Category Archive: LIVING

The object of my quest

This is Part 4 of my personal reflection series 35 years a saint. You can read my introduction here. September 7, 1985 – “Been thinking a lot lately about a lot of things…the… Continue reading →

Functional agnosticism

This is Part 3 of my personal reflection series 35 years a saint. You can read my introduction here. For most of the first half of my life my spirituality went largely unexamined.… Continue reading →

Discerning the depths

This is Part 2 of my personal reflection series 35 years a saint. You can read my introduction here. I wonder sometimes how my life and the lives of my children would be… Continue reading →

35 years a saint

1986. I was a stay-at-home young mother of three children, ages one to five. Though life was less than thrilling, it was really all I ever wanted….to bear and raise a couple of… Continue reading →

If God is not good, he’s bad

Even the most faithful Christian can find herself succumbing to waves of doubt when trials multiply and weigh her down. One tragedy or affliction follows another in a seemingly never-ending pattern of suffering,… Continue reading →

The most momentous junction

New Year’s resolution….blah, blah, blah.…lose weight, quit smoking, get healthy.…blah, blah, blah….off the diet, still lighting up, quit the gym….blah, blah, blah. Wait eleven and a half months. Repeat. It’s that time of… Continue reading →

Do we trust the driver or do we bail?

Driving the Ohio turnpike in a winter storm at night is, shall we say, adventuresome. Snow completely covering the road and blowing everywhere, drivers having to guess where the lanes are, most but… Continue reading →

Prescription for a sick world

I have lately felt more overwhelmed than usual by all the evil in the world. Murders, rapes, child abuse, sex trafficking, tortuous persecution. We see it in the news every day…a sad and… Continue reading →

Got religion?

A parable of the faithful A homeowner opened his front door to a young couple wanting to talk with him. But when he saw the printed material they were holding he politely declined… Continue reading →

The problem of suffering, objectively speaking

“Let’s be objective,” is a recommendation a mediator might make to opposing parties, or a father to a child who feels she’s been wronged. Objectivity is the perspective which allows one to evaluate… Continue reading →

The courage of humility

“I was wrong.” “I too have said or thought things like that.” “This policy that I thought would help is actually hurting and needs to be changed.” Three of the most difficult things… Continue reading →

The Gospel of the Vaccine

It all seems eerily familiar:  the application of guilt the laying out of the predicament and consequences of your guilt the good news of a price paid for you the promise of redemption… Continue reading →

It’s oh so natural

Evil has a long and sobering history. There is nothing new under the sun….not torture and murder, not rape and enslavement, not subjugation, treachery, serial lying, and all manners and expressions of vile… Continue reading →

Stay at home, mom

I’m seeing glimmers of hope for the future in all the turmoil and conflict of the present. And shining brightest for me right now is the hope of motherhood and fatherhood being restored… Continue reading →

No God, no hope

Recently a cousin of a friend of mine put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He was a young man. For him, life was so painful and hopeless that death… Continue reading →