Embracing our common call to holiness
Last weekend I traveled to the Adirondacks for the Catholic Ecology retreat with the St. Kateri Conservation Center. I am currently serving as a board member for the organization, and with the retreat within driving distance I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend. I was excited to meet Catholic friends I only knew online, […]
Judas is an easy villain, is he not? He checks all the boxes: Complains about not giving to the poor while simultaneously stealing from the disciples’ purse? Check. Back-stabbing friend? Check. ‘Coward’ who kills himself rather than face the consequences of his actions? It feels like an uncomplicated character study, but the older I become […]
If you’re anything like me, then you have tried, on countless occasions, to have a morning prayer routine. You’ve Googled, you’ve Pinterested, you’ve scrolled through Instagram for inspiration on what you should be doing in the mornings, and you’ve likely seen beautiful images depicting serene prayer and cozy spaces. You’ve set your alarm, determined to […]
Last week on Catholic Mom I wrote about the biblical concept of first fruits, and how we can apply that to our modern lives. In the Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz observes that often we are giving God whatever is left in our days. Energetic scraps, if you will. How can we […]
So many families seem to have it all together for Advent, don’t they? Christmas trees acquired and beautifully decorated; Advent wreaths lit while small children sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel;” devotionals read while sipping a cup of hot coffee. Advent is planned, done and dusted, and now they just get to sit back and […]
American Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday for me, and many others, as a Native American. Some Native families celebrate it while others do not. It is an annual reminder of the painful past between indigenous people and the Europeans who later came to inhabit their lands. My family has always celebrated Thanksgiving, but I was […]
Hallowtide is upon us, and I, for one, am practically vibrating with excitement. What is Hallowtide, you ask? It’s the ancient Christian custom of praying for the dead and celebrating the countless (named and unnamed) saints in Heaven over the course of three days: All Hallows Eve (aka Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls […]
My family is Kanienʼkehá:ka (Mohawk), one of the six tribes that form the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy that stretches primarily between the northeastern United States and Canada. Native Americans make up 1% of the population of American Catholics, so you may not have encountered many (or any) of us. Americans tend to think that Native people […]
My journey towards joining the Secular Franciscan Order started out with a bang courtesy of the Holy Spirit (a story for another day). From that point onward I knew deep in my heart that I was meant to be spending time with a local Secular Franciscan fraternity, and that I very likely had a vocation […]
My childhood church featured beautiful, full-length stained glass windows. My family typically sat in the same area each week, and I grew to know the windows within view. The saints depicted in them became old friends I looked forward to seeing each week. One window was a particular source of fascination for me, and it […]
