“I now know what you have to experience before you die: let me tell you. What you have to experience before you die is a driving rain transformed into light.” –Renee, concierge, main character; The Elegance of the Hedgehog Several years ago, when teaching Morality and Ethics to twelve year olds, one student asked me…

For several hours today, there was the perfection of all that is most Spring. It was glorious. In the freedom of response that such beauty can inspire, I went on a wander in one of my favorite outdoor places– The Farmers Market at Union Square. And, I went with an agenda…an indulgent agenda that brings…

Perhaps it is my recent experience with a 30 day retreat. Perhaps it is being on the cusp of a new adventure in people and place. Perhaps it is simply that though it is Lent and not August, the second Sunday’s cycle A Gospel reading has Peter, James, and John taking a hike up Tabor…

Whether we liked it or not, we all “sprang forward” with the change to daylight savings time in the USA this past Sunday. There is lightness and brightness slipping in as spring approaches, so let us consider what is springing forth in our lives right now. Name 5 things that are springing forth… 1. The…

I was running an errand after daily Mass at my parish and passed New York Foundling—founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1869 as a home for children, its “extensive network of community based services provides havens for children whose safety is at risk, loving foster and group facilities to protect children and support for…

Things encountered today… Brie on a bridge. I was crossing the Mazzini bridge near the house and saw a paper plate, a napkin, and a wrapped wedge of brie. It struck me as both intriguing and somewhat sad at the same time. A man with a hacksaw cutting the lock from a bicycle. I hoped…

Deep Down Center Deep down center within my home,within your love, within you,is a stirring wound.A wound that reminds methat I live with the grace of fragilitywhich is the giving of self to you…A humble ache of emptyingthat draws tears when probedand loosens my soul to offerspace to the much and the many.In that movement…

The Large, the Little, and All You have given me the large, the little, and all. My body with curves and quirks and breath to fill it,and a mind, a heart, and the complement of senses;the plot and the characters of my life,the turns of the journey that leads me freeand leads me always, and…

…poverty is being in a place where you know dispair or misery is just on the other side of a very thin line and you are doing everything possible to not cross over. To be there with others is living this vow in fullness to me. To stand alongside and help someone look for the…

Poverty(With thanks to GM Hopkins for his line for Christ plays in 10,000 places) Let me live openly,simply, as youwho play in ten thousand places. Let me live looselyin all but relationship to you,the fire that beckons and gathers and warms- and dies and rises in glory and is discoveredin wonder and by the calling…