My little sister is fond of telling me that stories happen to storytellers. I come from a family of storytellers, taught from an early age to pay attention, to find meaning. It’s a natural urge, I think, to narrativize big/weird/uncomfortable/Holy experiences in our lives. We make a story out of it and we can hold [...]
I ended my lunch yesterday over the mournful remains of a late season plum and Whole Foods frozen spinach egg bites and approximately four stale oreos. Maybe the food wasn’t mournful, but my attitude certainly was (although I’m sure the food didn’t help). All I wanted, I told Lydia, was a win. I just needed [...]
Every Wednesday, the Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit leadership team meets in a sweltering little conference room to pray over the upcoming Gospel reading and to discuss the Issue Of The Week (or month or liturgical season or pandemic cycle). We spent several minutes this Wednesday meditating (giggling) on the image of Peter impulsively stepping [...]
We’ve been moving at breakneck speed this entire year as we celebrate our 175th anniversary. Now, we’re on the brink of one of our biggest celebrations — our 175th Anniversary Feast Day Block Party on Sunday, June 25th (RSVP here right now if you haven’t yet!) — and, while a large part of me wants [...]
It was my own fault that I was at the office on Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. I planned the meeting after all, giving myself the second of my three six-day work weeks, the fillings of a sandwich I probably shouldn’t have prepared right at the end of Lent. It was humid and stormy [...]
Parishioner’s Pen 2.10.2023 – Rebecca MacMaster If you’ve been at Mass in the last couple of months (no judgement) you might’ve seen me and anywhere from one to four little helpers at the side entrance, passing out hymnals. A couple of weeks ago, in the dreary depths of January where both sunshine and positive [...]
Like the start of any new year, there’s been plenty of talk amongst my friends and family of resolutions and goals, of things we should do more of and things we should stop doing. One of the biggest things that my fiance and I need to do is finish planning our wedding. We’re getting married [...]
Parishioner’s Pen 12/2/2022 I skipped Mass the Sunday before I defended my master’s thesis. Through some sort of twist of fate or act of the Holy Spirit, the exact reading I had spent 20 weeks and 61 pages on was being proclaimed from ecumenical pulpits around the world. Insta DM’s busy with well-meaning friends [...]
As I write this, I’m watching the New York Rangers-Boston Bruins hockey game. Simultaneous fights are breaking out between the teams. And I can’t help but smile. “But Toni, why are you smiling watching hockey players fight? And why aren’t you watching the Red Wings?” Both are valid questions. Before I moved [...]
My first apartment in Detroit leaked. Little gaps in the crumbling brick let in rain and frigid tendrils of air with enough strength to blow out my candles and a weird amount of curiously dead wasps that I never saw alive. My floors were constantly covered in a gritty red dust, no matter how much [...]
