With the start of a new year, many of us make resolutions related to losing weight and getting thin. Well, I can’t help you in that department, but I can help you start off the year by experiencing thin places! In her new book, Braving the Thin Places: Celtic Wisdom to Create a Space for Grace, the amazingly talented Julianne Stanz shares her profoundly personal insights and draws on her Irish-Celtic heritage to help us […]

One of the goals of the New Evangelization is to simplify—without making simplistic—the central message of the Gospel so that it is accessible to all. A person shouldn’t have to be a theologian to understand the Good News! With that in mind, I have summarized the gist of our salvation narrative in three words: rescue, restoration, and reassurance. This is the heart of the kerygma—the primary proclamation of the Gospel. Through the life, teachings, miracles, […]

One of the most profound statements that Jesus Christ made about himself is the following: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) In this statement, Jesus is not just describing himself as a truthful person. He is identifying himself as truth itself. This should make us think twice about how we do or don’t honor truth in our everyday lives and interactions with others. While humankind has always struggled with telling […]

My students are a little different each year. Several years ago, my first graders all had something to say in our prayer circle. The next year’s class was much quieter (except for a fidgety few). When I saw a variation of a pick-up sticks game on social media in which players named things they were grateful for, my creative wheels started turning! I quickly had an idea to get my quieter-than-normal group to speak up […]