apparently become a source of stress ldquo Are you already OVERWHELMED by the holidays rdquo asks my credit union rsquo s website while marketing a low-interest loan that would probably only add to my stress level in the New Ye

"If life is about loss, it is also about its opposite: discovery." A reflection from Valerie Schultz

A marriage is a reflection of what two spouses believe in and create together.

Lord send out your spirit And renew the face of the earth rdquo - Psalm 104In the late 1990s as a lead-up to the new millennium my parish took part in a program called ldquo Renew 2000 quot in which the faithful who wanted to participate were assigned to small faith-sharing groups Each

My mother now lives in a place called The Village. It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child, but perhaps a village can be helpful at any age. It certainly seems our family requires the help of this village to care for our mother. She lives in the part of The Village labeled “a

nbsp For Christmas my sister gave me the newest book from one of my favorite authors Help Thanks Wow by Anne Lamott My favorite authors tend to be those who write things that I wish I rsquo d written and Anne Lamott rsquo s many essays on motherhood and faith and struggle are definitely some