Do you ever wonder if you are good enough? Good enough to get a promotion? Good enough for your children? Good enough for God?Fear over not being enough is something most of us have felt at least once. We need to prove ourselves to others in every aspect of our life. To sell ourselves. To brand ourselves. To convince others we are good enough for this award, this promotion, this opportunity.The advertising industry makes us worry our bodies aren’t beautiful enough, healthy enough, powerful...

“Mary treasured all these things and pondered on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).For several years now I have been curating a blog called “The Angelus Project." Every week it presents a different image of the Annunciation as a way of encouraging people to pray the Angelus (though now that we are in the Easter season, that prayer yields pride of place to the Regina Coeli). The process of selecting and posting these weekly images from so many different eras and cultures has tau...

Each year we purchase a plain Easter Candle. Sr Mary Leonora then lovingly creates a unique and exquisite image on the candle. On the left is a closeup of the candle for this year.The theme for this year’s candle is The Victory of the Lamb as portrayed in the book of Revelation. The symbol of the Lamb takes us from Genesis (the sacrifice asked of Abraham), through the Exodus Passover and the suffering servant prophecies of Isaiah, to the proclamation of John the Baptist (Behold, the L...

It has been but four days after 17 teens died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the pain of this event, born primarily by those closest to these teens and their community, still lies heavy on my heart. The only prayer that makes sense at a moment like this is the Way of the Cross. Did you ever notice how the Stations of the Cross are an astounding portrayal of the power of love in the experience of violence?In this prayer, where violence seems to have the last wor...

A. Deep. Breath. That was what I needed first to break the power of the day's lingering memories. Another breath and another...I imagined the tension and worry flowing out from my fingers and my toes until I relaxed enough to bring my day to the only One who could show me the way through the struggles to the radiance of surrender. I showed it  all to him and then listened.Like the people who met Jesus in the Gospels. They showed him their leprosy, their fears, their sins, their doubts.....

 September 15 is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. This woman and mother who was greeted by the Angel Gabriel as “full of grace,” is also the woman and mother who is full of sorrow. At weddings and religious professions and ordinations, I rejoice with the young people beginning their lives with such joy, knowing that one day they will also drink their chalice of sorrow.Life is beautiful that way. It doesn’t allow us to run through the years of our life getting everything w...

To the angels who watch over usour guardians who see the face of Godstrong spirits who hold our handshearts of flame, loving God and guiding us on our way,a silence shrouds the country as we wait out the stormas we wade through the floodsas we worry about loved onesas we evacuate and seek shelterGo before uswatch behind usshield usprotect usbring us togetherto care for each otherAs you stand before the face of our Father in heavenintercede for usask for mercyhear our plea, when anxiety is our pr...