This post is based on Week One of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure. There’s something special about a grandmother’s love. My mother was incredibly busy with a full-time teaching job and looking after the household. My grandmother, however, was always around, eventually coming to live with us on the family farm. Initially, however, she lived in […]
Whether you’re participating in the Lenten read-along or looking to incorporate journaling into your prayer practices, the Encounter Grace Journal can be a helpful companion. The downloadable resource features quotes from Becky Eldredge’s Encounter Grace: Moments of Hope, Joy, and Peace. Click the image below to download the journal. There’s still time to join the […]
Until I dive right into a situation, I will never understand how to love the people who live there. As a writer, I could talk poetically about love and compose moving essays on love. But unless I walk into the real life of someone who needs my love, I won’t have a clue. Because I’m […]
February is the month in which many people celebrate Valentine’s Day, and while romantic and spousal love are important to celebrate, it made me think about love more widely as a vocation for all of us. We might wonder, for example, How can we best love God? In St. Augustine’s work, On the Trinity, the […]
The trick to lighting a fire is to start by burning something small. In fact, you need lots of small things, preferably ones that catch fire easily: cardboard, sticks, broken branches, small bits of wood, and fire starters (storebought chunks of wood-like cylinders that catch and burn nicely). You need all these things, plus the […]
A colleague stopped me in the hallway. “Gretchen, glad I caught you! I’ve been invited to make dessert for the gathering this week, and I wanted to check with you,” she said. Before she finished speaking, I knew exactly what she wanted to check: my food allergies. Those who know me well know I would […]
I do a lot of listening. I listen in my home, my work, in the market, and in my ministry of spiritual direction. Wherever I go, I am hearing fear and concern. Hearts are troubled. We feel compassion for the suffering in our nation and in the world, yet we are at a loss about […]
I got to know St. Ignatius many years ago, at about 5:30 a.m., when a sopping wet Examen card was stuck to the side of the washing machine. Annoyed at myself for not staying up late to change loads nor checking pockets before doing laundry, I peeled the laminated card from the washer drum, wiped […]
