Columns
‘Joy as a Daily Discipline’: Leaning into Easter
Easter gets the short end of the stick. That’s what author Laura Kelly Fanucci concluded. Any Catholic can tell you what the 40 days of Lent entail, rattling off […]
Columns
Second by Second, Turning Toward the Sun
The older I get, the more I appreciate the math of meteorology. Something has shifted in me, and now I’m all ears when my retired neighbor rattles off numbers from […]
Columns
A Survival Love Story
Zach Zarembinski was 18 when he suffered a massive brain bleed during a high-school football game, was rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and placed in a coma. […]
Columns
Stovetop Spirituality
The older I get, the more I crave a practical spirituality – one tied to dirty dishes not pristine libraries, one that recognizes hungry bellies along with hungry hearts. Some […]
Columns
Listening for the Holy Spirit
The sun was setting by the time we’d reached consensus on our Christmas tree. We’d decided on a cedar that hadn’t been anyone’s first choice – safely neutral, conflict averted. […]
Columns
An Unsinkable Faith
It was a Monday afternoon in November of 1975 when Debbie Champeau got the call. The 17-year-old, a senior at St. Pius XI in Milwaukee, left school immediately, taking two […]
Columns
The Need for Deep Roots
There’s something about pumpkins. Lumpy and bumpy, impossibly orange, harbinger of harvest. Instant cheer on a front porch with a hint of moonlit mystery. An invitation to trick-or-treat treaters that later […]
Perspective
Music, Like Mercy, Streaming Down River
It began as a low hum on the horizon, barely perceptible. Then a pulsing rhythm rose from the river – the brass and beat of a live band drifting through […]
Perspective
Hanging Art, Adding Beauty, One Frame at a Time
When the chaos rises – the living room buzzing with four kids, piano pounding, guitar strumming, high-speed chases underway – Katie Murray’s eyes land on the “Annunciation” print framed above […]
Perspective
Even Now, the Ship Will Hold
“Don’t give up the ship.” Those five words were the dying command of Captain James Lawrence during the War of 1812. Mortally wounded in battle at sea, he gasped this […]
Perspective
The Gift of Taking Your Time
As I write this, I am keeping company with a mama Robin on our backyard balcony, so I’m treading lightly. Tapping not pounding the keyboard. Sliding not slamming the door. […]
Perspective
Traveling Mercies: Over the River and Through the Woods
The journey from a suburban Home Depot to our new country home spanned 11 miles and three helpers, winding over the river and through the woods. In the end, three […]