“Margaret, I didn’t know you were a runner.” “Oh, I’m not, not really” I said this the day after running my 19th half-marathon, and immediately sensed how ridiculous I sounded. “I mean, I’m not really an athlete. It’s more stubbornness than grace.” ********** I started running seriously when I was just out of college. IContinue reading >>
What do you mean? – on writing about prayer
Just a few revisions, they said. I have learned to love revising, eliminating unnecessary words, shifting ideas, and adding clarity to phrases. A few revisions should have been no problem at all. But I was revising a series of passages about prayer, and the notes in the margin posed tougher questions than I was readyContinue reading >>
The Church, privilege, and apologies
Pope Francis recently suggested in a press conference that there is cause for the Church to apologize. Responding to a question about a German cardinal’s statement that the Church should apologize to gays and lesbians the Pope agreed, and went further: “I believe that the church should not only say sorry, as Cardinal Marx says,Continue reading >>
What I’ll remember from the Pope’s visit
Now that the pope is gone, and the spin has been dragged out for a few days and soon will fade from view, here’s what I’ll remember, and I hope you will too. How good it felt when everyone was civil and getting along. I heard countless quips about how remarkable it was that everyoneContinue reading >>
Therefore let us keep the feast
One of my friends is a particularly fine party-thrower. She’s hosted classy cocktails, delicious brunches, and her last birthday was a bash to beat the band. She also has been known to throw parties on the feast of her confirmation saint, Ignatius of Loyola. A few years back I celebrated St Ignatius Day with JesuitContinue reading >>