I’m in the process of collecting my Lenten reading materials — this year I’m going to make a deep dive into the Rule of St. Benedict (which I, bad Benedictine, have been neglecting) and some other books, but I’m thinking I might actually reread my own Little Sins Mean a Lot. That’s not because of ego, but because I very frequently forget what I have written, and while looking for something in my files, came Read more…
As someone who has struggled with the intimacy that comes from needing others, I get what is going on with a good friend of mine who is dealing with cancer. But, as I write in my latest column for OSV News, sometimes you just have to buck it up and let yourself need others — to let yourself be consoled: My friend has faced the challenges of aging with grace and humor, but the whole Read more…
The news is so awful and it seems like it has been since the third hour of the new year… but these people in California are inspiring me. And they are teaching me about hope during this Jubilee “Year of Hope” which I have been approaching with a sense of unease — wondering if I even know what hope is. I see it now, in these sorts of actions great and small actions coming out Read more…
So, British MPs have voted against making a national inquiry into grooming gangs, in a 364-111 vote. Man, when the “ruling class” of public servants don’t want something discussed, they really let us know about it. Big shots in England, who have no problem discussing American issues of governance, and even were fine with some of their citizens coming over the pond to campaign during our last election, are really, really annoyed that Americans are Read more…
My latest column for OSV News was meant to look at the “trends to watch out for in 2025,” but all of my listing and researching got red-lined once I heard a co-worker, remarking on the state of society and the church, “people need to be reminded that ‘you are not being asked to be anything other than human…’” We’re a society that is increasingly detached from one another. We work and play behind screens, Read more…
So, because my wish list for 2024 went unfulfilled on, well, pretty much every level (at least as far as the church is concerned), I have decided to simply resubmit it as writ and change the date. I mean, a girl can still hope! However, aside from bellyaching about it, I have decided to explain why it is I am currently taking some time to plan out my funeral. After telling a family member that Read more…
According to this report in the New York Times, Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, wants to fight a culture war with a Catholic flag: “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag,” she is heard to say in a recording, “because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.” But Ms. Alito said that after she suggested the Sacred Heart of Jesus flag as Read more…
In my latest column for OSV News, I look at May’s four loudest days on Catholic social media and declare with absolute certainty that — all the hysteria and huffpuffing aside — the growing division within the Catholic Church will continue, and the rifts will widen. Polarization in the church will expand (no matter who is pope or what layperson shakes the cherry trees for picking or how daintily the bishops turn good Christian advice Read more…
In this Year of Prayer I’m trying to write a bit more about different ways of prayer. This column came about after I’d seen a brief video on social media, about a priest who’d created a “drive up Adoration window” in his rectory window during the Covid lockdowns. It still serves the Body of Christ in those wee small hours, when we need consolation. We all have them — those desperate times, particularly in the Read more…
My latest piece at OSV, wherein I presume to solve — or at least offer one sort of solution toward — the ongoing social chaos situation in the world — yes, the whole world — by talking about the formation of the human conscience. So far, the responses have been kind. No one has yet called me a loon. But the week is young: If, whether we are religious or deeply secular, we can agree Read more…