Today we celebrate St. Benedict. He reformed the way monks–and we–pray the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office). He chose the “Lite Psalter” method of fewer psalms and shorter hours (prayers prayed periodically throughout the day). Before his reform some monks would claim “One for the strong!” meaning they would

Who invented the phrase “feet in the air”? Could it have been the apostles as they looked up as Jesus ascended? Was their last visual memory of their Master “feet in the air”? I’ve been reading about the Jesuits who so often went off to a mission land at a

When people need our attention, sometimes we can give them only a minute or two of listening. And maybe their spoken or unspoken requests can find only a little space in our heart. Perhaps we’d like to give them more of ourselves and our time. Or maybe we begrudge the

We might wonder, “What did Jesus look like?” “What does God look like?” Then remembering that we are made in the image of God, we may hear God say to us, “I look like you.”

Perhaps you’ve asked someone to write you a letter of recommendation. If so, you chose someone you could trust, someone honest (but not brutally so), someone with good language skill. The one who knows us best is God. What would God write for our letter of recommendation?

My typical day is filled with ordinary tasks. As a liturgist/musician I write General Intercessions, select songs, practice music, post hymn numbers. As a member of a team caring for Lial Renewal Center, I perform many mundane activities: weeding, sweeping, dusting, washing windows and dishes. In some way these tasks

Appreciating creation and then thanking the Creator is a beautiful way to know and love God. A waterfall reminds us of the God of Life. A newborn reveals the God of Tender Love. Flowers, insects, and animals are an endless source of amazement in the God of Infinite Creativity. When

Regardless of the manner used in prayer, prayer gradually makes our lives more a prayer. At some point prayerful living and living prayer fuse. A person facing long weeks of bone marrow transplants or chemotherapy prays, and their struggle for life is their prayer. Such a patient reaches for the

We speak of a “day of reckoning” when our deserved rewards and punishments will be meted out, sometimes in the context of death. The reward will be due in part to our response on “the day of beckoning,” when we were asked to follow Christ. The day of beckoning began

Recently I took a two-mile wagon ride through Rolling Ridge Ranch in the Amish country in eastern Ohio. Beefalo, zebu cattle, yak, Brahma cattle, Nigai, antelope, emus, ostriches, llamas, alpacas, and many other animals gathered at the wagon whenever it stopped. They knew they would be fed from our buckets.