Dear Friends in Christ, December 3 is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits. Because of his far-flung journeys throughout Asia in the 16th century, he is widely considered the greatest missionary since the apostle Paul. Yet, Francis died at the age of 46, without ...

Dear Friends, By the time this email is published, I will have left Spain and a lovely community behind to begin a new mission in the United States. This marks the tenth move in twenty-seven years of consecrated life. In every transition, my mother´s parting and consoling words surface…. My ...

Dear Friends, It’s that time of year when all the memes and advertising remind us of the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, but what happens when you don’t feel grateful? Recently, I was in a conversation with women who have had a lot of suffering in their lives, and the topic of ...

O Lord… even the darkness is not dark to you (Psalm 139) Dear Friends, As we journey with the Lord, questions inevitably arise. “What do you ask of me?” “How are you calling me to love this person?” “Lord, why does evil sometimes seem so powerful, and you seem so ...

Dear Friends in Christ, November in the global North is marked by shorter days and longer, chillier nights. It’s also the month when the Church especially remembers the souls of the departed, as on All Souls’ Day. And just as the cooler weather can be sobering—summer is long gone—so the ...

Greetings Friends, As leaves change here in the Midwest and some school sport seasons enter “finals,” those in publishing already shifted gears toward Advent of Christmas.  At RCSpirituality, you might have noticed that we have also “shifted” our homes. Not one to embrace change lightly, I cling to the known ...

Dear Friends, Here in the formation center it is “ordinary time.” The seven new consecrated have arrived, the community is settling in and theology classes at the University of San Damaso have begun. The days are getting shorter, and the temperatures are dropping. The liturgy, the routine of daily life ...

Dear Friends, Have you ever watched a small child wander through fields of grass and wildflowers? Wandering is defined as walking casually or aimlessly. Small children wander, sometimes to the point of panicking their elders, but it is rarely, if ever, aimless. There is a difference between ‘wondering,’ as in ...