Lori Strawn

Lori Strawn

Providence Associate Lori Strawn is a freelance writer and editor who lives in Witchita, Kansas. A 1987 graduate of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, Lori formerly served on the advisory board for the Providence Associates.

Called to perform: Sandra Hartlieb’s Mother Theodore

“I was mad at Mother Theodore!” Sandra confesses. For years, Sandra had struggled with corneal degeneration. Prayers for Mother Theodore’s intervention seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"I wandered around the grounds complaining,” Sandra explains. “I ‘heard’ a voice saying, ‘Tell my story.’ Well, I said, ‘I am telling MY story!’ But the voice came again, and I realized it was HER! Telling me to tell HER story! I decided to do it.”

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The way of pain and Holy Week

Holy Week is coming up next week, a week wherein we remember Jesus’ suffering and his triumph over death. It seems an opportune time to reflect on the pain in our lives. We all experience pain, physical, mental or spiritual. But what we do with that pain matters.

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What’s your gift?

So what is your gift? What can you lay down beside the manger? What would you give if you could give anything in the world?

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My friends, the saints

We are used to thinking of saints in the past tense. It seems incredible that saints might walk among us today, but they do. What do they do that the rest of us don’t? Not much, really. Sainthood is less a way of doing than a way of being. As Mother Theodore said, “Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the Saints, we must live like them. "

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Pope Francis smiling and waving

The pope and the golden rule

What Francis speaks is Christ-centered, Gospel-centered common sense. Let us rejoice that we have a Pope who speaks for the poor, who challenges those in power, who will not be shut up by nay-sayers who call him a false prophet.

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