Blog Archive
Contemplating the messiness of Christian life
The Messy Jesus Business Blog is an ecumenical Christian gathering of musings about what it means to live the Gospel today. A variety of contributors offer prayer, poetry, book reviews, creative nonfiction and prose about what it means to live a life of faith in our complex, modern times.
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Being a beautiful mess
By Guest Blogger: Sarah Hennessey FSPA Usually when people find out I’m a Catholic sister there follows some basic assumptions. Some people wonder where I’ve put my “black get-up” or habit, my wooden ruler and my stern look. More stereotypes than assumptions, I’m still surprised how often these come up. Behind these images are the
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The saint and the sisters of St. Rose
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Affiliate Emily Dawson works at St. Rose Convent in vocation ministry. She was asked to write about the correlation between St. Rose of Viterbo, the patron saint of the FSPA (whose feast day is today), and life in the convent. When I asked a FSPA in the know about St.
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By the book
I remember when and where I first learned the word. I was 18 and sitting on a folding chair among a crowd in an enormous gymnasium-converted auditorium. It was dark in the giant room; only the stage was lit. Eager to be an excellent Christian, I was at a conference sponsored by The Navigators (an international,
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A great big exciting God question
A vivid memory has been speaking to me all summer: a sunny spring day, as the fourth period of the school day began, a few excited ninth-grade boys came to class eager to ask a question. Their energy was animated and slightly nervous (“You ask her.” “No you ask her!”) for I believe they knew, at
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Get up and open the door
Sister Sarah Hennessey is a spiritual advisor for her local conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s National Council of the United States and serves as an emergency contact for those who find themselves in urgent need. The call came on a Sunday evening. A woman was at our grocery story and had
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Big picture love
Union with God: we pray for it, long for it, work for it. But, are we prepared for what it can do to us? How much could we be transformed if, for example, we start to see the world as God sees it? And, what does love got to do with it? Last night I renewed my
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Motherhood and Not-So-Simple Simplicity
By guest blogger Nicole Steele Wooldridge I always used to find it challenging to live out the value of simplicity in a contemporary Western context. Now, as a mom, I find it nearly impossible. I am blessed to be the mother of a twenty-month-old daughter and another little girl due in two months. I desperately
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Over-Blessed
By guest blogger Elizabeth Diedrich It is 7 p.m. and there are two things on my mind: I am hungry and I need to use the bathroom. Dinner service ended a half hour ago but one person has yet to leave. I wait at the back door, ready to finish my job, which involves making
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the lesson of spring soil
soil slides aside allowing an emergence flower seed breaks, becoming resurrected over the reasons and chances that it might not make it or shouldn’t come alive it rises, a new life a new colorful character in the neighborhood sustained by the power of the sun Earth knows how to welcome the stranger room is
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disturbed in the desert
It’s Lent. I am a disciple, trying to fast and pray in the desert. I’m getting hungry for some great elation, getting worn out from discomforts. I am all hot and bothered–hah! I am disturbed. I’ve been thinking “perhaps that’s the whole point of discipleship.” We must be disturbed. This journey with Jesus is a journey of conversion–
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Who will save the hunger striker?
“Eternal God…You know that these men have testified falsely against me. Would you let me die, though I am not guilty of all their malicious charges?” This week the daily mass readings begin with the cry of Susannah, unjustly accused by corrupt officials, sentenced to death in the presence of the people. We read that
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Becoming a new fruit and fertilizer
By guest blogger Amy Nee On Ash Wednesday in 2012 I heard: “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” – Isaiah 43:19 Last year, when I heard these words at the start of Lent I felt as though God was proclaiming them directly to me. Holding
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