News from a new memoir collection project: Seeds of Service. Here’s their introduction: Have you committed a year or more to post-graduate service in the United States? Do you have reflections to share about your experience in one of America’s faith-based service programs? Are you interested in being part of a published work? We are [...]
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As we reflect back on the past four years, we are incredibly grateful for the people who have supported this work–those who believed in our idea before it had a publisher, those who had enough faith in it to offer us a contract, those who have read our book and our blog, those who have [...]
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by Kate Henley Averett While the way in which I identify with is complicated (does “non-institutionally affiliated, non-Mass attending, preacher-of-the-Gospel-at-all-times with a thoroughly Catholic theological imagination” even make sense to me, let alone to anyone else?) and tends to vary from day to day, the question of Catholics and voting resonates with me a great [...]
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by Nelle Carty In Loving Memory of my mentor and friend, Patrick L. Rattigan. When I first started as a theology teacher at a Jesuit high school in a Chicago suburb, I had an official mentor who supported me through the academic year. There were no desks available next to my mentor in the department [...]
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by Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello In my day job as a professor of American Studies I work to help my students question and explore “facts” about the United States that are often taken for granted. The standard narrative (the supposed “fact”) that I’ve just finished exploring with one class is the notion that “America is the Land [...]
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By Rebecca Curtin We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; very God of very God; begotten, not made; of one [...]
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Felicia Schneiderhan My first thought always when hearing today’s Gospel is “Good, I don’t have to be perfect.” See, I have this perfectionism thing going. My spiritual advisor reminds me that my perfectionism is really pride in disguise; really me trying to be God. “And where’s the God in that?” she asks. Well, God’s not [...]
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by Angela Batie Carlin I just returned from four days at my alma mater, where the annual convocation and reunion celebrated 80 years of women at YDS. I am still unpacking the images, the feelings, the thoughts, and the treasures of the experience. I was emboldened and ignited by the tales of overcoming discrimination and [...]
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I am teaching a student for whom English is a second language, and a recently acquired one at that. He is soon going to take a test that is far too advanced for his current level, and so he muddles through impossible readings and pretends to understand “communism” and “altruism” when really he needs a [...]
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by Kate Henley Averett For weeks now, I’ve been thinking nearly constantly about the climate for LGBTQ people in our country. It’s hard not to: the recent media attention given to suicides of LGBTQ youth, most of whom had been bullied in their middle and high schools, has gotten a lot of people talking about [...]
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by Jen Owens In coming to the readings for this week, I find myself in the thick of things, like all the characters we meet in these three stories—trying to show gratitude for something miraculous like Naaman is, identifying with the suffering of Paul and desiring the freedom that comes with the word, and wanting [...]
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by Felicia Schneiderhan We had a BBQ last weekend that demanded the clearing of a side counter in the kitchen – the counter which catches about a month of mail. This counter – I’m not exaggerating – had more than a foot of paper piled up on it. My husband Mark did what any smart [...]
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by Angela Batie Carlin My, the readings feel dismal today. But, I suppose some people would call the life of the Church dismal these days. With each new news story – from parishes closing their doors to new clergy abuse scandals to the divisive topics of marriage equality and women’s inclusion, not to mention the [...]
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by M. Nelle Carty If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable…we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar. ~ John Henry Newman Just after I came to London to be with my fiancé, I heard that Pope Benedict XVI had been invited by the Queen to make a [...]
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by Kate Henley Averett Whilst procrastinating on my work last week, reading feministing–one of my favorite blogs–I came across the most beautiful thing. It’s called the It Gets Better project, and it was started by Dan Savage and his husband Terry in response to the latest rash of gay teen suicides. Dan and Terry, like [...]
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This Sunday we won’t have a blog post on the readings, but we do have a couple links for ya. One is the USCCB website, which has the readings of the day for every day of the liturgical year, including this one. The other is a National Catholic Reporter article on Haiti, entitled “Haiti: Grace [...]
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by Rebecca Curtin It’s fall, and baseball season is coming to a close. It’s bittersweet saying goodbye to the “Boys of Summer,” and it’s tempting to be caught up in the excitement of a new football season, to anticipate falling leaves, pumpkins, and holidays. But, for now, I’m still thinking about baseball. Baseball and this [...]
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I am guilty of being a hope-filled optimist. I like movies with happy endings. I cheer whole-heartedly for my team, even when I know there are slim odds they will win. At mass, I like to sing uplifting songs and hear a thought-provoking, and even motivational homily. It shouldn’t be too surprising then, that I [...]
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By Felicia Schneiderhan A year and a half ago my husband Mark and I bought our first house. The previous owners had beautiful gardens, but in two years of vacancy, things had gotten out of hand. The two planters in the front yard were overrun with hostas, sage, day lilies: dense and crazed, a good [...]
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By Rebecca Lynne Fullan I love this week’s readings. They are graceful and abundant, and cause me to rethink assumptions. Look at Paul, in the second reading, for example. Paul gets a lot of flack and complaint from Christians of a liberal bent, and there’s a tendency, mentally, to shove a lot of the tricky [...]
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