When I’m faced with making significant decisions, I often just go with my “gut” feeling.  This may or may not be the most Ignatian strategy.  Certainly, Ignatius advises the retreatant in the Spiritual Exercises to be attentive to the movements of the spirits in her life, but I don’t know that my “gut” is always the same as the good spirit.  In fact, I’m almost sure that my (often disordered) attachments influence my intuitive reactions.
Now that I’m faced with making a significant decision about my time commitments in the upcoming …

I’ve been quite impatient lately. Well, let me restate that: I’m a perpetually impatient person who has been feeling a particularly severe pull towards impatience lately.  These last few weeks I’ve been impatient for spring break to arrive, and then Easter, and then the summer, and then another year.  Another year when I will be stronger, more disciplined, more diligent, more prepared, more focused.  Impatient for settledness. Impatient for meaning. Impatient for healing. I’m always waiting for that time to arrive…But someone in my life recently reminded me that we …

When Lent approaches, the question always begins: “What are you giving up this year?”  Not having grown up Catholic, I always vaguely envied my friends who got to whine and sulk for forty days while they went without their vice of choice.  Of course, the vices of fifth graders are quite tame; my friends always seemed to be giving up relatively mundane things like eating Skittles, watching television, or being mean to a little brother.  When I became Catholic, I have to admit I was secretly excited to be a …

I teach sophomore high school Church History. Not an easy task, I suppose. The text we use begins with an introduction to the word church and the various models of church that one can think about when trying to understand what we mean when we use that oft-loaded word. In an attempt to discover a unique way to approach this somewhat complex topic, I created a quiz for my students to take: “What is your model of church?” It’s admittedly unscientific and intentionally absolutist, but I …