- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
In the Areopagus Paul told the Athenians “In Him [Jesus Christ] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17). There is nothing else we need. Jesus Christ is our life; his Spirit is our breath. We’ve got it all! We need nothing more, so why do we feel
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
Christmas lets us know Christ in his humanity. Epiphany lets us know Christ better in his divinity. The grace of Holy Week lets us know Christ in his suffering and death, while Easter lets us know him in is triumph over sin and death. The grace of the Ascension
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
When Jesus became human, he annihilated the dichotomy between matter and spirit. In the Person of the Divine-human Being, we see God’s plan to make matter divine, something already done in the glorified humanity of his Son. The grace bestowed on us by the Ascension is the divinization of
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
We Sisters of Notre Dame honor Saint Julie Billiart as our spiritual mother. Saint Julie founded the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Our congregation is just Notre Dame—not de Namur or School Sisters of Notre Dame. Yet we might say we’re all related—some to Saint Julie as foundress, others
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
Our Lady of Fatima in 1913 asked the children in Fatima, Portugal to pray for peace. War in Europe was imminent, and it soon became World War I. War after war continued through the rest of the 20th century and into the new millennium. Rumors of World War III are
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
A bird called to me. Looking I saw nothing in the trees. I walked on, but before my second step I heard the same call. Again I looked but saw nothing that could fly. ‘Oh well! I might as well get going,” I thought until the call—this time with a
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
Sometime in my youth my mother told me about something I did as a baby. With pride in her voice, she related how one day I heard the crunch of tires in the driveway and the opening of the porch door. Immediately I started babbling “Da Da!” I was happy
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
I belong to a group studying the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Had I background in botany and love for gardening I might enjoy the book. As it is, I have only a deep appreciation for the author’s style and ability to find deep meaning in cleaning a
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
When I played for Mass this morning, I was glad that there’s a hymn mentioning barley loaves and fish, namely, “We Come with Joy,” a parody by Delores Dufner. You remember the story, how Philip wondered how so little could feed so many. My mind went to the 10th National
- By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider
On Palm Sunday I witnessed a touching moment as I saw the ritual of palm through the eyes of an eight-year-old. The boy was crying very hard but quietly. He turned to his mom who wondered what the matter was. “The water didn’t touch me or my palm,” he said