Lent - Life on the Road Less Traveled

March 12, 2011

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40-Day Challenge: Beauty (Day 4)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment True confession time: If I get disgruntled with my messy house, I invite someone for dinner. At least that way I know I’ll be motivated to get the house clean. Am I the only one who does this? Beauty, truth, and goodness are considered “primary” or “natural” virtues, in that all of them draw our attentions back to the One from whom all Beauty, Truth, and Goodness flow. As children of God, our souls are drawn toward that which is beautiful and well-ordered. When we make an effort to reflect these qualities in our world, we become sacramentals of grace […]

March 11, 2011

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40-Day Challenge: Acceptance (Day 3)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. The other day I opened the front door and found my two kids engrossed in play, drawing chalk pictures on the front stoop. Oblivious to my presence, their conversation became louder and more strident, until at last Sarah stood up and faced her brother, fists on hips. “How many times do I have to TELL you?” she shouted. “When are you going to LISTEN to me? It’s my job to take care of you, and it’s your job to listen – and if you won’t listen, you make my job very difficult!” Christopher didn’t even look up. He just […]

March 10, 2011

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40-Day Challenge: The Silence of Scholastica (Day 2)

Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment. Let’s begin with a story. It’s a true story — all the best stories are true stories — about a sister who loved her brother very much. Her name was St. Scholastica, the twin sister of St. Benedict. Each of them had pledged themselves to religious life, and the rules of the cloister were such that they saw each other only once a year, for less than a day at a time. On one occasion, after many years of this routine, Scholastica begged her brother not to return to the monastery as the day wore on, but to continue their conversation […]

March 9, 2011

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Ash Wednesday: Memento Mori

“Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This call to remember our own mortality helps us as Christians to set our priorities with an eye on eternity. Today for the first day of the 40-Day Challenge, over 700 women clicked on the first day’s reading. I was especially touched by the comment of “Lori,” who has dedicated the challenge to her husband, who has separated from her. Please join me and Lori in praying for a miracle in her husband’s heart. Jesus, we trust in you! If you would like others to pray for you during the course of this challenge, […]

March 9, 2011

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40-Day Challenge: The Prayer (Day 1)

Happy Ash Wednesday! Ready to take up the 40-Day Challenge? “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These are the words that fall on our ears as the ashes are placed on our foreheads today. Life here on earth is temporary — we have a limited time to learn and do and become everything God wants before our lives are over. For many of us, God provides a partner — a spouse — to expedite the process. Through his loving eyes, we see reflected the beauty and gifts God wants us to share with the world. When those eyes are filled with other emotions […]

March 6, 2011

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The 40 Day Challenge: Are You Ready?

This week I’ve been reading Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Love, Marriage and Children, and was struck by how much this man – a celibate who died more than thirty years ago – understood about contemporary married life. (His profound understanding of the human condition is undoubtedly the reason his nationally syndicated radio and television programs, which aired from 1951-1968, drew more than 30 million people each week.) As we prepare to enter the penitential season of Lent, the forty days of preparation for Easter, many people think about what to “give up” during this time. For some it’s chocolate or alcohol – for others it might be […]

March 26, 2010

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Wee Cook Friday: Easter Bread!

To conclude the “Wee Cook Friday” meatless meal series, I wanted to reprise my very favorite recipe for this holiday season, my Easter Bread. We like to make this for Good Friday supper, or for Easter breakfast (especially if there’s company). We always make two loaves, and play “Easter Bunny” by leaving one on someone’s door stop! While I’m on my writer’s retreat, I thought I’d reprise this recipe from “Mommy Monsters” for Easter Bread — makes a great Good Friday supper, or Easter breakfast treat! Easter Bread 2-3/4 C flour 1/4 C sugar 1 tsp salt 1 pkg dry yeast 2/3 C milk 2 […]

February 16, 2008

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kids
Lent

The Great T.V. Experiment

Well, heading deep into week three of the Great No-TV-For-Lent, Gotta-Read-Five-Hours-A-Week-Or-No-Pizza-Party Experiment. While I’ve yet to get them to embrace fully my “five different types of books each week” idea, the basic plan itself does seem to be working. Even for Craig and me. Which, the more I think of it, is really something because we have more control over our choices than our children have over theirs. But when Valentine’s Day yesterday went to H-E-double hockey sticks in the proverbial handbasket yesterday … we sat and talked. Till almost midnight. It’s been a while since we’d done that. And at the end, just before […]

February 15, 2008

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Missteps and Mercy

These past few days a series of events have led me think about the human tendency to make mistakes that require us to extend grace and mercy to others, just as God extends that grace and mercy to us when we deliberately choose sin. The primary difference is intentionality: The thoughtless action (or omission) The unintended offense The hastily spoken (and poorly chosen) word While these things do wound and grieve other people, we tend to gloss them over with, “But that’s not what I MEANT! That’s not what I INTENDED!” Nevertheless, these “slips” do contain destructive seeds, capable of wounding and alienating those we […]