by Ray NothstinePolitical hysteria has reached a crescendo over a very defined and limited ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby with last week’s 5-4 Supreme Court decision. As many commentators have noted, including the editors at National Review, “That this increase in freedom makes some people so very upset tells us more about them than about the Court’s ruling.”In deciding to uphold rights of conscience, the court cited The Religious Freedom Res...

It was only supposed to be an eight hour trip, honest! Sr. Madonna and I had started the day with Mass and our Hour of Adoration at St. John Neumann Church in St. Charles, Illinois. At approximately 10 a.m. on Friday, May 30th, we then headed for Canfield, Ohio, where our brothers and priests of the Society of St. Paul would host us at the "half-way" point on our trip to Boston, our final destination (which would require another day of travel).The sun was shining, all systems go! This would be a...

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (John 6:56-57). The Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) invites us to pause and reflect upon the gift of the Eucharist in our own lives. Our reception of the Eucharistic bread and wine is not a &ldqu...

Are there days when the problems and the pain are so great you just “check out”? Maybe you go through the motions, even with a smile on your face, but inside you are numb? Perhaps you think, “I don’t want to be (a mother, a doctor, a nurse,  a teacher…) anymore. I could walk out on my job or my family or my friends today and not feel anything…. I’ll stay because I care, but I just don’t have anything left in me to give.” These moments, if we’re honest, have probably come to all of us. ...

The Trinity can seem so far removed from us. As little children our teachers may have used the three leaves of a shamrock to help us understand, “one God in three Divine Persons.” The Trinity is a mystery, but that doesn’t mean that our awareness of the Trinity needs to stop with the shamrock. Even though we can't understand this mystery, it is highly “practical,” meaning it has a very profound effect on how we live our life. I’d like to share with you a few stories I have encountered rega...

I have always loved the Easter season, particularly the way it crescendos at the end, culminating in the feast of Pentecost.  Our community of the Daughters of St. Paul, and all the Pauline Family, have a special Marian feast that falls between the Ascension and Pentecost—the feast of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Mary is the mother, teacher, and queen of all those who are sent to bring the good news of Jesus to the world. In some images, she is depicted among the apostles as they are gathered in th...

I’ve noticed something about movie titles lately. So many of them contain the word dark. The Dark Knight Rises, Thor: The Dark World, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Dark Shadows, Zero Dark Thirty. Others might not use the word but their subject matter is dark: Divergent, The Hunger Games franchise, even the recent Noah film. As Christian moviegoers, how do we stay focused on the light?John’s Gospel says, “The light shines in darkness and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5). All of our live...

May is a great time for thinking about decisions and futures. We celebrate ordinations, graduations, weddings…. We honor what has been achieved in people’s lives or our own, and we turn our eyes toward the next stage of our journey in life, whatever it may be.It is a wonderful blessing to us all that in the month of May we reflect on Mary, a woman who had to make a very important decision when she was probably just in her teenage years. She shows us the courageous spirit that makes decision-ma...

In mid-life a certain question begins to nag us a little more often than it might have before: Am I doing God’s will? Have I found my mission in life? Or more simply: Should I choose option A or option B? How do I know what God wants of me in this or that situation?A woman came to me many years ago after I had given a talk, asking for help in making a decision for a career change. We only had an hour, but I agreed to sit down and speak with her. She had a grandson in the prison system, and duri...

A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by God to give grace. That’s the definition I memorized as a little girl. As a child I knew of seven sacraments of the Church. As I matured I learned that you and I could be “sacraments” to others in as much as we allow Jesus to work in and through us. The more we empty ourselves of our self, the more we allow Jesus to work in us. This coming out of ourselves or self-emptying allows us to be signs of God’s love and presence to those around us. I want...