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Wrestling with Diversity
How do we welcome non-Christians into our schools and our religion classrooms, and at the same time give witness to our own Christ-centered faith? How do we invite students to learn from and respect other faith traditions without sending the …
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You Were Called
The shadows are falling, and they are lush. The curtains are closing, the audiences hush. Your life's dawning was so long ago. All experiences mesh with vast undertow. You were called, but the voice was faint. No one called you …
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Excerpts from Listen for a Whisper: Prayers, Poems, and Reflections by Girls
God is with her. God works for her. God fills her. God chooses her. God accepts her. God praises her. God listens to her. God cries with her. God knows her. God loves her. We are her. Quotes taken from …
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Feminine Images of God
Look up the following Scripture references and summarize each in the space provided. For each group of readings, come up with a category or theme. Isaiah 66:13 Isaiah 46:3 Isaiah 49:13-16 Hosea 11:1,3-4 Wisdom 16:25-26 Psalm 22:9-10 Isaiah 66:9 …
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The Sacred Ground of the Mountains
I came to know the mountains of Washington long before I moved here a couple of years ago. I first fell in love with this area back in 1984 when I came to visit my sister and brother-in-law right after …
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Catholic Youth and the Bible: Moving from Biblical Literacy to Biblical Spirituality
Developing one's biblical literacy As a college student back in the mid-seventies, I was invited to be part of an ecumenical student Bible study. Born and raised Catholic, I don't think I had cracked open a Bible more than two …
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Finding God in Silence
If you are feeling unfulfilled in your prayer life, take heart. This author says sometimes all it takes to is to be silent and listen. IS YOUR PRAYER LIFE IN A RUT? Are there days when you feel like quitting …
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Five prayers Catholics can take to heart
The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God. --Jewish Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man's Quest for God …
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A Note on Kneeling
IT WASN'T UNTIL I COULD NO LONGER kneel that I began to savor the lovely simplicity of this ancient act, and guess at its provenance, and savor its humility, and notice it not only in Mass but in many other …
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Meeting the Rhinoceros
Thomas Merton makes a valuable role model for the spiritual journey of the adolescent rhinoceros. At times even the most optimistic teacher may despair of the possibility of ever communicating meaningfully with adolescents. The significant number of developmental tasks facing …
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Our Father, Our Mother
Our Father, Our Mother, so wholly in heaven, so on-the-way, so be-coming in every him-her-you-me that ever on earth was, is, will-be, knead us every this-day into one bread.
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Litany for the Ordinary
Mary, queen of the ordinary-- queen of spinning wheel and loom who wove from ordinary stuff the flawless fabric of God's humanness; queen whose pregnancy put Joseph's other plans aside and sent his saw singing into cradlewood; queen of water …
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Hands
Focusing Scripture I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:15–16) Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, "Now I have …
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Ideas for Teaching Feminine Spirituality
In 1994, I started teaching a course on women's spirituality for seniors at Holy Names High School, an all-girls school in Oakland, California. Finding materials for such a class was a challenge. No textbooks or other resources existed that were …
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Leading Students to Hermitage:
Editor's note: A few months ago I met (by mail and phone) Sr. Mary Farrell, SC, who has taught at Saint Peter's High School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for thirty-six years. Much of that time, she taught French and …
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Schoolwide Prayer in the Words of "Me"
What distinguishes a Catholic school from a public school? The obvious answer is that, at least potentially, a Catholic school is a faith community. Whether it is truly a faith community depends on more than the offering of religion courses, …
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Emmaus Poem
A strange place to make a new beginning here on a dusty road not leading much of anywhere in a time when the ritual seasons have already turned and at dusk almost dark, in fact what an unsuitable place and …
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Praying the Psalms
Remember the television show from the late 80's called "Doogie Howser, M.D.?" At the end of every show, Doogie would sit down at his computer and write a 2 or 3 sentence "blurb" that perfectly summed up his day and …
