My mom kept a plastic bottle of holy water by the front door of our home and another on the bureau in my parents’ bedroom. Every day she would use the water to...
The Examined Life
I recently helped a friend move some exercise equipment. Mighty heavy exercise equipment to be precise. Exercise equipment that had to be taken apart in one...
As a child, my siblings and I eagerly anticipated Christmas. Poring through the Sears catalogue, we wrote our letters to Santa and composed our lists to give...
Grandma knows. She sits still at the end of her cream leather couch, legs wrapped in a Green Bay Packers blanket, eyes tuned to the television screen. A...
In the days following the fall of the Afghan government in mid-August, I found myself riveted by the photojournalism coming out of Kabul—desperate people...
“Free: spinach dip from Jewel. Bought last week and tried it but don’t like it.” The above post caught my eye as I was scrolling through Facebook one day. Who...
Praying the Magnificat with monks can be a jarring experience. Most parish communities pray at a pace more in line with an auctioneer—quick and efficient. But...
I started working for U.S. Catholic on the day our office closed during the first wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. While I was bummed not...
For years I’ve had the word gelassenheit (literally: “serenity”) framed on my wall. In college, I studied existentialism and phenomenology and came across the...
A creak in the old floorboard announces my presence. The blue-haired cashier twists from her perch behind the counter as I enter the co-op. Her young eyes warm...
