Prayer
Prayer is the heartbeat of the messy, faithful life. Whether you come to it with confidence or doubt, with eloquence or silence, with a rosary in your hands or nowhere near a church — these posts are an invitation to show up anyway. From ancient practices to honest lament, from the Examen to poetry to prayers stitched together from the wreckage of an ordinary day, Messy Jesus Business writers explore what it means to speak, listen, and sit with God in the midst of a complicated world.
I fasted on only bread and juice for Lent. This is what I learned.
My stomach felt like an empty pit. There could not possibly have been anything left in the tank. I had already been on the toilet…
As dust
Oh God, who desire not the death of sinners, but their conversion, mercifully hear our prayers and in your kindness be pleased to bless these ashes,…
The mess of 2018 in five posts
Happy New Year, Messy Jesus Business readers! As the calendar pages turn, it is a good time to pause and consider how God’s graces have…
How Do Words Become Flesh?
This womb of mine will not know the pangs of pregnancy. My skin will not tighten when another body becomes part of my flesh. My…
O Come Emmanuel: Free us prisoners
Sitting next to me in another hard, plastic chair is a good-hearted man wearing brightly colored scrubs — colors that label him as guilty of…
Entry into Advent: the pacing of discovery
Psalm 80 is often read in churches all over the world during the Advent season. Throughout this psalm of yearning we pray, “restore us, O…
Most wonderful time of the year
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Except, for you, this holiday season is anything but. Maybe you are moving through the annual…
Light of St. Lucy
I remember spending a lot of time picking out my new confirmation name. Among the saints, the holy men and women who have come before…