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Why I’m Always Late and Other Thoughts on Lent
Well, we’re two days into Lent and so far, so good. How about you? One of my resolutions for Lent came on a Friday, a few months back, when my 6 year old turned to me as we shuffled into the “cryroom/confessional/people trying to avoid the shame of everybody knowing they’ve arrived late” section and asked me, “Why are we always late?” Doh! It was a perfectly valid question — one to which I had no valid response — and so I just stared into those little brown eyes and replied, “We’re not always late”. Which is technically true. We are not always late. On most Sundays, we manage to…
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Thirsting For Lent
Whether or not we know it, we are all thirsting for Christ. Even more amazing is that — despite our sinfulness or brokenness — Christ is thirsting for us, too. This photo below was taken in 2016 at the Canonization of Mother Teresa. I guess you could say she’s one of my heroes. Perhaps more than anybody else in recent years, Mother Teresa recognized that thirst in all of us. She recognized it, because she felt it more keenly than most. In every chapel of every convent that Mother Teresa established, she wrote 2 words over the main crucifix: “I thirst”. They were some of the last words Jesus spoke…
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Lent: What’s Love Got to Do With It
“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,There’s always laughter and good red wine.” Hillaire Belloc I just love this quote for so many reasons. Of course, I would add “strong espresso and Prosecco” to Belloc’s list, but Belloc’s point, I believe, is that the truly Catholic man or woman knows the secret to living well. If that quote doesn’t resonate with you, then maybe it’s because too many Catholics have never fully embraced what it means to be Catholic. Too many of us have been influenced by the extremes of Puritanism and Hedonism — and in the process we have failed to truly live like Catholics. Which is why many may…
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Quick Takes: Lenten Edition
So much life happening right now, so I thought this the perfect time for 7 Quick Takes: Lenten Edition. Let’s get to it! ~1~ 20 Year Reunion I meant to get on top of my life and write a post about our reunion, but with out of town visitors and all the catching up on life — it will have to wait until next week. There’s a takeaway for everybody about friendships and faith and how twenty years can go by and you can literally pick up from where you left off — I was expecting it to be fun, but I think the deep stuff surprised all of us.…
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Getting Ready for a 20 Year Reunion
Well, I mentioned it last week, but I’m getting ready to head off on a 20 year reunion with girlfriends from college. We chose Arizona because it happened to promise good weather and a central meeting place for most of us to reach. It also had girls we hoped to see living there already, so it was a perfect choice. Honestly, there were other people we would have liked to invite to join us, but it came down to the practical number of 5 — 5 people will fit in a rental car and we could likely squish 5 girls into a hotel room. So we kept it at five…
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Weaning Babies and Lent
It’s 11:30 at night, and life has been so busy that I’ve had no time to put a proper post together. So forgive me, if I ramble. 🙁 I’ve been pushing hard to get everything in order before I leave for a 20 year reunion with girlfriends from college. At the time of planning this trip, we had no idea it would fall in the middle of Lent, but God knows what we need, and maybe I needed a different kind of retreat this Lent. I also didn’t realize I’d be in the middle of weaning my toddler. I should have guessed that this little guy would be holding out…
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Lent Begins and Making Sense of “Pathetic” Sacrifices
How’s your Lent going? Lent is a funny thing. On Fat Tuesday, I was craving absolutely nothing — but come Midnight, Ash Wednesday, suddenly I was craving everything. Why is that? I even found myself rationalizing, “Well, it’s 12:02, does Ash Wednesday begin now, or when I get up?” Really, those were thoughts going through my head. We humans can be so weak. Recently, a friend posted a meme on Facebook. It showed 5 images of various sufferings: the men in orange before they were beheaded by Al-Queda, starving children in Africa, dead bodies after a genocide, a poor man eaten away by starvation and poor little Asian kids with…
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February is the Worst and Getting Ready for Lent
February is the worst — the absolute worst. It really is, and I know we’re supposed to get out our gratitude journals and look for the positives contained within the worst month of the year — but today, I’d rather complain about it. I don’t want to be grateful for February. I’d rather despise February and pray it passes by quickly. At least it’s only 28 days — so I guess that is a positive — but beyond that, I have little else good to say about it. I’d probably like February if I could lay in bed all day, watching English dramas while ignoring the many things that need…
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Life Lately: Lenten Edition
How’s your week going? We have lots going on at the moment, including celebrating St. Patrick’s Day — Yippee! So, on to the Quick Takes: ~1~ Frater, Momento Mori I’m happy to announce our power is back. We had great moments of bonding and family adventures — but thank God for electricity. It’s the best! While the power was out, most of our days were filled with accomplishing the basics: preparing food, keeping heat going, and clean up. But now that it’s back, I have been left with the thought, “I have been given this free time back, now what will I do with it?” The truth is, most of us living in the West have much more “free time” in…
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When We Fail to Catch Our Kids
Last week we were out of power for 5 days. No lights, no power, no running water, no toilets — and no idea when it would be restored. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the temps didn’t drop well below freezing most nights, but we were managing — and I dare say — we were actually enjoying all of the quality time spent by the fireplace and camping out in our living room. By the 4th day, we had actually found a rhythm to this simple life. We had eaten dinner and cleaned up the house before the sun set. We had this “no power thing” down! And as we sat down…
