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.

Worthy and unworthy
Again I am standing in a pew, among strangers and friends. I am facing an altar on which bread and wine were just transformed to…
Confronting contradictions in the Church: Struggles in faith and a question of conscience
I remember sitting between my fellow Catholic classmates at an evening student mass in my first year at a Jesuit University. The Jesuit offering the…
Claiming why and causing dissatisfaction
For decades now, I have been riding this planet as she circles the sun. Decades now, I’ve desired to please. Please God. Friends. Housemates. Coworkers…
‘You are my flowers’: Learning to love
While I was in college in San Diego, one of my favorite places to wander around with a camera and journal was Balboa Park —…
Kristina Ortega: Inclusion and Catholic Education
Episode 63 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Stitcher | Email | RSS | More “Prayer has to push you to do something outside…
Easter Contemplation: Setting Us Free
A Special Episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Stitcher | Email | RSS | More IN THIS EPISODE For this special time of…
Equity and Justice | Franciscan life | Justice | Podcast | Prayer and Spirituality | Service on the Margins
Sister Christa Parra: Accompanying At the Border
Episode 62 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Stitcher | Email | RSS | More “Whoever is in front of us we are called…
A stone in place of bread
The summer I was 19, I dropped out of college and moved to an organic wheat farm in Kansas to help start a radical conservative…