On Saturday I spoke at my community’s Solemn Eucharistic Adoration for five minutes. I thought I would get more mileage out of the talk and use it for my post this week! I hope you find it inspiring. . . . At one of our schools, a teacher was taking her little ones to chapel. […]
Eucharist
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 […]
The first time I was to fly alone to Abu Dhabi to speak at a religious conference, I was rather frightened—petrified would be more accurate. It meant stopping in Chicago to switch to Etihad, the United Arab Emirates airline, flying over the ocean (daunting to a non-swimmer like me), and then counting on someone to […]
The first chapter of my new book out this month, Voices: God Speaking in Creation, is “Manger.” It makes a fitting post this week as we celebrate Christmas . . . “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7). Jesus […]
Advent readings at Mass focus us on the coming of Jesus in Majesty at the end of time, while Christmas decorations recall his coming in History in Bethlehem, but his third coming that we commemorate during Advent is his coming in Mystery. This coming gets pushed aside. Let’s think about it, for it is the […]
For a graduate school course I wrote a paper on “thank you.” To my surprise the word “thank” is derived from the word “think.” To thank someone means we are thinking of them and their kind act for us. When a person has done something thoughtful for us, the least we can do is to […]
In honor of the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (or Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ) celebrated this Sunday, here is a Eucharist IQ Quiz that I use in my workshops on the liturgy. You simply have to tell whether each statement is true or false. The answers are at […]
A few weeks before Easter, my mom melted beeswax in a coffee can lid. Then she dipped a straight pin inserted in a wooden matchstick into the wax and quickly made strokes on eggs the way her Polish mother taught her. The eggs sat in coffee cups overnight, soaking in vivid colors of Chick Chick […]
Since we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) on Sunday, let’s think about the Eucharist. What ever gave Jesus the idea of having bread become him so that we could consume him? Talk about crazy love. Although many faith traditions consider Jesus’ words, “This is my body” a figure of speech, we […]
I’m in Arabia at a conference for catechists. My keynote address is on the Eucharist. It includes this delightful and thought-provoking story by Richard T. Szafransk published in Emmanuel, used with permission, and adapted by me. I was a grape once. Now I’m a raisin. I’m stuck in this box with a bunch of other […]
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. 