“I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;and greet no one along the way.Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him;but if not, it will return to you….” From today’s Gospel reading: Luke 10:1-9 In both readings today, we are reminded that those who teach the faith will experience resistance … and that this resistance may come from an unexpected corner: from those who already profess belief. In the first reading (from 2 Timothy 4:10-16), we read that “Alexander the coppersmith” resisted […]

“Oh, what a pretty little girl! Won’t you come here and sit on my lap, and visit with me?” With effort, my grandmother eagerly reached out to Sarah, who exclaimed over the old woman’s rose-colored fingertips. Soon the two of them were chatting like old friends. Sarah enthralled her great-grandmother with stories from preschool, and the unintended joke that had made me laugh just a few days before: “One mouse, many mice;One house, many … cats!” For the past several years, my paternal grandmother has been living in a senior residence in eastern Ohio, down the street from my Aunt Susan. During that time Grandma […]

Jen at “Et tu?” has started a group writing project, asking for people to submit a post on the following topic: “What are three things your parents did right?” Here are mine, in no particular order: 1. Listen to God when He asks you to do something. The summer before I went to teach ESL in Senegal, West Africa, I overheard my father defending my decision to a relative who could not believe that my parents would let me “waste” my life that way. I’ll never forget his response: “Well, we’ve spent our whole life teaching her obedience. We can hardly blame her for taking […]

Sarah was a little over two years old when we took her to the baptism of her cousin, whose family is Lutheran. We arrived late, and managed to find two seats in the back by crawling over the laps of two pinch-lipped elderly matrons, who clearly disapproved of our being there at all. The sermon that day went a little long, and Sarah quickly grew bored. We passed her back and forth for a few minutes, feeding her Cheerios and turning pages of board-books. One of them contained a large picture of Jesus, and when we reached that page, Sarah found her voice. “Ama-sing gwace, […]

Today as I was reading the latest Catholic Carnival, I clicked on A Catholic Mom in Hawaii:Helping the Holy Souls in Purgatory. This blog is a labor of love on behalf of all souls in purgatory, reminding us to keep these people in our intentions, as part of our family in Christ. As a convert to Catholicism, purgatory is a relatively new concept to me … but frankly, one that I never had much trouble with. It made perfect sense to me, that some Christians need a bit of a “spit and polish,” spiritually speaking, before approaching the Throne of Grace (like the man who […]

In I Kings 3:16 we find a story of King Solomon that is often used to demonstrate his wisdom. Two babies were put to bed one night; the next morning, one of them was dead. The mothers – women of questionable repute – each claimed the living infant was hers. Solomon instructed that the baby be cut in two, and half given to each woman. One woman agreed – and the other immediately begged the king to give the live infant to her opponent. Solomon then handed the child to the woman who was willing to surrender her child rather than see him come to […]

***Catholic Carnival #136 is now UP! Sarah at “Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering” shows her true colors as she draws from the four corners of the virtual universe to compile the best and most thought-provoking posts to brighten your week. Enjoy! (Here was my contribution …) Please note: A Good Samaritan identified the quote that was sent to me, which appeared in the “Invisible Mom” piece I already posted. The wonderful reflection was from a book by Nicole Johnson entitled The Invisible Woman. You can order it through Amazon.com by clicking here. This week God has been teaching me about the flip side of […]

I do. And today my sister Kathy sent this to me, to remind me that “behind the scenes” can be a blessed place to be. UPDATE: I WAS JUST INFORMED THAT THIS LOVELY MEDITATION IS FROM A BOOK ENTITLED “THE INVISIBLE WOMAN” BY NICOLE JOHNSON. YOU CAN ORDER IT FROM AMAZON.COM BY CLICKING HERE. “I’m invisible….. “ It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, “Can’t you see I’m on the phone?” Obviously […]

Yesterday CE featured an article that compared the atrocities of Auschwitz to the American “death camps” of the preborn — abortion mills. While the “American holocaust” theme was not terribly original, the mention of that particular death camp did spark a train of thought, which I posted as a reflection based on this article in “Streams of Mercy.” When I spent the summer traveling across Poland in the summer of 1992, conducting a series of “good-will tours” with a team of Polish and American college students, we stopped by Auschwitz. I was struck by the fact that none of the Polish students wanted to go […]