by Mary | Feb 19, 2015 | Lent
My Lenten post over at HuffPost Religion:
Lent is one of those seasons that always begins with the best of intentions and rapidly goes downhill, at least that’s how it usually plays out for me. I plan to pray more, eat less, and find creative ways to make my favorite time in the Church year more meaningful. Unfortunately, the ashes hardly have time to settle into the wrinkles on my forehead before I’m feeling like I’ve already failed.
But Lent is a journey, not a pass-fail test. Trust me, if it were at all possible to fail Lent, I would have long ago been expelled from this spiritual school. Fortunately, the goal here is not a perfect score at the end of 40 days. In fact, let’s throw out the word “goal” and focus instead on practice — spiritual practice.
Here are five tips for shifting your Lenten journey from total spiritual makeover to subtle interior transformation:
Read more HERE.
by Mary | Jan 9, 2014 | faith, grief, Life in My 50s
You will often hear me talk about being in “darkness,” and almost always those posts happily wrap up with a light at the end of the tunnel, a glimmer of hope, a shimmer of the Spirit. Something. Anything. But lately, to be perfectly honest, it’s just been darkness. I know that from the outside — and even from the inside — I clearly have nothing in the world to feel dark about. But there it is. Enveloping. Suffocating. Punishing. Frightening. (more…)
by Mary | Mar 30, 2013 | faith, Lent
Peter never really used to be one of my favorites from Scripture, but the older I get, the more beloved he becomes. He gives me comfort because I identify with him, especially lately. At this point in our faith story, Peter is locked away — afraid, ashamed, alone. He doubted, he denied, he ran away. Even before the crucifixion, he often seemed to get it wrong. Imagine for a moment that Jesus says to you, “Get behind me, Satan.” Yeah, that’s pretty bad. And yet Jesus saw fit to call him the “rock,” the one who would go on to lead his church, or, at that point, his band of disciples. Maybe, just maybe then, Jesus sees some shred of worth beneath my many failings, behind my own doubts and fears. (more…)
by Mary | Mar 29, 2013 | faith
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Just back from Stations of the Cross at the beautiful Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. (Click on the photo at the bottom of this post to enlarge. The Stations are spectacular, if you ever have a chance to visit the cathedral.)
The Scripture verse below is the one that jumped out at me from all the others as we were praying this afternoon:
(more…)
by Mary | Mar 29, 2013 | faith
I’d like to backtrack for a minute and make sure you all had a chance to read what I think is a critical and spot-on portion of Pope Francis’ homily — directed toward priests — at the Chrism Mass yesterday. When I read this, I was moved by the beauty of both the content and the language, and by the truth that this pope speaks. (more…)
