Reflections

Working out in my garden yesterday, I inadvertently witnessed/eavesdropped on a lovely father-child series of moments – aka father-love-in-action. A van pulled up at the fountain standing at the end of the Avenue, our “main street” if you will. A…

As we enter the final week of Lent, the deep, deep purple of Lenten liturgical environments gives way first to the blazing red of Passion Sunday and Passion week, then briefly breaks into the startling white of Holy Thursday, then…

Good old Lent! Here you are again — staring me in the face … daring me to find something good about the experience — in spite of my many years of getting to Easter and thinking, “Well, another Lent when…

My cousin’s son and his wife have a son, Jack Alfred. (At family gatherings, use of his middle name is required to distinguish him from his cousin Jack Louis.) In my lamentably too few encounters with Jack Alfred, I find…

I find myself very taken with these ideas taken from Judy Cannato’s lovely book Field of Compassion: One way to speak of the Christian story is to say that God is always doing something more. Incomprehensible holy mystery is always…

How many times have we witnessed (or participated in) this scenario? An adult hands something to a small child and a parent says to the little one, “What do you say?” The expected response? Thank you! We all know the…

My least favorite explanation for anything is that’s just the way it is. I can instantly feel the resistance rise up inside me. Reflection over the years has brought me to the realization that I resist the statement of fact…

It’s a rare thanksgiving season that I don’t hear my grandma’s oft-repeated admonition to us for any breach of good behavior. “Don’t be such an ingrate.” My mother’s corrections were much more behavior specific. “Don’t be fresh.” “Stop bickering.” “Be…