Because this week we celebrate Mary’s Assumption into heaven, I thought it fitting that this blog be the introduction from my book The Catholic Companion to Mary. Hope you enjoy it! . . . In Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, four young women, who are estranged from their mothers to varying degrees, come […]
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Yesterday about four hundred people gathered in our provincial house chapel to witness the final, perpetual vows of Sister Mary Kelley Rush. It was a glorious (and long) celebration of Mass. Today when religious Sisters are few and far between some people, even Catholics, don’t know one. Neither do they know about Sisters. Several times […]
Did you ever offer to help someone who firmly rejected your offer to help? If so, how did you feel? Conversely, how did you feel when you were able to be of assistance to someone? Maybe you helped a person carry a load or cook a meal or drive somewhere. No doubt this act of […]
As a child, I wore necklaces made of pop beads, which resembled pearls but were plastic. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a real pearl—so valuable that a man trades everything he owns to possess it. This is an apt comparison. Pearls were expensive. Most of them came from the Persian Gulf, where men […]
A picture appeared on Facebook showing St. Anthony of Padua saying “Seriously? You lost them again?” As the patron of lost things, this saint is possibly the one most prayed to other than our Blessed Mother. How did he acquire this reputation? According to a legend, St. Anthony, as the novice director for the Franciscans, […]
This chapter (abridged) called “Priming the Pump” from my book “Praying on Empty” was reprinted in a daily devotional . . . Grant, O our God, that we may know you, love you, and rejoice in you; and if in this life we cannot do these things fully, grant that we may at the least […]
Saturday’s first reading at Mass included the angel’s words to Abraham about Sarah becoming pregnant at the age of ninety: “Is anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?” This is echoed by the angel Gabriel when he tells Mary that the elderly Elizabeth will bear a son: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” […]
I’ve just completed a week-long retreat on the Gospel of St. John packed with insights about this “maverick” account of the life of Jesus. I thought I’d share some of what I gleaned from the conferences. As background, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were composed rather early. John’s Gospel took shape much later […]
Currently I’m working on a chapter about the afterlife. We people engrossed in the demands of this present life don’t tend to think about this topic until we come to a landmark birthday, someone we know dies, or a movie like The Mummy is released. Then we wonder, Is this all there is? We Catholics […]
In view of Sunday’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), an excerpt from my upcoming book, “I am going . . .” Reflections on the Last Words of the Saints is fitting: A teacher was taking her little ones to chapel to visit Jesus. As they passed classrooms, she […]
Jesus ordered us to make disciples of all nations and teach them. Mary Kathleen, a Sister of Notre Dame from Chardon, Ohio, responds to this call through writing, speaking, giving retreats, and teaching (every grade from 1st to 12th). Her motto, adopted from Eddie Doherty’s gravesite, is “All my words for the Word.”
The Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio, belong to an international congregation of more than two thousand apostolic women religious. We are one in mind and one in heart for the transformation of the world in Christ. 