We Are All Called to Lives of Holiness
During Advent and now the Christmas season, I have tried to spend time each day meditating on the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel and the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel. These three chapters are packed with significant events, responses, and depth on the part of the people involved and their encounter with God. Within …
Continue reading "Catholic Exchange: Let Christmas Teach Us to Make Haste in the Spiritual Life"
My writing has grown a bit sporadic again. I am preparing for my first comprehensive exam for my Master's in early January and I will begin my final semester of coursework before I complete my second comprehensive exam and go to thesis in the spring and summer. The next few months will be busy as …
Continue reading "Sporadic Blogging and Final Months of Master’s Degree"
The creative impulse is a deeply rooted aspect of the human person because we are made imago Dei and God is the Creator. This desire to share in the creative action of God is evidenced by thousands of years in which art, architecture, and the written word have been shaped in endless ways. We are …
Anyone who has been reading my blog over the last couple of years knows that I battle being addicted to Facebook. Yes, addicted. I think a lot of people are addicted, but we don't like to admit it, myself included. Social media is a part of the post-modern experience. At face value it is indeed …
Continue reading "Confronting Hard Truths About Facebook and Myself"
Today is the beginning of the Pray More Advent retreat which is entirely online. There are talks from multiple speakers on a wide variety of topics. I was blessed to participate as a speaker. My talks are on St. John Paul II and the Eucharist, St. Therese, persevering in holiness, and the strangeness of how …
Continue reading "Don’t Forget the Pray More Advent Retreat Starts Today!"
This Sunday the Church begins her new liturgical year with the season of Advent. In the hustle and bustle of the secular Christmas season, it is an often-overlooked season. It is a time when the Church calls us as our Mother to enter into the silence and hope of waiting. Many of us live in …
Continue reading "Catholic Exchange: Preparing Our Hearts and Minds for Advent"
Here is the latest video of our daughter Michaela asking people to help us with our adoption fundraiser. The adoption process is arduous and largely broken. It is prohibitively expensive, but we are pushing forward trusting in God since we believe He is calling us on this adventure of joy after so much loss and …
Continue reading "Adoption: My Daughter Michaela Asking for Support :)"
Dear University Students in Need of a "Safe" Space, Today is Veteran's Day. On this particular Veteran's Day, university students and their professors across the nation are crying that they are traumatized by the results of Tuesday's election claiming they need "safe" spaces to deal with the horror of Donald Trump's election (There are dictionaries …
Continue reading "A Letter to University Students in Need of a “Safe” Space from a Veteran"
By now most of the world knows that this is an election year for the United States. It’s hard to miss the constant reporting at an international level. This piece isn’t about the election. It was inspired by the election, but it is meant to be about something deeper and more long-term than a single …
Continue reading "Catholic Exchange: Holiness is How We Transform the Social Order"
Quite unexpectedly in the midst of our grief, God has placed us on the path to adoption. It started as a providential meeting between myself and another woman in our local pro-life movement and it ended up being a call for my husband and me. A woman who is in her second trimester was considering …
Swimming the Depths 