Our church was crowded last Sunday, as it always is on Easter. Sitting in the pew in front of us was a young family. The two boys, about five and ten years old, were well-behaved and well-dressed, each in tan pants, a button-down shirt, and an adorable bow tie. This reminded me of a column I wrote more than 20 years ago, about another Easter Sunday. I think it’s still relevant today: As I waited for Mass to begin on Easter morning, I watched some [...]
Throughout the Lenten season, I’ve been reading daily meditations from a booklet our church distributed at the beginning of Lent. Each meditation is just two pages long. The first page usually tells the story of a saint or saintly person relevant to that day in history, such as St. Patrick on March 17. The booklet understandably refers to the day as “The feast of St. Patrick,” rather than “St. Patrick’s Day.” The second page of each meditation begins with a Biblical verse focusing on the [...]
I had a blog post written and almost ready to go last week. But before I could polish and post it, I had to take a slight detour, via ambulance, ending up in the hospital with internal bleeding caused by several small ulcers I didn’t know I had. After a few scary and painful days in the hospital, I’m home now, recovering and starting to feel like myself again. As always, after something bad happens in my life, I try to look for the good [...]
I had a doctor’s appointment Friday afternoon, and it was starting to rain just as I was leaving the doctor’s office. I looked at the time as I got in my car. It was a little after 2:00. This immediately took me back to when I was young, and we spent a fair amount of time in church during the Easter Triduum – the period of time between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday. The hours between noon and 3 o’clock on Good Friday were especially [...]
We just passed the one-year anniversary of my husband’s heart attack. It’s not something we went out to celebrate, but we did take notice and reflect. In some ways, it feels like it’s been much longer than a year, but in other ways, it feels more like, “One year? Already?” In many ways, he’s back to how he was before having a heart attack. In other ways, it’s changed both our lives. After his surgery, his doctors warned him it would be a full year [...]
I heard some church bells ringing the other day, and – perhaps because it’s the Christmas season – it made me think of a column I wrote long ago. I dug it out of my files and reread it, and realized it was just as appropriate today as it was then. I hope it inspires some fond memories for you. Christmas bells bring music, memories, and peace “Christmas bells, those Christmas bells, ringing through the land. Bringing peace to all the world. And good will [...]
When I was very young, Easter Sunday meant walking up the hill to church for morning Mass, wearing a pretty dress and hat, white gloves, and ruffled anklets. Later in the afternoon would be a traditional Easter meal – sometimes at our house but usually at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Following that would be a few chocolate treats and marshmallow Peeps from our Easter baskets – especially welcome after having gone without candy of any kind all through Lent. When my kids were young, some things [...]
“You should get some good stories and blog posts out of this,” my husband said. He was right. And the reason he made that comment is the same reason I didn’t get a blog post out at all last weekend. Last Saturday morning, my husband had a heart attack. He was at the health club working out, when he felt a tightness in his chest. Nothing serious, he thought. The kind of thing that happens every once in a while, for any number of reasons. [...]
I had another blog post written and ready to go, but I had a change of heart after watching all the news about the devastating tornadoes that wreaked havoc throughout the Midwest over the weekend. It didn’t feel right to post a light-hearted, holiday-themed message when there are so many people who lost their homes, their businesses, or their lives in these unprecedented storms. As someone who grew up in a “Tornado Alley,” and has been in the direct path of a tornado on several [...]
I still go back to my childhood when I think of Easter – both the religious and non-religious aspects of it. It takes me to memories of the bright colors of Easter eggs and Easter baskets, the wonderful smells coming from Grandma’s kitchen and our own as food was prepared and cooked, as cakes – in the shape of lambs – were baked and decorated, and as visions of chocolate bunnies danced in the heads of my sisters and me. Mass was early Sunday morning, [...]