Archive for January 2023

When someone is sad, I may write to them, hoping to alleviate some of their pain or nudge them into another stage of dealing with their grief. Recently I read what Saint Thomas Aquinas gave as a remedy for sorrow: “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath, and a glass of wine.” As…

Last night my dinner was a big bowl of French onion soup. When I got up today, I said “good morning.” But I expected “Bonjour!” When receiving Holy Communion, we become what we eat—the Body of Christ. How is it that through the course of the day my words do not always sound like the…

Recently I read in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations this beautiful inspiration: “Instead of saying that God came into the world through Jesus, maybe it would be better to say that Jesus come out of an already Christ-soaked world. The second Incarnation flowed out of the first, out of God’s loving union with physical creation.”  What…

St. Bernard said, “What we love we shall grow to resemble.” Saint Clare of Assisi said the same: “We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.” Perhaps this is the reason why married couples sometimes look like each other over the years. Do you love God? Are you looking more…

Today I noticed a hole in my sock. My first response? “Oh, darn!” Now don’t think I started looking for needle and thread. Sewing and I are polar opposites. There is nothing in me that would give me even the slightest inclination to sew. Now I do have a coloring book page (not colored by…

God speaks in an infinite number of ways. We attend to Scripture, other people, inspirations, creation, events that almost shout “Hey, God is in this!” How much do we attend to our own words? Couldn’t our own words be God speaking? I was struck by a Christmas letter responding to my own Christmas greetings. The…

Blessed Fulton J. Sheen wrote, “Books are the most wonderful friends in the world. When you meet them and pick them up, they are always ready to give you a few ideas. When you put them down, they never get mad; when you take them up again, they seem to enrich you all the more.”…

In January we celebrate the birthdays of our foundresses–Sister Maria Aloysia (Hilligonde Wolbring) on January 9 and Sister Maria Ignatia (Elizabeth Kühling) on January 10. Both were teachers who also took care of orphans and eventually began the congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame—my congregation. In her endearing way, Sister Maria Aloysia wrote to…

My friend told me about children preparing for a Christmas play before the earliest Mass on Christmas Eve—usually called the “Children’s Mass.” The children put their coats in the last pew and donned the attire of shepherds and kings. One tiny shepherd slipped away from his classmates and went down the aisle to kneel before…

Have you ever created your own rosary mysteries from Scripture stories not included or only partially alluded to the regular sets of mysteries: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious? I like to meditate on the Christmas mysteries and assign a decade to certain persons or events from the Christmas narratives in Matthew and Luke. The five decades…