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.
The joy of receiving
Jesus observed, “Without me you can do nothing.” Yet we act, for the most part, as though without us God can do nothing …“ ~…
Fear, darkness, and Advent
Lately a certain Gospel instruction is has been grinding challenge into my life, really giving my heart a doozy of a talking to. Jesus says it…
Porters, Posadas and our Advent invitation
“Welcome!” My Capuchin Franciscan postulant friend greeted me as he opened the large wooden door, inviting me inside from the Midwestern early-winter chill. There was…
Quaker lessons for a Catholic girl
I grew up as a Quaker in North Carolina. Now I am a Franciscan Sister in Wisconsin. You may think I have traded hush puppies…
Mud, muck, and the courage of change
I love hearing the stories of the early Church, especially as they are proclaimed everyday at Mass during the Easter season. Their adventures, as are…
Easter Sunday: ordinary resurrections and trembling tombs
Alleluia!! Alleluia! He lives, and laughs death right in its face, saying, Surprise, surprise! Nothing can kill this everlasting love! Ordinary resurrections are everywhere. There…
Signs of spring in Lent
During this Lenten season, more than any other Lent, I am getting how significant it is that Lent means spring. Lent is also a time…
French braiding my way to a holier Lent
I am trying to teach myself how to French braid hair. As the mother of two daughters, one of whom was able to donate 10+…