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My high school orchestra director, Mrs. Wilcox, gave me a memorable musical phrase some 30 years ago. Trying to show one of the students in our group how to fearlessly bring out her part, she loudly sang the notes: “Yes!  I am here; I have arrived!” Mrs. Wilcox’s willingness to be goofy, along with the […]

My husband Thomas and I met while at Franciscan University where we were blessed to be a part of such a dynamic Catholic university. We currently live in Rockville and have three children; Landon, 5, Evelyn, 4, Audrey, 2, and we are due with twins in September.  The vocation of motherhood is filled with what […]

The Second Vatican Council’s document on the Sacred Liturgy reminds us that “the church has never failed to come together to celebrate the paschal mystery, reading those things ‘which were in all the scriptures concerning him’ (Lk 24:27), celebrating the Eucharist in which ‘the victory and triumph of his death are again made present,’ and […]

Much concern has been expressed over Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, and in particular its eighth chapter.  This document is the pope’s summary statement on the deliberations of the world’s bishops over the last several years on the question of marriage and family.  There has been considerable discussion, controversy even, over whether or […]

While away from the parish recently, I was able to take time reflecting on what community is about.  I was helped with this by the wonderful little book Welcome as a Way of Life by Benjamin S. Wall.  The book reflects on the reality of community as it has been lived and reflected on by […]

The word gospel has many meanings.  This Fourth Day of Christmas gives us a chance to reflect on the four Gospels found in the New Testament.  These four are, of course, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. When speaking of the four New Testament Gospels, we are talking about a genre of writing […]

This second day of Christmas invites us to reflect on the two natures of Christ. This is the very heart of the Christmas mystery. The baby born in Bethlehem is so super special because the baby is divine, sharing in the fullness of God. And yet, the baby is a baby, a fully human bundle […]

With almost perfect timing, in light of this year’s election and all, I fell upon a poem I hadn’t seen before from one of my favorite poets, Seamus Heaney. It is entitled, “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.” I’m writing just after an encounter With an English journalist in search of  ‘views On the Irish thing’. […]

Recently my attention was drawn to something said by the great German biblical scholar Rudolf Schnackenburg. Commenting on St. John’s First Letter, he says, “The love of God has been ‘revealed,’ that is, become open to experience through God’s sending of his only Son into the world” (The Johannine Epistles: A Commentary, 208). The nature […]

Many people are delighted by his seemingly easygoing pastoral way, his smiles and hugs of young and old, by the simple and pointed way he speaks, his mastery of turning a metaphor, his love for the poor and weak and vulnerable, and his insistence on opening the doors so as to reach out to everyone […]