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

nbsp The story of Hannah in the first book of Samuel always tears my heart a little when I hear it Hannah is childless is almost past hoping for a child Yet she persists in praying for a baby Her prayer is answered and she becomes pregnant She promises to repay God for the favor The price

We have long lived in an area of the mountains where we often lose our power during winter storms The wind howls the snow slices the air sideways and our electricity goes out The first power outage of the season usually catches us off-guard After that we know to have flashlights and candles ha

If marriage is a source of sacramental grace, why are we as a church so uncomfortable about sex?

By now most of us Catholics have tripped over one part or another of the most recent English translation of the Mass Even though most parishes provide helpful handouts in the pews highlighting the changes Catholics who have been responding by rote for decades can be caught off-guard For some of u

Not being a New Yorker I had never heard of Christine Quinn before catching a recent interview with her on NPR nbsp I was listening to Weekend Edition Sunday while diligently riding my exercise bike but my pace slowed when she was asked about the difficulty of being Catholic and lesbian The int

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp My husband finally got me to watch the movie ldquo Hugo rdquo I rsquo d had no desire to see it when it was first out in the theaters because it had been advertised as a 3-D film I rsquo d also somehow had the impression that it

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp It was my honor to interview Sister Helen Prejean during her recent visit to Bakersfield for two talks that took place May 4-5 Sister Helen is well known as the ldquo Dead Man Walking rdquo nun the face of the global movement to