Thursday, April 16, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: November 4, 1941When our Lord came bringing redemption, he did not stop to count the cost. When this woman wanted to show her gratitude, nothing but the best would do. Onlookers called it extravagance, complained at the waste. Jesus said she was...
Wednesday, April 15, 2020 | Reflections
We are sitting on the sofa, speaking about Jesus, when suddenly our souls seem to be splashing with unaccountable joy. We can see no reason for this preposterous happiness, but you turn to me and say, “I feel a gentle wind touching me, playing a song of happiness.”...
Tuesday, April 14, 2020 | Reflections
Mary told us she’d seen the flowers of Golgotha. I desperately want to believe her. I miss my friend, my teacher. But unless I smell those flowers, until I see their colors with my own eyes and touch the blooms and petals with my own hands, how can I believe her?...
Monday, April 13, 2020 | Reflections
With God, we are like butterflies out of the cocoon, former caterpillars now spreading stained-glass wings, the pattern of God’s fingerprints dusted all over them. Our fragility becomes our strength because God restores our broken places. The Lord transforms our scars...
Sunday, April 12, 2020 | Reflections
I came here for the wilted husk of just one precious flower, but your voice miraculously bloomed by this tomb, calling me Mary, and you gave me the whole garden, instead. Every blossom and petal. The meaning of this moment stretches for all eternity. The...
Saturday, April 11, 2020 | Reflections
If I had been Judas, my soul would have spiraled in vertigo as I felt the coins in my hands. Wasn’t Jesus’ love enough to save the world? Didn’t the plowshare life promise greater triumph than all the weapons of war? Not zealous enough, Judas might ha….(View...
Friday, April 10, 2020 | Reflections
The sky around the stars is the color of burnt tea. Darkness slithers past, spreading like damson toward the crusty edge of the Skull Place. The Milky Way vanishes like the light from another room when the door is slammed. Clouds explode and swallow the moon....
Thursday, April 9, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: March 21, 1939Jesus left behind many precious legacies. One of the most precious is Holy Communion. He told his apostles in the upper room that he was about to be taken, but he assured them he would always be with them. He….(View this reading...
Wednesday, April 8, 2020 | Reflections
On the knife-edge of my life, I was desperate for deliverance. A disciple of Jesus, I seek him—his comfort, his forgiveness—as I walk to the Sea of Galilee in the dead of night. The boats float motionlessly on the still water. The air seems unable to breathe, and the...
Tuesday, April 7, 2020 | Reflections
Jesus can feel the sharp edge of the plow as it comes toward him, gaining speed and purpose. He prays ardently, for the harvest God has promised will come from the single grain of his life. He prays most fervently for those who will follow in his footsteps, who will...
Monday, April 6, 2020 | Reflections
Even years after Jesus called us as his disciples, we still sometimes shake our heads that he anointed us—such a motley crew—to bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the broken-hearted, and proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners....
Sunday, April 5, 2020 | Reflections
A late frost has painted shattered glass upon an ice-covered field shining in the sunlight. Spring must have looked in the mirror and seen winter, I say to myself. I know that feeling. There is an attic smell in the air—the flowers smell like mot….(View this...
Saturday, April 4, 2020 | Reflections
I closed my eyes for a moment and the preacher was gone. I shut my eyes tighter, seeking wildly and vainly for the vibrant dream he had shared with us, a world in which the different colors of humanity’s skin were just pigments of God’s wondrous imagination....
Friday, April 3, 2020 | Reflections
It is hard to hear Jesus talk about his death, especially in such an awful way. As his disciples, we are hungry to feel like children again, to see the living colors of God’s love all around us like a rainbow after the storm, like fish jumping through waves. We all...
Thursday, April 2, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: January 2, 2017Years ago, I trained as a eucharistic minister. Shy by nature, I had preferred ministries where I was behind the scenes. Serving in front of others was a challenge. I waited with excitement for the Holy Euch….(View this reading...
