Recently, in thanks for a small contribution to “Home of Hope India” (which helps neglected, abused and abandoned girls in Southern India), I received a wonderful gift: a copy of In Due Season: A Catholic Life–autographed, no less, by its author, Paul Wilkes. (He is also executive director of “Home of Hope India.”) Continue Reading
Feeling Like a Magic 8 Ball
I’m not sure if you can buy them anymore–those magic 8 balls that looked like miniature bowling balls with a tiny water-filled window atop them, a different message on each side of the 8-sided shape. The messages were responses to a question you were supposed to pose to the magic 8 ball, before turning it over and upside down and rightside up to see what the “answer” to your question might be. Continue Reading
Advent Openings to Psalms of Revenge
Last night I read Psalm 79–one of the psalms of the day, and one of the psalms that call for God’s wrath upon the “heathen” (KJV) who’ve defiled the temple and killed many people of the covenant. Continue Reading
Blessings of the Season
Read short Advent reflections and prayers from the Sisters. We’ve already posted six, and will continue to post them throughout the season!
Changing Wind
I’ve just walked down to the library and back. My umbrella, for the limited amount of rain it kept off my head, told me that the wind is changing. Well, that and the obvious fact that it’s fifteen degrees colder than yesterday. We stand on the verge of winter; a token, introductory inch of snow is forecast for tonight. Continue Reading
God as a Nursing Mother
One of the Psalms for this evening–131–is very short but takes us in swiftly to meditate upon the image of ourselves becoming before God as still as a child quietly and contentedly nursing. Continue Reading
Advent and Christmas Psalm Cycle
Hi Everyone, The Psalms have been posted here on the Oblate blog. Just click the tab at the top of this page! Also, Advent reflections from our Sisters will be posted all month!
Cultivating Stability
The greatest gift we can cultivate in our lives and give to those around us is stability. My parents were models of stability, working, tending, helping. To say they were pillars of the community is an understatement. “Busy” and “doing” were their by-words. Continue Reading
Foreign Travel
In both a recent interview published in CONNECTING POINT (Autumn 2009) and a story posted on the SMM oblate blog/facebook (October 2009) I discussed my business trip to Nigeria this summer, during which I spoke to Nigerian business executives and attorneys about corporate criminal laws in the U.S. My reflections on this trip brought to mind something Richard Rohr observed about “liminal experiences,” that is, those events that tend to induce a type of “inner crisis to help us make a needed transformation”–sort of a displacement in hope of a new point of view. Continue Reading
Prayer as "Being With"
Recently, Sandy shared her successful pie-crust recipe with me. I greatly appreciated it because my own efforts, though consistent, were hardly stellar. (Her secret is to roll the crust between two sheets of wax paper.) Now, every time I make a pie, I find myself lifting Sandy in prayer. I thank God for her sweet nature, her sense of humor, and her friendship towards me. Continue Reading
Benedictine Oblate Musings 