This Week’s Reflection: On Complacency and Distractions

A soul makes room for God by wiping away all the smudges and smears of creatures, by uniting its will perfectly to God’s; for to love is to labor to divest and deprive oneself for God of all that is not God. When this is done the soul will be illumined by and transformed in [...]

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On Redemptive Suffering and Solidarity

Last summer, I burned the top of my foot with boiling water. It was a second degree burn that I will never forget, because it taught me the meaning of pain, loneliness, and solidarity with members of the mystical Body of Christ. The day of the incident, Michael happened to be in town so he [...]

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Memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo

Happy Memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo!  In all that has been said by me, you are the one God; come now to my aid, you who are the one, eternal, true substance, in which there is no conflict, no confusion, no change, no want, no death; in which there is perfect harmony, perfect clarity, [...]

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You notice them, but do you really see them?

(This post was originally written by my boyfriend, Michael Joseph, at our former blog) You’ve noticed him, but do you really see him? That is, do you see a person? The homeless, the hungry and the forsaken are all around us. Jesus promised us that, but he did not choose it to be so: “The [...]

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Growing in Holiness with the Saints in Times of Aridity

As Pope Benedict XVI said on one of his Wednesday’s Audiences when talking about the saints, “Holiness does not consist in not making mistakes or never sinning. Holiness grows with the capacity for conversion, repentance, willingness to begin again, and above all with the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.” And who would have thought that [...]

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In Search of the Simple Life

(I originally wrote this in Evangelical Catholicism, but I will continue these series on this blog)  I graduated Summa Cum Laude from College three years ago. I had a job lined up with one of the top ten Fortune 500 companies a semester before graduation. With relatively low experience in my field, my salary was still higher [...]

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Tensions in Our Relationships

This past weekend, Michael and I were discussing this past Sunday’s Gospel on Jesus coming to cause division. Then we talked about tensions we sometime experience in our relationships–when our personalities clash with those of others–and he brought to my attention to the following by St. Josemaría Escrivá: You clash with the character of one [...]

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Prayer for an End to Prejudice

I just read this Alternative Prayer for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary time from my Liturgy of the Hours and thought I’d share it:  Almighty God, ever-loving Father, your care extends beyond the boundaries of race and nation to the hearts of all who live. May the walls, which prejudice raises between us, crumble beneath [...]

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This Week’s Reflection: On Humility and Solidarity

St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to the Devout Life tells us about the importance of humility over all other virtues: To receive God’s grace into our hearts they must be emptied of of our own vainglory… [A]ll the saints, and particularly the King of Saints and his Mother, have always honored and cherished [...]

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What Gospel Poverty is Not

For quite a while now I have been searching for more direction as to how to live voluntary poverty in the midst of a society immersed in consumerism and individualism in which I found myself being an active and exemplary participant for many years. I have read Sacred Scriptures and the saints’ writings, but I [...]

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So you want to learn crochet?

“Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again.” –Dorothy Day Many parishes and secular organizations have groups of women who either crochet or knit blankets for the homeless during the winter time or booties and baby afghans [...]

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Earthquake in Peru

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters from Perú who are undergoing tough times with the recent 8.0 scale earthquake.  Let us ask for the intercession of our Blessed Mother to protect her children from this area of the world and bring them comfort.  As Radical Catholic Mom pointed out in Vox Nova, you [...]

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Prayer is the basis of all peacemaking

H/T: A Little Bit of Change   From Pax Christi’s Peacemaking: Day by Day by Henri Nouwen: Prayer is the basis of all peacemaking precisely because in prayer we come to the realization that we do not belong to the world in which conflicts and wars take place, but to Jesus who offers us his peace. The [...]

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“We Must Use Our Eyes!”

“We Must Use Our Eyes!” is the name of one of the chapters in Joseph Ratzinger’s book Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures. This chapter follows his discussion of the right to life and abortion. He starts the chapter by saying: The moral drama, the decision for good or evil, begins with our eyes, when [...]

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On the Importance of Order and Organization

“Whenever you have order, your time will multiply and, as a result, you will be able to give more glory to God, working more in his service.” St. Josemaría Escrivá (The Way, 80) I have lived with nuns before and I have also visited monasteries and houses of parish priests as well and they are [...]

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The Importance of Small Tasks

My dad used to tell me: “no matter what your job in the real world ends up being or how frustrating it turns out to be… you do every task that is assigned to you the best you can, no matter how small, no matter how insignificant it is.”  He used to tell me that, because he knew [...]

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Creating our own desert with the Desert Fathers

Antony said, “He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight: that is, his own heart.” The Desert Fathers are usually considered fanatics by some: they were just literalists who read too much into the Gospel. But perhaps we [...]

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Sacrifices and Solidarity

“Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” (Ecc 1:2) We want to include fiber and vitamins in our diet, but without having to eat fruits and vegetables. We want to be in shape, but without making any physical effort. We want to drink water, but without having to actually drink [...]

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This Week’s Reflection: On Living Intentionally

“[H]ave death at all times before your eyes.”Rule of St. Benedict This week’s meditation is on living intentionally. When we realize the greatness of God and our life as a gift given to us by Him, we start viewing things in life in a different light. We attach less and less value to the temporal [...]

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Why “Civilization of Love”?

How do we build a “civilization of love”? How do we defeat the culture of death? How do we confront hatred, neglect, and individualism as Christians? As utopian as it may sound, we build a “civilization of love” by loving one another constantly and intensely as St. Peter says: “Since you have purified yourselves by [...]

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