Photo credit: Pixabay.com I know.  Everyone says, “my resolutions do not last”—or “I don’t believe in resolutions.”  My, we have excuses galore not to resolve to be better or happier whether at the new year or anytime in our lives.  Yes, you can make resolutions anytime throughout the year but the first day of the year offers us,... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Mary Ann Flannery, SC Reflecting on kindness and ‘the advent person’ in our last two blogs, I am led to contemplate on where I might be in the whole scene of Christ’s birth.  Am I kind?  Am I an advent person? In Ignatian spirituality, we assume the presence and, if possible, the identity of a... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Pixabay.com The late Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner developed a theory that is grounded in a description of what a Christian should strive to be based on the meaning of advent. He held that there were two halves of his theory: the advent person and the utopian person. See which one you are -... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Pixabay.com This season of advent usually inspires many people to examine their lives in the context of giving and kindness. Both are under the umbrella of charity, the virtue so connected to Christmas. God’s love is the overwhelming virtue of the season reflected in the gift so freely given to us in Jesus... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Pixabay.com I intended to compose a reflection on the season of advent which liturgically began this past Sunday on the Christian calendar. But I was stopped short regarding something that happened this week that can be part of the reflection in a way we may not be accustomed to as we scour the... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Pixabay.com Last week’s blog title was Why Some of Us Stay: A Struggle of Faith and I could not believe the number of wonderful responses I received in my email account.  Most people agreed that they stay because of community generated by belonging to a caring group.  Others liked the idea that faith is “larger than any... Continue Reading →

Photo credit: Pixabay.com A few years ago, I mentioned, in one of my blogs, why I stay a Catholic. The other day, a frustrated voter asked pointedly: “If you weren’t a nun, would you stay a Catholic?” I said, yes. But my answer needs fuller development, maybe even a book! So, I looked at the... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com Forgive me if I have written this before in my blog.  I remember it was a chilly early November Sunday morning when I was to meet my fourth and fifth grade catechism class at a semi-rural church here in Ohio.  The parish was fairly upper class and the children bright and eager to learn about their... Continue Reading →

Last week I had the privilege of giving a retreat to my Sisters in our infirmary in Cincinnati.  I worked the week before to make sensible outlines of my presentations and I prayed a lot.  On the day the retreat opened, one of the sisters saw that I was carrying a three-ring binder in which the outlines... Continue Reading →

Pixabay.com Ok: Breather again.  Terry Franconca, the beloved manager of the Cleveland Guardians Major League Baseball Team, is an Aristotelian philosopher of sports.  I’ve always taken something from his interviews with broadcasters, especially as he leaves them scratching their heads and totally flummoxed as to how they might respond.  Francona never cuts competitors at the knees.  There is... Continue Reading →