Wounded for Christ

Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter: “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart.“ Life offers ample opportunities for heartbreak. Tragedy befalls families, communities, and countries. Natural disasters, and the effects of environmental degradation and climate change, often seem to strike the poorest of the poor. Mental health suffers and sometimes snaps….

Sundowning and Sacred Memory

Today would have been my grandpa William’s 105th birthday. He only died six years ago so he lived a good long life. But, a good long life, when it ends, leaves a large void, no matter how ready they were to depart, or how long they walked beside us. After my grandpa died, I took…

Keeping the Vigil

They didn’t teach me audio engineering or cinematography when I got my Masters in Theology. Maybe they should have, I thought, as lightning flashed through stain glass windows, the transcendent Exsultet echoing through the empty Cathedral. I was desperately attempting to keep a livestream going through a ramshackle conjunction of cameras, cords, blackboxes and an overheating laptop…

A Good Friday Prayer for a Pandemic

Jesus never stopped praying. Even as he hung on a cross, desperately trying to breathe, his lungs filling with fluid, he never stopped praying. In his most desperate moment, he offered his suffering humanity, our suffering humanity, as a prayer to God. But prayer can be hard, especially if we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed….

A Holy Triduum in Prison

On Wednesday of Holy Week I visited prison with some friends from a group called Bethany. They are made up of lay people and the most extraordinary women of the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth, who have been ministering to men in prison for over 20 years.   Because the men will celebrate Easter Sunday on…