Don’t look at me … And other advice from a parent with young kids...

On a recent Sunday, my 4-year-old and 2-year-old were “having a moment” during Mass. Either they both wanted me to pick them up at the same time or they were fighting over one of their Church-approved books. Whatever the cause, I’d taken them outside to sit on a bench in the Church courtyard until they calmed down.

Memories of St. John Paul II on his 100th birthday

Do I remember St. John Paul II? Yes, I remember him well. I write of him as the centennial of his birth May 18, 1920, approaches. It would be impossible to list all my lasting memories of him in one article. So that is not my goal.

Pentecost: Know forgiveness, know peace; no forgiveness, no peace

“Peace be with you,” Jesus says in the Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday (Jn 20:19). Peace — as in harmony, or even as in a lack of noise — is not exactly plentiful these days. Certainly not in an election year, when cacophony seems to be the (dis)order of the day.

Motherhood and spirituality

“Lord, give me strength.” This has been my mantra of late, every morning when I start to hear the first whines and cries from my 17-month-old around 5:20 a.m.

For unto us a child is born

Advent is a time of anticipation. We wait, marking the passage of time with our Advent candles, counting the days. Drawing closer to Bethlehem. This year has felt more Lent than Advent, but it has been a time of waiting, a year of mandated patience.

Contemplating the closeness of the Incarnation in a year of separation

Christmas is a celebration of the infinite love of God, a love that is unbounded, a love that loosens limitations and dissolves boundaries. It is the feast of a God whose love obscures the separation between divinity and humanity, God and man.